Marathon training helps counteract procrastination

Rob always had problems with procrastination. He discovered that training for a marathon helps him hone skills that counteract his procrastination tendencies. After all, you can’t cram training for a marathon into the last week!

Running helps Rob clear his mind, plan his time, and manage his projects.  Running has also boosted his self confidence because it provides him with control over something that’s positive in his life.  Many people with ADHD have low self-esteem because they frequently make errors that seem avoidable.  Running is an outlet that gives Rob focus and center.  He encourages people to find something inside themselves that provides that positive feeling – and pursue it.  Crossing the finish line is incredibly empowering!

Research shows exercise helps ADHD symptoms

Rob’s experience with exercise in helping to manage his ADHD symptoms has been backed up by solid research.  Spark: The Revolutionary New Science of Exercise and the Brain, by John J. Ratey, is an accessible book that documents the importance of exercise on brain functioning.

You don’t need to run a marathon to benefit from exercise.  Rob encourages people to find an activity that they are comfortable doing – and keep it up.  Walking, biking, swimming, even yoga, have all been shown to improve focus and concentration.

“I discovered I have to move in order to think,” says Rob. “Running has become my moving meditation. Finding your stride is the place you feel most at home. You don’t have to feel pain in order to benefit. The key is doing a sustainable activity.  Go out there and move! ”

TeamEdge athletes support ADHD coaching

Rob believes so strongly in the power of exercise as an ADHD management method, he founded Team Edge and is running the New York City Marathon later this week to raise awareness and funding for ADHD coaching.

Please join Rob in making coaching –and school success– possible for other students with ADHD. As of this writing, Rob is half way to his goal. Any amount you contribute to TeamEdge will be an enormous help.  Not only will you be joining with others to make coaching possible for an ADHD student in need, but you will be sending that student a powerful message that we believe that ADHD is not a barrier to success.

Rob invites other athletes to dedicate their event participation to raise funds for and awareness of ADHD. It’s easy to get distracted by everything in life – especially when you have ADHD.  So please, follow this link now to Team Edge  and get set a training goal or give as generously as you are able. Thank you.

Did you know that exercise is even more important when you have ADHD? Getting your heart and lungs pumping can mean the difference between a calm, focused mind and a harried, inattentive self. Exercise can help reduce some of the symptoms of ADHD and help stave off anxiety and depression.  It even sparks new brain growth!

To get the maximum benefit from summer activities, 30 minutes of aerobic exercise 3 or 4 times a week will do the trick.

It can be hard to start an exercise program, and even more difficult to make it a long-term habit. So while summer is a good time to mix it up with outdoor movement, an ADHD coach can help you set achievable exercise goals for yourself, stay on track, and problem solve when you aren’t able to meet your goals.

What’s on your exercise list this summer?

• Kayaking
• Swimming in the lake
• Hiking
• Rock climbing
• Jumping rope
• Shooting hoops with friends
• Water skiing
• Surf boarding
• Skate boarding
• Roller blading
• Biking
• Running
• Triathalon competition
• Yoga in the park
• Walk or bike to work

Did we miss your summer sport?

Okay, we noticed, we don’t have a “Z” topic.  What is the Z of ADHD?

The quick read:

If you are feeling like you have too much on your plate but you don’t want to let anything go try:

• Talking to your coach
• Breaking down your goals into manageable check points
• Reminding yourself why you love what you do

I want to do everything!

I want to be the best at my job, the best friend to everyone I know, the best girlfriend, never miss a party, never forget to respond to an email or send a thank you card. I take on new projects without hesitation.  I RSVP to dinners and events without a moment’s thought.

But lately, I have been exhausted trying to keep up with myself. Last week I hit a wall.  I was feeling totally overwhelmed trying to balance work, exercise, creative projects, and my social life. It seemed I was getting nowhere but stressed!

I contacted my coach for an urgent session to discuss how to help me accomplish all my goals and not feel depleted and overwhelmed. She immediately responded with her availability and asked me to describe what I was struggling with.

I told her that my workload was full and I had just agreed, happily, to design wedding invitations for a friend.  I wasn’t getting to the gym because I was so tired and pressed for time. I was however, attending most of my social obligations and doing great at work. The issue I wanted my coach’s help with was balancing so that I was doing great at everything.

How my ADHD coach helped

My coach asked me to break down each of the areas that I was concerned about. We talked about each separately and set deadlines and progress points for each. I automatically felt relieved and more calm. Having progress points on my calendar and designated times to work on certain tasks really helps me feel in control.

