Find a therapist to help with ADHD

Novelty grabs your attention, which is why it’s an essential tool for managing homework challenges in ADHD.

Neural resets are a strategy for keeping novelty in the workflow.

Embrace flexibility, as routines are helpful but not sufficient to keep the ADHD brain from checking out.

I sat in the Boston University library, on the fourth floor, and I counted out the M&Ms—10 of them—placing them on a piece of paper in the corner of the desk. I stood up and stretched before returning to the pictures of parasites in eyeballs. I looked at my watch, anticipating my sweet treat in about 30 minutes, and then I dug into my work. I had friends in medical school who could study for hours without moving, and I used to wonder what was wrong with me. Eventually I realized I just had to be kind to myself and do what worked. I studied in different places, changed subjects frequently, and sometimes worked backwards from the end of a chapter to the beginning. Years later, I would know about my ADHD diagnosis, but at the time I just knew I had to study differently than my peers.

What do all these things have in common—why did they help with my ADHD brain? One word: novelty. ADHD nervous system circuits need high intensity to get going and stay moving. They get bored quickly. Study strategies that weave novelty into the workflow are powerful. This can seem counterintuitive when ADHD coaching often centers on structure, routine, and predictability—but without including novelty, these ideas often work for a while........

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