ADHD student here. I finished undergrad 9 years ago. Accidentally took a couple of years off, and then spent 6 years working in a research lab and getting back on my scientific feet, so to speak. I’ll finally be starting a Ph.D program this fall (yay!).

I took medication during undergrad, but didn’t take good care of myself. If you’re taking meds, please make sure you’re eating healthily, drinking plenty of water, and getting some exercise in. It really does make a huge difference. I was stressed out, unhealthy, and in a constant amphetamine crash by the end of each undergrad semester.

Organization is also key, as obvious as that sounds. I really hate promoting self-help books, as I find the genre to be full of pseudoscience and unreasonable promises. But David Allen’s book “Getting Things Done” was quite helpful for me. It’s mostly common sense instruction, but it’s helpful to reinforce what you probably already know and put it into practice.

The gist of it is that we should always write down the things that we need to do. Write them down as soon as they come into our heads. As much as we tell ourselves that we’ll remember them, we tend not to. Having a reliable and organized to-do system always on-hand takes the anxiety away from feeling like we’ve forgotten something. We can hold ourselves accountable, and we get that little rush of dopamine from checking something off the list. We tend to be able to accomplish more when we’re not worrying about what we’ve forgotten, and we can be more goal-oriented in our staging of tasks.

There’s no way I would’ve been prepared for grad school with my organization skills from undergrad. Even if it’s not David Allen’s method, it’s worth spending time to find one that works for you.