She reminded me how much I like to exercise and how it increases my energy levels and productiveness. So even though I feel tired in the morning, I know that if I go to the gym I won’t feel sluggish or tired the rest of the day.

The last thing my coach asked me about was the realistic nature of all the things on my plate. Was I taking on too much? Can I be superwoman? My answer is yes! I want to be superwoman, but I need to be superwoman in moderation.

I decided to start building in time for myself in my calendar. I am happy to say that I now have every Monday to myself to do catch up on emails, laundry, whatever I want. I also decided to take Wednesday and Saturday mornings to work on special projects. I want to be superwoman, but I am pretty sure superwoman took some days off too!

You can find other tips and ideas about how to be successful in college with ADHD with our Free Guide:  College Success and ADHD.

What is self-control? I have been struggling with self-control lately. I feel like I always know what’s best but there is an inner child in me telling me to do what feels good in the moment! I went to Starbucks last week because I was running late and missed breakfast. I knew that I should order the oatmeal because it was healthy and it would keep me full longer – but the lemon bread looked so good. I caved (to myself) and got the lemon bread, but regretted it an hour later when I was starving. That inner voice that was so strong it “made” me order the lemon bread when I knew the oatmeal was a better choice.

We all have a voice inside us, some people call it our “inner child.” This voice tells us what we want to hear.  It can be hard to resist, and easy to give in. Everyone has a different inner child who throws inner tantrums for different reasons. For example, I also struggle with being late in part because my inner child tells me “I can stay in bed for five more minutes.” Self-control comes from you knowing what is best for yourself and doing it.   I just wish it wasn’t so hard!

When I was a kid, home with my parents, I was allowed to be a child inside and out because I knew my parents were there and helped make decisions for me. My parents always had my best interest at heart when making decisions for me and I trusted them to make the right ones.

When I went to college and I was away from home I had to learn how to be my own parent. Now it’s my time as an adult to start being my own inner parent and take care of myself. It’s often not fun making the right choice in the moment of temptation,  but I am always happier afterwards if I do. Here are some simple hints that helped me master my self control.

I start by identifying what I’m struggle with. For example, I am struggling with working out. I want to work out five days a week but I keep messing up.

I figure out why this important to me in the long term. I want to work out every morning because I want to be healthy and look good.

I think about how this fits with my long-term goals. I find it helps to think about my long-term goals because as a kind of reality check for myself. When I find my inner child telling me, “you could go to the gym or you could sleep one more hour”, my inner parent will tell me “I am going to the gym right now because I know I will if I do I will be prepared for the half marathon next summer”. My long-term goal reminds me why I care about something and how it’s really the best choice.

I use my coach to help stay on track. Tell your coach about your long-term goals and what you need from him/her to help you achieve it. For me just telling my coach helps because then I feel accountable. Also my coach helps me with short term check points to help me reach my long-term goal. My coach checks in with me weekly to see if I have met my weekly goal of working out five times a week. If I have met my goal then I get a “prize”. I get to treat myself by sleeping in on Sunday and going to brunch with my friends and having a mimosa, If I missed a day during the week then I have to get out of bed early, go to the gym and skip brunch. This is motivation during the week because I hate working out on Sunday and I love brunch!

I challenge you!

Pick something that you struggle with, maybe it’s getting your homework done early instead of waiting till the last minute, or not spending hours on Facebook. Whatever it is that you find your inner child pulling you towards when you know its not what’s best for you that is where you need to master your self-control.

“To ensure success, students need to make sure that they have achieved independence in daily living, study and self-advocacy skills,”  Dr Patricia Quinn.

1. Awaken himself each day.
2. Be responsible for his own laundry.
3. Keep his room and possessions organized.
4. Take any medication needed with few or no reminders.
5. Eat healthy meals and exercise regularly.
6. Manage money.
7. Make good decisions about how to manage stress and to balance time between fun, chores and schoolwork.
8. Set up a study schedule and stay on top of schoolwork without reminders.
9. Organize ideas, write and edit his own papers.
10. Motivate himself to face assignments and tasks that he doesn’t really enjoy.
11. Clearly explain strengths and weaknesses to teachers and other people.
12. Comfortably ask for help or admit when he doesn’t understand something.
13. Find resources or support when he can’t figure something out on his own.

Edge: There are a lot of other books out there about school and ADHD, what motivated you to write this book?

Dr. Quinn: So often I would hear from parents and their concerns about their teen with ADHD and what would happen when the teen left home for college. Yet these parents would go on enabling and rescuing these same young adults until the moment they drove away from their teen’s dorm in late August. These parents forget that they are not going off with their teen until it’s too late. Although on occasion, I have spoken to a few parents, who do show up at college to do their teens laundry or type a paper.

