With the rise of adult women (finally) getting an ADHD diagnosis comes a fresh conversation about how we can better work with neurodiversity. One key area of focus: the world of work. 

How can ADHD impact your career? What adjustments can you ask for that will make things easier? What should managers be doing to help neurodivergent talent? These questions all swirl around and can seem overwhelming, but there are simple steps we can take in the right direction. 

Leanne Maskell is an ADHD Coach, the director of coach training company ADHD Works, and author of ADHD: An A To Z, so she knows her stuff when it comes to living with ADHD instead of fighting against it. 

“If you’ve got ADHD, learning how to work with it, instead of against it, can be the secret to a wildly successful career,” Maskell tells Stylist. “Without this understanding, we may feel powerless against a brain determined to steamroll into jobs and careers with lots of new ideas, before steamrolling out again a few months (or weeks) later!”

Maskell explains that ADHD is a neurodevelopmental condition “linked with a 30% developmental delay in executive functioning skills such as self-awareness, memory, planning and emotional regulation”. As a result, if you have ADHD, you may find “it can be very difficult to self-regulate our attention, behaviour, and life. 

“Being neurodivergent can be like having a different operating system, like putting Microsoft Windows commands into an Apple MacBook. Forcing ourselves to fit into boxes we simply aren’t designed to fit into is pointless,” Maskell continues. 

“Once we free ourselves of neurotypical standards, we can adapt our environments to harness this unique way of thinking to live authentic, happy, and fulfilling lives.”

Ahead, Maskell reveals four ways to make work better when you have ADHD. 

Arming yourself with knowledge and understanding is essential. 

“By learning about ADHD, you can ‘name it to tame it’,” Maskell explains. “For example, as we have ‘interest based nervous systems’, we might be able to ‘hyper-focus’ to do an entire month’s worth of work in a day, causing us to burn out. If we’re not interested in something, then we may really struggle to do certain tasks, especially those that seem ‘normal’.

“With this understanding of how to motivate ourselves, we can hack our environments to make ‘boring’ tasks more interesting, and set up systems to ensure we get the priorities done.”

Learning more about what makes your brain tick, what you find tricky, and what tasks you need to tweak can help you in all areas of your career, from what jobs you choose to how you structure each work day. 

Read up on ADHD online – learning about rejection sensitivity, for example, can “help us to stop wasting energy by beating ourselves up for not being ‘normal’,” says Maskell – but also try keeping a journal of your own experiences so you can start to chart your patterns and triggers. 

“We can learn to train our hyper-focus to manage our workloads without burning out,” Maskell says. “Break tasks down into tiny steps, making the effort to set realistic deadlines with more time than you think you need, and use calendars, alarm clocks and vibrating watches to remind yourself to take breaks throughout the day.

“The ADHD brain can feel like a racing car with bicycle brakes, so consciously building in speed bumps, such as scheduling your emails to send an hour later, can help us to ‘think before acting’ – especially in stressful situations.”

It’s well worth talking to your manager about the support you need to meet your full potential. Don’t be afraid to ask – because ADHD is considered a disability, employers have a legal duty to make reasonable adjustments. 

“Knowing the challenges you experience at work are because of ADHD empowers you to take responsibility for them and seek help where needed,” Maskell notes. “This is an incredibly liberating thing to do: you deserve it!

“If you’re employed, you may wish to talk to somebody you trust about your ADHD at work so you can understand your options for support. Use your innovative thinking to identify solutions to actively target the ADHD workplace challenges you’re experiencing, and share these with your support network to collaboratively set yourself up for success.

“Even without a formal diagnosis, you can also apply for Access to Work, which is open to both employed and self-employed people. This UK government scheme provides independent assessments and funding for support additional to adjustments, such as ADHD coaching and virtual assistants, which can be life-changing for an ADHD-er.”

Maskell says: “Research has linked many strengths with ADHD, such as innovative thinking, creativity, curiosity and resilience. Although it can be hard to plan for the future, setting short-term goals as ‘sprints’ instead of marathons empowers you to proactively identify opportunities to use your strengths and reach your full potential.

“Cultivating an inclusive and supportive environment, where you don’t have to mask your symptoms and can shine as your brilliant authentic self, allows you use your immense energy to achieve these goals and make your ADHD work for you, instead of against you.

“Working with your ADHD allows you to set your own definition of ‘success’, and thrive because of your ADHD, not in spite of it.”

Main image: Getty