Time management

 I am ADD and struggle tremendously with time management. When you are cooking you have to pay meticulous attention to what you are doing. Especially when you have something in the oven, you cannot be distracted by other things. You must also plan meals so that they are ready on time, making sure dishes that should be hot are not prepared too soon before the meal and timing multiple dishes to be ready at the same time

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The first lesson of my certification from Top Chef University urges meticulous organization. It teaches that one MUST read a recipe all the way through, prepare all ingredients beforehand and have an idea of all the steps one must take in order to complete your meal in a timely fashion and with the best results possible. It also talks of hygiene, something that must be foremost in all places, especially the kitchen.

I'm sure you can conjure many metaphors on your own. But, let's use some of the most common and general ones- the school assignment and the office project. Learning the importance of reading through a recipe thoroughly before starting cooking will (hopefully)help a person form the habit of reading through instructions before he/she does anything else. For the student, this means reading though assignments so that she can ask any question up front. I have been caught many times having to go back and re-read something or e-mail my professor at ten o'clock at night because I didn't understand something. There have also been times where I ask my teacher, and then I re-read it, and then I feel silly that I ever asked

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Which leads me to talk about jobs. I guess this applies to office projects to, but of the things I've been exposed to, this is the most critical time one need to do their homework. APPLYING TO A JOB OR GRAD SCHOOL. There is little to no excuse to ask a potential employer or an admissions officer a silly question that you would have found the answer to if only you had scrolled down one more paragraph.

Ok, next. For both the student and the professional, one must be prepared. Whether it's for class or an office meeting, it is important to lay out everything he/she needs for where they are going. This might include laying an outfit out at night, putting things by the door, or writing notes and putting them somewhere they will be not be overlooked..

It is always helpful to break one's work down into steps. This helps relieve stress because one does not have a looming doom of a huge project over them.

Cooking will help with instill hygiene as a priority in very young kids. I suggest grabbing your 5-year-old and making cookies.

Essentially, cooking is crucial for ADD kids :p