In order to address this issue, I teamed up with Dr. Theresa Maitland from UNC, Chapel Hill to present an alternative “coaching” approach to parenting. In Ready for Take -Off, our primary purpose was to convince parents they could best help their teens by designing a program to empower their teens and help them gain the necessary skills to succeed in college.

Edge:  What are some of the things parents should look at with their student to determine if he or she is ready to live away from home?

Dr. Quinn: Organization and time management are often the keys to success at college. Making appropriate choices, prioritizing time and tasks, solving new challenges are important skills that teens will need in order to live on their own.  In addition, I have listed some very specific skills below. Ready for Take-Off features two extensive questionnaires, one for parents and one for the teen, to complete to determine what skills the teen has mastered and what skills still need to be developed before leaving for college.

Edge: It sounds like parents can get in the way of helping their children get college ready.  What are some things for parents to do differently with an older child that may have worked quite well as a strategy when the student was younger?

Dr. Quinn: When children are diagnosed with ADHD and/or LD, we often find that it is not unusual for their parents to respond by falling into one of three roles that can prevent their children from learning many important lessons and skills that will be important in college and in life. In Ready for Take-Off, we call these the Parent Warriors, the Parent Repairmen and the Parent Directors.

Like the medieval “knight in shining armor,” Parent Warriors participate in every battle that needs to be fought to ensure that their child is understood, treated fairly and given all the services that ultimately will lead to his or her success.  We fully appreciate that without the “parent warrior,” many teens would never be able to even dream of attending college.    However, the down side of this parenting pattern is that the parent warrior may be so intent on fighting and fixing every bump in their teen’s life that they don’t allow their teen the opportunity to struggle and learn to handle any of the challenges that are part of a normal life.

Parent Directors are naturals at noticing small problems and reading warning signs, at taking charge and problem-solving. Over the years, they may have fallen into the pattern of always directing their son or daughter with ADHD or LD by telling him or her how to get a difficult project done, clean a room, handle a conflict with a friend or even quickly pitched in to help.

Some parents don’t act as parent warriors or directors but, instead, they unconsciously “fill in the gaps” and become “repairmen” who fix the damage created by their teen’s attention and self-management problems. These parents have a tendency to “repair”  homework problems by always asking if homework is done, checking on progress on long-term assignments, and forcing their teens to work in the dining room or a non-distracting area when they are “caught” off task during mandated home work hours. By always double-checking in the morning and at night, these parents prevent their teens from learning how to manage on their own – to wake-up in the morning and get to bed each night.

Edge: What are some of the skills students should focus on sharpening in order to be ready for life away from home?

Dr. Quinn: To ensure success, students need to make sure that they have achieved independence in daily living, study and self-advocacy skills. These include being able to:

1. Awaken himself each day.
2. Be responsible for his own laundry.
3. Keep his room and possessions organized.
4. Take any medication needed with few or no reminders.
5. Eat healthy meals and exercise regularly.
6. Manage money.
7. Make good decisions about how to manage stress and to balance time between fun, chores and schoolwork.
8. Set up a study schedule and stay on top of schoolwork without reminders.
9. Organize ideas, write and edit his own papers.
10. Motivate himself to face assignments and tasks that he doesn’t really enjoy.
11. Clearly explain strengths and weaknesses to teachers and other people.
12. Comfortably ask for help or admit when he doesn’t understand something.
13. Find resources or support when he can’t figure something out on his own.

About Patricia O. Quinn, M.D.

Dr. Patricia Quinn is a developmental pediatrician in Washington, D.C.  A graduate of Georgetown University Medical School, she completed a fellowship in developmental pediatrics at Georgetown and specializes in child development and psychopharmacology.  Dr. Quinn has worked for more than 35 years in the areas of Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) and learning disabilities.

Dr. Quinn is a founding board member of the Edge Foundation an organization dedicated to providing coaches to high school and college students with ADHD.  She is the author of more than 20 books on ADHD for children, adults, and professionals. For the last decade, Dr. Quinn has devoted her attention to the issues confronting girls and women with ADHD and feels a strong commitment to helping them to identify and manage issues specific to their gender.  Her 1999 book, Understanding Girls with ADHD, is groundbreaking in its presentation of this population.

Dr. Quinn is a well-known international speaker and conducts workshops nationwide about ADHD.  She has appeared on Lifetime TV’s New Attitudes, the PBS show, To the Contrary, and on Good Morning America to discuss the issue of girls and women with ADHD.  Dr. Quinn appeared in a video aired on PBS titled, OUTSIDE IN: A Look at Adults with Attention Deficit Disorder.  She produced and appeared in an educational video ADD: Transition to College – Passport to Success for the National Attention Deficit Disorder Association.

