I had ADHD without knowing it for many years. During high school it went untreated because I had no choice but to sit in class for back to back sessions of one hour. Then in college, I started to find that I easily got distracted and couldn't focus for any extended period of time. When I studied for the GMAT before business school, I went to see a doctor and I was diagnosed with ADHD. I realized why earlier parts of my career had been challenging. I used medication through most of business school, but I've stopped it now and I think I've been able to figure out a few things that help:
1. Cut Down Caffeine: Since it is a stimulant it causes everything in your body to speed up, even your thinking. Part of ADHD I think is slowing down your thought process so you can focus.
2. Do what you're interested in: This is a no brainer. But, if you have ADHD, and you chose to do something you are interested in you can accomplish out of this world results. For me, those two things were playing a musical instrument, and the other has been my blog. In school I noticed my course in consumer behavior was the one where I never watched the clock. No surprise considering my personal development interests.
3. Uni-Task: My old roommate figured out where my anxiety was coming from after watching me in action for a few weeks. He noticed that my morning routine was a firedrill. It involved 20 different things at once. Now, I do one at a time. If I'm writing a blog post, I turn off everything else (no IM's, no email, no social networks).
Hope that helps.
-Srini
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