#072: In this episode, I discuss various systems and strategies that can help improve clarity and focus for increased productivity. I share insights from Warren Buffett, James Clear, Ali Abdaal, Tiago Forte, and David Allen. The episode covers the importance of saying no, creating implementation intentions, using a second brain, and practicing absolute focus. I also touch on the benefits of task batching and time blocking. Listen to learn practical techniques to overcome procrastination and achieve your goals. Enjoy!
ADHD POWER LINKS
Sources
Timestamps
(00:00:00) Introduction
(00:01:09) The Importance of Saying No
(00:03:19) Conducting a Comprehensive Review
(00:05:12) The 5:25 Rule of Warren Buffett
(00:06:43) Implementation Intentions
(00:08:36) Using a Second Brain
(00:12:06) Task Batching
(00:14:10) The Benefits of Idea Capture
(00:17:45) Absolute Focus
(00:20:47) Time Blocking
(00:23:54) Macro and Micro Planning
(00:30:12) The Power of 25 Goals
(00:32:00) Task Batching and Execution
#072: In this episode, I discuss various systems and strategies that can help improve clarity and focus for increased productivity. I share insights from Warren Buffett, James Clear, Ali Abdaal, Tiago Forte, and David Allen. The episode covers the importance of saying no, creating implementation intentions, using a second brain, and practicing absolute focus. I also touch on the benefits of task batching and time blocking. Listen to learn practical techniques to overcome procrastination and achieve your goals. Enjoy!
ADHD POWER LINKS
Sources
Timestamps
(00:00:00) Introduction
(00:01:09) The Importance of Saying No
(00:03:19) Conducting a Comprehensive Review
(00:05:12) The 5:25 Rule of Warren Buffett
(00:06:43) Implementation Intentions
(00:08:36) Using a Second Brain
(00:12:06) Task Batching
(00:14:10) The Benefits of Idea Capture
(00:17:45) Absolute Focus
(00:20:47) Time Blocking
(00:23:54) Macro and Micro Planning
(00:30:12) The Power of 25 Goals
(00:32:00) Task Batching and Execution
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. Maybe someday soon, turn your ADHD into a valuable asset in your life. Please share and enjoy. Welcome ADHD high performers.
Speaker 1:In today's episode, I will share six systems that help me live a productive, healthy and high performance life as someone with ADHD. Basically, systems that support me in maintaining high levels of focus throughout the day, overcoming procrastination and supporting me in using the power of my creative ADHD brain. As you know many of us with ADHD, we have high levels in creativity and in this episode, I want to give you some practical tools, how we can maybe use this gift to your advantage. So let's get started. System number one I use is the 525 rule, warren Buffett's rule of prioritization. Now, warren Buffett once said the difference between successful people and really successful people is that really successful people say no to almost everything. The point here is there will always be good things to focus on, especially for someone with ADHD. As you know, we have maybe thousand ideas in our head. We could start a hobby, we could start again a new business or change again our career, change to a new job, for example, but the point is, say no to those and yes to the great things that truly matters in your life, that are really important to you. Now how can you implement that? Or how can you find your main priorities in your life? That? Here you can use the 525 rule of Warren Buffett. First, you make a list of 25 things that are your highest priorities and try to get specific, really clear what exactly should be or is the priority, and then and that is the most important part you circle your top five and only focus on those five. So you create this 25, this list of 25 items, and then you circle the top five and from then on, you start on number one only, really important. Yeah, you only focus first on number one, then number two, number three, or at least try to focus on only your top five priorities. That's what I personally like to do, yeah, to have fewer goals, which helps me then to have clarity throughout the day. And the important thing here is really don't try or don't overwhelm yourself. Now better question how do you not? How do you not overwhelm yourself and how do you get specific? What I mentioned before Give you an example of a goal or a priority that could be relevant in your life.
Speaker 1:You could say, by November 17th 2023, I will create a company presentation that includes slides providing performance updates In order to achieve my goal. I follow these tasks step by step, so I will now tell you a list of different things you will be doing, like, for example, conduct a comprehensive review of the pipeline, first step. Second step, create pitch slides. Third step, collaborate with the vice president of sales to align the content. And fourth step, finalize the project. The point here is with the goal, yeah, with a clear date and what exactly you want to be doing, we are highly specific and, at the same time, you're breaking down this bigger project into bite-sized steps and therefore it will be less overwhelming for your ADHD brain. I personally also like to do that always when I have a bigger project in place, like, for example, I'm currently creating a seven, three, seven day program for ADHDers who are struggling with procrastination. That is a bigger project, creating a program, a lot of different tasks and the first thing, what I did it basically is simply breaking it down into bite-sized steps. That's then way more approachable for my ADHD brain and, at the same time, I'm really I'm way more productive. Yeah, I get more out of my existing time.
