Prioritize your tasks so that you can make the best use of your time. Think about which tasks are urgent, important, or unavoidable as well as which tasks will be time-intensive for you. Make a schedule to help guide your day. Try to schedule things that require a lot of focus during your more productive times of the day. Remember to include short breaks in your daily plan to allow your mind to recharge and refocus.
Make lists of things you need to do, remember, keep with you, pick up, etc. Remember to refer to your lists throughout the day – they won’t do you any good if you don’t. [3] X Research source If you need to, make a master list of your other lists and refer to that one frequently.
Smartphones and tablets are great for their calendar functions, reminders, alarms, and more. Use online spell-checkers when writing. Some people with dyslexia find dictation devices and tools useful when writing. Try audiobooks, text-to-speech programs, and apps, or scanners that read text aloud from hard copy materials. [4] X Research source
Professionals may be able to help you get accommodations and modifications to help support you. Consulting with others in this area can also introduce you to more effective strategies for coping with dyslexia.
For example, if you know it takes you roughly five minutes to read one full page of text, and you have 10 pages to read, you need to set aside at least an hour to complete this assignment. If needed, ask your teacher how much time she expects other students to spend on the assignment. Consider doubling, or at least increasing that time for yourself. Don’t wait to start on your assignments. The sooner you start, the more time you will have to work on them. If you wait, you may find that you don’t have enough time to complete them. Or you could end up doing a poor job because you were rushing.
Put electronic devices on silent and turn off the music or TV. Try to make sure your friends, coworkers, and family know that this is “study time” so that they can avoid interrupting you. Keep only the things that you need to complete the task around you. Put away anything you don’t need.
For example, if you have a 20 page reading assignment, plan to read five pages at a time with short breaks to digest what you have read. If you have to write a report, break it down so that one day you write the outline, the next day you complete the introduction, one section of the body the next day, and so forth.
After you complete a chunk of work, think briefly about what you have learned or reviewed. This way you can make sure you understand it so far or know if you need to review it more. Take a minute or two to just clear your mind before you return from your break. Keep your breaks to only a few minutes, longer than that and you may not be using your time wisely.
This doesn’t mean be an underachiever, but it does mean you don’t need to make the task harder or more difficult than is required. For example, if you have to write a report about Plato, don’t turn it into a study all of Greco-Roman antiquity.
If you are a student, talk with your teacher about modifying your assignment so that you can draw on strengths other than reading and writing. For example, can you make a poster, comic book, diorama, video, or model? If it is a work assignment, try to incorporate more visual elements into it. For example, include charts, graphs, illustrations, and/or models. Or try making it an oral report that you don’t have to read. Incorporate your strengths in your studying to make it more interesting and easier for you to engage with.
Use flash cards on a regular basis to familiarize yourself with frequently used words and letter combinations. Read ‘easy’ text just for the decoding practice. See if you can decrease the amount of time it takes for you to read the text. Read aloud often. Because of the difficulties with decoding words, reading aloud can be a challenging and sometimes embarrassing experience for people with dyslexia.
An index card with uppercase and lowercase letters, as well as numbers handwritten on it, is an unobtrusive may to have character models. Flashcards can also serve the dual purpose of reviewing letter sounds and showing what they look like.
Think about what your main idea is, what details support it, and how you want to conclude. Read your writing aloud. It is sometimes easier to spot mistakes this way. Have someone else read your writing to you so you can hear how your ideas flow together.
