ADHD can feel confusing, frustrating… and exhausting.
Understand your brain, reduce overwhelm, and find simple ways to feel more in control — with psychologist-led support.
Does any of this feel familiar
You start things… but struggle to finish
You forget things—even when they matter
Time seems to disappear
You feel constantly behind, no matter how hard you try
This isn’t laziness. It’s how your brain is working right now—and it can be supported.
Not sure if this applies to you?
Take this quiz to understand how ADHD traits might be showing up in your life.
Q1. Do you struggle to pay attention when listening to people, reading, or working on a task?
Many people with ADHD find that they struggle to ‘lock in ‘ when listening in lectures, meetings, and conversation.
It is often a struggle to focus you attention when reading, and this can lead you to thinking of something related to the text and going off in your mind, ‘on a tangent.’
You might find yourself making careless errors in your writing, which can impact your work emails, reports, and personal messages to friends and family.
Q2. Are you easily side-tracked and switch from one task to another?
You might struggle to start a task, and keep going with it until it is finished.
You could be easily distracted by things happening around you that you need to check out.
Q3. Is managing your time a problem for you?
Are you always running late?
Do you ‘put things off’ until they absolutely ‘need’ to be done?
Do you get bogged down with one task and fail to finish others on your to do list?
Do you have a poor sense of time?
Q4. Do you avoid activities that take a lot of mental effort over time?
Are you opting to do the easier tasks, always delaying the harder ones until absolutely necessary?
Do you feel excessively stressed by tasks that demand a lot of attention and commitment from you?
Q5. Are you excessively forgetful and disorganised?
Do you forget plans that you’ve made?
Do you struggle to organise and prioritise tasks?
Are you constantly searching for things you’ve misplaced, or leaving personal items behind?
Q6. Is restlessness a problem for you?
Are you constantly fidgeting, shuffling in your seat?
Do you have to take movement breaks in order to re-energise and pay attention?
Q7. Do you talk more than most people you know?
Are you the dominant speaker in your work or social group?
Are you a chatterbox and struggle to know when to stop or let others speak?
Q8. In conversations, do you interrupt others and/or finish people's sentences off for them?
Do you have to say what’s on your mind at the time you think it? Often people tell us that this is because they would forget otherwise.
Are you considered ‘rude’ by people who don’t know you well?
Do you shout out an answer to a question without meaning to?
Q9. Do you make decisions without thinking them through first?
Are you impulsive?
Are you jumping into plans without considering the time you have available?
Is your impulsivity affecting your finances or relationships?
Q10. Are you very impatient and avoid queuing where possible?
Do you have trouble waiting your turn in shops, or online?
Are you leaving a game for a walk around whilst others are taking their turn?
If you answer “Yes” to all or most of the questions it may be useful for you to be reviewed for ADHD.
NB: Symptoms need to have been there in childhood, and currently be affecting several areas of your life, e.g. home, social, and work, and not better explained by another mental disorder, such as, Mood Disorder, Anxiety Disorder, Dissociative Disorder, or a Personality Disorder.
What is ADHD?
If you’ve ever felt like you’re trying harder than everyone else but still falling behind, this will help explain why.
Research indicates that adults with attentional difficulties are disadvantaged at work and home. Problems arising from poor attention include getting organised for tasks, attending to details, sustaining attention, maintaining effort, ignoring distractions, and keeping track of things.
Often, hyperactivity and impulsivity are also experienced and a review of ADHD (Attention-Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder) may be useful.
ADHD is commonly found in childhood. Between 50% and 80% of those affected will continue to be impacted by inattention in adulthood.
Studies reveal useful ways of improving attention levels. As always, it starts with a little detective work and knowing your triggers to slipping attention.
Everyday Challenges
Our hyperactive symptoms can hamper our ability to multi-task, start our jobs, finish one job before going onto the next and so on. One task at a time – We need to be mindful of how much we’re taking on. We can be a busy fool but not accomplish very much.
To make best use of our time, we can make a to-do list of tasks for the day, week and month. We’ll try not to list more than five per day. We’ll work through each one in turn, without overlapping, if our work permits it. As we complete each one, we’ll tick it off, as this will give us a great sense of accomplishment.
Getting the timing right is key for the technique of focused work followed by a forced break to be effective. If you give it a go and find you can be focussed for longer, the key is to notice when you become fidgety, want to know what everyone else is doing, or have the desire to check an email or your phone part way through a task. Set the focus time appropriately and build in the break just before your impulsivity makes an appearance.
By understanding your particular ADHD symptoms, you’ll be better equipped to pick out the most effective solutions, Being aware of when your attention starts to slip will help you shift your focus.
What can help?
As a psychologist with many years of working with people with hyperactivity and impulsivity, I’ve heard first-hand how employees have struggled to regulate their emotions and reactions towards others and how this has led to a breakdown in communication and relationships at work. Many shared that they felt isolated, demotivated, worthless and disrespected, and wanted to leave their job.
Therapy can help affected individuals to better manage their emotions, control impulses, and manage stress. Improvements in these areas can bring about higher emotional wellbeing, and stronger and more long-lasting relationships at work and elsewhere.
One therapeutic approach that can help is CBT. Often, this is targeted towards the negative mood and anxiety that commonly accompany ADHD in adults.
The therapeutic goals of CBT are to help manage symptoms by recognising negative automatic thoughts and challenging them, increasing healthy coping behaviours, for instance, taking regular exercise, e.g. 30 minutes at least four days a week, and to decrease unhelpful behaviours, such as avoidance, and substance use.
Other approaches that are typically brought into CBT are relaxation training and anger management.
The Pomodoro Technique
Working solidly for half an hour or more on tedious or hard to do tasks can be extremely difficult when we’re hyperactive. One solution is to use the Pomodoro Technique. This commits us to 25 minutes of focused work, giving us the push to start the task, be laser-focused on it, and not get burnt out.
It’s a great little technique for presenteeism problems; or sitting for long bouts of time not really being productive. We can use the timer on our phone, or the Pomodoro application, which clangs at the end of the period to signify the end of the work slot. After this, we enforce a five-minute break, also using a timer. On repeating this four times in the day, we can take a longer break.
Ready for more structured support?
If this feels familiar, you don’t have to figure it out alone.
Our Gold support gives you:
- Step-by-step ADHD support courses
- Downloadable tools you can actually use
- Calm, guided videos from a psychologist
- Support at your own pace
