Practical Tips — Our Wavelength

I want to be upfront: I am not a productivity guru. I've bought the planners, tried the apps, downloaded the habit trackers, and abandoned most of them within a fortnight. What's below isn't a perfect system. It's a collection of things that have stuck — or at least stuck long enough to make a real difference.

I've split these into tips for adults managing their own ADHD, and tips for parents supporting ADHD kids. There's a lot of overlap, because — spoiler — many of the same principles apply.

For adults with ADHD

Things that help me manage day to day.

Externalise everything. Your brain is not a reliable storage system — and that's fine. Get it out of your head and onto paper, a whiteboard, a sticky note, anything. The key is visibility: things that are out of sight genuinely become out of mind.
Time blocking over to-do lists. To-do lists are a lie for ADHD brains — they have no weight, no urgency, no structure. Time blocking (scheduling specific tasks into specific windows) does a lot more work. Even loose blocks help.
Make friction work for you. Put the things you need to remember by the door. Put your medication next to your toothbrush. Design your environment to make the right behaviour the path of least resistance.
Find your focus sound. Many people with ADHD focus better with background noise or music — but not all. Try different things. For me it's lo-fi instrumental music. Some people swear by white noise, binaural beats, or even a specific coffee shop ambience.
Use the energy when it's there. ADHD brains don't follow conventional energy curves. When you're in flow, use it — even if it's not the "right" time. Stop fighting the tides.
Break tasks into the first concrete step only. "Write the report" is paralysing. "Open a new document" is doable. The brain will often carry on once it's started — you just need to trick it into beginning.
Body doubling works. The phenomenon of being able to focus when someone else is present in the room — even if they're not helping — is real and well-documented. Work alongside a friend, or try a virtual co-working session.
Protect your sleep. Sleep deprivation makes ADHD symptoms significantly worse. This is boring advice but it's true. Wind-down routines, consistent wake times, getting screens out of the bedroom — all genuinely worth trying.

For parents of ADHD children

What's helped at home and at school.

Visual routines are transformative. A laminated visual schedule of the morning or evening routine — with pictures for younger kids — removes so much friction. The child can check the schedule instead of asking you, and you stop being the nagging voice.
Transition warnings, every time. "Five more minutes" isn't a punishment — it's essential preparation. ADHD brains struggle with abrupt transitions. Give them time to begin wrapping up their current thing.
Physical activity before focused tasks. Exercise genuinely helps with focus and emotional regulation. Even ten minutes of running around outside before homework can make a real difference.
One instruction at a time. Multi-step instructions ("go upstairs, get dressed, brush your teeth, then come down") are hard to hold in working memory. Break them into one step at a time, and check in before giving the next.
Recognise the early signs of dysregulation. Every child has tells — the small signs that they're approaching their limit. Learn yours. Intervention at level 2 is infinitely easier than at level 8.
Repair is more important than perfection. You will get it wrong sometimes. We all do. Coming back, naming it, and repairing the relationship teaches your child something genuinely valuable about emotional intelligence.
Be your child's advocate at school. Request a meeting, ask specifically what support is in place, and follow up in writing. Schools are stretched and children fall through the gaps. You being involved matters.
Look after yourself too. You cannot pour from an empty cup. This is not a self-help cliché — it's genuinely true that an exhausted, overwhelmed parent has much less capacity for the kind of calm, regulated parenting that ADHD kids respond best to. Your wellbeing matters.

A note on what doesn't work

For what it's worth — things that haven't helped us include: strict punishment-based behaviour charts (they work for about a week, then collapse when the novelty wears off), expecting my son to just "try harder", and trying to maintain systems that are too complex to keep up with.

ADHD management works best when it works with the brain, not against it. Simple, visible, forgiving systems beat elaborate ones every time. And compassion — for your child, and for yourself — is genuinely the most practical thing in the toolkit.

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