I’ve coached various people ranging from ages 15 – 73. I’ve had many of them achieve some great things along the way. However over the past few years the bulk of my ADD / ADHD Coaching practice has been working with Students usually between 18 – 24 years old.
The results have been absolutely astounding, and it’s one of the areas that I’m most proud of doing this work. It’s amazing what’s possible and you’re lucky that you can do something about it now while you’re in school rather than be someone like me who was diagnosed years later only to reflect back on “if I only knew then.” I’m envious of all who are diagnosed and are able to learn how to master their own ADD while they’re in school.
It isn’t a coincidence that many students with ADD / ADHD underachieve every school year even though they may have had the intention that “this is the year I’m going to buckle down” only to fall into the same old patterns of behavior. I’m more than happy to discuss the specifics of this during your free consultation.
I’ll just point out that I’ve had students come to me who were on academic probation and by the time we were done they were getting high 80-90% whereas before they were barely passing. Working harder is one thing, but working harder using a better strategy for you IS THE RIGHT THING. And it will produce more optimal results. It’s a matter of making a few subtle changes and creating a schedule that works for you, NOT the other way around.
Most come to The Coaching ADDvantage usually because they’ve fallen behind and they know that they have to trying something different in order to start getting better results. It’s not a coincidence why many students with ADD / ADHD struggle. They’ve never developed the right approach to studying for themselves and have continually been trying harder doing it the way that everybody else does. If you have ADD / ADHD, you have a unique brain wiring that doing it their way doesn’t work for you. Many of the students who try it the way everybody does tend to take 3-4 times longer to finish a task then someone who doesn’t.
There’s a common theme among ADD / ADHD students that I’ve heard numerous times.
They seem to think that trying harder will be the answer. Trying harder at what? All of a sudden their approach to learning that they could never get on board with in the past is just going to magically change. If these habits have never been developed, then why would trying harder at this poor system work now? Someone who is out of shape and decides they want to hit the gym isn’t going to be a super athlete after one workout. They have to condition themselves over time and when it comes to ADD / ADHD patience usually isn’t our strong suit. And there are other elements at play as well. Many students who go away to school are now living on their own for the first time. They don’t have mom and dad
And most have the intention of doing so however they hit a snag along the way once they realize that as ADD / ADHD individuals they never seem to get it together until there’s that immense pressure where they must get things done. A common mindset for them is “why study today when there’s always tomorrow.” When it comes to studying or doing term papers, labs, etc, most tend to leave it to that last minute when there is no tomorrow. These people usually fall into 3 categories”
- They hyper-focus and pull “all nighters” cramming a mountain of work. Some succeed, but most don’t.
- Some have the intention of doing what the people in #1 do, but the weeks and weeks of procrastination has made the workload so big that they get overwhelmed to the point that they can’t even start doing anything. Some then start negotiating with themselves on what they can do and are willing to forego certain areas that they know will be on their exam. They’ve now sold themselves on fact that they’ll be happy getting a “C”
- This group of people have checked out so long ago in the semester that they’ve decided to just wing it and go into the exam cold and hopefully they can retain some information they may have learned in class.