#adhdstudytips

[nylastudieshere]

This is going to be the pinned post for this blog for me to find all my stuff!

#publicpolicy

#statistics

#psychology

#interdisciplinarystudies

#adhdstudytips

#adhdexperiments

#lawstudies

[foxsrecovery]

Study/Focus Tips for ADHD

This is a list of things that help me and others (with adhd) to focus on tasks, such as studying. Please comment yours below and I'll add them! Even if they don't have an explanation behind them, whatever works, works!

1. Listening to the audiobook of the book you're reading. You can speed it up to match your reading speed. There's audiobooks on spotify, audible, or apps like speechify and read aloud!

2. Listening to video game music. It's designed to motivate you and has no distracting words!

3. I've heard consuming protein triggers alertness so I consume foods high in protein before work! (Source (with references: https://www.additudemag.com/nutrition-harmonizes-adhd-brain/)

4. Wearing shoes to trick your brain into "work-mode". You can also choose specific clothes to be your "study clothes" - same principle.

5. Pomodoro technique! Study for 25 mins, break for 5-10, then repeat. I find that this works whilst also doing other techniques like music or recordings of the text.

6. Study with someone else in the room! Whether they are studying or not.

[thegingeralien]

Thought I might share my “doing homework with adhd” tips in case the might help even just one person (because that would make me feel happy).

Who am I to be giving you advice? Good point! I am still terrible at studying and I’m 26 and at University for the millionth time. But I have studied A LOT in my 22 years of schooling with varying degrees of success.

I see a lot of people, especially teenagers or first year university/college students, with ADHD asking for tips on how to study. But if you do a google search most of the websites and advice that comes up can be extremely ableist. So I hope I can help someone!

TIPS TO HELP YOU STUDY WHEN YOU HAVE AN ADHD GREMLIN BRAIN!:

1. Chewing gum!

- This might come across as a weird one, but it has actually really helped me. I use it as a form of stimming to help keep me focused and concentrating. Other forms of stimming can potentially end up being more of a distraction when you actually need to be reading or writing - but they can help if you just need to be listening. Try not to get a bubble gum or fun flavoured one though - as they can end up making your mouth feel dry, lose flavour quickly, and just give your brain way too many sensory things to become distracted with.

2. Buying colour coded stationary!

- New stationary can make me really excited to start studying, but that excitement never lasts long and the act of buying stationary can sometimes become it’s own hobby. That’s not what we are going for here. I really recommend, especially if you are a visual learner like me, to buy colour coded stationary. This means removable page markers, different coloured post it notes, highlighters, sometimes even pens. This way if your mind jumps from one topic to the other, it doesn’t matter. Go with the flow. Forcing your ADHD gremlin brain to focus can be extremely counter intuitive. So pick a colour for each topic, and stick to that system to find organisation among your own chaos!

3. Buy a really cheap, boring year diary with hardly any writing inside.

- Not sure if your school/university has their own diary but they can be perfect for what I am on about. Generally you can find them for really cheap, soft cover, no writing or designs within the dates. Just dates, days, weeks and lines where you can write your homework. This helped me a lot in High School. I wish I had kept doing it in University, but I am good with giving advice, and not so much with taking it. I used to decorate the outside of it however I wanted. Some years I would redecorate the same diary every semester. In the public holidays or holiday days I would colour those lines in with different highlighters to make it look like a rainbow. But every assignment due date, homework, draft, rewrite, form I had to bring back, library book due date, school activity days, ANYTHING to do with school I would write in there with reminds and check lists. Important due dates would be highlighted, general homework and daily to do lists t(o help me not leave my assignments to the last minute) would have a tick box beside them (because ticking tick boxes is free dopamine). Try to not put birthdays or fun things in it. This is a small way to stay on track so it helps you actually stay on track with the big things when you’re home.

4. Big whiteboards stuck on the wall where you can’t avoid it.

- This is not something I had in school, but I so wish I did. I have been using this recently to keep on top of house work (as maintaining your own house is tiring) and my small business or other things I really can’t avoid. If I physically write it down (not just in my phone) it psychologically does help you commit it to memory. Again, physically putting a line through a task you just completed is a hecking great rush of dopamine. But the biggest reason I love my white board, I can’t ignore it. It is stuck to the wall and is never out of sight, out of mind. I can’t put my phone or diary down and then refuse to look at it until I’m past the due date. Again, I’m not a perfect person, there are days where I don’t do anything I have written on the white board. But the great thing is, I don’t have to continuously feel like I failure, as I can wipe it all off the next morning or week and start fresh. I also put important things I have to remember that I’m doing during the week so I don’t forget them.

