So you can get to know me better, I will be including some tools and tips that I have found useful so far to work with my ADHD.

ADDitude Mag has a lot of content to sort through to see what works for you. I was lucky enough to be provided with a link to this resource by my psychologist.

The Four States Solve-it Grid is a really good tool you can use to reflect on how you have been going and seeing where you have been focusing your time, or maybe pushing your life a lot in one direction.

Reading through the different states, most people I have shown this to have found it pretty easy to identify the activities they do that align with each colour, and also, in that moment, if they are doing heaps, or maybe too much, in any one area. My danger zone for burnout is if I have been sitting in the Yellow zone too much.

All of these states are an inevitable part of life, and involve tasks and activities many of us need or want to do – but when we lean too much on one activity, we can counteract too heavily with another (an example is if I’m in a cleaning frenzy [yellow state], I try and relax by doing heaps of phone games [blue], meaning there is less and less room for green and red activities).

One tip, in our ADHD brains we sometimes want to front load this balance “I’ll do 2 hours of red tonight, then 1 hour of blue on Tuesday…” but if you start frontloading, be careful that that you not are turning a tool into a chore (yellow).

At least at first, try using this as a reflective tool when you have a moment and are sitting down to think back on the past week, or fortnight. Just realising what state you have been running in can really help you search for ways to balance things out.

By using this reflectively, you can lean on your ADHD strengths for pattern recognition and empathy to start noticing more in the moment next time you’re feeling harried or stressed.