Home

• Medium.com

• Insta-Art account

Research on ADHD Productivity

Introduction

In this article, you will find insight into the daily life of ADHD adults. As part of my university project to understand ADHD problems, I’ve done interviews, and surveys and also collected data from different forums to compile this report.

Topics covered in the research

• The productivity of ADHD adults

• Emotions of ADHD adults while performing the task

• Method and process

• Usage of technology/ tools for doing a task

• The current way of coping

What is ADHD?

ADHD is a common disorder that affects children and adults. Many adults with ADHD aren’t even aware of the fact that they have it. They just know that everyday tasks can be a challenge. Inattention and hyperactivity/impulsivity are the key behaviors of ADHD. Some people with ADHD just have problems with one of the behaviors, while others have both inattention and hyperactivity-impulsivity. ADD is an old term used to describe ADHD.

It is normal to have some inattention, unfocused motor activity, and impulsivity, but for people with ADHD, these behaviors:

• are more severe

• occur more often

• interfere with or reduce the quality of how they function socially, at school, or in a job

Complications

ADHD has been linked to several of the following problems:

• Poor school or work performance

• Unemployment

• Financial problems

• The trouble with the law

• Alcohol or another substance misuse

• Frequent car accidents or other accidents

• Unstable relationships

• Poor physical and mental health

• Poor self-image

• Suicide attempts

Research

Goal of the research:

• Understanding  ADHD adults problems.

• Find out the needs of Attention deficit adults.

• Find out about already existing solutions used by ADHD adults to stay productive.

C. Methodology used:

To understand my audience and their daily problems I started with desk research and survey to understand the problems briefly.

It was difficult to find adults with ADHD who were willing to be interviewed. Sometimes, even when I did find them, they were shy or not interested in doing interviews. This made me think about different ways to gather information. Eventually, I managed to interview three adults who had been diagnosed with ADHD. I also looked for groups on Facebook and reddit forums, found many comments about the problems of ADHD.

This allowed me to collect a lot of comments about daily productivity as part of my research. In addition to interviews, I used research papers, analyzed online comments, and compared different sources of information as part of my research.

To get a complete picture of the pain points and problems faced by ADHD adults in being productive, I conducted research using various methodologies

Comment Analysis:

From the ADHD support group on Facebook and Reddit comments of adults diagnosed, I collected all the posts and comments where people talked about their problems or shared solutions. Once I gathered all the information, I organized it into groups and identified the most common and important issues.

By analyzing the comments, I was able to understand how attention levels and emotions are connected throughout different stages of tasks in adults with ADHD. This understanding helped me see how it affects their work and personal lives. Specifically, the problem lies in all stages of the task life cycle.

Collection of comments related to productivity issues on Reddit and Facebook. Source: own study

Key outcomes

• Problems are present in every stage of task lifecycle.

• Not every tool available helps throughout starting, continuing, and finishing the work, like a to–do list just helps to plan but can’t motivate them to start.

Different problem in different stages of task lifecycle

• I found comments where people discussed using various digital and physical tools, along with reminders and alarms, to help with their productivity. These comments indicate that individuals with ADHD often need to experiment and make changes to their tools in order to find what works best for them. It seems that existing productivity tools are not specifically designed to address the unique challenges faced by neurodiverse individuals like those with ADHD.

“Outlook on my phone making it easier to set multiple reminders and recurring appointments. Also the multiple alarms on my phone. I’ll sometimes set three alarms for a task or appointment with varying lengths of time left before the event begins.”

– ADHD user on Reddit support group

Interviews:

I conducted three interviews with adults who have been diagnosed with ADHD. Two of them were in their 20s, and one was in their late 30s. They were residents of the United States, Sydney (Australia), and Poland, respectively. Each of them had a different profession: one was a designer, another was a carpenter, and the third was a student working as a library assistant.

"I don't have a routine, I divide days in certain blocks"- Interviwee

Insights of 3 interviews

Key outcomes

• ADHD adults often face challenges when it comes to starting tasks on time. Even when they do start, they may struggle to complete the task for several reasons.

• Distractions play a significant role, as they can easily divert their attention away from the task at hand.

Distraction in ADHD and Typical adults when they work

• They may also find themselves looking for more enjoyable or entertaining activities instead of focusing on their responsibilities.

• Another factor is their difficulty in imagining the consequences of not finishing the task on time, which can diminish their motivation to stay engaged.

• Additionally, their minds tend to wander, making it hard for them to stay focused on the task for extended periods. Sustaining attention for a long time can be particularly challenging for individuals with ADHD.

Needs of ADHD in user interviews

• Reminders designed for ADHD, are stronger and notifies them more times than a typical adult.

"Reminders that won't go away. Not too complicated. If it's too hard or complicated then it won't help"- Interviewee 1

• They need a reminder to plan for the task before the task starts.

"Categorize tasks and let them bump up or down, and courage setting a planning time before a due date reminder as well." - Survey answer

• Memory challenges and insufficient information processing can impact task performance for individuals with ADHD. They often prefer visual or verbal reminders to aid their understanding and retention.

