The ADHD Advantage by Dale Archer MD

Author:Dale Archer, MD
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Penguin Publishing Group
Published: 2015-07-13T04:00:00+00:00

Brain Dump

Many ADHDers lament the fact that they can’t focus. The easy distractibility of their bingo brains is one of the biggest complaints I hear from ADHDers everywhere. They can be so overwhelmed by the onslaught of ideas it’s paralyzing. Interior design entrepreneur Anita Erickson calls it her “tornado of ideas,” which was stopping her from being as productive as she would have liked at her previous job at Dell, where she managed the computer giant’s email program. Anita was responsible for testing all the links and formatting to make sure they worked. But between the time she clicked on the link and when the landing page came up—a matter of seconds—she had so many thoughts running through her head she would forget what page she was supposed to be looking at.

“It took me forever to proof these emails, my brain would wander off that fast,” she recalls.

Today, at her home office, Anita has become a consummate list maker. She writes her ideas down on Post-it notes, scraps of paper, anywhere, and by the end of the day her house is littered with this storm of thoughts, but through the act of physically writing—not typing—it down, she is able to empty out some of what’s in her head so that she can focus on that day’s priorities. “I make so many lists, and some of the ideas are so random that people would laugh at them,” she says.

Ninety percent of what she writes down many not be important, but getting it on paper lessens the wind speed and flying objects in her mental tornado. And when she reviews what’s on the list, she often finds a few gems.

Anita’s most important list is written out on Monday mornings, “to help me feel more structured.” She also uses a file folder system, keeping all of them closed except the one she is currently working on. It doesn’t stay that way, but it’s another one of her tricks for controlling the bingo brain, “because with too many folders open in your brain you feel overwhelmed.”

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