5. Icky Medication.

- I know not everyone wants to be on medication, and I understand. I am not forcing you to. No matter what your opinions are, you lovely gremlin who is still reading this post, regarding medication, you are valid and I respect you. My personal experience with medication has not been the best. I have been misdiagnosed for a severe chunk of my academic life which has seen me trying to focus and maintain school work under some even worse states then I am unmedicated! However, since receiving my diagnosis and finding the right ADHD medication for me, I have the ability to get so much work done without having to unnecessarily struggle. It’s unfortunately not magic, it will not turn me into a robot that makes me do work and turn out incredible, noble peace prize winning assignments (as much as I wish that were possible). I still have the ability to be a lump, doom scrolling through tumblr, forgetting to eat, and ignoring responsibilities. But it really helps me when I sit down and start that thing that isn’t fun. Yesterday it helped me hyperfocus on cleaning my office which was a terrifying room to be in. So it’s pretty close to magic in my opinion!

6. Accessing Disability Support at your place of learning.

- Not all of you taking the time to read this will have either a) an offical diagnosis or b) a good disability support available to you wherever you are completing your studies. And that is okay. This dot point just won’t be for you right now. But keep it in mind for a time when it might apply to you, as it’s something I never thought I would need, but will never take for granted ever again.

- If you have an offical diagnosis and Disability Support, make an appointment with the disability support adviser. DO IT NOW! Get your psychiatrist to write a diagnosis letter outlining that you have <enter superpower that makes you hilarious here> and that you are receiving <enter x,y,z treatment here> and that you would benefit from receiving <enter what you have always wished you had on the days you can’t make your ADHD gremlin brain do the thing here>. Now these benefits can be, but not limit to: automatic extensions on ALL assignments, extra time on exams, extra breaks to walk around while taking exams, special consideration when marking assignments, my university allows me to take exams in a separate room with only the other students in my subject who also have disability support (occasionally I have taken an exam alone with only a tutor present) so I don’t get distracted, permission to take fidget items into class or exam (I have the option to wear headphones, as long as I can display that they are not connected to anything). Maybe you can come up with some great ones for you with your disability advisor or your psychiatrist.

- The disability advisor will often go through your course outline with you at the start of each semester or year. This is annoying and a great time for disassociating, but can be useful in hindsight because you are made aware of everything that will come up during your class so you are not surprised. Because lets be honest, it is unlikely you are going to look at the course calendar too often.

- Side Note: I make an appointment every semester with my disability support officer for my area of study to make sure I have my special considerations for the year. Now I may go through the whole year without ever using my considerations. However, the fact that I know they are there takes an insane amount of pressure off of myself. If I’m having an insanely screwy loony tune mental health moment, I can email my coordinator my disability plan and say I need an extension due to personal reasons, and WHOOP, there it izzzzz.

7. Dedicated one thing or a few things that have nothing to do with food/alcohol/other substances to reward yourself with for doing the thing!

- This may not work for everyone. It doesn’t always work for me. I used to reward myself with food, but that only reinforced my stimming with overeating and my already bad relationship with food. And I feel as though that would be the same with any other substance that can be linked with addiction. (Addiction is a tough word, cause what aren’t I addicted to, I have ADHD, but hopefully you get what I mean!).

-Now, boring try and not choose this aside, lets think of somethings that work really well as rewards!

- My partner likes to come give me a kiss and a hug when ever they have written and reread a paragraph, you might buy a book when you get a really good mark, you might want to go make a cup of tea and watch an episode of your hyperfixation after studying for <enter a good period of time here>, you might allow yourself to partake in an activity you usually do while procrastinating (but at least this time you know you aren’t putting something off), talk to someone who you know will tell you they are proud of you as they understand the mental struggle you go through to concentrate (if you can’t think of anyone, it is 110% okay if that person are the amazing people on tumblr or the adhd tumblr chats. We will freaking pop a bottle of champagne for you cause we get it!).

- Try and make what ever you choose be something in a different room or away from your working space. Getting out can really calm you down.

