The Morning Habits That Help me Kick my ADHD Brain into High Gear

What a few simple tweaks to my daily routine did for my dopamine-deficient brain

Annie Spratt on Unsplash +

Morning routines have never really worked for me. My mom will tell you that the day she realized I had ADHD was the day I told her how often I forgot to drink coffee every morning.

How can someone who drinks coffee almost every day forget that they drink coffee every day?

That’s ADHD for you.

To keep my life in order and my brain on track, I need to have simple morning routines that I can regularly execute. Here are a few habits I like to employ every day:

An audiobook listen

There’s a sweet spot for audiobooks, in my opinion. I can’t be doing something too labor intensive, but I can’t do anything while I listen, either.

I’ve found that the perfect combination for maximum memory and attention to audiobooks and podcasts is while getting ready, going on a run, organizing, or cooking. These tasks somehow help what I’m listening to cement in my mind better.

I can still tell you about the first time I listened to The 5 Second Rule by Mel Robbins — it was while I was playing Minecraft with my brother. A podcast about…