From the Dean of Curriculum

ADHD/ADD: Top Tips For Working Effectively at Home

1. Let Your Team Help

You will benefit from letting people on your team (family, friends, teachers) help you. Especially if you are sometimes disorganised. It’s too hard to do it all yourself, let the people who care about you or are in your life help you manage structures and plan and remember things.

2. Checklists

Have checklists for everything! A checklist for routines to follow when you get home each day, a checklist for your evening routine or schedule, and a checklist for the morning. Have these typed up on the computer so you (or your parents) can print them out each day. Or you could have them set up on a whiteboard or some other visual display. Visual checklists can be much more useful than just a written list. Tick steps off as you complete tasks - each time you tick off a completed task, your brain will give you a shot of feel good dopamine. Routines mean you don't have to think about what you need to do instead you let the power of repetition and habits help you. You could also use things like Google Home or your phone to set reminders for parts of your routine.

3.Shake off the School day and burn off energy

When you come home from school have a break to clear your head from the day, then do something active to burn off your energy before you start your homework. Did you know that having a shower can also release dopamine which helps you to concentrate and be motivated! Eating before you do your schoolwork can also help. You could also spend some time engaging in activities you enjoy and are good at, whether it’s an activity aligned with school or anything else you are interested in.

4. Remove distractions

If the distractions are there, you will be distracted! When you are about to start your homework, get rid of all of the distractions before you start, you may like to look at the blocking software and apps available in the Distractions unit. Even better, put your phone in another room, or at least put it on silent so messages and notifications don’t distract you - you can look at them in your break. Some students find it beneficial to work in a completely different environment like a local library - as long as all your friends aren't there too.

5.Try white noise or other low level background noise or noise cancelling headsets

If you don't like it to be silent while you are doing your learning at home, try having white noise on in the background. For some people this can improve concentration and aid in cognitive performance by reducing the impact of distracting sounds in the environment. There are many white noise options on YouTube or you can try an app like Noisli. Or you may find wearing noise cancelling headsets when doing your schoolwork may work better for you.

6.Try a stand-up desk or rocking footstool

If you experience hyperactivity (as opposed to inattentive ADHD) standing while you are doing your work instead of sitting, may help you to get the fidgets out. Instead of buying a fancy desk you could even put a box on top of your existing desk. And all students may like to experiments with a rocking footstool and see if that helps you focus.

7.Have set times for Schoolwork

Agree with your parents when you will do your schoolwork each night. If you wait until you feel like doing it, it will never happen. Set an alarm in your mobile phone as to when you will start the first block. It’s a good idea to get most of your homework done before dinner, then you can relax. Negotiate dinnertime with your parents. For example, if dinner is at 7:00pm, and you started homework at 5.30pm you could have done 1and 1/2 hours before dinner!

8. Work in smaller blocks

Don’t try and study for too long at a time without a break. Instead do 15-20 minutes worth of schoolwork at a time. Work in short bursts and try and build your focus up to when you can do a ‘pomodoro’ – 25 minutes of learning at a time. There are lots of great Pomodoro timers out there. Plan immediate ‘rewards’ for completing each task (working towards and achieving a reward releases dopamine and increases motivation).

9.Make a plan

Spend the first few minutes writing a list of everything you need to do that night for school. Check your school portal to see if there’s homework, or look at your diary (or where you wrote homework down) - then make the list. Text a pic of your list to a friend and ask them to check you haven’t forgotten anything. It’s good to also have a week planner so you can see what else needs to be done each night (eg. your assessments would need to be broken into ‘chunks’ and you could spend 1/2 hour on part of an assessment after homework). Below are some approaches to planning:

APPROACH 1 - WRITE YOUR LIST: On a small whiteboard choose what pieces of work you will try and do in the first 15-20 minute block. Write these down in order onto the whiteboard and put a checkbox next to each one. It is also good to write down how long you will try and spend on each piece of work. Tick off as you complete each task.
APPROACH 2 - ALTERNATE TASKS: Another approach is to just choose two pieces of homework to start. Start working on one, when you get bored with one, switch to the other. Alternate back and forth between them then when they are finished choose another two pieces of homework.
APPROACH 3 - POST IT NOTES: Put post-its on your desk - a post-it for each task. When you've done the task - throw the post-it in the bin. You could use Stickies on your laptop too.
APPROACH 4 - CHUNK IT DOWN: Chunk tasks down into smaller, more manageable pieces.

10.Tap into your auditory powers

Use voice memos to record notes to yourself. Otter.ai is useful for verbally answering homework or assessment questions or study notes. You record your words which are then transcribed into text, which can then be copied into a document.

11.Set Up rewards

Plan rewards for yourself for completing pieces of work or staying to task for a set period of time. This is particularly important when it is for a subject you don't like. The rewards don't have to be huge, they could be just spending time doing something you enjoy like playing with your dog!

12.Find out about school support

Does your school have an after school homework club? Or a student to student mentoring program where older students help younger students with homework? Is there academic support in your school or teachers who can help? Talk to your class teacher or year coordinator and find out what is available.

13.Communicate

People can't help you if they don't know what you need. Talk to your teachers and explain to them if the homework takes you longer and you can't finish it all. If you don't feel comfortable talking to your teachers you could ask your parents to do it for you. Ask your teachers if they can provide written instructions rather than just verbal – including scaffolds to help you break down work.

Mrs Alicia Michielsen

Dean of Curriculum 7-12

Head of Learning Enrichment P-12

Careers Advisor