Thoroughly ADHD
I'm Alex Delmar, a certified ADHD coach and person with ADHD. I'm here to share what I've learned so other people with ADHD can enjoy better lives!
Thoroughly ADHD
Environment Matters: An ADHD Success Strategy for School and Work
Ever promised yourself that this school year or work period would finally be different with your ADHD? That familiar optimism quickly fades without concrete changes to your approach. As someone who struggled through school with undiagnosed ADHD—earning frequent D grades despite occasional flashes of brilliance—I've discovered that environmental modifications make all the difference between failure and success.
Your physical workspace dramatically impacts how your ADHD brain functions. Create a portable "homework launch pad" caddy containing everything you need: timer, sticky notes, colored pencils, calculator, and other frequently-used supplies. This simple preparation eliminates the momentum-killing search for materials that so often derails focus. Then, identify several predetermined work locations throughout your home—perhaps the coffee table, a standing desk, or while gently bouncing on an exercise ball. This variety provides the novelty your ADHD brain craves without the distraction of deciding where to work mid-session.
Many with ADHD focus better with "body doubles"—other people working nearby who create accountability through their mere presence. Whether it's a classmate, family member, or strangers in a coffee shop, having others engaged in productive activities helps anchor your attention. Through careful experimentation and tracking, you'll discover your unique environmental preferences—perhaps quiet solitude for math problems but background music for creative writing. The scientific method of ADHD management (hypothesis, experiment, evaluate, adjust) builds self-awareness and effective strategies over time. The beginning of a new period is the perfect opportunity to implement these changes while motivation remains high.
Ready to transform your work experience? Like, follow, and subscribe for more practical ADHD strategies every Tuesday. Share your environmental modifications in the comments—what unexpected workspace change has helped your focus the most?
The start of a new school year, or even a new marking period, is usually a time of optimism and renewed energy for people with ADHD,. "this time is going to be different. We think to ourselves this time I'm going to do everything I'm supposed to do when I'm supposed to do it. But as the adage goes, in order for things to be different, you need to do things differently. Today, I'll talk about how changing up your environment can set you up for success, and this information is valid for working from home as well as for doing homework.
Alex Delmar:I know what it feels like to just not be able to do your assignments when you have ADHD. There are just so many things that can get in your way. Even though I love learning, I was mostly a terrible student with just frequent enough glimpses of genius to keep me in the most challenging classes, so I got a lot of D's. Yes, that's D as in Delta. I tried to drop out of high school when I turned 16, which caused quite a stir, and so I was convinced to stick it out and subsequently head off to college, where it took me eight years at four different schools to gain the skills I needed to earn a bachelor's degree from the same place I started, and I ended up learning so much about how to "do school that I got on the dean's list. Of course, I had undiagnosed, though in hindsight glaringly obvious ADHD ADHD. I'm Alex Delamar, a certified ADHD coach and person with ADHD. Welcome to Thoroughly ADHD, where I share what I've learned to help other people with ADHD enjoy better lives.
Alex Delmar:One very important thing I learned is that the physical environment makes a crucial difference in how well the ADHD brain attends to the task at hand. So o first, put together a caddy that holds any supplies you might use regularly for your work and give it a place to live. It might have a timer, sticky notes, index cards, gum colored pencils, a calculator whatever you might need at hand to get through a work session without having to search all over for things. This is your"homework homework launch pad and it allows you to change scenery whenever you start to get antsy, so that you can continue to work.
Alex Delmar:Now, Now identify a few predetermined places to choose from, from for doing your work. For instance, you might sit on the floor and work at the coffee table, or sit on the , swing with a lap desk, or roll back and forth on an exercise ball or swivel chair while working at the table, or stand up and work at the breakfast ... bar Whatever gives you a variety of settings, body positions and opportunities to fidget.
Alex Delmar:The point is to add novelty mid-study session and thus increase the length of time you can focus. You're committing to locations ahead of time so that you don't lose momentum, wandering aimlessly from room to room trying to decide where to work or using the excuse of having to clear off an area in order to procrastinate the task at hand.
Alex Delmar:Don't work on your bed because you're reserving that location for relaxation and sleep! And unless you work more efficiently in isolation, which many of us with ADHD do not, try other spaces before shutting yourself off alone in your room. Just having other people around who know you are trying to complete a task can help you stay motivated, or they might support you by helping you manage your time or reminding you of your goal.
Alex Delmar:If your household is total chaos or if you're often home alone, the library, a coffee shop or diner or a classmate's place might be options worth trying, especially if they are close by. Many of us work better with a body double, and this person can be another student doing homework, a virtual work partner, or even a stranger doing their own work in your field of vision can act as a cue to continue the task if your mind starts to wander.
Alex Delmar:Pay attention to which settings you focus best in, especially how much background, noise or movement, or lack thereof, is best for you. Some people need a tomb-like quiet to best concentrate, while others prefer the consistent traffic of a main street diner. Then plan on doing your work in that or a similar setting as often as possible. As you get better at understanding when your brain works most efficiently, don't forget to consider the sort of work you're doing in each setting. For instance, maybe for math you do best co-working with a classmate with no distractions in the background, but for creative writing it's better to work independently and listen to lively classical music
Alex Delmar:. .
Alex Delmar:The beginning of a marking period is an especially good time to employ the scientific method of ADHD symptom management, as energy levels and optimism are high and there's a long runway to catch up. If you don't get things right immediately To use this ., you're going to start with an issue you're having like not completing homework. Then come up with a hypothesis to solve the problem. For instance, I won't stream videos while doing my homework. Try out your hypothesis and then keep the strategy if it works, tweak it if it got you closer to your goal and try something completely different if it didn't help at all. Make sure you track results and keep a record of what works and what doesn't. I'm Alex Delmar and this has been Thoroughly ADHD. I know your time is valuable, so I hope you found this useful and that you'll like follow, subscribe, let us know how you're doing in the comments and come back next Tuesday. Thank you,