There’s a growing number of side hustles to be had—opportunities to make money in your spare time, on activities and challenges you’re passionate about, and with a high potential for growth and development.

They come in many shapes and sizes, they can be short-term and project-based, found through existing platforms or built first-hand, online or out in the local area. 

This is quite beneficial for adults with ADHD. Side hustles offer more autonomy and control, and they have the fast-paced dynamic and creative freedom that people with ADHD thrive in.

It can be difficult, however, to find the right one and build it into something significant. There can be a lot of trial and error before a side hustle takes off. 

Gathered below are 10 of the more reliable options, side hustles that have a track record of success, and that will be particularly amenable to adults with ADHD.

1. Freelance Writing

If you enjoy researching topics and have decent writing and story-telling skills—and if you don’t, these are easy enough to pick up—then many businesses and sites will pay for content, from copy to blog posts and even books. 

There are several platforms where freelance writers can find work, such as Freelancer and Upwork, but you may need to wade through an abundance of low-paying gigs at the beginning. 

It can take some time to build a portfolio and find better-paying clients, but it’s a creative and rewarding role, and new tools like AI are making it easier to streamline the work. 

You have the flexibility to choose the topics that you’re most interested in and know the most about, and you can work from anywhere and at the times most conducive to your focus and creativity.

2. Graphic Design

If you have an eye for the visual side of things, digital art and design can be a great ADHD side hustle. You can get a diverse range of projects that require creativity and visual problem-solving. 

Like freelance writing, there are a few platforms available for finding design gigs (Upwork, Behance, 99Designs, Dribbble). You might find yourself creating anything from logos to websites, illustrations, or print materials.

You’ll likely need to learn how to use software like Adobe Illustrator or Photoshop. There are also a number of apps that are making design much easier, such as Canva, Figma, and Sketch.

It has similar flexibility to writing—you can choose the projects and clients that better align with your interests, and you can set your schedule and work from anywhere. 

3. Tutoring

If you have expertise in a certain field and enjoy talking to and helping others, you could consider teaching people online. 

What you teach depends on you, and the options are vast. You might teach beginner maths or science, advanced music theory, or how to use a specific piece of software like Photoshop. 

You get to set your own rates and schedule, and there’s no advanced software to learn—a basic video call app like Skype or Zoom can suffice. The challenging part is finding students, and for that, you could try a platform like Wyzant or Superprof.

Watching people learn is a rewarding experience, and you can have students of different levels and learning styles from all over the world, which certainly keeps it engaging. 

4. Photography

Everyone’s a photographer these days—at least, everyone with a smartphone that snaps pictures regularly. But it’s still possible to get paid for good photography and photo editing.

You’ll want visual compositional skills and a grasp of software like Photoshop, and eventually upgrade that smartphone to a decent camera and other related equipment. 

You can sell your photos on stock photography sites (Shutterstock, Adobe Stock, iStock), or you can offer photography services for weddings or local events, portraits of people, even portraits of pets.  

One benefit of photography is that you should get to spend a bit more time outdoors, in various locations and settings, rather than all the time in front of a screen. 

5. Virtual Assistant

A perfect ADHD side hustle if you have great organizational and time-management skills is working remotely as a virtual assistant for a small business or a busy entrepreneur or executive. 

You would be providing administrative, technical, or creative assistance—think of scheduling meetings, managing email and social media, and bookkeeping. 

Demand for virtual assistants is growing as more businesses go online and remote. This gives you a chance to choose clients that best match your interests, take a look on Upwork, Remote, or TaskRabbit to find them. 

6. Pet Care Services

If you love animals, a perfect ADHD side hustle awaits in the pet care industry. In large-ish cities, you’ll find numerous pet owners, and when they travel or are stuck at work, they need someone to look after their furry friends. 

You can pet-sit them in their own home while the owners are away, care for them in your own home, train them, or just pop in to take them for walks. 

Naturally, you’ll need to know how to take good care of animals, and you likely need some references to start—ask some friends or family who have seen how good you are with pets. 

To find work, you could start by simply handing out flyers and cards to local pet stores and vets, or register on platforms like Rover. 

This can be a fun job, great if you like being active and outdoors, and if your main job is online or remote it makes a perfect match for longer-term house sits. 

7. Social Media Management

This is the perfect side hustle for adults with ADHD that love all things social media and staying on top of trends. 

In this case, you’ll be helping other businesses improve their presence on platforms like Facebook, Instagram, X (formerly Twitter), and LinkedIn. You might be posting pictures for the local coffee shop, or running promotions for an online software company. 

You’ll need to know how to analyse engagement metrics, produce effective posts and campaigns for each network, and respond to comments appropriately. You’ll likely use apps like Hootsuite or Buffer to schedule posts across networks.

You’ll have to stay up-to-date on changes to the different platforms that could influence how content is displayed or discovered, but the fast-paced nature of this realm can be very engaging. 

8. Personal Trainer

Health and fitness are growing industries, so if you’re an active person who enjoys spending time at the gym, who knows proper technique and fitness plans, this is one way to combine that with earning potential. 

This can be done both online over video calls and emails, or offline at a local gym or in an outdoor space. You can rely on other platforms like Trainerize or TrueCoach, or you could even consider building your own app. 

Certification may be required before you can take on clients in certain gyms or platforms, but this will inspire more trust that you know what you’re doing. 

You’ll need to know how to tailor fitness plans to people of different abilities, ages, and goals; track their progress over time; and coach and communicate effectively to maintain motivation.

9. App Development

Building apps can be a great outlet for all the creative ideas swirling around your head. Whether it’s a game, productivity tool, or any other unique app you think should exist.

The basic versions can often be quick to build, and once you have it out there and get some feedback you can decide if you want to add new features and improvements or move on to the next idea. 

While app development can be challenging and require some knowledge of different programming languages, there are many places to learn them and a growing number of no-code platforms (Bubble, Glide) that make it easier. 

If you can get a few reasonably popular apps out there, you can make significant money from sales, subscriptions, or advertising. This will probably require making a few duds, but enjoy the creative process and those will become learning experiences. 

10. Online Business

It’s never been easier to start your own online business. You can sell anything from handmade crafts to digital products, make them yourself or partner with other suppliers and producers.

Once you know what niche and products you want to sell, you can build a website and storefront using any number of apps and tools—WordPress, Shopify, Etsy, for example. 

There’s complete freedom in this option. You choose what and how you sell, when and where you work, and all the branding and promotional avenues. It also has a very high-income potential.

To reach the highest income potential, however, you’ll need good business and marketing acumen, and be willing to invest significant time and energy building your brand and driving traffic. 

Find Your ADHD Friendly Side Hustle

For someone with ADHD, it’s easy to get excited about new ideas only to have something else grab your attention soon after, what’s been given the name ‘shiny object syndrome’. 

This can lead to feeling like you’ve failed, but there is a better way to frame this. Each attempt at a side hustle is an experiment. There’s no harm in trying something for a couple of weeks and moving on if it doesn’t maintain your interest.

You can even try more than one at once, which gives you the ability to jump between gigs when you need a change. Many entrepreneurs and businesses fail—the majority of them—which is why you shouldn’t be afraid to discard them and move on. 

Before you start any idea, ask yourself: can you still see yourself doing it in a few months’ time? Is it interesting enough that you’ll persist through difficulties? Will you learn valuable skills from it? Once you find a good one, give it a shot.