Aoki Lee Simmons Shares Tips On How She Accomplishes So Much With ADHD

Model Aoki Lee Simmons made a resolution for 2023 to share more of her helpful advice to her social media followers. To get that going, she recently shared a few videos on TikTok with some of her thoughts and what’s worked for her as a Harvard student and full-time model who has ADHD and is a "huge procrastinator." 

In the first video, Simmons, 20, explains why she’s decided to open up about things that have helped her get things done. “People do tell me I am decently accomplished for my age,” she said. “But I do not have the personality of an accomplished person, that I’m a huge procrastinator, I have ADHD, I consider myself rather lazy, I get bored really easily. However, I got into Harvard at 16, I’m graduating early, and I have two full time jobs.”

Simmons, a full-time model, is also a full-time college student, which may as well be classified as a full-time job itself. She also travels for her modeling career so she’s juggling many different things in her life currently. Having ADHD and accomplishing so many great things, she wanted to share some tips to help others who have busy lives. She continues by saying she doesn’t have “good discipline” and wanted to share what works best for her. 

“The simplest tip I have is I pick the one thing I want to do the least and the reward I want the most out of the day,” she explained. “Usually it’s like the science or the math things that I have like a coding assignment, and I also like really was looking forward to, like, Starbucks or something, and I want something kind of dumb. I want two Starbucks drinks and I only need one and can’t decide.” 

What works for Simmons is to tell herself if she has the coding assignment open on her laptop and doing what she least wanted to do on her to-do list, she can have that reward, such as a Starbucks drink. “I said I would do this assignment in advance and I could have like a matcha and a smoothie,” she explained. She continued to explain how she picks the “little stupid things” and rewards herself for doing such tasks. 

Simmons also shared another example of the logic that works for her. “If I have been wanting to buy some Lululemon running shorts, like I’ll just decide that you can totally do that as soon as you run 10 miles over the week,” she said. “From this point that you wanted them until you can buy them, it’s 10 miles. So run those 10 miles.”

In a follow-up video that continues the theme of sharing what works for her, she referenced her previous video and wrote the words, “treating your brain like a 5-year-old,” on the clip. She explained that she “doesn’t use behavioral science or whatever, or like psychology to get things done, because I’m like extra smart or trying to use science. I do it because I really need help getting things done, and science will make it easier.” 

The Harvard student continued to explain her thoughts on conditioning her brain so she can accomplish all the tasks she has ahead of her. “I just try to associate things that I love with things that I hate and then I will look up like, six months later and hate them less,” she explained. “I used to think I could never run. I did cross country in middle school. I stopped running and literally when I tried to run again in high school I was maxed out at like quarter of a mile; couldn’t run a mile. So I started to do basically was watch TikToks on the treadmill and then I have a kind of rule, I didn’t always follow it, you aren’t allowed to watch TikTok unless you’re on a treadmill.” She also explained that for her, running got easier. 

She also explained her thoughts on decision fatigue. “Decision fatigue is a proven principle that if you have too many decisions to make, your brain will start to get tired and you will find it hard to have discipline and make the right choice,” she explained.

This is a practice that Simmons does in all areas of her life. She explained how she will delete social media and forget her bank password to help her make the best decisions. “Treat your brain like a 5-year-old,” she said. “It’s all gonna reach for the candy, reach for the TikTok, reach for social media, and then just make it easier on said child to behave.”

Many of her followers took to the comments to add their thoughts. "You should write a book! ?," one follower wrote, to which Simmons responded, "I don’t think I can stay focused long enough. ?" Another called what Simmons was explaining, "Habit stacking." Another added, "Pairing TikTok on the treadmill is a genius idea, thanks for the tip!!"

Many other fans left positive comments for the model telling her she's doing great, thanking her for the tips, and that they can totally relate to needing something to keep them focused.