I was officially diagnosed with severe ADHD and Asperger’s Syndrome several years ago. I’ve been a freelance writer/illustrator for the last 30 years. ADHD does make living much more problematic, but I wouldn’t change things even if I could. I have found the pro’s far outweigh the con’s.
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Thank you for this. I couldn’t remember the word typically used.
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Please share more about these “handles”. What does this look like?
The sentence following the sentence you reacted to.
(“It’s about remembering (or leaving a physical clue)…”)
So I have what’s a cousin to ADHD, executive functioning disorder as well as a processing disorder. In basic summary it effects me staying organized, calendar management, breaking down large tasks into small tasks, etc. Right now I’ve been working with a coach and it’s been really beneficial. I’m not perfect and still have a lot to work on (reminds me, I have some internet tabs to close out).
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Hello there 
I was diagnosed about 12 years ago, and it literally changed the course of my life! Of course, working with a competent therapist with regards to medication and getting coaching were foundational aspects of learning to deal with day to day life and becoming more effective at work, school, etc. But over time I needed to develop my own skill set and tools to take my life in the direction I wanted.
Currently, my productivity is centered around using as few powerful tools as possible to keep daily momentum. In my view, the less the better. Keep it simple but powerful. For me that means:
- Omnifocus for capturing literally everything
- Timeboxing on a calendar app
- iCloud and Evernote for storage of reference material for future review.
- Daily Kanban on a physical wall, based on my calendar, where I see it constantly. This is key. Sticking things on a calendar is great, but I wouldn’t consult regularly or I wouldn’t have the app open, miss the alarm, etc. But having my tasks on a wall using post-it notes next to my work space where it’s in my constant view is what keeps me consistently moving forward.
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https://greenvilleballet.com/creativity-through-dance/
[Sir Ken Robinson] tells the story of Gillian Lynne, a British ballerina best known as the choreographer of Cats and The Phantom of the Opera . Today she would be diagnosed with ADHD and given Ritalin to calm her down. Fortunately she was diagnosed as a dancer and given ballet lessons to express her creativity through dance. She subsequently had a very successful career and is a millionaire.
It makes me sad that this diagnosis is all about “deficit” and “disorder” when people with this diagnosis are some of the most essential in society, feeding (as in high end chef), entertaining (musicians, dancers, artitsts) and looking after (emergency first responders, for example) those of us whose “disorder” is to be able to sit in an office all day.
Bullet journal was also invented to cope with adult ADHD https://bulletjournal.com/pages/about.
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That’s why the term “neurodiverse” is useful: It might sound euphemistic but it’s useful.
I’d quite like to be an organised person - and my deficit in that regard is emotional rather than tooling. But I know there are people who would like to be creative - and, again, I doubt that’s a matter of tooling.
It’s the tensions between different personality/neurodiverse types that can be destructive. But it can be creative, too.
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Do you have a system or software that helps you with this? I tend to forget how I got to where I am.
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