#executive dysfunction life hacks

[shadowsfascination]

Tumblr folks,

I'm looking for neurodivergent people who are willing to share their life hacks on personal hygiene with me. How do you get yourself to frequently take a shower or brush your teeth in the morning? Stuff like that.

I'm looking for anything that can help; tips/tricks, apps, life hacks. Give it to me, pretty pretty please with a cherry on the top :)

[biceratops7]

Life hack for getting things done with adhd: pretend like you live in ancient times. Idk what it is about this daydream but it just flips some switch in my brain. Like “I must nourish the cattle (my dog and cat) to ensure a good harvest (snuggles and kisses).” or “I must keep my home tidy, lest the mischievous spirits be displeased and my wife and children (fiancé and pets) fall ill.” Besides needing to clean your clothes to “prepare for the coming frost” sounds a lot more urgent than “you’ll smell bad and Tiffany from work will judge you”

Having a hard time fitting prescriptions into this? Modern medicine is basically magic, so congratulations, you are literally a witch. Drink up Queen.

[sprinkleofquirk]

My first attempt at a movable “tracker” visual aid/prompting type bracelet

This one is for morning/evening routine and includes getting dressed, brushing teeth, brushing/combing hair, and eating breakfast/dinner

Let me know what you think and where I can improve!

(And apologies for the shaking- I tried my best but I have a slight tremor 🫠)

[serenityquest]

[gabby-i-guess]

ADHD PSA #2: The Dinner Formula

Feeding yourself is easily one of the hardest responsibility as an adult. It's even harder if you're neurodivergent - textures are ✨a lot✨, cooking takes so much energy, and actually planning meals can be almost impossible. A lot of us just end up not eating properly, because it just takes too much brain power some days.

So, let's make it simple.

dinner = a carb + a fat + a protein + a vegetable + incentive

"Okay..." You say, "but what does that mean??" Well, it can mean lots of things. I'd suggest making a personal, physical list of things you like/have. But for now, here's mine:

A carb: rice (instant packets are perfect), pasta, noodles (yep, 2 min noodles count), bread, potatoes

A fat: (that's right. A fat. That shit helps you digest all the vegetably goodness, okay? Don't go crazy, but some is necessary) butter, regular old vegetable oil, sesame oil, olive oil, cheese, cream, or whatever is already in the other ingredients (e.g. meat, nuts, avo)

A protein: chicken (pre-cooked works wonderfully), mince, tofu, egg, nuts, mushroom (gross but if you really must), salami, tuna - fuck it, even frozen chicken nuggets count

A vegetable: green is best but anything will do! Broccoli, kale (I love kale chips), spinach, red pepper, peas, beans, carrots, ANY AND ALL frozen veggies. Also - blending or finely shopping your veggies can be a lifesaver if you're not a fan of veggies

And finally, the most important bit - incentive. This is whatever will make your brain want to eat the meal. No judgement, I promise. The goal is to give your body the fuel it needs to keep chugging along - if the fuel has to be topped off with Bacon Bits and aioli, so be it. Mine are...

Incentive: seasoning like Nando's peri peri salt, chicken salt, garlic, onion, curry powder, lao gan ma. Toppings like fried onion, sesame seeds, pine nuts, cheese. Sauces like sweet chilli sauce, soy sauce, Japanese mayo, pesto, aioli. Or maybe, some random factor, like chop sticks, blue food dye (I'm a PJO fan...), a special bowl, preparing it as snack food, cutting things up into fun shapes, or buying alphabet pasta.

Finally, let's round out this post with some examples of dinners I've made recently using this formula:

Pasta + cream + chorizo + blanched and blended spinach + pesto = creamy pesto pasta

Flavoured rice pack + sesame oil + egg + broccoli + soy sauce and onion = simple fried rice

Couscous + salad sauce + Dino chicken nuggets + salad pack + the aforementioned Dino chicken nuggets = an insanely good salad (AND I took the leftovers to work)

I really hope this helped someone. I'm sending you all so much love and good vibes. This humaning shit is insanely hard and complicated, so if you're just getting through each day without adding to or subtracting from the population, you're already doing such a great job.