Speaker 1:Now, coming back on the topic of priorities using this strategy, this 525 rule of war in Buffett helped me, for example, to figure out my main priority in my life, which is simply ADHD high-performance coaching. More precise, we have a clear mission till 2033 we help 10,000 high performers with ADHD to overcome procrastination by embracing their ADHD and working with it to unlock their potential. And this mission gives me clarity what exactly I should be doing on a given day. Yeah, to have really clarity, okay, what are the daily tasks I need to do in order to achieve this mission or this goal of helping 10,000 people? And maybe that's also interesting to you if you have currently so many great ideas.
Speaker 1:As you know, with ADHD, many of us we are wonderful entrepreneurs, great executives, great, great people who are really top high performers, and we have maybe thousand ideas, but that can also lead to a situation where we maybe lose track of our simply, yeah, we are we. We have a lack of focus in our lives. We try to be successful in thousand things but not really become successful in one thing because we have so many unfinished goals. And that's really the point. Once you start to focus on fewer things, you accomplish those goals and you can be really happy and satisfied with it because you accomplished something. But if you have 25 goals and no one is completed, accomplished, yeah, maybe you're not so satisfied in the end. Although we could also arc okay, the process is way more important than the actual accomplishment for your happiness and I totally agree with that that the path to your success. That should be enjoyable. I really love this concept. I also practice. That point is.
Speaker 1:But having fewer goals in your life, I believe, can help you maybe to become better or more effective, successful in the end. Yeah, at least in my case, it helped me tremendously to simply align all the activities I'm doing on a given day and towards one mission, towards one goal. Yeah, which is what I mentioned before my main mission. Alright, so long story short. How can you figure out your main priorities, make a list of 25 items, then circle your top five top priorities and only focus on top five or only on one item, and you go only to the next one if you have accomplished the first. That's really the point. Alright, that was system number one, 525, rule of war, and about it?
Speaker 1:Next system, I use implementation intentions. James Clear once wrote a study in the British Journal of Health. Psychology found that 91% people who planned their intention to exercise by writing down when and where they would exercise each week ended up following through Point. Here is why I'm bringing that up, this quote if something is not planned, if it's not planned, it's not a priority. Now use a calendar and plan your days as specific as possible. Understand what and when you are doing or you're going to complete a single task. Understand what and when you are going to complete a single task.
Speaker 1:Now, why I'm bringing that up? Or what is the point here? The key to turning desire into action is not motivation, because many of us we think we should be motivated or we need to have high levels of motivation to start something. The point here is, I would say, the key to turning desire into action is not motivation, it's actually implementation planning. Having a plan can improve the chances of achieving a goal and sticking to it. Now I just mentioned the word implementation planning or implementation intentions, which is pretty simple. That is simply a fancy word for having a plan in place. Better question now is how do we create an implementation intention or a plan?
Speaker 1:I give you an example from James Clear from a blog post he wrote during the next week, I will partake in at least 20 minutes of active exercise on day you could say Monday at time, for example, 6pm in place, for example, at the gym next to my house. Yeah, that, by the way, was a quote from James Clear. I guess he quoted a study. If I'm, I guess you can look it up in his blog post as well. I will link that down in the description Point here is you have a clear implementation intention. Yeah, during the next week, I will partake in at least 20 minutes of active exercise on Monday at 6pm in the gym next to my house. That's the point by having now, or the key takeaway here is then people who have people who plan precisely when and where to go, exactly when and where to execute a new habit, are more likely to follow through. That simply means if you have a plan, the likelihood is way higher to it that you actually stick to it, because what I experienced in the past is I said something, sometimes to myself. Maybe one day I will start with something. Maybe one day I will do X. Yeah, one day I will do.
