#070: Today, we're diving into the life of Peter Shankman, a dynamo entrepreneur and best-selling author who's turned ADHD into his superpower. From skydiving to 4 a.m. wake-up calls, we'll uncover the 4 key daily routines that keep his engine running at peak performance. And we're not stopping there—we'll also explore the intense world of David Goggins, a man who's pushed past every limit. All this, plus practical tips on how you can harness the same energy in your own life, making every day a little more focused, a little more productive, and a lot more ADHD-friendly. Buckle up; it's going to be an insightful ride!
ADHD POWER LINKS
Source Used in This Episode:
Timestamps
(00:00:00) Introduction
(00:03:30) ADHD as a Unique Trait
(00:08:48) Stimulation and ADHD
(00:14:39) Sleep Routines
(00:23:55) Creating Reminders
(00:25:49) Exercising Daily
(00:33:59) Focused Work
(00:40:01) Minimalism and Decision Making
#070: Today, we're diving into the life of Peter Shankman, a dynamo entrepreneur and best-selling author who's turned ADHD into his superpower. From skydiving to 4 a.m. wake-up calls, we'll uncover the 4 key daily routines that keep his engine running at peak performance. And we're not stopping there—we'll also explore the intense world of David Goggins, a man who's pushed past every limit. All this, plus practical tips on how you can harness the same energy in your own life, making every day a little more focused, a little more productive, and a lot more ADHD-friendly. Buckle up; it's going to be an insightful ride!
ADHD POWER LINKS
Source Used in This Episode:
Timestamps
(00:00:00) Introduction
(00:03:30) ADHD as a Unique Trait
(00:08:48) Stimulation and ADHD
(00:14:39) Sleep Routines
(00:23:55) Creating Reminders
(00:25:49) Exercising Daily
(00:33:59) Focused Work
(00:40:01) Minimalism and Decision Making
The most successful ADHDers in the world see ADHD as a superpower. This podcast, adhd Power, is my attempt to document the many failures and lessons I've learned on my journey of living a high performance life with ADHD. My hope is that you use these lessons to increase your productivity and maybe someday soon, turn your ADHD into a valuable asset in your life. Please share and enjoy. Welcome to the show. I'm Nikola, an ADHD Productivity Coach, master, Student and Podcaster with ADHD, and today we are diving into the life of Peter Schankman, a Dynamo entrepreneur and bestselling author who's turned ADHD into his superpower. From skydiving to 4am wake up calls, we will uncover the four key daily routines that keep his energy running at peak performance. And we are not stopping there. We will also explore the intense world of David Goggins, a man who's pushed past every limit. All this plus practical tips on how you can harness the same energy in your life, making everyday a little bit more focused, a little more productive and a lot more ADHD friendly. So buckle up. It's going to be an insightful ride. Let's get started, guys. And, by the way, real quick here. Check out the description below for the link to the article on Schankman's routines from the Vision Therapy Center that I use for this episode. Alright, let's get started, guys. So Peter Schankman is a successful entrepreneur, international keynote speaker and bestselling author with ADHD. By the way, his author, also the author of the book Faster Than Normal. Torbler, charge your focus, productivity and success with the secrets of the ADHD brain.
Speaker 1:So if you're interested in reading about ADHD and reading a book that is, I would say, more strength based, maybe that's a good read for you. Personally, I haven't read until yet, but a lot of people, guess, really enjoyed this read. It's similar. It reminds me a little bit. If I read this title, it reminds me of the book ADHD 2.0. I have it just in front of me, a great book from Edward M Hallowell, dr Ned Hallowell and John J Raidi. I love this book because it really focuses on the strength of ADHD and not only the negative aspects. Because for me personally, this is really crucial when it comes to ADHD, because what I discovered in my personal life or my journey with ADHD? If I all the time would focus on the negatives, I'm more likely to act in alignment to that. Or if I think I have a disability, it's way more possible that I think like something is wrong in my head and that also my action looks more like that, that I actually have a disability, but I actually see ADHD as a trait, as a unique, correct trait that makes us a unique human being, and I guess for me personally, this mindset shift was definitely something that also helped me on my ADHD journey. So if you want to read a book about ADHD, maybe that's interesting to you Fossil Than Normal by Peter Schenkman.