Be kind to yourself ❤️

[spacefinch]

I used the Dark Souls font generator to make some achievement screens for doing everyday tasks. Whenever I do one of the tasks, I send the appropriate PNG to my mom via text message. (Neither of us actually play Dark Souls.)

Feel free to use any of these!

[mental-health-monday]

Hey if you’re ADHD, autistic, SPD, etc. and have piles of dishes in your sink because you hate touching the caked-on food, getting your hands wet, or handling a sopping wet dish rag, or if you otherwise hate it because it feels time-consuming; invest in a dish brush. It almost makes doing the dishes fun.

Propaganda:

Minimizes the amount of contact between your hands and the dirty dish

Not soggy

Has no smell or overtly offensive textures (and if the handle bothers you, you can cover it with another texture like duct tape)

You feel the gentle feedback of the bristles scrubbing glass through the handle which is pleasing (to me at least)

More efficient than a dish rag for food that is stuck to things

It’s a little gadget and very novel!

Cleaning cups with a cup-cleaning brush is satisfying

If you get different types of brushes, you can make a routine out of which brushes are used for certain dishes

[ironmandeficiency]

here’s a tip for my girlies, gays, and geese that suffer from executive dysfunction:

if your executive dysfunction manifests like mine does, chances are, there’s one specific chore that makes a cannonball into a wood chipper sound like a vacation. for me, that chore is washing dishes.

this has been my least favorite chore to do ever since i was taught how to do it. the gross water and soggy food bits floating around were a sensory ick even with gloves, the smell was horrendous if the dishes had been sitting without being rinsed beforehand, and standing in front of the sink for a prolonged period was the eighth circle of hell for my adhd addled brain.

i’ve been slowly emerging from yet another depressive funk and my dirty dishes have been taunting me for two entire weeks. my issue is that i built up a big ball of dread about doing the dishes and have found every single excuse in the world to not get it over with, resulting in most of my bowls, plates, cups, and cutlery still being dirty.

what is my solution, you may ask? it’s simple: take the gunky dishes outside and spray off the stuck-on food with a water hose, then bring them inside to wash them with soap. that way, i don’t have to endure sensory hell and won’t have to worry abt my sink taking forever to drain afterwards. as of typing this, it’s half past midnight and i’m abt to hose off my dishes in my front yard

[chronicsymptomsyndrome]

WHy do we as a society have to put in new trash bags, I mean why don’t they just manufacture/package/sell trash bags all inside of each other like russian nesting dolls so that theres a new bag already there when you remove the full one. What the fuck. Kinda reminds me of how we didn’t think to put wheels on luggage until 1970 (one year after we put a man on the freaking moon.) What are we doing

[sparklingspite]

the key to being productive is macrodosing all your procrastination on a single 5 minute task over the course of several weeks, months, and resolving that shame - not by completing the task, oh no - but by avoiding it to the point you complete a hundred others in its place. you’ll never shake the feeling of the devil’s hand in yours but you will be unstoppable

[221bluescarf]

Pro Tip: Use only 1 bowl, 1 plate, 1 cup, 1 set of utensils and rinse/wash them immediately after using.

You'll never have to do dishes. No more sink accumulation. Just use 1.

[mortal-cupid]

♡ My Favorite Hacks For Getting Things Done: ♡

~// Don't Try To Take Every Single Thing On At Once, I Like To Split Tasks Up {Example: I Like To Pick A Small Place To Clean In Between Assignments}

~// Buy / Make Something That Will Motivate You To Do The Task {Example: Buying A Cup You Love So You'll Drink More Water}

~// Keep A Routine, But Not Like A Schedule, More Like A General Time Or Tasks That You Do After A Specific Task {Example: Brushing Teeth Directly After A Meal}

~// Do It YOUR Way!! No Matter If It's Cringe Or Not How You Were Taught, Getting Something Done Your Way Is So Much Better Than It Not Happening At All!!