Speaker 1:Epsilon Point is I never made time for that particular pursuit or goal I want to accomplish Because I didn't create a clear, specific plan how I actually want to start with it or implement it. But when I actually started to create a clear plan for actually how to implement it, I started to thrive because I started to execute something. And implementations are not only interesting. To simply start doing something, or, let's put it like that, I would say, implementations, intentions are also highly interesting when it comes to procrastination, because what I experienced is procrastination when I procrastinate, at least it's often time a lack of clarity, what exactly I should be doing with my time. So if you have ADHD and struggle with procrastination, always ask yourself OK, do I have clarity? What exactly I should be doing in the next two hours, for example, or on a given day? So create, have first is clarity and then execute. Because I give an example If you, as I know, as you know many of us with ADHD we start businesses, we are more than 300% more likely to start a business.
Speaker 1:Now, point is if you say, ok, I will, if you have like the plan of I want to start a business. This is a pretty, pretty big project. I would say a bit, actually more than a project. Now, how can we make it more approachable, less overwhelming? Yeah, for example, saying at Monday, monday, at one PM, I will work for two hours on my company, searching for a business name, a company name. So now you're highly precise. You want to search for a business for your company's name. Yeah, good name for a company you will spend at one PM, you will spend time on it on Monday. Now you're getting more precise. But if you simply say starting a business, that's highly overwhelming and maybe we will never start it. That's the point, all right, and that's simply the power of implementation intentions. Key takeaway Once again for you people who plan precisely when and where to execute a new habit are more likely to follow through how we can implement that, creating a plan, pretty simple, write down during the next. Give you an example during the next week, I will partake in at least 20 minutes of active exercise on Monday at one PM or six PM next to my house, in the gym next to my house. All right, that was implementation intentions.
Speaker 1:Third system I use second ADHD brain. David Allen once said, or wrote your mind is for having ideas, not holding them. As you know, with ADHD you have high levels in creativity. You maybe all the time have thoughts, ideas what we could be doing, or maybe to do's whatever pops into your mind. Writing down ideas, thoughts and to do's as they come up to my mind is an effective way to prevent forgetting those great things or great ideas, which is especially helpful for me as someone with ADHD who has high levels of creativity, because I'm somebody who, throughout the day, if I have a deep work session, sometimes I all the time have ideas for a new podcast episode, how I could improve a module in my coaching program, the eight week productivity powerhouse. How could I improve a process inside my program, inside my business, and in order not, or to don't lose those great ideas, or at least those ideas, I write them down and that helps me to store them somewhere. Point here your second system I call that your second brain helps you store this information. By the way, that's not a terminology I came up with. That is something what I learned from Ali Abdaal and Thiago Forte. By the way, ali Abdaal and Thiago Forte are productivity experts. I can highly recommend to consume their content when you want to become, if it comes to becoming more productive.
Speaker 1:In regards to the second system, what you can do there is simply you dump all your to-dos, to-do lists, daily notes, habit trackers, et cetera, into your second brain. Why we should do that? Personally, it saves me mental energy and space for actually doing domain work. For instance, in my case, my second brain includes a calendar, a to-do list and a note-taking app Calendar. I use Google Calendar for my to-do list or task management system. I use things this is an app only for Apple products and I use a note-taking app called Evernote, sometimes in combination with Google Docs or with Google Sheets. Basically, that are the main parts of my second brain. Of course, I use some other things like, for example, a read later app like Instapaper, but basically those three things are the main pillars.
Speaker 1:Now an interesting quote in regards to why we should create a second brain. I really love this quote from Tiago Forde from the book Build a Second Brain. He wrote you have to believe that the smallest idea that has the potential to change people's lives or lives. If you don't believe that, now start with the smallest approaches you can think of to begin to prove to yourself that your ideas can make a difference. So again, once again, use really this gift of creativity to your advantage. Write ideas down, yeah, and maybe one day you can implement that, and for that you can, for example, use implementation intentions.
Speaker 1:By the way, now point here, or take away creating a second brain changed my ADHD life for the better, because it saves me tremendous amounts of energy by having stored information in an external system, because this second brain is basically an external reflection of my brain. That's what I want to accomplish with that. Simply, I want to outsource certain things, to don't need to keep them in my mind, and that gives me, of course. I can save with that energy because I don't need to remember myself or need to remind myself. Like, when again is the birthday of XYZ person, I have it written into my calendar. Yeah, that gives me clarity and that helps me to save this energy that I usually normally use for remembering something, for example, to do like, oh, I should be doing XYZ, and then I all the time try to remind myself. But if I have it stored in an external system, for example my task management system, then it's stored somewhere and I can come back to it. I can look it up, for example, on my mobile phone I have my to-do list as well as on my computer. Everything is synchronized, so I simply have a look at it. Oh yeah, I actually need to, for example, answer this email Point is. I have like an external reflection of my brain, and that is really, really helpful.
