I did start meds but I've noticed that the key factor in how well they work is how I spend the first hour of my day.

If I open YouTube or social media the day is a wash.

If I start the day making breakfast listening to music with the idea of doing things that day, it goes great.

One thing that really helps me go with the second option is having a tab already open from the day before that has a playlist I can just start. And it's the only one open.

I was diagnosed with Inattentive ADHD so my experience may be different than someone diagnosed with Hyperactive ADHD.

Also be sure that they're doing more than just meds, education about various ways of managing ADHD in conjunction with meds will lead to far better outcomes than those things separately.

Or maybe the meds don't work for them and they need to try something different. One of my friends tried 3 different meds before they landed on one that worked.

This is literally the diagnostic criteria: https://add.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/adhd-questionnaire-ASRS111.pdf

Have a go and see if the questions resonate

Talk to your doctor and/or psychiatrist and they can't test and diagnose. Even being diagnosed, I still often feel like I'm just making excuses when something stems from my ADHD, but it's important to remember that it's not fair to yourself to downplay your own challenges. Acknowledging the challenges you face, and their affects on your life is not making excuses. It's being honest with yourself about what you experience.

Just like everyone gets sad but not everyone gets depressed, everyone experiences ADHD symptoms but only some have ADHD. It is about the frequency and severity of the impact on your life.

Everybody pees, but if you're doing it 80 times a day there's probably an issue.

My phone has been a lifesaver for remembering things. I grew up in the days of paper planners, so it's a real treat to be able to set up reminders etc. Prior to that I used lists and post-it notes. Post-it notes are tricky because if you use them a lot they become part of the scenery, so getting an assortment and changing to a different color note helped me to notice them.

For developing habits, instead of "do it for 30 days and it'll stick" (lmao) I try to shoot for progressively more consistency over time. So when getting back in the habit of flossing, every day was overwhelming but I could do once per week which was better than nothing. Then every other day. Now I do it daily. Does this work with everything? No but when it works it works. In other words don't let the perfect be the enemy of the good. Some > none.

Mindfulness is not a cure-all but it is a good building block. I practiced just being present and noticing my thoughts. Noticing thoughts allowed me to start observing my train of thought to see where exactly it derails and keeps me from getting things done. If I can figure out where I'm getting distracted I can create workarounds for those. Sometimes I have to literally make a diagram of the thought pattern, like a flowchart, to see what's happening.

I also made a list of my main goals in life including the pedestrian ones like eating healthier and doing creative things, and posted a thing on my fridge to help remember to do something towards those goals every day that I feel up to it. That cuts down on the amount of time I spend in neutral gear wondering what to do with my time. If I don't know wtf else to do then at least I can do something small that will advance a life goal.

The last thing I'll say is give yourself some grace. Nobody has their shit together. Some people just fake it better. Reward yourself whenever you make progress and go out of your way to point out to yourself when you accomplished something or successfully used a cognitive tool. That voice in your head that says you're dumb and can't do anything? It's a jerk, don't listen to it. Go out of your way to rub your successes in its face.

That's all I got, hope it helped.