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what's up adhd crew
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if you're currently a student or you're
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thinking of becoming a student in the
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near future
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i want to give you a little bit of
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insight into how i survived
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as a student and i want to save you the
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suffering that i had to go through to
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figure out how to organize myself more
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efficiently
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so i'm going to show you my study
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practices my organization techniques as
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well
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as some of the things i wish i did and
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just the general day-to-day living
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and adulting if you like to just look
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after myself and take care of my
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responsibilities
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so let's begin
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i think before i get into anything about
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learning an organization
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i need to get this out there first it's
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extremely important
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that you get some kind of support right
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so even if you're not diagnosed you
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still want to look for some kind of
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mentorship or support group
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somebody that you can speak to and i
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wish i did this
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much much sooner instead of waiting a
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year or two years into my course
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because i would have got much better
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grades and i would have been happier
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overall
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i know for a lot of people with adhd
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it's extremely difficult to take
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action and actually make things happen
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and take responsibility
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because i've been there myself in the
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back of my mind i knew full well that i
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should be doing this
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and speaking to people and sorting out
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my stuff but i just put it off i
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procrastinated
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please don't do this believe me the
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longer you go without support and
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helping yourself
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and talking to somebody the worst things
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you're gonna get and you're gonna end up
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playing catch up for the rest of
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the semester and you're going to fall
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behind so i don't care who it is
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speak to your lecturer speak to a friend
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a colleague
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just find somebody that can refer you to
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a support system of some kind so they
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can get
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somebody to sit with you and help you
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out and you can talk about
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your issues that you face with studying
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the next thing i want to touch on is the
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study environment
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environment can make or break your
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experience and your ability to stay
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focused so i encourage you to experiment
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with different
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study setups and environments see what
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helps you the best
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now for me i needed complete solitude in
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order to focus and concentrate on my
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studies
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so the campus library although it was
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the right environment a lot of the times
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it was too distracting
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because it was just flooded with other
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students and
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the noise was extremely distracting and
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i just couldn't
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really focus right so it was kind of
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counterproductive
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the only times i could go to the library
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and actually get some work done
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was in the off peak times or during the
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evening where the students were off out
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somewhere
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so for me it was rather tricky and i had
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to do a lot of
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introspection to see what worked best
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for me some of you may prefer to study
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at home
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and that was an option for me for a
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while as well because at home
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you have the ability to isolate yourself
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further
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and you've got the added comfort and
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safety of your own
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nest but there is a caveat i think when
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you study at home you've got the
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distractions of things like netflix
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it's so easy to just jump in bed and
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watch movies and
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play video games it's almost too
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comfortable
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so again this is what it boils down to
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is finding that environment that you can
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mimic the workplace so that you take it
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seriously
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so the bottom line i would say is create
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a dedicated
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go-to study place that's orderly clean
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and tidy
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keep the clutter to a minimum and any
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clutter
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and unnecessary distractions you need to
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eliminate as much as possible
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some of you might prefer to study with
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some kind of music in which
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case i would recommend doing so if it
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helps you and perhaps getting yourself
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some noise cancelling headphones
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this was something that i used a lot in
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order to block out external sound
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but most of the time i didn't even
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listen to music because for me i
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personally prefer
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complete silence so instead of listening
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to music i'd have silicon earplugs
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with the headphones on top so that i had
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complete silence
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really helpful for when i wanted to go
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to the library in the day and a half to
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get
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some work done
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okay so now you have to have the right
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tools to help you to stay on track
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in my opinion the most beneficial way
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for adhd people to learn
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is by things being very visual easy to
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access
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and highly memorable so having tools
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that can allow you to take pride in
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organizing yourself
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as well as giving you consistent
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reminders of your responsibilities
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is crucial to name some of the tools
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that i invested in
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firstly i used a physical calendar that
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i put on my
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wall and i would write down important
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events and deadlines and circle them so
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that i could see
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every day where i needed to invest
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my time but don't stop there i think
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it's important to also
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utilize smartphones these days by using
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apps such as google calendar app that's
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what i use so
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effectively i had two sets of calendars
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one i could see every day at home and
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one that i could carry around with me
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wherever i went that would also allow me
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to have alarms and reminders
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as well so i really recommend you spend
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some time out of your day setting up
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some kind of schedule
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other things i used was white boards and
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notice boards
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again these can be bought very cheaply
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and they can be very
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effective at seeing your goals and
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things that need to get done
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keeping all my bedroom door was one of
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my go-to methods
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because every time i had to leave the
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room it would be right there in front of
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me and i couldn't really escape it
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i also used color-coded document files
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things like these are great and they
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allow you to
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put in multiple documents where you can
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just put a little tag at the top and
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write the subject
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the topic whatever you want whatever
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works for you best
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and that way you can easily access the
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right parts
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of your course that you're trying to
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study and one final thing i recommend
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for organization
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is invest in some kind of filing cabinet
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or storage boxes
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you can buy plastic containers that are
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very handy to store away
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your documents and your paperwork great
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options for students on a budget
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and it allows you to make things much
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more accessible
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and perhaps you might even want to label
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the drawers so that you can see exactly
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what's inside
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so the bottom line is the more visible
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and memorable things are
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the easier it's going to be for you to
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stay on track you don't have to spend a
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lot of money either
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a lot of universities offer discount
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cards on the first day or the opening
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day
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so have a look around don't be too
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impulsive but you really do want to
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invest in these things because it's
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going to change the game
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okay so on to the learning aspect in my
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experience people with adhd
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learn very similarly to how children
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learn
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it's usually through a combination of
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connecting emotions with
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images and sounds one of my favorite
