Welcome to Learn to Thrive with ADHD. This is the podcast for adults with ADHD or ADHD-like symptoms. I’m your host, Coach Mande John. I’m here to make your life with ADHD easier. Let’s get started.

These days, more and more people have the opportunity to work from home, whether you’re an employee or entrepreneur. Business owner or the manager of your home, you may be trying to work from home and getting frustrated and feeling guilty that you can’t stay focused. Get the amount of work done that you would like to get done or put in the hours that you feel good about.

Today. I’m going to give you a three-step solution. Then I have a story for you, and at the end, I’ll give you a little gift to help you put this into action. Step one is create a structure. At home. You’ve likely lost the structure that you had from work, and we need to recreate that in your home. Step two, make a distraction-free zone.

Step three, keep your mind right. So, let’s dive into the details. But before we do, have you checked out the ADHD Academy, this is my membership. If you go to www learn to thrive with adhd.com/membership, you can get all the information there and sign up for the wait list. I’m going to talk to you the same way I work with my clients.

So, step one, create a structure at home. Many are going from the office to home, and like I said, they’ve lost that structure that provided for them. Let’s talk about ways to recreate this for yourself. First, get dressed and ready like you’re going to work. We’re so much more productive when we’re dressed for it.

It puts you in the right mindset and even ready for a quick lunch with a friend or looking really put together for an online meeting. Next, what are your office hours? I can attest to how much more I got done when I started setting and honoring my office hours. By honor, I mean only tasks related to the job you’re doing are to be done at that time.

For example, if it’s the hours of my coaching business, I’m not working on tasks for my home. It seems very innocent to do some laundry or some dishes really quick, but it will take you away from what you’re trying to focus on. Honor your start time, be in your workspace, ready to go. An extra tip that I have is known specifically what you’re going to be working on.

It’s so much easier to get started if you don’t have to also figure out what exactly you’ll be doing. Be sure to end on time. Just because you can work all day doesn’t mean you should. Honor your breaks and lunches. You need this time, and you deserve it. This is the time you take care of yourself. But also be careful not to let breaks run on too long.

You can pretend that you have someone to report back to at a certain time, or even set up meetings to get back to work with tools like focusmate.com. Step two, create a distraction free zone. Did you know having your phone even within sight, even if it’s on silent, is a distraction? Putting it away where you can’t see it is your best option.

If you’re working from a computer, turn off all unnecessary notifications. There’s a tool I use with my clients called the Distraction Pad. This would be a notepad that you would have next to you while you’re working, that you would put down anything that pops into your head that would pull you away from what you’re working on at the moment.

This keeps you from going down rabbit holes on the internet or ending up on a completely different task. Let friends and family members know about your work hours and that you won’t be available at those times, but you will get back to them. Keeping your workspace tidy ahead of time goes a long way to reducing distractions.

Less is more. Make sure items have a home and they can easily go back at the end of your workday. Deal with any piles you might have in your workspace that weigh on your mind. A good question to ask yourself is what draws my attention in my workspace that shouldn’t? Next, do what you can with children.

Sometimes they just need you. We’ve all heard those people that say, unless they’re bleeding, they don’t need you. But I’m going to take a different perspective. Can they work near you? It’s much better to set the boundaries you can with work and let go of the things that don’t go perfectly than to make it a big problem in your mind.

If you get upset and think that your workday is ruined by disruptions. That will be the case. Whereas if you had just stayed calm, it would be likely that you could easily get back to work, which segues perfectly into our next step. Step three, keep your mind right. I noticed my last three steps fell pretty well under this umbrella, so I combined them together.

The first is don’t let your boss be a jerk. This is, especially if your boss is you. When you’re working from home, you may have a boss, but ultimately they’re not in the home with you. Be a good boss to yourself. Be fair of your expectations of yourself, and work in a way that would make you proud. Next part of being fair is something I call deciding what’s enough.

I have a little story about that. I really enjoy our brick-and-mortar business that my husband and I have, and it’s a gym, and I would do the paperwork for the gym. I would work in the office, but I found that I would feel so deflated and tired when I’d walk in the back door of the office to get to work, and I just couldn’t understand it.

I knew I loved the business. I knew I loved our customers and our clients, and I couldn’t understand why I felt so tired and drained. What I finally realized was there was no end to my work. I could work all day and night and there would still always be something to do. So, what I did was I sat down with my husband, and we just made a list of the things, if we got them done in a day, that would be enough.

And so, I had a stopping point and that helped me feel so much better about the work that I did there. So, what is that for you? What is enough when you’re working and be fair to yourself? Keep it minimal and just make it something that makes you proud of your day. And lastly, save self-doubt for after hours.

I credit Corinne Crabtree for this one. She told us we don’t get to be down on ourselves when it’s time for work. We have to save that for after-hours. I know for myself and my clients, when we let self-doubt get us down, we don’t take action. And when we aren’t taking action, we aren’t helping the people that we’re here to help.

Do you like what you’re learning here? Would you like help putting these concepts into action? Check out the checklist I made for you at www.learntothrivewithadhd.com/free-downloads. While you’re there, if you’d like to work with me one-on-one, you can book a consultation with me on the website. See you next week.

Thank you for your time, and especially for your attention today. If you haven’t looked into the ADHD Academy, you’ll want to do that. This is my membership, with binge-able courses, weekly life coaching, new courses every month, a community of like-minded people and more.

Be sure to head over to www.learntothrivewithadhd.com/membership to get the details.

See you next week.