Remember Not To Beat Yourself If Something Doesn't Get Done, It'll Be Okay ♡ Just Do Whatever You CAN Do ♡ Life Takes Time, Don't Use It All Stressing Over Something That Just Couldn't Get Done

[thoughtportal]

do it for your shoes

[unqualifiedadvicecolumnist]

Have trouble remembering stuff? Take notes!

Maybe this was obvious to everyone else, but I only recently thought to do it.

When I go to a doctor’s appointment, or have a therapy session, or get information over the phone, I usually forget so much of what was discussed. So now, I take notes.

At first I thought people might think it was rude, but they WANT me to remember what they said - and they’re taking notes too!

I recently had to call several places trying to get a neuropsych evaluation for my son, plus several other places to try to find him a therapist. When my husband would ask me questions about the calls, I couldn’t keep the different conversations straight. But thankfully, I had notes from each call that I could refer back to! I wrote down the name and contact info of each place, when I called them/left a message/got called back, what info they gave me, their answers to my questions, and what the next steps in the process would be.

I put all the notes in a folder, and put the folder on the coffee table. Now every time I have contact with these places, I can easily find and add to my notes.

For other types of things, I keep notes in my phone. This I’ve been doing for years. I love the Evernote app for this, and I only need the free version. I have notes in there on everything: movies I want to watch; gift ideas for my family; what prescriptions I’m taking and at what dose; character names I come up with for stories; funny and/or profound quotes; my measurements — anything I want to remember.

[gabby-i-guess]

ADHD PSA #1

I'm sure you've all seen the infamous piper song meditation chair (pictured below), decided it will revolutionise your job/studying, and then checked the price and decided you don't actually need to focus.

I've found a perfect cheap and reliable alternative. It's the Ikea POÄNG footstool:

It costs about $80AUD-$130AUD new, but I got mine second hand for $25AUD. You can sit on it by itself, but it is a bit low for most desks. It's the perfect height to pair with a regular office chair though, and you can use it in lots of different ways. Here's a video of me awkwardly demonstrating how I use it:

I have so many little ADHD life hacks I've figured out over the years, and I'm desperate to share them and make others' lives easier. Follow me or follow the tag #ADHD PSA to keep up, and feel free to add some of your own ADHD life hacks too.

Happy ADHDing ❤️

[halluciniwaynia]

my life hack tip for anyone with depression struggling to eat healthy meals or just substantial meals in general because meal prep sucks and takes too much execute dysfunction is to learn to make chili, soup, fried rice, frittata, etc. Learn how to make “leftover sink” dishes which can easily combine vast quantities of frozen vegetables with ready to cook protein (hamburger meat, hello!) that takes minimal effort and often only one pot. Whole wheat flour is an easy thickener for soups. Beans and premade tomato/chili sauce cooked for like an hour with minimal effort will be more nutritious and cheaper than pre-made meals and hot pockets with equivalent calories. Frittatas are literally just eggs with vegetables thrown into them. The sky is the limit and you can adjust to whatever kind of textures/flavors you like, because every culture has some kind of “we have to reuse this” kind of dish and there is certainly one out there that will appeal to even the most neurodivergent and pickiest of eaters, I assure you.

The best part about all of this is that often you can make huge portions for what is relatively little effort. Spending half an hour to make fritatta with onions, green beans, carrots and celery will yield you a week’s worth of easy to heat up breakfast. Fried rice you cheated on and baked in an oven for ten minutes under your broiler when combined with half its weight in vegetables is at least two weeks worth of meals at most and it freezes really well. Eating healthy isn’t about “omg avoid high fructose corn syrup, all of the chemicals in our food and align your chakras every time you cook an egg” it’s about vegetables, a healthy ratio of animal based protein, and a complete helping of all important macro and micro nutrients with as little effort as possible. And it is doable, trust me!