#61🖼️ Optimizing Your Environment for Peak ADHD Performance

How changing your environment makes getting things done faster and cheaper.

Welcome to Tech Atypically 👋, your weekly blog for navigating the challenges of ADHD and being in the tech industry.

I am a coach specializing in ADHD and product management, and I help you change one belief and take one action each week.

Part 4 of the Performance and Productivity series.

🐼Tackle your challenges of working in tech and having ADHD with me

🦋The Takeaways

Belief: My environment doesn’t impact my productivity.

Reality: Thoughtfully designed spaces reduce cognitive load.

Action: Make small tweaks to optimize my surroundings for my workflow.

⭐Introduction

This week, I explore how your physical environment can impact your ADHD and ability to focus. Whether you’re at home or work, your environment impacts your focus state in ways you might not realize.

I share three ways to design your space to reduce stimulation, tension, and support your natural tendencies to improve performance.

What’s the key? Designing environments that align with your unique needs. This reduces the mental effort required for tasks and enables greater productivity with less strain.

I’ve had a tough time focusing today because of the state of my desk.

🖼️The Belief - It doesn’t matter where I work

I used to think it didn’t matter where I worked - I should be able to get things done anywhere. My environment was an afterthought.

Going to work (before COVID) meant going to an office, and as my kindergartner would say “You get what you get, and you don’t get upset”.

Especially in today’s rough job market, most people wouldn’t dare complain about their working environment.

In reality, I often struggled to focus during the constant bustle of being in an office. Noises were going on all around me. People, computers, keyboards, more people, and the occasional dog (I didn’t mind the dogs).

Sometimes I’d book a private meeting room to work in quiet. However, I’d lose access to my ergonomic desk and devices. I had traded less noise for more pain.

Having an environment that wasn’t optimized for my needs made everything feel harder. But I assumed I just needed more willpower.

I just needed to ignore the distractions and focus. I assumed this was a 100% me problem and not an environmental one.

🖼️The Reality - Spaces designed for me make being me easier

Our physical spaces greatly impact our cognitive load - the mental effort used in working memory. Working memory helps you retain information, make decisions, and stay focused. People with ADHD tend to have working memory deficits when compared to their peers.

As a result, simple tasks can feel like scaling a mountain. So what do you do? Procrastinate or jump on the struggle bus until you get things done.

For example, my cluttered desk triggers anxiety as I write this blog because each item competes for attention and feels like a shameful reminder of what I haven’t done.

I’m using 20% of my willpower and working memory to tell myself not to look at all crap on the desk and to keep working. That’s the effort I could be using to do my intended work.

I could stop and clean my desk and make it easier for myself. Or keep the difficulty on and keep going.

My environment does have a direct impact on my abilities whether I like it or not.

When your energy isn't drained by your surroundings, you can channel it into focus. Cognitive overload makes everything exhausting. An optimized space gives your brain the space it needs to focus and avoid a trip on the struggle bus.

Photo by DJ Johnson on Unsplash

🖼️The Action - Make tasks faster and cheaper

Instead of suppressing the anxiety from the environment, use it as a signal on how to design your ideal environment.

Here are 3 ways to design an environment tailored to your brain:

💡Reduce Stimulation

Play white noise to drown out unpredictable sounds or tools to block visual distractions.

• I’m a fan of myNoise or Lifi Hip Hop music.

• You can use tools like Focus Bear to hide or lock out apps that might distract you.

🚦Minimize Tension

Make a list of the essential items you need on your desk.

• Make supplies and tools easily accessible.

• Make a spot for your water bottle so you’re always reminded to drink.

• Think of it as equivalent to a chef’s mise en place. Reset it whenever it becomes out of order just like a chef would during service.

• Everything else is noise.

🧘‍♂️Support Natural Tendencies

Create a physical space that best fits your body and typical behaviors.

• Have fidget toys in places on your desk out of frame for meetings.

• Adjustable standing desks to alternate positions or walk-in place.

• Do a free home economic assessment to improve your body posture.

✨Conclusion

Optimizing your environment to reduce cognitive load isn’t about acknowledging weaknesses or accommodations. It’s about recognizing what helps you get work done cheaper and easier.

It’s some of the favorite terms of American capitalism, so embrace them.

Take control of your surroundings to help get things done in the ways that work best for you. Reduce cognitive load and live more like yourself.

Excuse me now. I’m going to clean my desk before I get more done today.

This is what my desk looks lime right now. I’m not proud.

🐼Want to talk to me privately about your ADHD struggles?

⏭️Next Week

Navigating Unpredictability in the Workplace with ADHD: A Practical Guide to Managing Ambiguity. My first guest writer too!