My ADHD Journey: Thriving Through Variety

Three weeks ago, I shared how -- at age 50 -- I got diagnosed with - and finally admitted to myself - that I have ADHD. Part of my journey in May and June, as I came to this realization, was revisiting pretty much my entire life, from childhood through the present. I've been seeking to understand both the gifts ADHD has given me and the burdens inherent in living with this type of neurodiversity.

Over the next few weeks and months, I'll explore and write about different aspects of my journey and new self-awareness, focusing particularly on the positive - how I've managed to thrive, even without quite realizing why I was doing what I was doing.

After you read this article, check out my next article in this series: My ADHD Journey Part 2: Intersections with Anxiety.

Early Years: Discovering My Strengths and Challenges

Pre-College: So much sameness

In eighth grade, I remember being cornered by some friends during recess. I had previously told them that I was planning to stay in-state and go to the University of Maryland. Apparently, they'd been discussing this statement among themselves and decided an intervention was necessary because they determined that I was just too smart to go to UMD. (yeah all of this was in eighth grade -- funny to think about now! Also, I did love my years at UMD.)

What stunned me was that I had successfully managed to appear smart although I wasn't especially intelligent. Nobody knew that my grades weren't all that great.

Although I could sit still, I couldn't actually pay attention in class and spent a not so insignificant amount of time lost in my own thoughts. Going to the same school, the same building, with the same teachers and classmates made it nearly impossible to focus on my schoolwork. And going home day after day, I wasn't able to focus on my homework any better.

As long as things repeated day after day, week after week, and month after month, my focus remained weak.

High School: Smart but Struggling

When I got to high school, I took an IQ-oriented test with eminently derivable answers - and although I couldn't focus on things like memorization - I was really good at deriving the right answers to questions - so I qualified for all the gifted and talented classes. Yet, I still struggled in the non-derivable classes and, for example, didn't stay in G&T social studies - with all the unfortunate required memorization of historical facts - for long. But if a class needed a creative essay or to solve some math problems, no problem at all!

Finding My Path: The Power of Variety

College: First tendrils of consulting

Going to college allowed me a level of autonomy that I had not previously experienced, and there were opportunities for less sameness. My classes were in different buildings, with vastly different subjects and much more ability to pick topics that I found engaging. College is also where I realized how much I like being with different groups of people -- different backgrounds, different perspectives, and different types of conversations.

Beyond my classes, I could do vastly different types of activities too – from being a volunteer EMT with the local fire department to volunteering at a crisis hotline to teaching CPR to being a backup lifeguard at the UMD swimming pool.

Bouncing around to such a variety of activities kept me constantly interacting with different people doing different things and helped me focus on my schoolwork.

While my grades in college were definitely not perfect, the bouncing around helped me focus better on my classes.

Consulting: Variety through work

I knew that I liked to bounce between activities -- and that I loved what we now call UX research -- so pretty much immediately upon graduating from college, I accepted a job as a junior consultant taking on small research projects. That was exactly thirty years ago. The bulk of that time has involved me being a consultant, and I've loved so much of this work. My passion for the research plus the ability to have so much variety, working with different people all the time has helped me so much with professional focus.

Freelancing: Variety through autonomy

In 2007, I took on a job working in-house as a director of "usability and market research." It was fine, but I'd lost that variety. By mid-2008, I couldn't take it anymore. That's when I decided to go freelance.

The decision to go freelance sixteen years ago was one of the best I've made, and while freelancing isn't always perfect, there's a ton that I appreciate.

I appreciate the ability to say yes to the projects that I know that I can be successful with – those that will engage me.

And I appreciate the ability to take on other “little bit of this, little bit of that” kinds of activities, from writing a book to articles and posts to teaching and mentoring to public speaking. And I can easily bake in volunteer professional activities such as my involvement with the User Experience Professionals Association (UXPA).

Just like in college, this variety helps keep me grounded and focused professionally overall.

Strategies for Maintaining Focus and Engagement

Variety through physicality of place

Before Covid I was a big advocate of professional in-person activities whenever possible, be it research, meetings, speaking, teaching or meetups. Again, this gave me a variety of people, places and activities. ?