Speaker 1:Now, peter Schenkman wasn't formally diagnosed with ADHD until his 30s and he says by then he had unknowingly been beneficially self-medicating himself. He said I wasn't just managing my ADHD, I was using it to my advantage, and I guess this is a really interesting thing what he just said, because what I discovered I made a lot of studies when it comes to successful people with ADHD and always I see a common pattern I discovered is simply they could find something in their life where they use their strength of ADHD or simply their character yeah, like their unique character, strength and oftentimes that manifests themselves in a job or in a pursuit that has a lot of stimulation yeah, stimulation like I can be, for example. That is also the reason why many successful ADHD years are entrepreneurs. In entrepreneurship, you have, interestingly, a lot of different stimulations. I also am myself an entrepreneur and I love this work because I get so much different stimulation, because you need to do so many different tasks.
Speaker 1:And, interestingly, I would say, the people who are successful with ADHD, they have found a way, a productive pursuit in their life to use their ADHD to do their advantage, like, for example, many executives, ceos, cfos, coos have ADHD, obviously, and I have a pretty good eye and I can pretty fast see if somebody has it or not, and that's also quite interesting. The point here is simply finding a way how to express your creativity, to express this energy you have, that your brain has this fast thinking, for example, and once you find something, a productive pursuit in your life, you're really. I guess maybe that can help you to harness your full potential. In my case, it definitely helped me. I personally love, for example, work. I really love working and I love to be ambitious and to optimize a lot of things in my life because I really enjoy doing that and that is something really I'm really grateful to do all the things I'm doing in my life and to live a high performance life with ADHD, and I'm also grateful to share that with you, but what I'm saying is also in my life, I would say. I found a productive pursuit, like, for example, as an ADHD productivity coach, as a podcaster, but also as a master's student. I found certain ways or things in my life that gives me meaning and I really and there I can really use my ADHD brain, my race car brain, to my advantage. And I guess that is so fundamental.
Speaker 1:And coming back to what Peter Shankman said, I wasn't just managing my ADHD, I was using it to my advantage. Maybe you can find certain ways in your life how to harness your potential, how to use it to your advantage, by really finding ways where you can use the strength of ADHD to your advantage, like creativity, entrepreneurial spirit, sense of justice, sensitivity, intuition so many wonderful gifts. And I'm not denying, of course we can have some challenges with ADHD, but we can learn skills, we can work on ourselves to really thrive. That's the point I'm making here. All right, so let's move on.
Speaker 1:And I just talked about this constant stimulation that many of us with ADHD love, like, for example, always doing something, never standing still, always wanting, always being curious, wanting to learn a book, reading a book, listening to a podcast, and of course we can go to a certain extreme, but, of course, fair enough, you know, if you want to be highly successful. I guess that's also quite necessary, because I came across a powerful quote from a professor. He said something like extreme people achieve extreme results and you can't expect abnormal results if you do normal things. That's also always something I keep in mind. Now, the point here to go on step further simply, I want to share with you a little bit more information when it comes to this stimulation and ADHD.
Speaker 1:Now, peter Schenkman what he's doing is skydiving, training for triathlons, taking what some considered huge business risk, and Schenkman also says these things were actually giving him the dopamine, serotonin and adrenaline hits that allowed him to focus and fueled him through a highly productive day, and that's quite interesting. If we can find ways that stimulates our brain and we can get that from different sources, it doesn't need to be like it doesn't need to skydive if you go, if you won't go for it. Yeah, the point is simply finding something that you truly enjoy. And I also have a friend, by the way, a friend of mine. He also has ADHD and he's also somebody who is doing similar things, and I guess, if you can find certain things in your life that gives you maybe a certain level of stimulation. Maybe that can help you. In my case, definitely. As I said before, it definitely helped me.
