The Power of Small Steps: How to Stay Productive With ADHD

Stephen King, Michael Phelps, Ellen Degeneres… You’re in pretty good company if you have ADHD. But how can you stay productive? What does productivity even mean for someone with an attention deficit? Read on for tips on how to be productive with ADHD.

ADHD is like trying to watch several TV shows simultaneously with the remote control stuck on "fast forward." It makes it hard for you to focus on one thing for long, as your mind jumps around like a frog. People with ADHD may struggle to stay organized and express their emotions.

But it also has unique strengths. If people with this disorder learn how to channel their energy, they can be overly creative.

Feel free to mix and match these:

Redefine Productivity

Stop following someone’s expectations of your performance. If you have ADHD, it means you’re special! Some people are OK with going to the gym, working 8 hours straight, cooking dinner for the whole family, and reading 20 pages of non-fiction. But this might not be your idea of productivity.

Normalize working at your own pace and reaching small goals every day. If you want, open up to your boss and accept your condition. Don’t ruin your life trying to overperform. You’re enough!

Use Time Management Techniques

As someone with ADHD, you might feel like working for hours straight without breaks. However, this can harm your brain. Try the Pomodoro technique: Work for 25 minutes, then take a five-minute break. Plenty of “Study with Me” videos on YouTube are structured around this technique. Playing one in the background can help you stay focused while encouraging balanced rest.

Grab a notebook and list your tasks for the day. It might feel hard at first because you’ll need to step back and think about them, but don’t worry — you’re not making any hard commitments. Collect your thoughts and lay them out on paper just to get them out of your head. Don’t pressure yourself to complete 100 percent of the list; start small and do what you can. When you finish a task, cross it off and take a moment to notice how it feels.

Organize a Working Space That You Love

Many people with ADHD say their workspace shapes their progress. Organize a secluded place for work. This could be your cabinet, living room, or even a balcony. If you can, arrange a sea or garden view to stimulate creativity. If you can't make that happen IRL, try pulling up a 4K YouTube video of a place that inspires you to play in the background.

If you work offline, arrange a pleasant workspace with flowers, photos, candles, and lights to uplift your mood. Don’t get obsessed with keeping it clean or you might distract yourself with unnecessary labor.

Put on Your Favorite Tunes

Search for ADHD YouTube music playlists or create your own.

Choose the best sounds for you: classic, ambient, or techno. But you should keep it silent when you need to focus intensely.

Balance Notifications

Notifications are a great way to stay connected with friends, family, and work, but being constantly available can be distracting and exhausting. Here's how to deal with that:

• Put your mobile phone in another room when you’re deep working
• Use browser extensions to limit notifications
• Keep only one tab open at a time
• Schedule time to check notifications during your breaks

Reshape Your Diet

It’s essential to eat healthy — or at least try to do so — especially if you have ADHD.

Add lots of fruits and vegetables to your diet to improve digestion. Opt for healthy fats like salmon, flax seeds, and walnuts to support your brain health. Eat legumes to support the production of neurotransmitters, which act like mail carriers delivering messages between neurons in your brain. Neurotransmitters help regulate mood, memory, and overall brain function, keeping your mind sharp and balanced.

People with ADHD need to limit caffeine to avoid unnecessary anxiety spikes. Try decaf instead.

Take Care of Yourself

You would be compassionate to a friend with a broken leg, right? So, be your best friend and show the same understanding to yourself.

Liven can help you modulate that inner chatter by tracking your moods, feelings, and behavior. Use the app as a companion on your self-discovery journey. It has bite-size courses to help you learn more about anxiety and an AI assistant to help you step back and gain self-observability.

During the onboarding, you’ll answer questions shaping your individual well-being program and take small steps toward accepting yourself.

Finally, remember to love yourself enough to embrace all that you are. ADHD doesn’t define you — with the right approach, it can help you become better at what you do — day by day.