Attention Deficit Disorder Hacks: 3 Easy Ways Of Making The Act Of Prioritization Easier To Start

Some of you reading this might be diagnosed with attention deficit disorder, some may not. If you are, feel free to watch the video above. It is shorter 🙂 However, if you are reading this blog, you are probably looking for some help with prioritization. Prioritizing is a time management skill that requires a lot of brain juice to do. At EFC, we call this brain juice your executive functions capacity. Our executive functions capacity is the fuel that gets us to make decisions and follow through on them. Individuals with attention deficit disorder inherently eat up more fuel when using their time management strategies, especially prioritization. How do we get better? Well, we have to come up with specific quirks in how we prioritize that work for ourselves.

Let’s take a look at 3 ways EFC has found to work in getting our clients with attention deficit disorder to start prioritizing. Before we dive into each tip, I know that some readers are parents of a student with attention deficit disorder and may feel frustrated. I want to make sure this is relatable. Let’s bring prioritization skills into perspective for parents. Think of something you hate or dread. For some, it could be a work presentation, confrontation in personal or professional relationships, or even a dinner party with people you don’t like. Sure, we may have some time management skills that help us make time to prioritize this chore, but why is there a constant headache? It is because we do not like or even hate what’s to come? Sometimes we dislike it so much we end up neglecting it completely. This makes the act of prioritizing really hard to start. There is so much dread associated with it. People with attention deficit disorder feel this way about almost everything that is going on minus the one or two things they enjoy. Their minds are constantly racing. Even if they can sit down and focus, they might just end up “staring off into space.” For some, these moments are the worst because people with attention deficit disorder are left thinking really really hard about why they cannot do what they need to do.

Attention deficit disorder makes activities that are boring and painful extra boring and painful. In order to do them, we have to change our perspective and make them less of a chore. Our first time management tip for prioritization is acknowledging what is easy and what is hard. Why is this so darn important? Remember executive functions capacity? Well, a person with attention deficit disorder’s executive functions capacity will burn faster when they are doing harder tasks than when they are doing easier ones. Creating more self-awareness around this when practicing prioritization skills will make the act of starting much easier for people with attention deficit disorder.

When we are thinking about how attention deficit disorder relates to a person’s executive functions capacity, we see that it is important to refuel. At EFC, we like to think about this as creating a mentality of prioritizing self-care. Our second important strategy for prioritization is stacking things that are hard with things that are easy. People with attention deficit disorder constantly think “I don’t have time!” They forget that they need to refuel with easier activities and end up getting stuck on harder ones. Prioritization skills like stacking recognize that easier activities typically flow much smoother from thought to action. Knowing that we can put easier tasks in between harder ones assures us that mental breaks are okay. Knowing this makes the activity of prioritization less stressful for individuals with attention deficit disorder.

Before we dive into the third and most important tip, I know that some readers are parents of a student with attention deficit disorder and may feel frustrated. I want to make sure this is relatable. Let’s bring prioritization skills into perspective for parents. Think of something you hate or dread. For some, it could be a work presentation, confrontation in personal or professional relationships, or even a dinner party with people you don’t like. Sure, we may have some time management skills that help us make time to prioritize this chore, but why is there a constant headache? It is because we do not like or even hate what’s to come. We end up neglecting it. Facing it requires us to prioritize in our to-do list. This makes the act of prioritizing really hard to start. There is so much dread associated with it. People with attention deficit disorder feel this way about almost everything that is going on minus the one or two things they enjoy. Their minds are constantly racing. Even if they can sit down and focus, they might just end up “staring off into space.” For some, these moments are the worst because people with attention deficit disorder are left thinking really really hard about why they cannot do what they need to do.

Let’s be honest, we all have some of these attention deficit disorder moments in our own lives. It just isn’t as bad. So how do we make the act of prioritization less of a chore? We want to recognize what is easy and what is hard. We want to stack them up so that it is easier to get through everything without being overwhelmed. So what is our last prioritization tip? Incorporate ways to make prioritizing your list fun!!! A lot of the time, our students get anxious about prioritizing their list. They see everything as important and just want to start tackling away. However, creating a list of prioritized objectives is the most important part of staying on track. I know that these prioritization skills might seem trivial. Why write all of this just to help me get started with prioritizing my to-do list? Well, because changing our perspective when starting a task we don’t like makes a world of difference in actually completing that task well. Coming up next will be some specific ways of making prioritization fun for people with attention deficit disorder.