Speaker 1:Now, seeking constant stimulation for our ADHD brain is, from my point of view, a common pattern among us with ADHD, and a good example I guess in regards to that is David Goggins. David Goggins is a retired US Navy SEAL ultra-marathon runner and ultra-distant cyclist known for his extreme physical endurance challenges. He has set records in numerous underruns underruns events and is the author of Can't Hurt Me, which details his life from overcoming adversity to achieving extraordinary feats. And Goggins inspires many with his messages, a message of mental toughness and resilience and teaching others to push past their perceived limits. And what I read, he also has ADHD, by the way. I'm not 100% if it's reliable the source, but if it's true, yeah, I guess it's right. Or I read he has ADHD. But you never know. I'm not 100% because I guess I never found an interview or an article where he himself said it, but I wrote it in a. I read it in another article. So if I'm wrong here, please, only I wanted to mention that, but most likely I guess, from my point of view, but because I watched many interviews of him, I have a pretty good eye. Maybe I would say maybe he has ADHD, but you never know, of course. Yeah, the point here is simply please double check it again to be 100% sure, all right. And also in that regards, I find David Goggins is a highly inspiring person. Yeah, I'm really really mental tough and he I found a powerful quote of David Goggins.
Speaker 1:He wrote on Twitter something like, or he wrote don't let whatever disability you have, be it mental or physical, cause your mind to close to the possibilities. There is always something we can do to better ourselves. Once your mind closes, you will become a prisoner within your own mind and unable to uncheck it. I believe especially the first sentence here don't let whatever disability you have, be it mental or physical, cause your mind to close to the possibilities. And I guess this is a really powerful sentence because I experienced with ADHD.
Speaker 1:Especially nowadays, I see a lot of content that is pretty weakness related and I personally had to reject that, or let us put it like that I personally don't like to consume content like that because I always have this feeling of it's limiting myself and I don't want to consume content that is limiting myself and only focus on weaknesses and speaks everything bad about ADHD. That's not helping me at all. That's the reason why I don't consume it, or I really try to minimize it. And what I, on the other hand, like to consume is really powerful content that really focuses more on a growth mindset, and also this quote, I guess, from David Goggins, is a little bit related to that yeah, if we have a disability, I don't like to work too much toward disability, let's say, in regards to ADHD, we have a unique character trait.
Speaker 1:We still can't find ways how to harness our potential, to work on ourselves, taking responsibility and being proactive, cultivating a growth mindset, and maybe we can start to thrive if we work on ourselves. I guess a huge one is always what is going back to really taking full ownership or responsibility for your own circumstances. Because what I experienced in my life starting to always start with myself is much more helpful than if I say somebody else's responsible for my own misery, because once I started to say, okay, although maybe some other people can have, let's say, partly a reason why I'm not feeling good, it's not helping me because I then give power to them, but what I actually should do is I should give power to me and work on myself, because I really love this approach of Jordan Peterson, what he wrote in his one of his books, something like first clean up your room and then go out in the world. Not the other way around, like first bring your own apartment, your own house, your room in order and they go once. Then go one step further and not the other way around. And of course, you will find some other expression of that, like first my interpretation of that is maybe also a little bit first love yourself, because before you can love other people, point is simply always the same first start with yourself that you're good, and then you can one go one step further, because if you don't have your life in order, how you can be good with other people? You know how you can have a, let's say, a good relationship when you are not well ordered, organized, etc.
Speaker 1:So what I'm saying here, the key takeaway of this, is simply, I guess taking responsibility is a huge one, and sometimes I don't know why this is so negative connotated in nowadays world, taking responsibility from my point of view. For me, it's that it is a really honorable thing to take responsibility, to be ambitious, to have big goals, because, you know, having big goals, from my point of view, is a wonderful thing and because, if we found, if we want to do something big, why shouldn't we? Yeah, why shouldn't we? We have a. We have only one life and I believe I really want to live an exceptional, exceptional life. I don't want an average life and, yeah, living up to our full potential and, by the way, in that regards that just popped into my mind and a lot of, if you have big goals, if you are somebody with ADHD and have have big, big goals in your life, you are in high performance with ADHD.