• Need an interactive physical solution that engages them completely. reminders on the phone can distract and can be missed by an ADHD adult.

Mapping of situations to the problem

Different situations in comments were observed to go to the depth of the problem.

Comparative Analysis of current tools and Applications:

Mobile applications from the existing market were evaluated and looked for Features, Concepts, How it functions, Rewards system, Feedback, problems faced by ADHD users, and analysis of problems referred by ADHD adults in achieving their goals were taken into consideration to decide our goal for the solution.

Comparative analysis of currently available apps based on their main idea, reward sys

Key outcomes of comparative analysis

• Every application has an immediate reward system but most of the applications is does not have rewards that are meaningful or real rewards. Motivation is stimulated by instant rewards. ADHD adults perceive the desired result in the future as less valuable than the instant one.

• Most of the application is digital, they prefer tangible products.

• Current applications are designed to be complicated for ADHD users to understand. They need simple solutions.

• The user wants to put less effort to maintain routine on the app. ADHD'rs want to put less input into the applications as the routine tasks become boring after a while.

• Visually seeing a calendar helps as most ADHD are visual learners.

Research paper reviews:

I closely examined 20 recent studies and their metadata that focused on various aspects related to motivation, memory problems, attention difficulties, decision-making, executive functioning, rewards, and brain structure, as well as meta-analysis studies on career and academic difficulties. This extensive review brought us closer to understanding the underlying biological factors that contribute to the core issues at the root of the problem.

Research analysis based on the scientific papers I read

Key outcomes of reading scientific papers

• The absence of the ability to process the information and work accordingly.

• Lacking the ability to plan and implement strategies for achieving goals.

• Executing problems like lack of persistence, and constant self–monitoring.

• Inability to control emotions and thoughts while being productive.

• Disorganization in working, maintaining time, and arriving on time.

• ​​Not having the ability to anticipate the consequences of their actions.

• No flexible thinking and poor adaptation.

• Perfectionism and procrastinating problems exist because of poor self–esteem.

• The strengths of ADHD adults are in generating ideas (under competition), creative writing, playing music, acting, programming, and experimenting.

Books review

Some of the books I read in order to find History, Diagnosis, Symptoms, Problems because of deficiency, and Solutions which is already established in those books.

The reason for the problem is because of neurological problems in the brain like dopamine and other chemicals, blood flow, and some structural differences levels which affect working memory, behavior, emotional and learning problems.

Data of key problems

A summary of key problems, needs, and situations was taken from the research. Then the key problems related to each problem were brainstormed to build case studies. This helped to see the ADHD problems and their deficiency closely which further helped in coming close to needs.

2.3 Project goals

Goals are important to set early on in the project so as to validate ideas based on the set goals. I identified the following goals for the project:

Goal

Reason for the goal

1

To help them keep track of the time/ day is ending

ADHD adults need help in understanding the passing of a day

2

To motivate them to work 

ADHD adults need more motivation than a healthy adult. 

3

To have a solution that is distraction–free

ADHD adults get easily distracted. A solution that is tangible can be less distracting than a mobile–based solution

4

To help in time perception 

ADHD adults have problems with perceiving time. We want to improve how they perceive the progress of time

5

To review their activity weekly/monthly

Reflecting on their progress helps to restore confidence and boost their mental well–being

The overall goal is to improve their work–life and give them a tool to self–reflect. ADHD adults have a tough time managing their day–to–day work and personal life. It can be a lot more demanding to them compared to a healthy adult. With the help of this solution, I would like to help alleviate their lifestyle.

Goals of the product after conducting the research

Persona

A general persona and 4 other personas were created to look for frustrations, goals, and behavior of ADHD adults. The persona was created based on the research.

Identified frustrations, goals, and behavior of ADHD adults by interviews and research. Created an empathy map by real situations I saw the comments online to put myself in users' emotional state.

Proto persona and empathy map from interviews and online research

When an ADHD user sees other people are able to work and finish on time, he tries to do it too but gets distracted, feels overwhelmed by the deadline, and is now stressed. He can’t perceive time and ends up working in a hurry, and not being able to work to his full potential.

E. Summary

My research has provided me with valuable information about ADHD adults. Interviews and youtube channels of ADHD adults have given me a very close glimpse of ADHD adult’s life.

This is the first time where I myself have had to look at how can I take more information out with limited resources, I had many comments and feedback online which has helped me collect data and do comment analysis. Comment analysis has given me a lot of data on almost every problem of ADHD adults. As I could also see what methods and tools worked or didn’t work for ADHD adults and take a closer look at other frustrations of ADHD adults.

ADHD adults struggle to do day-to-day tasks. On a day a normal person has to do various daily chores, ADHD adults find these chores rather challenging. When faced with a big to-do list of things even normal adults get overwhelmed. In such cases, ADHD adults have this overwhelmed feeling that makes them incapable of going through their day. It drains ADHD adults when they go through their day with the several tasks they do. There are several online communities that help ADHD adults to deal with their problems. The solutions provided by the community give them hope to do better the next time.