What’s the best advice/strategy you’ve adopted for lawyering with ADHD?

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I’m all ears if you have any. I think the best answer is finding a practice group and firm that provides constant time pressure and stimulation. ADHD and long deadlines don’t mix. I am primarily inattentive (little to no hyperactivity) and on some days with no real time pressure it is a struggle to even work/bill 2 hours.

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Agree as well. Adderall does help a ton, but only after I get myself to do the work. Combined with my anxiety and the pandemic/wfh, I am really struggling these days and unfortunately, I’ve hit a point where people are taking notice :/

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1. Write everything down. I took a notepad with me everywhere so I could write things down when you pass someone in the hallway and they say “please do ____.”
2. Go over notes after a meeting and transfer important info to to-do lists or calendar events so that it doesn’t become lost in notes.
3. Use timer and enter time as it happens with no exceptions. Time should be entered simultaneously and perfectly because you won’t realistically go back and fix it.
4. Use timers on breaks. Say I want a 45 minute lunch, set timer at minute 40 as a transition timer so I know to wrap things up and get back to work.
5. When I have trouble initiating work, I tell myself I need not have to work for five or ten minutes without stopping and then I can break. Usually that promise is enough to pick something small and just do it. If you do it and then stop, you benefit from getting something done. But usually it’s enough to get me started and I can keep working after the time is up.

Other variants of this is like work 20 minutes and take 5 minute break or whatever works best for you. Use Time Timer as visual to see how much more time you have left yourself to accomplish your work before you take a break.
5. Organize your desk every day. Put things in folders. Cluttered surroundings make my brain cluttered and harder to stick to my personal accommodations.
6. Get a big white board. I keep a running lists of pending responsibilities so even if the project doesn’t have any to-dos for a few months, I won’t forget that the project exists and I’m ultimately responsible for it.
7. When you take a break, actually take a break! Do not do work, or check emails. Get up from your desk. Stand outside in the sun. Drink a glass of water. Pat your dog.
8. Keep a notepad solely for the random thoughts that derail productivity, like “I’ve got to make an appointment for the dentist,” “are there any words in English that start with Ck?” “I need to go back to that motion and make sure I corrected that citation.”

Go through dump pad a couple times a day and move important things to calendar or to do list.
8. Schedule focus blocks on your calendar. Put phone on airplane mode across the room, close email, turn on a sound machine or music and create a space that is as distraction free as possible.


These are the things I try to do. They don’t always work but it’s nice to have a list of tools instead of feeling lost with no way to pull yourself back.

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Adderall

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Attorney 4—wow, thank you. I guess I knew that but it never crossed my mind that it could get me in more trouble than my prescription weed. Privileged thinking, I guess. Well, for now the box travels only up and down some stairs between my bedroom and “office” so I guess my pills can live in their aesthetic container for a few more months.

As an aside, I’d be very interested to know whether the limitations on adderall, et al. as controlled substances end up being worth the consequences to those who have or would qualify for a prescription, such as unequal access, periods of involuntary withdrawal symptoms for patients due to scarcity and limitations on pharmacy ordering, prosecution of attractive containers that don’t read as “pillhead” to the nosy and closed minded, etc. But I guess these things are hard to measure.

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Everything A3 said plus I legit have timers for everything... wake up, get out of bed (because let’s be real), breakfast, shower, start work, start 15 min break, end 15 min break, start lunch, end lunch, walk dog, etc. It sounds insane but it’s improved my productivity so much. I also deleted all social media (except this app) because it’s so distracting. Also turned off notifications for all texts/calls except from my boss, secretary, and mom (for self preservation). Oh and getting properly diagnosed and medicated helps a lot too.

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I think I need the get out of bed alarm. I'm really good at turning "5 more minutes" into two hours of doom scrolling. It's not ok.

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Lists, Reminders with dates and times, Calendaring, and Adderall. I take it in the morning, but I keep extra ay my desk when I need a boost.
As soon as you think of something you need to do set a reminder. I use siri to keep track of all my lists and reminders so they don't disappear when my mind changes thoughts in 2 seconds.

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Smart note taking- let me explain. Not sure if you’re an iPad owner/user, but Notability has made things SO much better for me.

You can record within a note, and handwrite/type notes in the document. Then, if you ever have trouble remembering something discussed during that meeting, or what specific parameters were assigned with a particular task, you can tap your handwritten note/typed text about that part of the discussion, and the audio will automatically jump to the timestamp when you wrote/typed that word. It has helped me so much because I struggle with remembering spoken instructions, especially when I’ve just been assigned dozens of tasks on multiple files during a file review meeting with my supervising attorney.

Of course, the recordings are just for my personal use to remember things. They’re not shared anywhere or with anyone since the topics may discuss case specifics.

Another benefit: you can search for keywords in your notes (if you can’t remember where certain info is). The search results also search your handwriting. And it captures even my worst chicken scratch when I’m writing furiously to keep up during a meeting.

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