Speaker 1:And what I experience is start only to listen to people who have similar or bigger goals for you than you have, than you yourself. That simply means if some because why I'm saying that? Is a lot of people have smaller goals for you than you have yeah, I just had recently a conversation with somebody and this person shared with me like, hey, is it worth it what you are doing, like sacrificing so much time, working so much, and then I started to question myself and then I actually realized, hey, this person has simply smaller goals for me than I have and I want to live. I want to. I have big goals and I was.
Speaker 1:I learned a lesson from Alex, from Mosey. He said something like only listen to the advice of people who have bigger goals for you than you do. Yeah, something similar like that. And then I really I started to reject that what he said, because really I started to question myself am I doing the right thing? Because actually what I'm doing I love every single second, although it's sometimes hard. I really love doing what I'm doing, doing crazy long hours, doing something productive, and it's really worth it. More than worth it, because for somebody it is maybe working listening to rock music 14 hour days, 14 hours a day. For me it's working, you know, and I guess every life is a little bit different, and because sometimes people have the tendency to project their expectation of what your life should look like on your life and I started to be really careful. If people tell me like you should do x, y, sad, I'm always starting to think okay from which perspective this person is speaking from. And because, especially if you are a high performer, I guess doing exactly the opposite that most people are doing, for some people that's a little bit uncomfortable and I understand that completely. But if you have big goals, please don't limit yourself. Be ambitious, live up to your full potential. Okay, I hope that inspires you, maybe a little bit Now, what I shared with you before.
Speaker 1:Okay, we people with ADHD, we like this constant stimulation and of course, we need to find sources that are healthy and sustainable for us. Now, coming back to Peter Shankman, I guess he's also somebody who is seeking for that constant stimulation to a certain degree, like David Goggins. Now, at this point I guess it makes sense to share with you the four daily routines Shankman follows, and from that I guess he also gets a little bit of that stimulation his ADHD brain loves. And the first one is simply getting up early, going to bed early. So, peter Shankman, he's up at 4am and in bed by 8pm. He said there's so much benefit to that. You own the day. And a quick side note here he goes to sleep in his gym clothes, and that becomes interesting for the next routines that will follow later on.
Speaker 1:Point here is simply he has a fixed sleep schedule, and this is also from my point of view. What, or in my ADHD life, helped me tremendously waking up and currently waking up for 30am and going to sleep at 8.30pm. Maybe that will change in future, but currently I really love this routine because always like that I can in the morning, get a lot of things done. Like, imagine, like if I, because I started in 5 to work until 12, I have a full workday already done, you know, and like that I can really make a lot of progress because the world is still sleeping in 5am, most people Also. What helped me to follow, or following his sleep schedule that is really fixed, improved my ADHD symptoms, I would say, and it's a way different body feeling, a way different energy level I experienced. I make better decisions throughout the day, I have a higher level of creativity, long periods of focus, which is also quite interesting. Now I would say, going every single day at the same time to sleep and waking up at the same time really really bring again my well-being on the next level, because I already have optimized a lot of things in my life, but this I was still struggling. Sometimes I was sleeping in on weekends, but then I started to change that. Now I know many of you guys, many of us with ADHD, we struggle with sleeping on time, waking up on time. I understand that I was struggling too with it in the past. Now I would like to share with you some things. Maybe that can help you.
Speaker 1:One general formula that many people benefit from is the 10-3-2-1 formula. 10-3-2-1-0 formula sorry, it simply describes, or it's pretty simple Don't drink coffee or caffeine 10 hours before bed, don't eat three hours before bed, don't work two hours before bed, reduce screens one hour before bed and get out of bed after zero snoozes in the morning. 10-3-2-1-0 formula Maybe that's a way how you can operational or simply put that into a concept or simply have a little bit of an understanding of how you can approach that. How can I stick to my sleep schedule? So simply 10 hours before bed, no caffeine. Three hours before, no, eat not too much drinking water, don't work two hours before bed, reduce screens one hour before bed and then never hit the snooze button. Maybe that's something that can help you, maybe not, you will figure it out for yourself. Please always question what I say. Maybe it can work for you, maybe you can alter it a little bit that it works for your ADHD brain.
