ADHD loves novelty and what could be more novel for an ADHD brain than going to a new place? While you might love the destination, getting there can be really hard for those of us with ADHD. The process of traveling some place new takes a lot of work and a lot of attention to detail that can even escape neurotypicals. Recently my wife was booking our tickets to go visit family during Thanksgiving - except after she booked the tickets she realized she booked them for the wrong weekend. Fortunately she caught it early and it wasn't too hard to fix.
But travel is a lot more than just booking tickets and getting to the airport on time. The entire process of getting out the door with all your bags to sitting wait for your plane to leave takes a lot of executive function and we can really find ourselves wiped out just thinking of everything we're going to need to do. With a little bit of planning ahead though we can make traveling a lot easier on our ADHD brains.
Here are my top seven tips for smoothing out your travel plans.
#1 - Making a list and checking it twice
#2 - Drink More Water
#3 - Bring a fidget toy for down time
#4 - Avoid overbooking yourself and schedule breaks
#5 - Get comfortable
#6 - Be mindful of traveling with your Medication
#7 - Take Advantage of Your Apps
Check out the full show notes and all the tool mentioned in this episode on the show notes page: HackingYourADHD.com/podcast/TravelHacks