How Changes to Routine Impact ADHD

For many of us, a celebration such as Christmas brings a welcome opportunity to relax the usual life routines, take a break, and enjoy time and activities with friends and family, with a hope of returning to usual routines recharged and ready to go. My experience of living with ADHD is that, at times, I’ve started to dread these life events as, although they bring joy, love, and celebration, they often impact my routine to such an extent that it can take me weeks to find my balance in life again, and at worst, lead to feeling pretty depressed.

I often feel really frustrated when I see friends and family getting back to routines immediately after a holiday, break, or celebration, yet I struggle even to get out of bed or plan my ‘usual day’. It’s something that my clients frequently share with me, and in the midst of the struggle, it can feel incredibly painful, sad, and unfair.

Why Is It More Challenging to Get a Routine with ADHD?

When I am amidst an ADHD ‘life balance’ crisis, I cannot see the wood for the trees or recollect how I got out of the last one, let alone feel it’s possible, and this can be a lonely and defeated place to be.

However, what I know today is that it’s not my fault and I’m not lazy. Having ADHD does impact our ability to balance life due to:

• Impact on Executive Function: Executive function is a set of cognitive skills that allow us to plan, organise, problem-solve, and remember things. ADHD impacts executive function and can make these skills more challenging to achieve consistently.
• Emotional Overwhelm: Most holidays or celebrations incur a change to our emotions in some way, and given those with ADHD tend to have higher emotional sensitivity than a neurotypical person, this can be exhausting.
• Biological Impact: ADHD often comes with sensitivity to food, sleep, and exercise, all of which can be crucial to managing our condition physiologically. Changes to routine often mean these routines are different to usual and can really impact how we feel physically.
• Struggle to Start Tasks: This is an ADHD ‘norm’ and one that seems to affect us all in knowing how to get started on tasks or activities.

What Helps Get Us Get Our Balance Back?

The good news is that when I am outside of a ‘balance crisis’, I can tell you all the things I need to do to help reduce the impact the next time it happens (and sometimes I can, in fact, remember these in the moment). I have noticed that when I make these changes, things seem easier and get back on track quicker.

Top Tips for Regaining Balance After a Change in Routine:

• Be Kind to Yourself: It’s tempting to beat yourself up when it feels like you are not succeeding and are somehow failing. Talking to yourself in an encouraging and compassionate way is far more motivating than self-criticism and helps you move forward quicker.
• Break Tasks into Smaller Ones: Cleaning the house can seem like a mammoth and overwhelming task; however, putting washing in the machine, hoovering the lounge, and unloading the dishwasher are all very achievable and can be the difference between achieving something fully, rather than doing nothing.
• Start Small and Build Up: When I go back to the gym after a break, I set a really tiny goal of going for just 15 minutes because I know it’s achievable and means it’s much more likely to happen.
• Separate Routine and Work on One or Two Areas at a Time: After Christmas, it’s normal to want to stop all unhealthy foods, get all admin done and up to date, get to the gym every day, clean the house… the list goes on. Sometimes focusing on one or two of these areas can help you get your routine back on track sooner and allow a dopamine hit of success in the process.
• Be Patient if Sleep Has Been Affected: For me, a nemesis of changes in routine is losing my sleep pattern and then struggling to get this back on track. The trick is acceptance, and rather than tossing and turning, I choose to ‘rest’ instead if I can’t sleep and do very quiet and still activities to reduce the stress and agitation of trying and failing to sleep.
• Focus on What’s Going Well: It’s normal to slip up or forget things, especially when rebuilding routine. Don’t let these slips take you back—just keep going and celebrate the wins.
• Ask for Help: Remember, you have skills that others don’t, and these skills can be shared. Why not ask for support if you need it?

It can take time to rebuild balance and maintain routines. If you continue to struggle with organisation and building routines, why not book a call? We can chat and see whether coaching and therapy could support you in nailing this!