Speaker 1:I personally don't follow this exact formula when it comes to work. I work a lot of hours. I work sometimes until half an hour before sleeping because I have a lot to do. It depends, you know the point is, but of course things what really helped me in my case, for example, is reading a little bit before sleeping. Sometimes in the past I like to read one hour. Nowadays I'm working a little bit more, so I reduce reading still, but I try to learn every day while I'm working out, listening to podcasts, audiobooks etc. So still I'm learning. But reading, sometimes if it's only 30 minutes, 20 minutes or even 10 minutes, simply calms my mind. I learned something, but I also get tired in a natural way at the same time.
Speaker 1:Another thing, how we can maybe stick to our fixed sleep schedule is simply having an alarm clock or setting an alarm clock 60 minutes and 10 minutes before sleeping. So the first one is a quick reminder like oh man, yeah, I should go to sleep later or soon. And then another one 10 minutes or 15 minutes. That's like a second reminder because, as you know, out of sight, out of mind, we need a lot of reminders sometimes. Maybe that can help you until you establish that habit of sticking to your fixed sleep schedule. Of course, if you want to put it on steroids. This tactic simply share your like. If you stick to it in the morning, or maybe a little bit later in the morning with somebody, with a friend of you, with a family member, that gives you maybe this additional accountability. So what you're doing with that? Having an alarm clock that reminds you always should go to sleep you make the habit obvious, and that's again something what James Clear mentioned in his great book Atomic Habits make the habit obvious. Yeah, the good habit make it obvious.
Speaker 1:Now, a third one I really also enjoyed when it comes to having a fixed sleep schedule is single purpose spaces for better habits. So make each space you have dedicated to one activity, like your desk is just for work, which tells your brain it's focus time. As soon as you sit down, your environment is like a stage for your habits. You hide it for sleep and your bedroom becomes a cue for your body to wind down and drift off. That's, for example, in my case. My bed is only there for two things. Or the purpose of my bed is sleeping and reading. Sometimes that's it. I don't use nothing else. My bed and and point here is simply having a clear purpose of like a different space, the cue. The cue is really crucial because, for example, what I experienced just today, I always work in my little small room here in my apartment and sometimes today I worked in a co-working space or in some office rooms and that was quite interesting because sometimes your thought patterns are quite fixed to where you are, like if I'm always in my office, I have similar thoughts. Sometimes changing the environment can be really interesting because not only it gives you this novelty, but also when it comes to your thought patterns, that can also maybe be interesting. In my case, it's definitely helped me today. Yeah, and I would say by assigning a single habit to each area of our life, you remove distractions and pave a clear path for habits to stick. Just like having a favorite chair that's only for reading pulls you into a book lovers mindset.
Speaker 1:So key takeaway here is single purpose spaces for better habits. That was the first routine of Peter Shankman getting up early, going to bed early, and I shared with you some, let's say, tactics how you can stick to a fixed sleep schedule if you have ADHD. I know it can be challenging, but it's not an impossible thing. I truly believe in you. You can do it Real quick, guys. You guys maybe know that we don't run any ads through this podcast, so the only ads that I have for you guys is that you help me spread the word to help more working professionals and entrepreneurs with ADHD or come procrastination, be more productive, have their life in order and use their superpower to make the world a better place. And the only way we do that is if you could rate, review and share this podcast. So the single thing that I ask you to do is just leave a review that takes you 10 seconds or one click with your thumb. That would mean a lot to me and, more importantly, it may change someone else's world.