Speaker 1:A quick side note here if you build up your second brain, or if you start using your second brain in order to have it or that it stays in order, you can also do a weekly review to bring everything in order to check off some tasks in your to-do list, to structure your notes better, or, for example, to have a look in your calendar. What exactly do I have? Maybe some meeting notes I didn't process or I didn't put into my note taking system, whatever, like you see the term in your calendar. Oh, I do. Wednesday I had a meeting. Oh, actually, I forgot to save the notes from this meeting and you put it into your second system. So that is second. I call it ADHD brain, your second ADHD brain. Once again, remember your mind is for having ideas, not holding them. In order to leverage your great ideas, write them down and maybe some day soon you can start implementing them. Second, adhd brain.
Speaker 1:Fourth system I use absolute focus, remove distractions, lock in and focus on one thing at a time. This will help you to get or you get six to eight hours of work done in just two to four. I experienced that by doing one thing at a time I'm way more productive, I'm protecting my concentration muscle and saving a lot of time throughout the week and, you know, in the end, throughout my life, by simply doing one thing at a time and dedicating my full focus towards one thing and not multiple things at the same time. Because what I learned from successful people or is basically, they are doing more monotasking. Yeah, especially in the morning. Sometimes they have multiple hours of dedicated, they are dedicating their focus towards one main task or one main project and they make a lot of progress. For example, alex Hermosi, the author of the new book 100 million dollar leads. He wrote his book in two years and every morning he spent, I guess, around six hours working on it.
Speaker 1:Yeah, of course, not everybody of us have has this privilege, like to do six hours of teamwork, like I do sometimes, and but still you can start doing one thing at a time and you can do smaller sessions, like, for example, 60 or 90 minutes of teamwork, and then you have a shallow work session. The point is really not to do things simultaneously. So, for example, I work a little bit on Project X and, at the same time, answering emails. You're less efficient, or at least that's what what happened in my case. I'm less efficient, I'm feeling stressed out and, at the same time, I'm harming my concentration and, as you know, that is especially important with ADHD. In order to activate our hyper focus on a daily basis, we need to start protecting our concentration, or our concentration muscle, and strengthening it by doing one thing at a time, and a great tool I personally use to do one thing at a time is time blocking.
Speaker 1:Here a quote from Ali Abdullah in regards to time blocking. He wrote for any task that you want to do, put a time block in brackets, fixed amount of time in your calendar. This way, you end up with blocks of time in your calendar, which leaves no room for wandering what to do or for how long you should work on a given task, because that's the point here it's already predefined. Yeah, first of all, you have a clear implementation intention. To a certain degree, you know exactly at this time. Yeah, for example, in six am till eight am, I work on a given project in my office, for example. Yeah, so you're pretty specific.
Speaker 1:And by using time blocking and focusing on one task at a time, what happened in my case? I have strengthened my ability to stay hyper focused for five to six hours in the morning. I'm nowadays really not any more struggling with focus as someone with ADHD, but definitely I have some system in place that are supporting me, and one major system or tool I personally use is simply doing one thing at a time and not thousand things, because that helps me to maintain a clear focus, be more efficient, and I really like to plan out my next days, like having a clear structure. And the cool thing is, if you have multiple deep work sessions and shallow work sessions throughout the day, you are more intentional with your time because you're actively thinking okay, what I should be doing with my time and, at the same time, you're acting.
Speaker 1:Not, you're not doing multitasking and especially if you are somebody who is pretty, pretty busy and is reliant on answering emails, what you simply can do is schedule multiple shallow work sessions Throughout the day. So you have small blocks of deep work 45 minutes and then you have a block again 3045 minutes of shallow work answering emails. But don't do that haphazardly or simultaneously, because it's less effective. Especially with ADHD, we need to make sure to protect our concentration and I can tell you you can have high levels of focus if you start really taking care on it. I truly believe that, or at least that is what worked for me Once I started to be more conscious when it comes to or let's say, more careful when it comes to notifications, for example, turning off all my notifications.
