Hey guys! I’m Emma and I’m a senior in mechanical engineering! I was diagnosed with ADHD and Dysgraphia when I was 17 and over the last 6 years, I’ve found a few helpful sites and apps for managing them. I hope you enjoy them and find them helpful as well! If you have anything to add, feel free!
- Noisli is a website that has a variety of different white noises. You can combine them together or listen to one at a time! It’s super helpful when you want to have some sound, but get distracted by music. I pretty much always have it running in the background when I’m studying. The interface is super simple so it’s not distracting to look at.
- If you have Dysgraphia you know how frustrating writing papers can be. Staring at a blank word document trying to get words to come out is the absolute worst. So Calmly is, in my opinion, the BEST word processor for writing papers. It’s a blank page with no distractions, but you can change the background color, the font color, the font, the spacing, everything. But the best part is that it has the Dyslexic font available. If you don’t know what that is, it’s a font that is designed to be easier for people with Dyslexia to read, and I’ve found that it helps with the Dysgraphia as well. Another really cool feature is called Focus Mode, where the only thing highlighted on the screen is the paragraph you’re working on.
- You’ve probably already seen Grammarly by now, but in case you haven’t, I figured I would throw it in. With Dysgraphia I find that by the time I finally have my paper written, I don’t have any brain power left to edit. But Grammarly is really helpful because it not only helps with spelling, but it helps with sentence structure and grammar rules as well.
- Change the font: I’ve found that even if you don’t use the Dyslexic font, changing the font from the standard Times or Cambria font, to something more smooth like Arial or Calibri makes a big difference.
- Change the color: I’ve also found changing the font color or the paper color (or both!) to be helpful. Something about the black font on a white background makes my brain not happy, so changing the colors around makes reading and writing just a little bit easier.
- Find some books or cheat sheets or other reference material for the things you’re struggling with. Spark Charts is a really good company that makes cheat sheets for everything you could ever want (that's an exaggeration but still). I have some for science and math stuff and units that I use often being an engineer. They’re a good reference to have for those inevitable lapses in memory. I also have a book for writing, it’s this one. It’s something I’ve had for 6 years, and I always have it out when I’m writing anything. It has info on outlines, citations, etc. and it’s just handy to have.
- If Noisli isn’t your thing, but music is distracting, I’ve found this binaural beat to be really helpful with focus.
- Accommodations: They’re there for a reason! I’ve used them before, and they really helped. Don’t think it’s weak to use them, it’s not, they just help level the playing field. Also, don’t think that because you use them once you have to use them forever, I don’t currently use them but I will if I feel like I need them again. Most importantly, don't deny yourself the help you need just because you feel like you shouldn’t need them! Which leads me to my next point...
- Therapy/Medication: I’ve been in therapy and on medication for ADHD since I was 17, and they’ve really changed my life. Therapy and medication are nothing to be ashamed of!
(Okay now I’m gonna tag some people cause I have like... 13 followers lol)
@adhdstudying @adhd-n-ib @adhdstudyblr @adhd-community @studybutch @adhdstudytips