Speaker 1:The second routine is simply exercising daily, peter Schenckman says. Every morning I'm on my treadmill, my peloton bike or at the gym. I didn't know how mandatory it is needed to be until I saw how this made such a difference in my life. I guess working out great great thing when it comes to ADHD. I personally work out five times a week, every week, which helps me to stay focused, mentally strong in challenging situations. It improved my ADHD symptoms significantly. It's a huge part of my overall high performance productivity framework or system, and also ADHD experts like, for example, dr Rady says that exercise acts as a natural stimulant for the brain, so the support is on my side. I'm just kidding, but the point is really, I guess working out is a huge one if we have ADHD, because working out increases your chemicals in your brain, like dopamine or epinephrine, and that is so, so fundamental and, as we know, with ADHD we can have a lack of ADHD, lack of dopamine or no epinephrine. Therefore, we need to find natural means how to increase those levels. I guess you probably know that working out for our ADHD brain or in general in life is pretty, pretty good.
Speaker 1:Now, how to stick to this habit of working out? I will give you some tactics from the book Atomic Habits that I also personally practice in my life. So I have walked the talk. I really use those tactics and maybe I can share with you a little bit more in regards to that. So first one is simply the foundation of this habit of working out is really your identity. You first decide the type of person you want to be. In my case, I wanted to be, or I want to be, a healthy person and the second step is then simply you prove it to yourself with small wins. So each time I work out, each time I eat healthy, each time I take a cold shower or take my natural supplements like omega-3 fatty acids or whatever I behave in a healthy manner, I celebrate a small win, and again, that strengthens the person I wish to become. I want to become and, as you know, identity simply means repeated being something. What we do over and over again becomes your identity. So therefore, the first, the foundation of a habit, is simply first clarifying what kind of person you decide, the type of person you want to be, and then you prove it to yourself with small wins. That's the foundation.
Speaker 1:Now to get a little bit more tactical, in the book Atomic Habits from James Clear, he presents four laws of behavior change which are designed to help create good habits and break bad ones. And the first step is simply make it obvious. So make the habit of working out obvious. You design your environment so that the cues of your good habits are visible and within each easy to easy reach. The second thing, or second step, is then simply make it attractive. You pair an action you want to do with an action you need to do to make your habits more appealing. And the third one is make it easy. Reduce the friction of starting by preparing your environment to make future actions effortless. And the fourth one is make it satisfying. Give yourself an immediate reward when you complete your habit, to make it pleasurable and thus more repeatable.
Speaker 1:Now to apply these steps to working out, to the habit of working out. Step one set out your workout clothes the night before so you make it obvious like, for example, peter Shankman, he sleeps in his workout clothes. You make it obvious. Second one is listen to your favorite music or to your favorite podcast while exercising. Yeah, you make it attractive. Personally, I love listening to podcasts while I'm training because, like that, I can learn at the same time. I really really rarely listen to music because I really want to grow, I want to learn, and then I can simply do two things at the same time. I really love that is working out and learning. Yeah, two things cool.
Speaker 1:And then the third one is simply join a gym that's on your way home. So many people choose their gym far away of their home. They need to drive like so so many minutes there. Choose a gym that's on your way home, make it easy. I know, for example, in my case I'm currently living in Salt Lake City in Utah, united States, and I have here a gym right next to me, literally two minutes. It's simply the same district as this district where I'm living and the cool thing is that makes the habit really easy, because I simply need to step down the stairs and I'm there, and this, of course, is a huge privilege. I'm really grateful for that. If you don't have this possibility, think about ways how you can make this habit easier of working out, like maybe easier can be reducing the amount of minutes, but it can also be like, instead of going to the gym, maybe I just go for a run because it's easier to start. It is a little bit what a figuring out what works for you, and then the last process or the last step is track your workouts to see your progress. You make it satisfying.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I personally like to track not too much things in my life better few things, but those things really consistently, especially when it comes to like, for example, and back in the. I give you an example where I applied it back in the days I watched always in the evening porn. Yeah, really not a good habit and I stopped with that entirely years ago. I don't know how many years now, three years, four years ago, I don't know I shared it in another podcast episode. Point is how I overcome this podcast, this porn I don't I don't know if it was addiction, but I really was doing on a daily basis.