8. Don’t be afraid to ask for assistance.

- This is true for anything, but I don’t mean just asking your teacher to give you extra help understanding the task and marking rubric. Many people online, tutors, librarians at your school, past or present students offer assistance rereading and making small edits (they won’t make it magical unfortunately) to your assignments. If you are like me and once you have written or completed the dreaded thing, you can not imagine or force your gremlin brain reread or edit the thing. So it can help to just delegate this to someone else, who hasn’t read it before, so they won’t disassociate or skim read it. They will often notice things you never would have even if you were neurotypical as that is just what happens when you have been working on something for so long.

9. Repetitive music.

- It generally helps if this has no lyrics. Lo-fi is amazing. Classical is alright too if it works for you, but both my partner and I agree that it can really assist you to keep up pace and focus when the beat is a high and repetitive (almost meditative) tempo.

10. Limit your screen space.

- This is a tip completely from my partner @dr-adhd who also has ADHD, is an avid PC gamer and is consistently in a battle with their gremlin brain to focus on completing their PhD. They have discovered that it really helps them to limit their screen space - simply put, work on one screen only. They have done more work more easily when they have their one screen on their laptop to focus on. Whereas their office has multiple screens so they could be playing runescape, watching YouTube, listening to lo-fi and doing work - which never worked (shocking right hahaha).

11. At the risk of sounding like a Mum... Put your phone and other electronics other than the assignment necessary one, away.

- I am a Mum, but to a fluffy puppy dog, so I hate to sound like my Mum when I was in high school, but she was right. Mobiles are the single easiest and biggest distraction in ADHD history. I often, even at coffee shops, have to turn my phone over so that I am not consistently looking at it every time the screen lights up to say the pizza place has sent me a coupon, or a carpet place that has been having a sale since I was born is... still having a sale, or a friend from school wants you to watch this TikTok. Even though you might not want to ignore your friends, because people pleasing, difficulting making/keeping friends and RSD are hecking real things, but they can all wait. Trust me, none of them are urgent. That TikTok will still be funny in an hour or two. And I’m probably completely right when I say that whomever just messaged you, never replies as quickly as you want them too. So I doubt they are going to think twice if you are MIA to finish your thing.

My partner or I might add to this later, but at the moment I already know that I probably wouldn’t read this wall of words if I was the one reading it, so if you are still with me, THANK YOU and I really hope I might have helped you. Sorry for the mound of words, but maybe you can reblog, screen shot, or save this and read a dot point at a time or refer to it when you need. Don’t be afraid to ask questions, I promise what ever it is, I’ve asked the same thing once in my life or something MUCH stupider.

[finally-a-realistic-studyblr]

I've noticed something...

There doesn’t seem to be any lists of ADHD studyblrs out there, and I’ve had some people ask me if I know of any. So I’ve decided to create a list of all ADHD studyblrs! Along with a list of blogs that are help and give advice on coping with ADHD. This list is just the ones I know of, so if you have one and are not on this list please reblog it with your studyblr! ADHD STUDYBLRS: @adhdstudying @adhdstudy @adhdstudyblr @adhdscholar @studyadhd @adhdstudytips @finally-a-realistic-studyblr (me!!) ADHD BLOGS: @actuallyadhd @adultadhdlifehacks @attentiondeficithyperactivedude @hey-look-a-squirrel @lifewithadhd @mentalillnessmouse (not ADHD specific but still a good resource to find help for coping with ADHD) @adhd-community @adhighdefinition @adhd-is Again I'm sure there are way more blogs than the ones I listed, so if you have one please reblog this!!

[formerfailure]

Hey guys! I’m Emma and I’m a senior in mechanical engineering! I was diagnosed with ADHD and Dysgraphia when I was 17 and over the last 6 years, I’ve found a few helpful sites and apps for managing them. I hope you enjoy them and find them helpful as well! If you have anything to add, feel free!

Noisli

- Noisli is a website that has a variety of different white noises. You can combine them together or listen to one at a time! It’s super helpful when you want to have some sound, but get distracted by music. I pretty much always have it running in the background when I’m studying. The interface is super simple so it’s not distracting to look at. 

Calmly

- If you have Dysgraphia you know how frustrating writing papers can be. Staring at a blank word document trying to get words to come out is the absolute worst. So Calmly is, in my opinion, the BEST word processor for writing papers. It’s a blank page with no distractions, but you can change the background color, the font color, the font, the spacing, everything. But the best part is that it has the Dyslexic font available. If you don’t know what that is, it’s a font that is designed to be easier for people with Dyslexia to read, and I’ve found that it helps with the Dysgraphia as well. Another really cool feature is called Focus Mode, where the only thing highlighted on the screen is the paragraph you’re working on.

