Tame Your Squirrel Brain: Study Tips for ADD Students

Hey there, you with the text book open, in front of a computer playing a TEDtalk marathon, in between rounds of Overwatch, studying for an exam tomorrow, this article's for you. This is the second book in my series about living with ADD, and if you want to read my last one on conversation, it can be found here.

I've lived with ADD for 33 years now and have come up with all kinds of tips for getting by in your daily life just a little bit easier, including how to study. I had top grades all through school, while being medicated for most of it, but even off medication I still placed as the 2nd highest grades in my high school graduating class. I attended University in the civil engineering program afterwards, and joined the army, taking numerous courses in that. My stepdaughter also has ADD and I've helped her cope over the years with her schooling too. I also confirmed these tips with other friends who have gone through the same. One friend, Melissa, even holds a BA and Masters in English Literature, and is currently a PHD Candidate at Wilfrid Laurier, getting through all that without a diagnosis until just this last year. So on this point I can confidently state that I have a lot of experience to share.

SHOWING YOUR WORK IS HARD!

An ADD brain is a fast moving scattered brain, and as such your mind has developed shortcuts, something known as heuristics. These heuristics are part of the reason why you have these sudden seemingly random leaps in logic or thought patterns, it's decided that the associations or deductions you already made weren't important enough to remember and jumped right to the end. It's like when you're doing math homework and it asks for the answer in one box, and then in another box below it asks to show your work. I frequently would almost instantly know the answer to each problem but never be able to show my work because I was internally skipping all the steps. This can be super useful but also equally as frustrating and confusing as you have to backtrack and second guess.

As an example of how quick this can go, I'm browsing facebook and I see an article about the upcoming Spiderman having Daredevil so my next immediate thought is, “I wonder if Army of Darkness is on Netflix?” and I've already opened Netflix to check. If I backtrack, the reasoning probably went something like this. “Spiderman - Kevin Smith and Stan Lee in Captain Marvel - Dogma was awesome, Ben Affleck was in Daredevil and Dogma – They should do a Dogma Sequel – Spiderman Sequels - Sam Raimi did Spiderman 3 - Bruce Campbell - Ash Vs Evil Dead on Netflix - Army of Darkness might be there?” This is why we end up with 18 tabs open in Chrome and a desktop littered with shortcuts that we wanted to remember.

This is a particularly tricky aspect of ADD to work with, but also one of our greatest strengths. We can make instant assessments with a crazy amount of success but not know how we got there. So my best advice is to practice figuring out your convoluted train of thought, and when this happens backtrack through your thought process and figure out what jumps in logic you made. Get in the habit of “checking your work” mentally. Then when you find yourself in the kitchen confused and holding a jug of milk because you heard a vacuum, it won't take you so long to remember that you came out to make a tea.

TRUST YOUR INSTINCTS !

Your instincts are your friend, IF you have the knowledge to back them up. This is where you can excel, taking advantage of your brain's shortcuts to make snap judgments and quick calls. This will not work out in your favor if your brain isn't stuffed with data it can reference to make those judgments. In the beginning of course ask tons of questions and be a sponge to the best of your ability. If you have a broad understanding of the course you're studying, when it comes time for a snap judgment oftentimes your immediate instinct will be right.

When it comes to test taking, write down your first thought for an answer; if you are at all unsure of it, put an asterisk next to it. Once you have completed all the questions, go back and review. While you did the remainder of the test the back of your mind will be churning away and dredging through related info. It's more important for you to answer quickly and dump out the information that is at the forefront of your mind so you can start trying to recall the things that might be a bit more difficult to get out. As well, seeing completed work on the page can help jog your memory for those unknowns.

