📸 Picture this. You’re trying to do work:

• The TV (news) is on

• Phone is popping off with group chat messages

• Instant messages and email chains from work colleagues.

A lot can go on, so quick and fast, and it can get overwhelming and overstimulating to say the least!

I used to shut down when I went through this. But, along the journey, I learned how to:

1. Respond better

2. Avoid getting overwhelmed entirely

Many a time, I’ve gone into the office and I just couldn’t get started on tasks due to the sensory stuff:

• Excess noise

• Office gossip

So I’d end up staying behind, catching up on work when most of my colleagues had left for the day. This was also before the WFH revolution.

I was very envious of those who came in at 9 am, completed their work, and left at 5 pm.

“How lucky you are” I thought as I watched them leave.

Strangely, from say 6 pm onwards, when my colleagues had left, I’d be “locked in”, and focused, it felt good!

Bear in mind, I wasn’t aware of my neurodivergence at this point!

So I made some tweaks to my working style:

1) Off-peak working
2) Work location
3) Better Communication

1) “Off-peak” working

Not advisable, but I go through phases where I switch my working hours (especially when commuting) from early starts (say 7-8 am) to late starts (say 10 am).

The main reasons for these are:

i) I avoid the morning “rush hours”, the noise, lights, and overcrowding on the public transports can be a bit much.

ii) I can get to work early and get stuck in the deep work when it’s relatively quiet. Or start later, knowing that I’ll have my deep work moment when my colleagues have retired for the workday.

2) Work location

This one requires a thorough understanding of your job.

Understanding the key deliverables, the requirements of the role, and assigning them to the days you work in the office and at home.

For me, when I’m working from home, I have fewer sensory challenges, enabling me to start deep work the moment I’ve dropped the kids off at school, to their arrival back home.

And if I want to get ahead, I can log back in from home once the kids are asleep.

That’s a solid sensory-free working day at my disposal!

But it’s important that I have to make those hours count, otherwise I’m screwed when I have to go back into the office!

I try to do all the work when at home, so there’s less to do when it’s a working-from-office day.

I don’t really like going into the office, but I get to “show my face”, ensuring I’m not on the “bad books”.

3) Better Communication

Sometimes, something important creeps up that may have been an oversight, just the nature of the work.

You don’t have to announce your neurodivergence to your colleagues if you don’t want to or feel comfortable.

But I find that telling my colleagues that I’m gonna spend some “solitary time” focusing on an “important task” helps me.

I block out my calendar to do these tasks and plug in my noise-cancelling headphones, listening to brown noise.

I’ve bumped into other senior colleagues on different floors in the building who are also seeking that headspace to think and do their work too!

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Some stuff I stumbled across on the net this week:

• RFK Jr. pledges autism cause reveal by Sept 2025 amid vaccine controversy and backlash.

Lastly,

Stay Different,

The AuDHD Exec

Disclaimer: I am not your psychiatrist, coach, doctor. Neurodiverse Diary does not provide medical services or professional counselling and is not a substitute for professional medical care. Everything I publish represents my opinions, experience, not advice.