Speaker 1:How I overcome that let's say habit, this bad habit of watching porn in the evening, was simply using a tracker and each day, each evening, I was successful with not watching porn. I made a cross in my calendar and that became self-reinforcing because I really created a success chain of after one time I had like 20 days in a row I didn't watch porn, and that was really self-reinforcing. Because now the cool thing is really, you see your progress and, secondly, you don't want to break your success chain because you see 020 days in a row. I want to continue like that and that's also for me a huge motivator. For example, when it comes to, when it comes to my podcast, I'm now on a streak of I don't know how many 120, 130 episodes, I don't know and point is, every single week I'm publishing since many, many weeks, and knowing about that gives me always this additional motivation to never stop publishing each week episode because I have the success chain, I don't want to break it and you can also apply that to working out. You want to work out three times a week, then track that for each successful day. Make a cross in your calendar. Print out a calendar and then watch it. Put it somewhere visible, make it obvious. Again, that's referring to the first step. Make the habit obvious, put it on your fridge and then make a cross when you successfully worked out. Okay, so that's maybe some strategies how you can stick to this habit of working out. Yeah, in order to improve your overall well-being with ADHD.
Speaker 1:That was the second routine of Peter Shankman exercising daily. The third one is limiting distractions. So, for example, he says when I'm in the office by 7 am, I have at least two and a half hours totaling to myself. I blew through answering like 70 emails this morning. Now, interestingly, he also leverages the power of deep, focused work. Of course we can it's can argue now if emails are deep work. From my point of view that is more shallow work. But still, point is he has two and a half hour focused work only doing one thing and that is emails.
Speaker 1:Okay, in my life what I experienced is deep work is so, so valuable, and professor call newport, for example, also has emphasized that work, that deep work, is a necessity in a world full of distractions. And I just have it in front of me here, a great book called deep work rules for focused success in a distracted world of call newport, he's the author also of so good they can't ignore you. A wonderful book and what simply makes the point that I guess deep work, or deep, deep work, is a crucial thing in this world full of constant distractions, of social medias, of what's up notifications, you name it. And practicing deep work session in my life, especially long deep work sessions in the morning, really allow me nowadays to work laser focus for five, six, seven hours straight. Yeah, and please, quick side note here that was not always like that.
Speaker 1:I increase my work capacity step by step. Yeah, I'm working nowadays a lot of hours. Three, four years ago I was also working a lot, but not to that, to that extreme, but in that. But what I was doing I was doing that step by step, gradually increasing, and that's quite interesting. This process and the same applies to if you start doing small deep work sessions like 60 minutes, and then you work your way up, maybe you also start with 20 minutes, 10 minutes point is you do one thing at a time and you practice that over and over again and you will become better, most likely if you do it in the right way, if you really have no distractions put your phone in another room.
Speaker 1:I personally really like to eliminate all distractions and do the work in front of me doing one thing, doing monotossing, as much as possible. Also, in my case, sometimes it's difficult, but I really try to give my best to in order to strengthen my concentration muscle to produce meaningful work, and for that is, I guess, deep work fundamental. Because you know, concentration with ADHD is a muscle and that's not only what I'm saying, that really world-renowed ADHD ADHD experts are saying the same concentration is a muscle and you need to train it on a consistent basis. When you do that, you will combat at it and you strengthen it so much that you can focus for long periods. Yeah, and I give you an example how I apply it. For example, currently I'm building up a free seven-day program for, designed for entrepreneurs and working professionals with ADHD who are struggling procrastination, who want in one week, to make a lot of progress on procrastinated tasks. And how I build that program is, again, I simply apply it. I simply apply the same concept of deep work the first morning hours, five, six, seven, eight hours I simply dedicate to that, building that program. Okay, some days now a little bit more. Quite frankly, sometimes I worked really I don't 12 hours and only on that program.
