ADHD Tool Tip: Activate Your Brain with Peppermint

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When I taught primary school, secondary school, and college students, I treated them to peppermints before each test. I had read the research regarding the positive effects of peppermint on stress, focus, memory, and other brain functions. It also made test day a little more pleasant.

For people with ADHD, maintaining focus, managing distractions, and staying mentally alert can be daily challenges. Scientific studies have demonstrated peppermint’s positive impact on attention, memory, and mood. Peppermint contains menthol, a compound known to stimulate the central nervous system. Research suggests that peppermint can increase alertness and mental clarity, enhance working memory and cognitive function, and reduce mental fatigue and stress.

Peppermint and ADHD Symptoms

1. Improving Focus and Attention

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Many people with ADHD experience brain fog and difficulty sustaining attention. Peppermint’s stimulating properties may help by increasing oxygen to the brain and promoting wakefulness. chewing peppermint gum, drinking peppermint tea, or using peppermint essential oil may provide a natural way to regain focus during tasks that require concentration

2. Reducing Hyperactivity and Restlessness

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ADHD often comes with hyperactivity or an inability to sit still. While peppermint is known for increasing alertness, it also has calming effects. Aromatherapy studies suggest that peppermint can reduce stress and anxiety, which can be beneficial for individuals who experience restlessness or nervous energy.

 

3. Enhancing Memory and Mental Organization

People with ADHD frequently struggle with working memory, such as remembering tasks, instructions, or where they left their keys. Since peppermint has been shown to support memory retention, incorporating it into daily routines might help with mental organization and recall.

4. Managing Overwhelm and Sensory Overload

ADHD brains are often highly sensitive to sensory input, leading

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to feelings of overwhelm. Peppermint’s cooling and calming properties can provide a sensory reset, helping to refocus and reduce frustration. Simply inhaling peppermint oil or using a peppermint-infused lotion can provide a moment of relief.

 

Ways to Use Peppermint for ADHD

If you want to experiment with peppermint as a natural tool for focus and mental clarity, here are a few easy ways to incorporate it into your routine:

Chew peppermint gum during tasks that require sustained attention.

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Drink peppermint tea before studying or working.

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Use peppermint essential oil in a diffuser to create a stimulating workspace.

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Apply diluted peppermint oil to your wrists or temples for an on-the-go focus boost.

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Keep peppermint candies or lozenges handy for a quick mental refresher.

If you’d like to try using products in this post, clicking on any of the highlighted words or the picture will take you to Amazon. As an Amazon Associate, I earn on qualifying purchases.

 

ADHD Tool Tip: Release Excess Energy to Focus Better

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When the general public thinks about ADHD, they probably picture the behaviorally hyperactive male child who can’t sit still or respect the personal space of others. What is less often acknowledged is that adults with ADHD must also contend with excess energy, and hyperactivity can apply to behaviors, like nail biting, and to thoughts, like ideas flooding the brain. In all cases, the pent up excess energy inhibits the ability to focus and contributes to distractibility.

How can we effectively manage this excess energy as adults without annoying the people around us or feeling shame about ourselves? It’s important to find a way to appropriately dissipate the energy. Fidget toys designed for adults can help.

As stated previously, this is an entry in a series of articles I’m publishing to share my recommendations of ADHD tools. Not every tool I share will work for every person. You are a unique individual in a unique situation with your own unique experience of the world. Nonetheless, it can help to have the choices of various tools narrowed down for you, and I encourage experimentation.

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The Fube Fidget Cube pictured here has multiple sensory stimulating sides. If the brain gets bored with one type of motion, you can choose another side to manipulate. It easily fits discreetly in a pocket or hand. It’s also quiet, so it can be used during a meeting that requires your concentration or in a public space to relieve anxiety.

 

This Ono Roller is also a quiet ADHD fidget toy to release excess energy and improve concentration whether

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alone or in a group. It fits in a pocket or one hand so it can be used discreetly. It comes in a junior size for smaller hands and a full size. One of the things I really love about is that you can order the roller material (plastic, aluminum, silicone) that is most satisfying to your sensory needs.

