Effective Ways to Create Your ADHD-Friendly Workspace

When the pandemic first hit, many neurodivergent Americans were faced with the realities of creating an ADHD-friendly workspace in their own homes. Working from home is a blessing and a curse rolled into one for many ADHDers. You can let loose, stimming away to your heart's content off-camera during long meetings. And you can follow your whims throughout the day, task-jumping as you need, and actually heighten your productivity.

That being said, for many neurodivergents like myself, working from home can also be your own worst nightmare. It becomes much too easy to distract yourself with things around the house. The separation of work and home — something you may already be struggling with — has basically been dissolved. You’ve also lost your ability to co-work in an office. Not to mention, without the visual cue of people walking to a boardroom, it can be really hard to keep track of meetings.

Every article discussing work-from-home (WFH) tips seems to be written by neurotypicals for other neurotypicals. Things that work for the average employee may not work for you. And that’s okay! ADHD doesn’t have to be a hindrance to your productivity. In fact, it can be your superpower!

Here are a few tips on how you might want to set up your WFH workspace to suit your needs and keep you motivated! It's important to remember that your ADHD symptoms are unique to you, so take what you'd like and leave the rest!

Anchoring

When ADHD coaches talk about productivity, a technique that is often referenced is something called anchoring. Anchoring is when you pick a location in your house and come back to it physically as distraction takes hold. Any ADHD-friendly workspace is one that you can see yourself anchoring to.

When I’m cleaning my kitchen, I like to start at the sink, so no matter how off-task I get — seeing that the garbage is full, going to take out the garbage, remembering to walk my dog, realizing I should stop for milk, etc… — I always know that the initial location — kitchen sink — is my anchor point. That way, whenever I get too far from the initial task, I am able to physically move myself back to where I started: washing dishes.Eventually, by some miracle, the dishes will get washed.

For work, I use my desk as this anchor point. Instead of a desktop computer, get yourself a laptop to be able to move rooms if you need to. When you find yourself drifting, return to your desk and reset. Spending time sitting on the floor with my laptop on the coffee table gives me a change of scenery, but if my mind starts to wander to the chores on my chore list or the shopping I need to do, I go back to my desk, take a few deep breaths, and get back to the task at hand.

This not only helps me meet quotas and hit writing targets but allows me to stay in the zone when the zone starts to drift.

Embrace Your Habits

ADHD is not actually an Attention Deficit” as its name suggests but rather a lack of dopamine that leads to difficulty with executive functioning. Executive functioning is a series of skills required to execute daily tasks. Some of the more common ones include focus, prioritization, impulse control, emotional regulation, memory, starting tasks, organization, time management, and goal-setting.

People describe ADHD as having too many browser tabs open in their mind, or being a powerful computer with low RAM. But unlike our neurotypical coworkers, we have the insight and know-how to make our space work for us. Find YOUR habits and set yourself up for success. It can be more difficult to start entirely new habits, especially with ADHD. Rather than fighting against your instincts, an ADHD-friendly workspace will support productivity within already-formed habits.

If you go out for your morning coffee and find yourself consistently impatient by waiting, is there a way to use this to your advantage? Maybe you can answer emails in line and take one thing off your plate before your day even starts.

No matter what, sometimes following your whims can actually be more productive than anything else. If you need to get up and get outside for 5 minutes to help you focus back up for the rest of the day, then feel free to move. Maybe you work faster with the radio on, try that. If you need to abandon your post and bring your laptop on the move, do it!

Smart Home

An ADHD-friendly workspace might be a smart one too! You can even automate your house to help! Use NFC programmable stickers to set reminders. If you’re about to go on a break, tap your phone on the side of your desk to start a timer instead of opening it and getting distracted. If you’re comfortable setting up a google home speaker, using smart bulbs, and smart outlets, you can set audible reminders, turn on and off your lights, and turn on and off appliances from your phone.

Traditional timers — just sound — might not be enough to pull you out of a hyper-focus hole. And when you’re hyper-focused away from an urgent task, it can be hard to circle back to your job. With NFC stickers, you can set alarms that can only be turned off if you get up and cross the room to tap them off. Setting up a daily automation to remind yourself of meetings, to take breaks, and get up and stretch can all be achieved with simple, user-friendly, automations that are fairly intuitive to set up.

For more advanced automation, you can buy motion sensors so that your chair can sense when you’ve been sitting too long, or if you're out of the seat for longer than you’d like and send you a reminder to get back to it. There are pretty much no limits to what a smart home can look like. Adding a Tile Mate or Apple Airtag to frequently lost items so you can track them down can also help save time searching for things.

To Desk, or Not to Desk

Creating a workspace that is completely separate from your living space is something that most articles tout as the essential piece to WFH success. That being said, ADHD can make sticking to one spot pretty difficult, even when anchoring. And a conventional WFH desk-and-monitor workspace may not be the right fit for you. An ADHD-friendly workspace can look like anything.

Throw out the guidebook and look at what works for you. If people recommend an ergonomic desk chair with wheels, but you find the most productive way to get things done is cross-legged? Then get yourself a big poof and use that instead! Are you distracted by your restless legs? Get a standing desk, or even a walking desk to keep yourself moving and focused on your work.

Use a pegboard for your supplies to visually see everything you need for your workday. Noise-canceling headphones can help you work in public if you need to make your way to a coffee shop between meetings for a change of scenery.

There are so many options to set up your desk space in an effective way. The most important thing to remember is that you should have ownership of your workspace and feel empowered to make it yours.

The Best Workplace is the one that works for YOU!

The key to making a positive WFH space is by trusting yourself. ADHD isn’t a universal experience. With resources like theADHD Couple and The Mini ADHD Coach available, you can find simple tips to set you up for success! An ADHD-friendly workspace is the one that suits your needs best.

Your neurodivergency means you’re able to problem-solve more creatively than your neurotypical peers. You think outside the box more frequently. You're more likely to excel in multitasking, and your intuition is scientifically more in tune with the world around you. You have superpowers that, if used for good, can propel you ahead — let your workspace aid you in that!