One of the things that’s become clearer is that – even if I don’t have ADHD – there are things that I know work for me. I need to do those anyway. It’s just gravy that they also happen to be “things that help control ADHD” in the bargain.
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On the to-do list front, I’ve been using the “Get Things Done” paradigm for a few years, mostly for the workflow and the project/context duality. The workflow (pictured here: http://lifedev.net/wp-content/uploads/2007/02/gtd-workflow.gif ) allows me to manage my inbox of tasks even when they’re at firehose levels.
The project/context duality allows me to group tasks by both project (e.g. get book done, remodel bathroom, etc.) and context (e.g. at my desk, running errands, business phone hours, etc.). Then, if the underlying tool is good enough, I can query it for what tasks I can do right here, right now on the project I’m up for right now. That helps keep from being overwhelmed by a too-large to-do list where I feel paralyzed by too many things that need to get done.
I will say, however, that getting into it and setting it up is a little heavy-handed and might cross the line of your balance between project management and actual work.
The other thing I wanted to mention is a lesson I learned on a recent self-assessment similar to the one you’re doing on the ADHD. I suffer from a lot of anxiety. The short version is that special-needs children make my life very stressful, and it takes a toll. So, it had gotten to the point where my hands were shaking uncontrollably at times, and I went to my therapist and doctor and was given an anxiety/stress assessment.
It went over a list of symptoms and asked me to rate them on a scale from “never” all the way up to “all the time” or “makes a big impact on quality of life”. My first time through showed that I was not really suffering from anxiety. I was near the top end of the “not suffering”, but I was still not in the high category that the professionals were suspecting.
I then went through the assessment questions again with a family member who pointed at one of the questions I’d answered “never” or “little concern” for. She said, “But you have that all the time.” I replied, “Yeah, but it’s been like that for years, decades even. Clearly, that’s not what’s causing today’s problems.”
It was the classic case of the frog in the pot of increasingly hot water. Just because I had gotten used to the water being 180F did not mean that it wasn’t 80 degrees higher than my body temp and that it wouldn’t take much more to push me over to a boil. Clearly, my anxiety had been on the rise for years. It just hadn’t gotten to the point where I could not handle it anymore.
So, the lesson I want to pass on is to take a closer look at any possible symptoms you are inclined to dismiss. You might actually have them but have learned to cope well enough that you no longer see that you’re coping with it. But as always, you’re a different person than me and may not suffer from this particular blind spot.