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Bill Dueease at The Coach Connection has an article about how he sees ADD, not as a disorder - but as a benefit. His philosophy (from an e-mail exchange):

My entire website on ADD (really AEA) is devoted to assisting people with ADD to take control of their lives. We have assisted over 250 such people and counting. I get a very personal pleasure out of helping fellow ADDer’s come to grips with their blessings, assisting them to see themselves as they truly are for the first time, and getting out of their way as they take advantage of their blessings on their own terms.

Dueease, like many others, does not think that ADD has the right name:

My belief is that ADD is misnamed. Instead, it should be named “Attention Expansion Advantage” (AEA). People with AEA/ADD have certain mental and physical characteristics that give them distinct advantages. These same characteristics also present several drawbacks. I believe the condition was named by focusing on the drawbacks and completely overlooks the advantages. AEA/ADD people are not normal. They can rarely be controlled. Thus, normal (non-ADD) people have labeled ADD people with the “Disorder” tag. The term “Disorder” being defined by The American Heritage Dictionary as a “disturbance of the normal physical or mental health.”

I agree that the mental characteristics of those with ADD are very different from the “norm”, and some of our behavior can be off-putting to others whose minds do not run at full throttle all the time.

AEA/ADD people operate in a mindset that is outside the world of normal people. Consequently, they constantly think out of the box. AEA/ADD people see more of the world and are able to process the additional information to see the truth in things that normal people frequently overlook. They are very creative and constantly take themselves, their thoughts, and their ideas places that normal people rarely know exist. AEA/ADD people want to be trailblazers and they most often are. They are very adept at reading other people, especially in one on one personal interactions. AEA/ADD people can recognize, understand and organize extremely complex ideas, concepts, and processes. They have an extremely sensitive, very acute and very accurate sixth sense. Their hunches and intuition are remarkable, and are almost scary at times.

They frequently have spurts of boundless energy, then they like to hibernate. They have the unusual ability to hyper focus, and do so for long periods of time. By hyper focus I mean they can direct their entire mind and body on complex, yet specific activities and get into zones of concentration that are very remarkable. This hyper focus produces spectacular achievements. Thomas Edison was legendary for his spurts of hyper focus. He tested over 5,000 different light filament materials, before he finally found the one that worked. They can think extremely fast on their feet and react faster than most people. They can also conduct multiple activities at the same time. This is called multitasking.

During my e-mail exchange with Mr. Dueease it occurred to me that I have never once turned to the internets for additional resources on ADD! How very typical. Therefore I decided to create a short list of online resources for those of us who need this information. Disclaimer: I have not fully researched all of these sources, not do I neccessarily endorse any product or service that they provide. This list is just the beginning, if anyone would like to suggest another link that I may have overlooked, please do so in the comments and I will add it to this post. I would especially be interested in finding out about your success stories.

• Attention Deficit Disorder Association
• ADD Resource.com
• Attention Deficit Disorder Resources

There is a long and info-packed article at ADD Resources.org - Adult ADHD: 50 Tips on Management by Edward M. Hallowell, M.D. and John J. Ratey, M.D.

The treatment of adult ADHD begins with hope. Most people who discover they have ADHD, whether they be children or adults, have suffered a great deal of pain. The emotional experience of ADHD is filled with embarrassment, humiliation, and self-castigation. By the time the diagnosis is made, many adults with ADHD have lost confidence in themselves. Many have consulted with numerous specialists, only to find no real help. As a result, many have lost hope.

The most important step at the beginning of treatment is to instill hope once again. Individuals with ADHD may have forgotten what is good about themselves. They may have lost, long ago, any sense of the possibility of things working out. They are often locked in a kind of tenacious holding pattern, bringing all theory, considerable resiliency, and ingenuity just to keeping their heads above water. It is a tragic loss, the giving up on life too soon. But many adults with ADHD have seen no other way than repeated failures. To hope, for them, is only to risk getting knocked down once more.

