Weekly ADHD & Anxiety Tips: The Power of Context
In last week’s video, we talked about the problem of judgment. By judgment we were referring to the tendency to judge yourself or others. The reason we wanted to talk about the tendency to judge is because having a constant chatter of judgment in your head can really make you stressed and irritable. As a reminder, you can always get our videos or podcast episodes from our website. In this video, we want to discuss another factor that can affect you as much as judgment. Today we’re talking about the power of context. By context, we mean that there’s a time and place for having fun or relaxing. And there’s times when we all need to focus. The challenge for people sometimes, especially those who struggle with anxiety and ADHD, is finding the right balance. We might swing too far one way or another. In other words, we might have a hard time coming back from leisure time and find that getting to work is really difficult. Or at the other extreme, we might focus on something to the exclusion of everything else. Again, it’s about finding balance. Here is a strategy.
Watch the video version below
Try limiting the amount of time you spend on things in one session and stick to this time limitation. This may require forcing yourself to do something else, even if it is for a brief period of time. We are not saying you can’t return to the original task, but with this suggestion you are trying to get into the habit of being able to transition to another activity. This allows you to be more responsive to context and respond appropriately.
Transitions can be difficult for those with ADHD and anxiety. For those with anxiety, they might get into a comfort zone and find it hard to do something else. For those with ADHD, they might find it challenging to get motivated or they might be hyper focused on one thing and find it really hard to transition to another activity.
One of the ways to assist with transitions is by setting a timer on a smart phone or smart watch to assist you. This can remind you to change tasks. If you want to keep it low tech, simply write down the time that you began working on a task on a piece of paper and decide in advance how long you will stay working on the task. You will have to keep the paper in front of you and get in habit of checking how long you have been working on something.
Now, there are many other techniques and strategies that we discuss in our free newsletter which provides an overall approach to anxiety, stress, panic attacks, and ADHD. Please click here and subscribe to our newsletter.