Grammarly

- You’ve probably already seen Grammarly by now, but in case you haven’t, I figured I would throw it in. With Dysgraphia I find that by the time I finally have my paper written, I don’t have any brain power left to edit. But Grammarly is really helpful because it not only helps with spelling, but it helps with sentence structure and grammar rules as well. 

Other Random Tips

- Change the font: I’ve found that even if you don’t use the Dyslexic font, changing the font from the standard Times or Cambria font, to something more smooth like Arial or Calibri makes a big difference. 

- Change the color: I’ve also found changing the font color or the paper color (or both!) to be helpful. Something about the black font on a white background makes my brain not happy, so changing the colors around makes reading and writing just a little bit easier. 

- Find some books or cheat sheets or other reference material for the things you’re struggling with. Spark Charts is a really good company that makes cheat sheets for everything you could ever want (that's an exaggeration but still). I have some for science and math stuff and units that I use often being an engineer. They’re a good reference to have for those inevitable lapses in memory. I also have a book for writing, it’s this one. It’s something I’ve had for 6 years, and I always have it out when I’m writing anything. It has info on outlines, citations, etc. and it’s just handy to have. 

- If Noisli isn’t your thing, but music is distracting, I’ve found this binaural beat to be really helpful with focus. 

- Accommodations: They’re there for a reason! I’ve used them before, and they really helped. Don’t think it’s weak to use them, it’s not, they just help level the playing field. Also, don’t think that because you use them once you have to use them forever, I don’t currently use them but I will if I feel like I need them again. Most importantly, don't deny yourself the help you need just because you feel like you shouldn’t need them! Which leads me to my next point...

- Therapy/Medication: I’ve been in therapy and on medication for ADHD since I was 17, and they’ve really changed my life. Therapy and medication are nothing to be ashamed of! 

(Okay now I’m gonna tag some people cause I have like... 13 followers lol)

@adhdstudying @adhd-n-ib @adhdstudyblr @adhd-community @studybutch @adhdstudytips  

[lcveball]

You reblog a lot of studyblr stuff, so I was wondering if you could rec any good studyblrs about studying with adhd/autistic studying?

I track #adhd studyblr so I end up seeing posts made by students with ADHD more often, besides that here’s some blogs by students with ADHD with content for students with ADHD! My #study stuff tag is also good i guess? 

(ps: not all of these blogs are still active)

@studyblrforbeginners @adhdphysicist @finally-a-realistic-studyblr @adhdstudying @adhdstudyblr @adhdscholar @glowsoleil @studyadhd @adhdstudytips @studybutch

[apracticalarchive]

Hs/College

Easier way to write an essay

Studying for slow learners

Adhdstudytips (blog)

List of academic tips

Useful college sites

Textbooks

[a-blrofonesown]

Question about "Pretty Notes"

I have been looking around dozens YouTube channels, studyblrs, Pinterest boards, and frickin' Google to find the answer to this, but: When exactly do y'all write out your pretty notes? I gather that they are different from your in-class notes, and that they've been rewritten as part of what I'm assuming is the test-prep process, but I can't figure out when exactly during the course of human events you rewrite them, what you change about them, why exactly you write them, and how the flip you manage to rewrite those notes AND take notes on textbooks AND actually read the textbooks AND do homework and assignments AND not die a horrible death. Like, what gives, man? Tell me your secrets. @celestudials @studyadhd @studioblrcollective @abby-studies-art @sarastudiesgeography @adhdstudying @adhdstudy @adhdstudyblr @adhdscholar @adhdstudytips (tagging because y'all always reblog pretty notes, and I'm hoping you may be able to help me find the source.) Have a lovely day!

[foxsrecovery]

Welcome to my blog!

Welcome to my blog! I've had a little rebranding as I want this page to focus on spreading useful information regarding ADHD and mental illnesses. There will be a mix of general life advice but as I am a student, there will be a heavy element of tips regarding education.

Some topics include:

ADHD self-care checklist

Study/focus tips for ADHD brains

Executive dysfunction

Self-care checklists

Managing low mood

Conquering anxiety