Reactive Habits
Creating better habits is a topic of conversation I hear often. It can be anything from someone who is trying to eat healthier, get to bed earlier, or even setting time to learn a new skill…it seems that we all have habits we are trying to establish. Or those us that have even bigger ideas of creating a better routine which is really just a set of habits at certain times of the day. We all have habits…some good and some not so good. And this is no different for those with ADHD minds but it does take a few more repetitions to solidify a well-developed habit.
When we create automatic habits we are working to catch ourselves at the right time to do the right thing. Automatic habits can be things that you naturally do at certain times because you’ve done them for so long such as brushing your teeth as soon as you get up. You don’t really think about it and it just happens. Another example is setting up money to automatically deposit into a savings account. These types of habits are the best because you set them and you forget them and you are successful at the same time.
Reactive habits are very similar to automatic habits in that we setup systems for a notification to happen automatically such as setting an alarm on your phone. The alarm goes off automatically to signal that you need to do something and you react to the alarm. The difference is that with reactive habits we need an action to happen. In this case, you get an email, your alarm goes off, or you get a text are all examples of a disruption that causes you to react by taking an action.
Automatic and reactive habits are excellent ways to help the ADHD mind to develop positive habits that lead to building wins. Our ADHD friends want to be able to collect their homework assignments and turn them in, they want to do a good job, they want to feel good about themselves; however, due to their executive functioning limitations they are less likely to consistently make these things happen despite their intentions. I recently read that those with ADHD receive more than 20,000 negative messages from parents, teachers, and other adults than those without ADHD.
Just think about how this impacts their self esteem, confidence and overall hope of being able to do something right. We can help turn this around by creating reactive habits that help facilitate the executive functioning tasks to collect task assignments, remind them to turn in assignments, and prompt them to be on task. Everyone uses tools to help them get all the things done. For example, we use automatic bill pay or bank transfers, we use calendar notifications, or alarms on our phone. When we use these tools we create wins and allow ourselves to establish positive habits. Using these same tools for our students is a great way to support and encourage them to be their best and allow their talents and personality to shine bright.
Check out how DisruptADHD can help your student utilize tools to create automatic and reactive habits so they can start to feel positive results and start to build their self efficacy in knowing they can impact their situation.