And yet, their capacity to hope and to dream is immense. More than most people, adults with ADHD have visionary imaginations. They think big thoughts and dream big dreams. They can take the smallest opportunity and imagine turning it into a major break. They can take a chance encounter and turn it into a grand evening out. They thrive on dreams, and they need organizing methods to make sense of things and keep them on track.

Here are some of the tips, directed at Productivity:

14. External structure. Structure is the hallmark of the non-pharmacological treatment of the ADHD child. It can be equally useful with adults. Tedious to set up, once in place structure works like the walls of the bobsled slide, keeping the speedball sled from careening off the track.
15. Make frequent use of:
    1. lists
    2. color-coding
    3. reminders
    4. notes to self
    5. rituals
    6. files
16. Color coding. Mentioned above, color-coding deserves emphasis. Many people with ADHD are visually oriented. Take advantage of this by making things memorable with color: files, memoranda, texts, schedules, etc. Virtually anything in the black and white of type can be made more memorable, arresting, and therefore attention-getting with color.
17. Use pizzazz. In keeping with #15, try to make your environment as peppy as you want it to be without letting it boil over.
18. Set up your environment to reward rather than deflate. To understand what a deflating environment is, all most adult ADHD’ers need do is think back to school. Now that you have the freedom of adulthood, try to set things up so that you will not constantly be reminded of your limitations.
19. Acknowledge and anticipate the inevitable collapse of X% of projects undertaken, relationships entered into, obligations incurred.
20. Embrace challenges. ADHD people thrive with many challenges. As long as you know they won’t all pan out, as long as you don’t get too perfectionistic and fussy, you’ll get a lot done and stay out of trouble.
21. Make deadlines.
22. Break down large tasks into small ones. Attach deadlines to the small parts. Then, like magic, the large task will get done. This is one of the simplest and most powerful of all structuring devices. Often a large task will feel overwhelming to the person with ADHD. The mere thought of trying to perform the task makes one turn away. On the other hand, if the large task is broken down into small parts, each component may feel quite manageable.
23. Prioritize. Avoid procrastination. When things get busy, the adult ADHD person loses perspective: paying an unpaid parking ticket can feel as pressing as putting out the fire that just got started in the wastebasket. Prioritize. Take a deep breath. Put first things first. Procrastination is one of the hallmarks of adult ADHD. You have to really discipline yourself to watch out for it and avoid it.
24. Accept fear of things going well. Accept edginess when things are too easy, when there’s no conflict. Don’t gum things up just to make them more stimulating.
25. Notice how and where you work best: in a noisy room, on the train, wrapped in three blankets, listening to music, whatever. Children and adults with ADHD can do their best under rather odd conditions. Let yourself work under whatever conditions are best for you.
26. Know that it is O.K. to do two things at once: carry on a conversation and knit, or take a shower and do your best thinking, or jog and plan a business meeting. Often people with ADHD need to be doing several things at once in order to get anything done at all.
27. Do what you’re good at. Again, if it seems easy, that is O.K. There is no rule that says you can only do what you’re bad at.
28. Leave time between engagements to gather your thoughts. Transitions are difficult for ADHD’ers, and mini-breaks can help ease the transition.
29. Keep a notepad in your car, by your bed, and in your pocketbook or jacket. You never know when a good idea will hit you, or you’ll want to remember something else.
30. Read with a pen in hand, not only for marginal notes or underlining, but for the inevitable cascade of “other” thoughts that will occur to you.

I recommend that you print out this list and incorporate it into your daily routine. Many of these tips I already use, especially numbers 15 & 16. I have found color-coding to be one of the very best ways of organizing data for retrieval, and jogging my memory.

Related: See all of the posts on the GTD with ADD microchannel.

If you found this post useful, please share it with your friends on Twitter using the tinylink http://tinyurl.com/652ah2. Thanks, I appreciate it! Feel free to comment below, I enjoy discussing these ideas. ~@Stephen