Use mnemonic devices, with the most common one being acronyms. Like for example the 6 principles of Instruction are Interest, Comprehension, Emphasis, Confirmation, Accomplishment, and Participation, or ICECAP. So when I'm doing a written test and they ask that question I'll write down ICECAP in point form, fill in the 2 or 3 that I remember right then, and move on. A couple questions down the line I'll remember two more answers and go back. Upon reviewing the test at the end I'll remember the final one. I also suggest trying to make your acronym something funny to yourself personally. You want to make yourself smirk as you write it down. Remember, humour sticks. There's a reason everybody remembers scenes from Anchorman verbatim and not conversations from The West Wing.

DON'T CRAM, CASUALLY REVIEW

Your short term memory is garbage, and everyone you know is aware of it. This is why last minute cramming and study sessions really, really, do not work great for us. You need to build up that big memory bank and let your better long term memory figure out how to store it away. This takes time to do and you need to know your material well, which means regular study throughout the learning process. I follow a 1-24-7 rule that I got into the habit of early, thanks to my middle school teacher Mr Smith. Meaning, review what you just learned about an hour later, or in between this class and the next one. Review again a day later, and then again a week later. The early repetition helps cement it in your mind in manageable chunks.

Instead of last minute cram sessions, take that time to spend an hour or two with a friend or classmate quizzing eachother and writing down the answers, super casually, as a brief review. Make jokes and laugh about it as you do because, as I said above, humour is stickier than stress. If you can associate a joke one of you made to an answer in your head it's more likely to be recalled the next day during the test.

SCHEDULES AND BREAKS

The ADD mind both rebels against and craves structure, a horribly frustrating paradox. Learn what balance works best for you and set yourself a schedule that works with that. Find what time of day you find yourself most focused and productive and then make that your study hours. Try to figure out why those are your most productive and replicate those conditions each time.

For me the best time is usually from 1-3 AM because it's quiet and everyone is asleep, allowing me to work without distractions. From 12-1 over lunch time as well, as I'm conditioned to be more relaxed then, and from 4-6 PM when the work day is done but I'm still kind of in work focus mode. I also find that if I still have my work boots on then I am mentally in work mode; so if I have things to do after work I try not to take my boots off until they're done and I'm good to relax.

Figure out what works better for you, as isolation from distraction might actually not be the best. I find when I'm actively working, especially when I'm writing, that a distraction free environment helps me focus on the task. On the flip side, when I'm more passively studying I find a bit of light distraction helps satisfy the restlessness of my brain. Whether it's other students in a library moving around, conversations happening around me, people on the bus, or my pets and family at home.

Make sure to take regular breaks to let your brain bounce off the walls. Get up and walk around, talk to a friend, watch a quick youtube video. 10-20 minutes every hour is the sweet spot for most. Set alarms so you don't get sucked into 3 hrs of cheese making tutorials. If you try to marathon through and muscle your brain into studying then you'll very quickly get bored and won't even register what's on the page in front of you.

MUSIC AND ASSOCIATIVE MEMORY

Our short term memory is terrible; however, it seems in order to make up for it the majority of us have excellent, and weirdly specific, long term memory that is wrapped up in something else. I won't remember the fact that I put popcorn in the microwave, but if I smell it burning I will instantly recall the time our popcorn maker exploded years ago, and then how we made jiffy pop in our camper in 1993 while I was reading a book about native fish in the area. This is what I mean by associative memory, often our memories come tied to other memories or very specific details, and you can game this to your advantage.

There's been a few stories about Alzheimer's patients who forget their own children but remember the words to songs. It's recommended for a variety of mental and emotional health reasons for senior therapy as seen in this article.

So use the memory stimulating aspects of music to your advantage. When studying listen to a specific song or album over and over, preferably a different album for each subject. This helps associate the song to your topic and when you're taking a test remembering the tune will help bring those memories to the foreground.“Lo-Fi beats to study to” went viral as widely as it did for a reason.

As for type of music, I prefer to listen to music which is largely instrumental so the lyrics don't distract me and send my mind on unwanted tangents. I also tend towards video game soundtracks because that music is very obviously tied to a specific visual or physical memory. Now when I'm trying to remember a specific answer I can either try to think of the tune or the related scene or character in the game. The more mental ties you can take to the information, and the more personal it is, the quicker and more powerful the memory will be.

