How to Prevent ADHD Slip-Ups Proactively

Oh no, you’ve missed another deadline and you’re making more excuses. You’re feeling really bad about it. Guilty as hell and you’ve upset people who were relying on you… again!

You thought you had this one in the bag. You checked up on what you needed to do, spoke to the other stakeholders.

Then at the last minute, because you always work to deadline, you got distracted.

Another task got in the way that demanded your immediate attention, or someone phoned with another proposal and everything flew out the window except this latest distraction.

So now you need to grovel and make apologies.

Wouldn’t you prefer that it was just a bit easier?

There are two ways to deal with this:

1. Get yourself organised, in advance, so that you aren’t racing to meet deadlines, and
2. Manage last minute distractions when the deadline arrives.

The FIRST way to prevent ADHD slip-ups : Get organized in advanced as they do on Sesame Street

Theoretically, you probably know what you should have done, so let’s just recap on some of those strategies.

Plan in advance, and like they say on Sesame Street, walk backwards through your mind and get back to the starting point when the project deadline was set.

Lay out the mini tasks that comprise the whole project. You probably know some strategies to do this.

One of mine is to write each element onto a separate sticky note.

This way you can order them so that each element is dealt with at the right time.

Kanban is one way of doing this. It’s a great visual method of organising projects. Each task then gets its own deadline so that each part is completed successively, with your final deadline being earlier than the set deadline.

• Write lists in a notebook rather than scraps of paper; shopping lists, reminders, etc. Use electronic lists and reminders on your smartphone if you like. Often they will synchronise with your computer and online. Remember, reminders are only as good as your input, which is why notebooks that you carry with you are good. You can enter them immediately. Same goes for smartphones that have reminder functions. Enter it now. You’ll forget later.
• Have a plan for the next day in mind when you finish up each day, it will help you kickstart your day. One trick is to leave a task at work freshly started that you can get straight into next morning without having to think about it.

So if the project deadline is in one week, plan to finish it the day before.

Let’s talk about the second way …

The Second Way to Prevent ADHD Slip-Ups : Managing distractions

I know it’s hard to resist the urge to check your social media, read and respond to email and phone messages, or whatever, but these are the show stoppers.

If you seriously want to be seen as reliable and professional you have to manage that. I know, if you have ADHD, this is a daily challenge.

Sometimes you win, sometimes you lose, but with a bit of planning you can increase your wins.

Take the phone off the hook, and set yourself a reminder to do that.

Close your email, turn off your smartphone, shut the door, set a timer and work until it stops.

This is taught by the pomodoro technique. Essentially, you break your work into 25 minute sections with a five-minute break. Then after four of those sessions you can take a slightly longer break, say 15 minutes, maybe even have lunch.

Do this each day until you’ve finished.

Yay! You’re done! Celebrate.

Yes, you get the idea : plan ahead and prevent distractions is how you avoid those slip-ups that piss you off and disappoint those who rely on you.

Let me ask you, What’s one important project, task, or commitment that lies in your near future that you don’t want to mess up?

Do this …

1. On paper, work backwards and list out the key steps to that deadline.
2. Answer this question, How can you prevent distractions that can show up when that deadline arrives?

I’d love to hear from you. What ideas do you have? Share your thoughts below.

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If you’re struggling with ADHD in life or in you career, then contact me and we can discuss some options to get you on track.

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