Dr. Quinn, a woman and mother with ADHD, has four children, three of whom have ADHD as well.

Have you promised yourself that this year it will be different?  This year…

• I’ll study every night
• I will do all my homework on time
• I will get serious about my classwork
• I won’t skip class
• I’ll exercise and eat right
• I’ll  go to bed on time the night before tests

If you find yourself making New School Year’s Resolutions, you may need some extra help to get them accomplished when you have ADHD.  For example, do you struggle with…

• Procrastination
• Getting organized
• Feeling overwhelmed or
• Finishing things you’ve started?

An ADHD coach can help you overcome the struggles of ADHD and keep on track with your goals.

We’d like to give you our FREE white paper, ADHD and College Success: Everything you need to know about ADHD, college, and living your dreams!, that can show you how a coach can help you get your edge for success.   It’s filled with practical solutions and proven tools you can start using today.  Highlights include…

• Using creative ways, like music, to keep yourself on schedule
• Working with your urge to procrastinate, not against it
• How to study smarter, not harder
• 4 student qualities for success
• And many more easy to try ideas!

If you have ADHD and are headed off to college, or are a college-bound high school senior (or know someone who is), you need to download this white paper. It’s free.  You won’t have to talk to anyone to get it.  And you’ll be under no obligation to buy anything or sign up for a coach.

We bet you’ll find at least one thing you can do in there that you can start using today to get your edge on ADHD.  What are you waiting for?

Yes, take me to the College White Paper download page. I want to keep my School Year’s Resolutions!

I have always been an active person; my family vacations were planned around hiking and outdoor sports. I love to move and be outside but when I started college things changed. I no longer had golf practice after school in the fall or tennis practice in the spring. I went to design school where the closest thing to a school football team was an annual fashion runway show off between our competitor school and us.

College was much more time intensive and stressful than I was prepared for. So I started working with an ADHD coach to help me stay on track of my school assignments. I had to start prioritizing my time between studying, sleep and exercise. After my first semester my grades were great but my body was not – I was sleep deprived and overweight. The sleeping, eating and exercise habits I had formed were unsustainable and I realized I had to change them if I were going to survive four years of college.

I talked to my coach about putting together a new plan for organizing my time. We came up a plan that allowed for me to study, get enough sleep and workout 3 to 4 days a week. Simply by making a detailed plan I learned that I did have time for everything.

My studying, sleep and exercise plans evolved with each semester catering to my new classes. I saw my grades improve as my health did. The more I took care of myself the more awake I was during the boring lectures and the better I could focus on what I was reading.

During my junior year I tried Bikram yoga per my doctors suggestion after I had some shoulder problems. Bikram yoga is the hot yoga you’ve probably heard about, a 90-minute class in a room that’s kept at 105 degrees 40 percent humidity. My first class was awful; I felt nauseous, light headed and HOT! I went back again to try to give it another chance because of the supposed health benefits. I started to enjoy the quiet slow moving activity. Because of the poses and the heat it required me to have absolute focus. I started to challenge myself slowly to improving my flexibility and endurance. When I was stressed about school I would go to yoga and forget about it, I would leave feeling calm and more motivated.

I have kept up with my yoga practice up ever since. I find that I function better if I allow myself that 90-minutes of meditation. When I feel very anxious about something or depressed I give myself the gift of going to yoga and letting those toxic emotions go. Because of the intense heat the session bring out whatever is going on with you and the challenge is to let it go and focus on your meditation.

Whatever exercise works for you, it’s important to find one or two or three that you enjoy! If I do the same thing every day I get bored. So I try to switch it up, I’ll do yoga 2 or 3 times a week, and other cardio things the other days. I love to go on run/walks with my best friend in Central Park.  She lives on the west side and I live on the east so we meet in the middle and do a loop around the reservoir. Living in New York City another one of my favorite things to do is walk everywhere. If I have enough time I’ll walk instead of taking the subway. I always try to do different routes to get common destinations making my walks interesting every time. Another fun social way to get exercise into your routine is taking classes. I love ballroom dancing classes; ballroom is a workout that also challenges your mind. It takes coordination and memorization and has proven benefits for brain function.

When it comes to exercise keep these tips in mind:

• Set up a game plan with your coach to make exercise a priority in your life.
• Try a bunch of different exercises and pick the ones that work best for you, whether that be weight training, yoga, walking, etc.
• Switch it up! Don’t get stuck in a rut with your workout, have fun with exploring new things.
• Making exercising a social event. Instead of going to happy hour or to a movie suggest going on a scenic walk or kickboxing class with your friends.
• Make your commutes into exercise by walking. Make sure to switch up the routines to see new things and keep you interested.

