Picture this. You wake up, check social media, realize you're late for work, quickly get dressed, and race out the door to the office. Once there, you look at your supervisor's frowning face and get a sinking feeling as you realize this is definitely going to be part of your performance review. For many of us, this is the essence of an ADHD morning routine. But what if we changed our habits by adding behaviors that can support ADHD psychology?
For example, what if you added some dopamine and included natural timers? Instead of rushing, you wake up, turn on some music, head to the kitchen, make yourself a coffee, sit in the sun, and read an article in peace. Adding in simple changes can help us develop daily routines that are more supportive of our ADHD. [1]–[7]
Why Is a Routine Important For ADHD?
ADHD generally includes a number of executive functioning struggles, such as working memory, time blindness, and difficulty with transition times [8], [9], [12], [13]. Several studies have found using regular routines can be a great way to help ADHD adults feel less overwhelmed and more in control of their day-to-day tasks [1], [14].
Why Do ADHD Adults Hate Routine?
Those of us with ADHD often hate structure and routine because the only systems we've been taught have been optimized for neurotypical people. Researchers found adults with ADHD and neurotypical adults can have very different ways of seeing the world [1], [5]. For example, starting a task with ADHD can be difficult, but moving through a task (once focused) might take far less time.
As a result of these differences, it's important that the habits ADHD adults use are optimized for us. Otherwise, a routine can feel unsupportive and unusable, like trying a tool meant for the opposite hand.
It’s often not the routine ADHD adults dislike; it's how it's built.
Do ADHD Adults Need a Routine?
Research with ADHD adults suggests we benefit from implementing routines [1], [5], [14]. Creating a daily structure optimized for time blindness and working memory struggles that includes enough stimulating activities to support dopamine dysregulation can provide a supportive framework for ADHD adults as well as children.
How to Create an Effective Routine for ADHD
The key to creating an effective routine with adult ADHD is remembering to treat the act of developing the system itself as a boring task that requires dopamine. To help support this positive behavior change: first, take yourself on a date; maybe to a coffee shop, maybe a picnic, or turn on your favorite background music or video, and grab a beverage. Then, once you're in a stimulating environment, you can begin to plan and structure your routine. You can do this by experimenting and then troubleshooting.
Start with a plan based on your priorities as well as research into adult ADHD behavior and executive functioning. Test your routine for a week and make changes based on what worked and which executive functioning struggles you found had a negative effect on your behavior.
Typical ADHD Morning Routine for ADHD
Often, with ADHD, there are a few times of the day that are a particular struggle. One common experience is difficulty getting up in the morning. Here at Unconventional Organisation, we recommend using what we call a stepped dopamine path. This system involves building daily habits that slowly increase or decrease your stimulation from one task to another. In a morning routine, this might work by starting your day with a stimulating activity to help you get out of bed.
It's different for everyone, but these systems might include checking your phone on the couch rather than the bed (bringing your blankets is encouraged on a cold day), making a coffee and sitting in the sun, or putting on a podcast you enjoy and playing a quick game. The key to the stepped dopamine path is to find something stimulating enough to make moving to the next task easier. From there, it can be a case of trial and error to find the right types of dopamine to move you through the other parts of the morning routine, such as movement, eating, getting ready, and preparing for the day.
Below I've outlined an example of a morning routine I go through in our ADHD Academy that includes some of the ADHD support we've discussed. Remember, this is all very individual, so feel free to adjust the structure to something that works best for you.
Example of an ADHD morning routine:
● Wake up and immediately turn on a motivating podcast/music.
● Toiletries and head to a sunny part of the house.
● Make a beverage and watch YouTube/read/check messages
● Drink your beverage and plan out your day while sitting in a sunny spot/ your favorite spot in the house. If you like breakfast, this might be a good chance to make something/grab a snack.
● Do movement such as yoga/walk in the backyard/ stretches or even walking around your house while brushing your teeth. Add stimulation like a podcast or music.
● Get dressed and grab what you need from your landing pad.
● Head out the door or to your office space.
How Can I Be More Consistent With Routines for ADHD?
One of the struggles ADHD adults can experience is developing a habit that feels like it works but quickly abandoning it and returning to previous behaviors. This starting and stopping is one of the reasons we can sometimes be viewed as inconsistent. This is often because neurotypicals created the routine we're using and is therefore not optimized for ADHD psychology and behavior.
Instead, developing a routine specifically for ADHD can help us be more consistent. For example, if the routine included 25 small separate tasks outlined in an unstructured manner (make lunch, check on the kids, feed the dog, call the dentist, finish making lunch), it’s likely that as ADHD adults, we would forget steps, struggle with visualizing time, or take too long to transition. Similarly, if the tasks are all well organized but feel boring (brushing teeth, dishes, etc.), it might feel difficult to get started.
Chunking similar tasks together and adding more stimulating activities to form habits can help add dopamine to routines and make them more supportive of ADHD psychology. Doing this will help encourage more consistency and make the habits more useful. If you'd like to learn more about developing consistent routines, you can check out the ADHD Academy here.
ADHD and Daily Checklists for Routines
Once you've developed a routine, where are you going to put them? When building daily structure with ADHD, it's important to make sure the routine itself is set up in a way that's easy to utilize and supports working memory. When you're first developing a routine, this might be as simple as placing a note on your bedroom door that you can read as you leave the room. But as you develop more routines, it can be helpful to work them into your planner. In the article at this link, I work through some of the most useful planner systems for ADHD. Which one could you include your routines in?
Hopefully, this article helps to answer some of your ADHD Routine questions. Trying a new routine as an ADHD adult can be a reminder of past failures. But with some ADHD-specific supports in place often, we can move to develop sustainable, consistent systems that help to reduce that daily feeling of overwhelm.
Talk soon.
Skye
References
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