Finding Your Focus Practical strategies for

There are 10 million North Americans with Adult ADD, and approximately 50 percent to 65 percent of children with attention deficit disorder will continue to have problems as adults Provides six important tools to help readers overcome everyday problems with organization, disctraction, and attention In the tradition of bestsellers like Driven to Distraction, this book is one of the few on the market to offer practical tools and advice for adults with ADD Dr. Greenbaum has done presentations and workshops for the National Attention Deficit Disorder Foundation and Children and Adults with ADD, and Dr. Markel presents work/life seminars for many Fortune 500 companies

Judith Greenbaum, Ph.D., has a doctorate in special education and three decades of experience coaching people of all ages with ADD. She consults with schools designing special educational programs. Geraldine Markel, Ph.D., has a doctorate in educational psychology and a master's degree in reading. She is a professional consultant, speaker, and ADD coach.

Acknowledgments

xi

Introduction

xiii

PART I Getting to Know Yourself

Understanding ADD

3

(10)

Recognizing Symptoms

4

(1)

Getting a Diagnosis: How to Tell If You Have ADD

5

(2)

Some Treatment Options

7

(1)

The Role of Attention

8

(1)

ADD and Organizational Abilities

9

(2)

How This Book Can Help You

11

(2)

Identifying Your Strengths and Weaknesses

13

(12)

Identifying Your Strengths

14

(3)

Understanding Your Weaknesses

17

(1)

Distinguishing Between Helpful and Difficult Environments

17

(2)

Identifying Strategies That Work for You

19

(4)

Using Self-Awareness to Prevent Problems

23

(2)

Your Personal Tool Box

25

(18)

Important Rules for Using the Tools

26

(1)

Tool 1: Self-Talk

26

(5)

Tool 2: Visualizing

31

(2)

Tool 3: Hearing, Touching, Smelling, Tasting

33

(1)

Tool 4: Routines

34

(1)

Tool 5: Checklists

35

(1)

Tool 6: Stop!

36

(7)

PART II Practical Strategies for Everyday Problems

Help, I Can't Find My Keys!

43

(14)

Why You Keep Losing Things

44

(1)

Preventing Items from Getting Lost

44

(1)

How to Stop Losing Your Keys

45

(2)

How to Stop Losing Your Glasses, Wallet, or Cell Phone

47

(1)

How to Remember Where You Parked Your Car

48

(1)

How to Stop Misplacing Your Money

49

(1)

How to Stop Getting Lost

50

(3)

When Something Is Already Lost: Finding Misplaced Items

53

(2)

Guidelines to Help You Locate Things Without Panicking

55

(2)

My House Is a Pigsty!

57

(16)

Barriers to Neatness and Organization

58

(1)

Is All Clutter Bad?

59

(2)

Action Steps to Get Organized

61

(2)

Steps to De-Cluttering and Organizing Your Room

63

(2)

Attacking a Pile of Papers

65

(2)

Organizing Your Kitchen

67

(2)

Tips for Maintaining a (Relatively) Neat Home

69

(4)

No Matter How Hard I Try, I'm Always Late

73

(24)

Poor Time Management Can Cause Multiple Problems

74

(1)

Manage Attention to Manage Time

75

(2)

Increase Time-Estimation Skills to Manage Time

77

(3)

The Importance of Planning for Better Time Management

80

(6)

Completing a Grant Proposal on Time

86

(1)

Dealing with Common Time Wasters

87

(7)

Perfectionism

94

(1)

Plan on Improving Slowly

95

(2)

I Have Things to Do, but I Don't Know Where to Begin

97

(24)

Procrastination

98

(1)

Overcoming Procrastination

99

(4)

Planning a Trip

103

(8)

How to Develop Checklists for Complex Tasks

111

(1)

Giving a Dinner Party

112

(5)

Making a Presentation at Work

117

(3)

The Satisfaction of Getting Things Done

120

(1)

People Get Irritated with Me and I Don't Know Why

121

(20)

What Makes Them So Angry

123

(3)

How to Read Cues from Other People

126

(2)

Talk Less

128

(1)

Listen Better

129

(1)

Renegotiate Relationships

130

(5)

Follow Through on Commitments

135

(2)

Work to Become More Self-Aware

137

(4)

PART III Looking Ahead to the Future

Medication: Should I? Shouldn't I?

141

(10)

What Medication Can Do

142

(1)

The Medication Decision

143

(1)

Types of Medication

144

(1)

Monitoring Your Medication

145

(2)

Guidelines for Taking Medication

147

(1)

Strategies for Keeping Track of Your Medication

147

(1)

Reevaluating Medication

148

(3)

Making Decisions and Setting Goals

151

(20)

How ADD Affects Decision Making and Goal Setting

152

(1)

Skills Required for Effective Decision Making and Goal Setting

153

(3)

Problem-Solving Checklist

156

(4)

Decision-Making Checklist

160

(1)

Diagrams to Help You Solve Problems and Make Decisions

160

(5)

Setting Goals

165

(6)

Concluding Remarks

171

(2)

Resources

173

(8)

Index

181

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Finding Your Focus Practical strategies for the everyday challenges facing adults with ADD

Summary

Author Biography

Table of Contents

Supplemental Materials