When you have ADHD it is especially important to have exercise be part of your life. Remember that exercise boots brain function and releases endorphins, which give you the feeling of well-being.

What exercises have you found to be the best for you? How have you seen your performance at work or school change in relation to you activity level?  Please share your experience in the comments.  Or join the discussion on Facebook.

Related posts:

Reducing ADHD Symptoms with Exercise

Treating ADHD with Exercise

I wish I knew back in college what I know now about living with ADHD.  I had to learn ways to cope the hard way because I wasn’t diagnosed until many years after I completed school.  Since my diagnosis I’ve developed many skills that have made a huge difference in my life.  Here are four survival skills I’ve discovered that any college student with ADHD can use to make college more productive and stress free.

READING COMPREHENSION

Many of my prelaw classes had heavy reading requirements that pushed my ADHD brain to its limit.  I tried everything I could think of to stay focused, but my mind always wandered and I struggled with comprehension and staying on task.

Then in senior year, a friend of mine who worked in an accounting firm mentioned that her firm routinely handed out foam earplugs for reading tax code.  The text was very boring and she said that it helped her stay focused.  I immediately went to the store and bought some.

When I inserted the earplugs into my ears, it was like shutting off the world so I could actually climb into what I was reading.  The effect was amazing.  Those small inexpensive foam earplugs got me through the rest of college, law school and the bar exam.

After law school, an office setting presented a new challenge:  I couldn’t just shut it off.  Phones were ringing, people asked questions and my earplugs were of little use.  I experimented with sound machines and music to filter out distractions.  After much trial and error, I determined that classical and guitar music struck the balance that I was looking for.

The important thing to note is that I didn’t give up.  I thought about my focus challenge.  I tried – failed – and tried again.  My thought process and commitment made all the difference.

OUTLINING

Another useful tool I use that also helps with procrastination is outlining.  If, like me, you’ve tried and given up on lists because they are long and intimidating, give outlining a try.  Outlines help me understand how each task is connected and provides me with a map for getting there.  I outline everything that I do, from articles to case briefs to scheduling my day.

• An outline provides the structure my ADHD craves for whatever project or time frame that I need to plan.
• An outline provides a hierarchy of concepts and shows how they are related to each other.
• An outline breaks down projects to smaller subprojects and thereby makes them less intimidating.  Often the hardest part of task is getting started.  Breaking the project into the smallest components makes this much easier.

EXERCISE

After my diagnosis with ADHD, I went back and looked at my school transcripts and tried to correlate the times that I got the best grades with what was going on outside of school.  I quickly saw a pattern.  During the times when my grades were highest in college and law school, I was running to relieve my stress.

After this realization I embraced running and made it a part of my life.  I regularly run 4 to 5 days per week for approximately an hour.  My running helps me organize my thoughts and plan out how I am going to approach situations.

In recent years, research has shown that exercise can help reduce the symptoms of ADHD, anxiety, depression and other disorders.  Integrate exercise into your daily life.  If you keep at it, you’ll find it centers you, reduces your stress and brings you the clarity you need to move forward.

COACHING

One of the most important things that I have discovered in my journey to work with my ADHD is I need help to establish the structure, support and accountability that my ADHD mind so desperately needs.  That’s why I have worked with many different ADHD coaches since my diagnosis.

ADHD coaches offer an objective perspective on the challenges of ADHD.  They help us recognize and develop our talents, and learn where and why we struggle.  Each of my coaches has made a huge difference in how I approach obstacles while building my confidence about the specific talents that I have.

College is a key time to learn skills to work with your ADHD because it is much less structured than high school – especially for those students living away from home for the first time.  You may not have even realized all of the daily support your parents were providing until you are in over your head freshman year.  Even students who are extremely intelligent are at high risk because college requires new levels of self imposed structure and accountability.

An ADHD coach who specializes in the needs of high school and college students can provide the structure, support and accountability you need, not just to survive in college, but to reach your full potential throughout your life.

YOU CAN OVERCOME THE OBSTACLES OF ADHD

As someone with ADHD who has struggled all of his life with the challenges it has provided, I am living proof that there are ways to successfully address these obstacles.  The key is to understand yourself, be willing to try new things, reflect about how you respond to situations and don’t be afraid to ask for help.

Keep that perspective and you will learn to gravitate toward your strengths and to avoid your weaknesses.  And always remember you are not alone.  There are a lot of us out there just like you.  Good luck!