Obviously this isn't the most pressing issue right now, but I've seen a lot of one-size-fits-all advice about working from home, and if you have ADHD, please don't beat yourself up if this advice isn't working for you
Here's some take-it-or-leave-it advice. If this doesn't apply to your situation, that's fine!
First of all: know yourself and what works for you. If you haven’t experimented extensively with this, think about your successes with regards to getting things done. How’d you do it? Can you replicate any of those conditions? I’ll give you a few examples from my own processes.
Setting: I’m most productive when my desk is clean. Getting it clean is another story, but plopping my laptop down on a table covered in other to-do-list items doesn’t work for me. Give yourself a specific amount of time to get an area set up.
I know I need to listen to music, but I can't be stopping to skip tracks that I don't want to hear. I have a couple of playlists I listen to only when I’m getting work done. Spotify curates a bunch of these in their “focus” genre. Try a few and see what works.
Deadlines & accountability: deadlines always help me get things done. If I don’t have them, I flounder and fuck around. Create some accountability by sharing your goals and intended timeline with someone else, and have them share theirs with you. Check in on a regular basis.
Make lists of motivators. I have a list of successful people that I loathe and KNOW I am better than. I look at it when I need to get fired up. I picture them finishing something before me and it gets me going. It could also be things you wanna buy with the money you’ll earn.
Make the lists ahead of time. I absolutely dread cleaning, but I know that when I watch Hoarders or Marie Kondo, I feel differently. It’s hard to remember that when I’m faced with a mess. So I have a list of “Things that make me want to clean” and I look at that when I need to.
Starting: the hardest step for a lot of people with ADHD. Pick the easiest part of the thing you’re doing and start there. Look at your lists. Try not to focus on your dread. Picture yourself as the person who’s done with it. Remember that starting won’t be easier later on.
Time management / breaking things down: When I have a long project to do and a long amount of time to do it (i.e., write a script in a week), I can’t just say “I’ll do it this week.”
The vastness of that time makes it easy to say, “well, I didn’t get too far today but I have all day tomorrow. I’m sure I’ll get a lot done with all that time.” Well, I had all day today, so that doesn’t really track. Here’s what works better for me:
Divide it up. If you’re writing a script, you should know from your outline how many scenes you have to write. Divide that by how many days you have. Now you know how much you have to get through each day.
Go further. Schedule WHEN in the day you will write each chunk, and be generous. If you usually write one scene per hour, give yourself an hour and a half. Keep going if you feel like it. Schedule work only in the hours of the day when you know you're capable of being productive.
My morning routine includes a dog walk, breakfast, and some noodling around on my phone while I finish my coffee. Sometimes I don’t schedule work to start til 11, and that’s ok. Schedule in meals, breaks, other to-do-list items. Save yourself a treat for the end of the day.
Share your schedule with the other people in your house if you can. People with ADHD have an extraordinary ability to hyper-focus once they get going, and it can be hard to get back into the groove if that’s interrupted. Coordinate with your family to avoid interruption.
Don’t trust yourself with technology. For me that means: putting my phone across the room. I installed Leechblock on my browser that blocks distracting sites for 50 minutes per hour. Don’t make it so restrictive that you’ll end up working around it.
When the alerts come up telling you the site has been blocked or you've used up all your time, remember that's a kind thing you did for yourself.
I often have the most clarity about what I need to get done, or forgot to do, in moments when I’m incapable of doing any of them - especially right before bed. Keep a notebook on your bedside to write that stuff down, and try to look at it at the beginning of the next day.
And most important of all: you are not magic. Imagining you can suddenly be a new person every time you feel a surge of ambition is a surefire way to fail. Know yourself, love yourself, and set THAT person up to succeed.
Stay home, stay safe, flatten the curve, etc!