HYPER FOCUS IS REAL AND AWESOME!

Most people think that ADD means an inability to focus, and while that is certainly true it isn't entirely so. It's actually a common phenomenon that we also have the ability to do something called Hyper Focus. This means that when we are in the zone, we are IN THE ZONE. We can get a ton of work done in this time, in what seems like the blink of an eye, only to look up and see the sun rise realizing that you've been working for 4 hours straight.

Take advantage of these moments as it's often unpredictable what will trigger them. Once you're through a work session in hyper focus go back and take note of the environmental conditions and your personal state, then try to mimic that again next time and find your focus triggers. I find it most often occurs for me late at night when everyone else is asleep and the pets are quiet, I have music or a binge-worthy Netflix series going, and I'm relaxed from a hot evening shower. The frequency and intensity of this can also be jacked up with medication so be aware of that. This happened to me a lot more often when I was taking a quit smoking aid for example.

One important thing I will note is to set alarms for yourself. You are super productive in this state for sure, but you're also not mindful of your own bodies needs or surroundings. You still need to sleep before going to work or class in the morning. You need to remember to turn the oven off before supper burns. If you are in hyper focus the blinders are on; you will forget about everything else, so you need external reminders to snap you out of it.

THE LEFT SIDE OF YOUR NOTEBOOK

When in class, keep the right side of the notebook for class related notes and keep the left side open. The left side of the notebook is for your internal chaos. If you need to doodle, do it there. If you have a random thought, write it down there and get back to paying attention. If you remember you need to do something later, jot the reminder down there. Whenever your brain needs to bleed a little chaos, do it on those pages. If it's on the page it's not in your head distracting you as you try to learn.

Separating the two trains of thought will keep your notebook cleaner and condition your mind to hold the things on the right hand pages as important. At the end of your classes go through all your left hand pages and take anything important out of it, making a note of it on your phone or in an agenda. Reviewing the left hand pages after will also cement a mental connection between that unrelated thought and what you actually need to remember, which makes later recall easier.

HEALTHY BODY, HEALTHY MIND

There are countless studies on why physical health is important to mental health so I won't go too far into this; just know that this is even more pronounced for people with ADD. Try to maintain a healthy diet with minimal sugar and processed food and get plenty of sleep. Caffeine seems like your friend but it is definitely not. Caffeine can actually calm us, in small amounts, but you can quickly pass that point and get to the over-caffeinated cartoon squirrel stage. Try to avoid caffeine past dinner time at night or heavy amounts when studying.

Physical activity helps to build focus and burn that frantic energy which causes you to distract yourself. I personally found wrestling and Jiu Jitsu were great for clearing my mind and concentrating solely on what is immediately in front of me. The more you practice narrowing your focus that way, the easier it becomes in other less stressful situations. So get yourself into a sport you enjoy and practice regularly, even if you don't plan on doing anything competitive with it.

ADD STUDENTS ARE NOT DUMB !!!

This drives me insane. I don't even personally like the term learning disability being applied to ADD students. It's not a disability, it's a learning difference. If you learn how your brain works and use it to your advantage you can not only get through school fine, but potentially even do better than your peers. Don't let anyone make you feel like you can't. That Hyper Focus is practically a super power, I mean I've completed top notch work in hours that would take normal people days to do.

On that note I'm going to close out this article. Good luck with any of your future studies, and if you're reading this for a friend or loved one, I hope this helps you both out. If you've got ADD or help someone who does, what study tricks have you found to work? I'm very curious to see what works for everyone else as everybody's a little different.

I was originally going to go over both school and work in this article but there was simply too much to cover. My next article however probably won't be about work, and instead I'm going to look at relationships. Yeah, we're not always the easiest bunch to be in a relationship with, so we're going to try and make it a little less exhausting to deal with our quirks. See you then.