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This Magnet Rings fidget toy is so satisfying and provides multiple ways to quietly manipulate them with one hand. Like the other fidget toys listed above, they fit into a pocket and can be used discreetly. There are options for ordering sets of more than three so you can change things up when your brain gets bored.

If you want to try any of these ADHD fidget toys for adults, click on the picture or the highlighted words to view them on Amazon. Full transparency, as an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases. Only purchase my recommended ADHD products if you believe they fit your needs.

 

ADHD Tool Tip: Keep a Running To-Do List

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The ADHD tool I’m sharing in this post is a very simple, basic item: a 3″x5″ pocket journal with a pen. As I’ve stated previously, tools that work for one person do not work for everyone. Choose the tools that best support your unique brain and your unique executive function challenges.

Something that works for me and my brain is a running to-do list. I keep it in a small journal that tucks neatly into my pocket or my purse or, if I’m traveling, my backpack. (I like this one because it comes with a pen, which is very convenient and reduces the chance that my thought might escape while I hunt down something to write with.) At the beginning of the year, I turn to a new page, write the year on it, and continue my list.

As various things I want to remember enter my thoughts, whether something major or something trivial, I add each to my running to-do list. Sometimes, I’m very diligent about keeping my journal with me to write in, and, other times, I lose track of it altogether. When I find it again, I keep going with my list. This running to-do list in my pocket journal ensures that the fleeting thought I had about that very important thing that I keep forgetting will be recorded and available when I’m ready to act on it.

Sometimes I use the list to inform my plans for a day or a week. Sometimes, I go through it and cross off things I’ve completed without even realizing I did. Sometimes, I review the list from the current year and past years to see how much I’ve accomplished.

Not everything I put on the list gets completed. There are things that I’ve written in it that became less important or even irrelevant as time passed and situations changed. That’s okay. In a way it tells a story of my life and its phases and what was important in a particular period of time. The point of the list is to support working memory, decrease anxiety, and evidence successes along the way.

Yes, you can accomplish the same thing using the notes app on your phone or a Google doc on your computer, but don’t underestimate the powerful brain-body connection that occurs when handwriting something. The simple act of handwriting something you want to remember increases the likelihood that you will, even if you lose what you wrote it on, far greater than if you type it into a digital format.

If you’d like to try using a pocket journal to record a running to-do list, clicking on any of the highlighted words or the picture will take you to Amazon. As an Amazon Associate, I earn on qualifying purchases. I like this journal because of the size and convenience of it. If there’s another journal that gets you excited about keeping a running to-do list, get it.

ADHD Tool Tip: Use a Meeting Notebook

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So many of my coaching clients work in roles and industries that require them to attend frequent meetings inside and outside of their departments and teams. Several have shared with me that having a dedicated meeting notebook with prompts has enabled them to walk away from meetings sure that they recorded the key information they need to effectively follow through with action items.

As stated throughout this ADHD tools series, products I’m sharing are only recommendations based on the experience of my clients and myself. There is no one tool that works for everyone. That said, there are so many ADHD tools and products to choose from, I recognize that it does help to have the choices narrowed down.

This Lemare Meeting Notebook for Work Organization is my recommendation for keeping up with work meetings, because working memory challenges and overwhelm posed by ADHD can interfere with recalling key points and assigned tasks after the meeting wraps. The spiral binding lets the pages lie flat and the two-page spread provides lots of room for pre-thinking about an upcoming meeting, writing notes during the meeting, and doodling (for those who doodle to concentrate).

I like that this notebook has prompts for

the meeting objective, the key discussion points, the action items with due dates, and the date and time of the next meeting. There’s a separate page for writing down other details. Pages for creating an index are located at the front of the notebook for easy meeting look-up. And, yes, there are apps for this, but don’t underestimate the power of handwriting information to support working memory and promote recall.

If you’d like to experiment with this meeting notebook, click on the highlighted text or on either of the images to purchase it from Amazon. As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualified purchases.