It is 2pm and you are done. Not “I need a coffee” done. Done done. The kind of done where even making a decision about what to have for dinner feels like being asked to solve a maths problem.
If you have AuDHD, energy management is not about productivity tips. It is about understanding that your brain uses more fuel than most people realise, and planning accordingly.
Where the energy goes
When you have both ADHD and autism, your brain is working overtime in ways that are mostly invisible:
- Masking. Monitoring your behaviour, tone, facial expressions, and social responses takes enormous energy. You may not even realise you are doing it.
- Sensory processing. Filtering out background noise, bright lights, textures, and smells is constant work for an autistic brain. Add ADHD’s difficulty filtering stimuli and you are processing far more input than a neurotypical person.
- Changing gears. ADHD brains find transitions hard. Autistic brains find unexpected transitions especially hard. A day with lots of jumps between contexts is exhausting on both counts.
- Emotional regulation. Both ADHD and autism can involve intense emotions. Managing those internally while appearing calm externally is a full-time job on top of your actual job.
What helps
- Plan for recovery, not just activity. Every meeting, social interaction, or demanding task needs recovery time after it. Build gaps into your day, not as a luxury but as a necessity.
- Know your capacity ceiling. On a good day you probably have about four or five genuinely productive hours. Plan your important work within those hours and protect them.
- Reduce sensory load. Noise-cancelling headphones, dimmer lighting, comfortable clothing. Small changes to your environment can save significant energy.
- Front-load demanding tasks. Do the hardest thing when your energy is highest, usually in the morning. Leave light admin and low-demand work for the afternoon.
- Stop comparing your output to neurotypical colleagues. You are running different software on different hardware. Measuring yourself against their capacity is not fair or useful.
If you want to see where your brain handles the most friction, take the free Executive Function Skills Snapshot for a personalised profile.
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About Linda Fox
Linda Fox is an ICF-ACC credentialled Adult ADHD Life & Business Coach (CALC) with 26+ years of experience and lived experience of ADHD herself. She works with entrepreneurs, solicitors, and business owners, helping them build practical strategies that fit how their brain actually works. UK-based, coaching worldwide via Zoom.