Speaker 1:And point is, deep work is, from my point of view, a really great tool to make a lot of progress in a short amount of time. And also and that's also quite interesting a lot of people are really tired in the evening and then we watch how they actually work throughout the day and they are doing. They have their emails open, they want to build up at the same time a PowerPoint, they work really haphazardly without a plan, and then they are pretty tired in the evening. And that's obvious that this is happening then because your mind is constant shifting around and that, first of all, costs you a lot of time. You're so way less productive and it also weakens your concentration muscle and it tires the mind. But if you do more, one thing at a time, which is obviously also to a certain degree, tiring tiring because it's hard work, but you are really protecting your focus and I guess this can become an incredible valuable resource in nowadays, In nowadays world, if you can focus, because more and more people can focus, yeah, and please always remind yourself, with ADHD, we have the possibility to hyper focus.
Speaker 1:If we do things in our life that truly interests us, yeah, if we do things where we can really harness our potential, then we can hyper focus. And so always, by the way, if somebody tells you, oh, you have ADHD, you can't focus, you can always kindly tell them yes, some people struggle maybe with that, but ADHD can. Also, if you find ways you can hyper focus, yeah, and you can focus better than normal people, yeah, so always those little bit, these misconceptions around ADHD that people still think ADHD simply means you can focus yeah, it's way more than that. But I'm trying to always, everywhere where I'm am, to bring a little bit of awareness to that, to remind people, hey, it's not only about that, what I just shared in regards to hyper focus. And so that was the second routine of Peter Shankman, limiting distractions. And the fourth one is now minimizing choices.
Speaker 1:Shankman says he has two basic outfits. I'm wearing either a t-shirt and jeans or a bottom down t-shirt and jeans, depending on whether I'm traveling, going to the office or speaking or going on TV. I guess here the point is again minimalism. You make life so much easier and remove so much unnecessary clutter we don't need by simply establishing a minimalistic lifestyle. And minimalism can reduce the sensory and decision making overload that often challenge us with ADHD and creating a calm environment to focus and thrive. It also simplifies routines and decreases clutter, leading to less mental clutter and more manageable daily tasks.
Speaker 1:I personally experienced that also in my life. I really like, for example, to apply the concept of minimalism when it comes to my clothes. Personally, when I'm working in my internship currently doing an internship in Salt Lake City as the executive project manager to the COO and there I always wear blue pants and a light blue shirt. That's my uniform. When it comes to work, like there in the internship, usually when I'm not there, I always wear the same things more or less, that is, a black or dark blue shirt t-shirt and dark blue or black pants. By having a really minimalistic closet wardrobe.
Speaker 1:I don't need to think too much because what I experienced is I, if I already need to think in the morning what exactly I will dress, I need to use my decision making power, but actually what I want in my life. I want to use that additional decision making power that I get from not making a decision whether what exactly I want to dress. I can use that for more important things like, for example, making my business better how can I make my program better in order to help my clients more effective, more efficiently and then, like I said, I can use my decision making power for more important things in my life. This is really crucial, I guess. So minimalism really improved also my life with ADHD, also when it comes to my apartment, for example. Now I'm in the US in February I will go back and I'm currently doing also my master's degree, currently doing a break semester to do that internship, and then I will be living again there, next to university in St Colin in Switzerland, and there my apartment is pretty, pretty minimalistic. I really like it to keep it simple, because it's so cool. You need to clean less, it's easier. It's simply easier. You know you walk inside your apartment, you are not overwhelmed by so many things, you know. So I really like this minimalism. I love that makes life a little bit more easy.
Speaker 1:I believe yeah, all right, those were simply four routines that the last one was minimizing choices. So I would like to summarize that real quick summary of what the routine's shankman leverages to live a successful life with ADHD. The first one was getting up early, going to bed early, second, exercising daily. Third one, limiting distractions. And the fourth one, minimizing choices. Now, to conclude this episode, here is a powerful quote from shankman. Once I realized this, I saw a path to get even more from my brain. I realized that people with ADHD think in a way that's faster than normal, but they need to know how to use that ability. If your brain is like a Lamborghini, you need to learn how to drive it, or else you're going to crash into a tree. All right, guys. Thank you so much for listening to this episode and maybe see you in the next one. Bye, guys.