What Makes Something "ADHD Friendly"?
Added 2022-05-10 17:30:30 +0000 UTCLink: https://youtu.be/5XWeUvOpOYY
We live in a world designed for those who are Neurotypical, but when designing a world for those of us who have ADHD, we need to think about what it means to be "ADHD Friendly". So then, what does it mean to be "ADHD Friendly", and what makes it so?
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What is ADHD friendly for you? How do you explain ADHD friendly to others? Comment below!
Comments
I am stuck between telling my employer that I have ADHD. At times I am good with the way things are but then not sure what they can do to help me. Mainly it’s the fear that if I do say that I have inattentive ADD that it would hurt my career prospects as it would imply that I can’t focus on things.
vlado101
2022-05-28 15:18:35 +0000 UTCI actually heard that IKEA has spare parts available in bins in all their stores because requests are so common. Even if they no longer make the piece you have, they probably still use those screws. ( : Oh, and I absolutely love having pictorial instructions, but also like to have some words as a backup.
CamKat
2022-05-17 23:19:07 +0000 UTCI’m using a sales CRM called Cloze. My favorite things: *it filters my email so I only see what’s important *it pulls documents from emails sent and files it with the client record (so I’m not digging around for said doc!) 😁 *it reminds me to reach out to people for birthdays and other occasions I had a human help me set it up, which I preferred to DIY. It doesn’t make me “do the thing” but it saves me time and nudges me in the right direction. Does anyone else have software that keeps you organized?
Holly Smith
2022-05-11 14:48:48 +0000 UTCExactly!
Melina Porro
2022-05-11 13:21:33 +0000 UTCmy diary (small annual paper planner book) is really essential, not least because it's small enough to force me to only write the actually-scheduled things for a given day, and small enough to carry pretty much everywhere in my wallet, and paper so it's not distracting and doesn't break or run out of battery or leak my personal schedule to the internet. dunno how much of that is ADHD-specific, but it's something for which i finally found a version i don't hate, so i'm sticking to it (for now).
annag
2022-05-11 11:41:44 +0000 UTCi can do the same thing for many hours, but not by planning to, and generally not multiple days in a row. certainly not for weeks on end.
annag
2022-05-11 11:35:06 +0000 UTCHello Harley. Quick question. Are your two Asana boards linked? Meaning the tasks are linked? Or do yiu have to create two separate boards...update two separate boards? Is Asana linked to a calendar tool? Thanks. Michelle
Michelle Cooke
2022-05-11 11:27:47 +0000 UTCI struggle to find things that work for me. I try things and find that they fail more than they work. I’ve found a couple fidgets that actually work for me. There’s one that looks like a piece of bicycle chain with two keychain rings and some rubber o-rings. It’s crazy how much that thing has saved my life! I’ve realized that almost anything that’s an app will either distract me to no end or will become boring in no time. Except for the self care app Finch. It’s actually helped me a lot. I loved the free version and ended up paying for the year bc I knew I’d be more likely to stick with it if i has more bells and whistles and I was right. It’s amazingly helpful. I have tried so many different ways to organize my house and my desk and my clothes. lol. I do like to Marie Kondo fold things. It’s like a mindfulness exercise and makes it easier to find clothes. I have more bins and baskets in my house than anyone has a right to. lol I have OCD as a co-occurring diagnosis, so things get interesting at times. I also have tactile and olfactory sensory issues. I am always searching for ADHD friendly things but it seems like there’s not much out there. I tend toward more stimulation versus less, when it comes to being able to focus. But I also have hella bad time blindness!
Alcomene
2022-05-10 21:37:42 +0000 UTCI very much owe my therapist for highlighting this stuff for me! They also have ADHD and explained that they don't even have a couch anymore. They have 2 twin beds in an L-shape with lots of pillows and everyone in the household can move around and find what they need. Throwing out the rules and having lots of options (like you mentioned in another comment) is becoming my new normal!
Shanna
2022-05-10 21:30:49 +0000 UTCI’m the opposite. lol. I need words and pictures. And extra parts because I’m gonna lose something and then stress out because finding a replacement for it is impossible and I’ll hold onto that piece of furniture I wasn’t able to put together because of the missing pieces for a decade. I actually have an IKEA shelf thing in my garage right now that’s missing pieces that I was able to configure using zipties and it’s still there, hanging out in the garage, functional but not as great as it could be if I had those two screws.
Alcomene
2022-05-10 21:27:29 +0000 UTCThe assembly instructions for IKEA furniture are way more ADHD friendly than decades ago (the last time I bought IKEA). Back then, I wouldn’t read the directions (boring. complicated.) and had all these extra parts left over. 😆 Recently I bought a garden bench at IKEA and was delighted to find the instructions were visual. Right up my alley! Matching the part in my hand to the picture in the instructions. It was the best feeling. No stress. No extra parts! I’m sure IKEA uses visual instructions because their furniture is all over the world. Pictures keep the instructions short, sweet & accessible to any language except braille. Forgot to mention: everything you need is in the box. You don’t need to get distracted looking for tools.
Holly Smith
2022-05-10 21:23:24 +0000 UTCI can't commit to the 9 to 5. I just can't. Not happening. I can't do the same thing for many hours at a time.
Melina Porro
2022-05-10 19:59:58 +0000 UTCYassssss! Colour coding <3 I relate so so so much! - Harley Community Manager
How to ADHD
2022-05-10 19:39:06 +0000 UTCcolour coding is huge for me... I use it in my to do lists, file management, scheduling etc.. if I can see at a glance what colour something is and that gives me important information it can be the difference between me being able to do something useful with that thing or struggling to a) find what I'm looking for b) remember why it was I was looking for it :X
Kat Cardy
2022-05-10 19:16:40 +0000 UTCYASSSSSS. Oh my goodness... if I don't have a desk and/or chair that I click with, work is not happening. Or well, it's not happening *fast*. I relate so much to this!!! - Harley
How to ADHD
2022-05-10 19:14:28 +0000 UTCThat's not uncommon honestly! I actually have *two* boards on Asana to track my recurring activities. One board is organised by location so "Projects", "Meetings", "Patreon", "Discord"... The second board is organised by timing so "Weekly", "Monthly", "Quarterly". Because MOST TIMES I work better with the first one... but there are SOME days where that overwhelms me and I'd prefer to just see it organised by Time. But it definitely is frustrating!!! At the end of the day... I find that having *options* help me. That way if I'm not functioning well in one way maybe I can function well in another. Like yesterday for example! I couldn't really come up with words for things but I could organise some data... And honestly there are some things that I do that help a little ... but don't help near as much as I wish they did. So you're not alone in solutions not always working or not working enough or only working sometimes. <3 - Harley
How to ADHD
2022-05-10 19:13:32 +0000 UTCI'm just starting this journey and so far figuring out how to make something ADHD friendly means setting aside all the rules of what I think something is "supposed" to be or how it works. Example: I was so excited to finally have money and space for a home office and got a nice desk and chair. I hate the chair. I can't sit cross-legged, I can't fidget in it. It never occurred to me before my diagnosis that just my furniture would keep me from getting work done.
Shanna
2022-05-10 18:46:56 +0000 UTCtalking about accommodations sometimes makes me wonder whether i actually even have/am ADHD, because so many things don't seem to help me, or don't help enough, or only help sometimes. it's frustrating.
annag
2022-05-10 17:40:25 +0000 UTC