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ways to learn is through
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video i often find that youtube is
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incredible source of education
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and more often not you can get the
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answers you're looking for
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much more quickly than you can through
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university
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nowadays a lot of universities offer
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lecture slides that
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are very visual and you can easily
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download them on the university
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intranet website and if you can i'd
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consider printing out these lectures
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lines
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and keeping them in a folder so that you
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can look through them and annotate
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make notes and so on so when it comes to
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studying i do recommend
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you try to make it visual and try to
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make it fun
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for example you could try making
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flashcards if you can connect an
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image to a certain academic concept
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or an acronym where you have letters
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that mean different things and make up a
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phrase
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and i find overall this is a much more
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effective way to retain the information
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now another thing you could try is
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taking a dictaphone into the lecture or
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class
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because in my opinion when you're there
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in class it can be very hard to focus
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entirely on the lecture and what's being
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said especially if it's noisy the
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students are
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chit-chatting it's very distracting so i
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believe that it helps a lot to
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revisit that lecture by having a
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recording there because sometimes when
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you're studying you miss out on key
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explanations that the teacher says
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that can be very helpful to your
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understanding of the subject so
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try that out try listening back over the
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lecture and
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taking notes as you go along i think
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it's more important to be present
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in lectures rather than writing every
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word down word for word
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because it's much harder to keep up in
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my opinion you don't really take in the
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information because you're too focused
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on trying to write
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all the words down instead of actually
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taking on board the meaning of it
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so i think it's better to record it and
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listen to it and perhaps just make
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general notes and highlight important
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pieces of information
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using color highlighters in regards to
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learning in the classroom
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i recommend that you position yourself
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centrally so that way you can
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isolate your center of attention and you
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can minimize
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other distractions such as other
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students talking or looking out the
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window
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right you want to make it as hard as
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possible for you to look anywhere else
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and this goes for the people that you're
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around perhaps you want to avoid
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other students that don't really take
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the education that seriously
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or they distract you too much by talking
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get involved with other people who
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take the course really seriously because
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they're gonna help you to stay motivated
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on
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your studies and finally when it comes
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to studying
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i want you to try blocking out some time
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so you know spending maybe 20 minutes
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out of your day to just make a little
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schedule on your google calendar
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app or on your physical calendar or
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perhaps even
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just drawing one on paper from scratch
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and putting it up somewhere really
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visible
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but if you struggle to stay on track
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with your study periods
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try using the pomodoro technique that's
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a great little way to
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study in short bursts of time and it
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allows you to have
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frequent breaks in between so that you
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don't get too overwhelmed and you don't
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zone out too much
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it's entirely up to you how often you
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take a break but i
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think the standard is around 20 minutes
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of study with a five minute break
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and you repeat that over and over for
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however long your study period
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is at the end of the day you have to do
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what works for you you have to work with
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your adhd
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instead of trying to follow a model that
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just doesn't work with you
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it's like trying to shove a cube into a
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circular hole
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it's not going to work and if you're
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struggling to get motivated to start on
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something
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i recommend you just get on youtube for
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10 minutes set an alarm and watch some
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videos on the subject
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you're trying to study because i find
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that sometimes that's all i needed to
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get the ball rolling
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and the final stage is just day-to-day
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living what worked for me really well
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was giving everything a home
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right so as an example i would say keep
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your laptop keep your books
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your pencil case etc all in your
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backpack and keep that backpack
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in the same place in your room every day
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so that way you can just pick it up and
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go
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and you know exactly where your
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essentials are it's all about creating
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habits
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right the more often you implement these
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techniques it's going to become second
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nature
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so when it comes to other things like
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meal preparation and food
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i would say just shop simply you know
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buy budget-friendly
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foods and throw things together in a
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plastic container to take with you it
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can be very cheap
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and you can just season it or use sauces
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to give it a bit more flavor
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because this way if cooking is too much
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of a stress for you
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you can eat meals that are more easy to
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put together and you don't have to
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resort to buying
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junk food you don't have to waste your
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money on these unfilling
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meal deals and honestly i think it's
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more important to have whole foods
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don't fall into the trap of buying junk
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food because it's going to harm your
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mental health it's going to give you
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crappy performance one of my favorite
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meals was just jack a potato with tuna
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and a lot of these ingredients can
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cost literally pence it can cost you
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maybe one or two pounds
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for a couple of meals something i also
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did was
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investing in a small mini refrigerator
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that i could keep in my room because i
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found it easier
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to differentiate my food from my
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roommates
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now if you're a student or you have been
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a student you're probably aware that
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living with other people can get a bit
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ugly sometimes
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if people don't clean up after
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themselves this might be you
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if you have adhd and you're a bit messy
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so i think keeping your own stuff
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in your own place is going to be easier
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for you to avoid
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any confrontation the next tip i would
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say is minimize your belongings
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right you really don't need that much
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stuff and honestly the more stuff you
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have cluttering out your room
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the harder it's going to be mentally to
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stay organized
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everywhere else so perhaps keep a simple
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wardrobe that's not too
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much effort to stay on top of in terms
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of washing and ironing
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and perhaps just purge stuff lying
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around that you don't need a one final
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tip
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limit how much you party alcohol and
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drugs is a one-way ticket to spiraling
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out of control
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getting into the wrong crowd and just
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worsening your adhd symptoms
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okay so you want to be kind to yourself
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you want to treat your body and mind
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with respect
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take pride in your education and your
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well-being well i think that's enough
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for now i think that's all we have time
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to cover but if you want more specific
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information
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on things such as money management sleep
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procrastination etc
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i've left a few links to my past videos
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in the description box below so feel
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free to check those out if you want a
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little bit more advice
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thanks for watching guys take care and
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good luck