Post-Covid, there has been a movement to go remote when possible. ?Not me! While I certainly have a good home office setup (more about that momentarily), I still jump at the chance to be in-person with anyone anywhere. This is what keeps me most engaged and what drives me to success more than anything else.

Any opportunity to travel somewhere new for work – I’m there! (And I also love to travel just for fun too for the same reasons of staying engaged.)

Variety through exercise

In addition to the work variety I've described here, just like in college, I find focus through personal variety as well. One way is through exercise that I do throughout the day. More than any other single type of activity, exercise keeps me calm, balanced, and most importantly for my work, focused.

• Running – About twice a week, I break up my workday with a run. I live adjacent to a forest with plentiful trails and average about 4 miles per run through different trails and (occasionally when trails are very wet or icy) I run on the street.
• Swimming – Also about twice a week, I break up my workday with a swim. I live three houses from the local community swim club where I swim in the summer, and also swim at a local municipal pool a few miles away during the colder months.
• Home Gym – Pre-Covid, I used to belong to a gym and enjoyed breaking up my day by going there. During Covid my gym closed so I built up my home gym. I’ve got one piece of cardio equipment – a Precor Adaptive Motion Trainer - that I typically use about once a week. I also have a weight machine, dumbbells and all sorts of gizmos and gadgets to do different types of activities and stay engaged during the workday.
• Virtual reality – I have a Meta Quest and use it for VR fitness apps such as Supernatural or Xponential+ as well as meditation apps like Tripp. I appreciate the visual variety that my Meta Quest gives me, even while not leaving my house.

Variety in my home office

My home office is in the basement without any windows, yet I maintain variety here too in order to stay focused. I need just enough stimulation through variety but not too much. And that amount changes based on not only what I'm doing but how I feel on any given day.

• Variety through lighting – I have Hue bulbs and change the colors of my office regularly.
• Scented candles – I use scented candles to have variety of smell.
• Sound – Sometimes silence, sometimes music, sometimes nature sounds – I need just enough sound to give me something to chew on but not too much that distracts me.
• Visuals – I have a Samsung frame TV over my desk – sometimes I need more visual stimulation and will have a live beach cam to pretend I’m overlooking the beach, or may tune into one of the many YouTube fake-window views. I also have a lightbox on one wall that is made up to look like a real window with a large printed photo overlooking a stream.

Conclusion: Thriving with ADHD

It took time to get to where I am, but I am thriving now as a freelance consultant -- doing work that I love -- different projects all the time -- with so many different (and awesome) people -- often still in-person in a variety of places. But even when not in person, the variety that I have at home, both baked into my home office and with my frequent exercise-related activities, keeps me engaged and excited to face the day.

Do you have ADHD too? (or even if you don't)

My formula to have variety and work that is best suited for my strengths certainly works for me. But I'm also hoping that parts of my formula as described here may give you some ideas for your own life as well. Does anything I've described resonate with what you do now or what you may want to do in the future?

What other things do you do to introduce variety in your life?

I'm always looking for new ways to introduce variety into my life. What are other things that you do for variety? Especially things that help keep you sharp at work.

After you read this article, check out my next article in this series: My ADHD Journey Part 2: Intersections with Anxiety.

About Cory Lebson

Cory Lebson has been a user experience researcher and consultant for 30 years.

As the Principal and Owner of Lebsontech LLC, he focuses on leading small qualitative UX research and evaluation consulting projects for a variety of clients across industries. Cory is also the author of The UX Careers Handbook Second Edition (2022)?and is a LinkedIn Learning instructor with course topics related to UX research and careers.

Cory speaks frequently on topics related to UX career development, user research, and accessibility.?He has been featured both on tv and on the radio and has also published a number of articles. Check out Cory's written and video content.

Cory has an MBA in marketing and technology management, as well as an MA in sociology and a BS in psychology. Cory is a past president of the User Experience Professionals Association (UXPA) International and is also a past president of the UXPA DC Chapter.

Follow/connect with Cory on LinkedIn!