Speaker 1:I have almost all my notifications turned off. I'm always in doing a disturb on. Basically, I'm really hard to reach but also the way how I work, like putting in my AirPods, listening to alpha waves like that is a focus, sound really like that and creating an environment that supports deep work that allows me to come up or to really have great, great focus in the end. All right. So again, take away for you by using time blocking, maybe you can, and doing one thing at a time, maybe you can start to strengthen your ability to focus for an extended period of time. So remove distractions and do one thing at a time. That is system number four absolute focus. System number five is task batching. Pretty simple idea you group similar tasks together to complete them all at once, for example, process all emails in one hour or create a new podcast episode in two hours. Point is, you can think of different things in your life or different tasks that are kind of related. Emas is a great example for that. Yeah, you have emails to answer and you can do that in one block and that can be then a shallow work session.
Speaker 1:Now, in my case, for instance, I'm currently recording this episode, and what I did? I scheduled a time block in my calendar for only creating this podcast episode. That includes scripting the episode, that includes recording the actual episode, editing it and lastly, uploading it those four things. And I do that all at once in that time block. And that helps me to be more efficient. Because imagine if I would do that, let's say, throughout haphazardly, like I start a little bit scripting, then I work on another project and coming back to it, I'm less efficient and I use more time.
Speaker 1:And the point here is really, if we want more genuine free time, that's maybe something to consider to save time. Because imagine if you could only save, let's say, one hour every single day. Imagine you would work 365 days a year and you would work and you would save every single day only one hour. That is 365 hours. You could simply save by working more efficient, having more genuine free time or spending more time on your business doing all of things. Point here is you can think of tasks that are kind of related and you can also name the time block on your calendar by the broader batch category. That's kind of helpful. If you're connected with time blocking. You could say, okay, from eight till 10, I do emails, then from 10 till 12, for example, phone calls, from one till two shopping whatever you have like a broader batch category. You call it by the theme of it emails and then you have this task batch and you execute all those smaller tasks in one block. That is called task batching. My fifth system, sixth system, is 1090. What is 1090? Good question.
Speaker 1:The first 10% of time you spend planning and organizing your work before you begin will save you as much as 90% of the time in getting the job done once you get started. It's similar to the 80-20, like 20% planning, 80% executing. The point here is simply having a little bit and understanding how much percentage of your day you want to spend doing planning and how much percent executing. And in my case, what I experienced is around 10% or even less. Planning and the rest executing is really helpful for me. How I implement that, what I'm doing. The night before I take five to 10 minutes to plan out what my day will look like and then, before a task, I try to map out exactly what my checkpoints are.
Speaker 1:This idea of creating a time block schedule and then checkpoints before you execute a time block on a given day. This is called macro and micro planning. Now, what is macro planning? That is the theme of a time block. For example, creating sales PowerPoint. That is the theme. Or it could be emails or phone calls, what I mentioned before, simply the broader thing, what you will be doing, so roughly that you have an understanding. Okay, those 90 minutes, I will work on project X. I personally like to do that.
Speaker 1:I called my time block for recording this episode creating this episode here, podcast episode, basically, or podcast episode creation. And now I know exactly what I should be doing. And now the next step is really crucial, and this next step is called micro planning. Those are basically what is micro planning. Those are the steps you are executing in a time block. So, for instance, step one create the outline or agenda of your PowerPoint. Step two is creating the work title for each slide. Step three writing bullets for slide one. Step four adding visuals to slide one.
Speaker 1:Point is now we are breaking down the task Again. What I mentioned in the beginning of this episode breaking down your goal and the same you can apply to this concept here. So you have your macro plan, you have a time block in place From six till eight I work on X and then, before you execute the time block, you short write down a structure. Step one is this, step two is this. Step three is this. Step four is this, and that maybe only take you 30 to 60 seconds or two minutes, but not a lot of time. But then you have clarity how you want to spend your time in those next 90 minutes, how you want to spend your time. That is called macro and micro planning again, and this helped me really tremendously to understand a little bit. Okay, now the night before, yes, I'm doing the macro plan, and now before a given time block, oh yeah, now I'm doing micro planning, I'm breaking it down. I want to have clarity what exactly I want to do in those 90 minutes.
Speaker 1:The point here is, by planning my days and creating my checkpoints, I have a lot of. I can save a lot of decision power. This additional energy I can use then for my work as an ADHD high performance coach, for example. But working without a plan, I discovered, makes me tired, less productive and stressed out. So maybe question to you if you feel currently stressed out in the end of your workdays, maybe you can ask yourself how can I improve the way how I work or execute my main tasks throughout the day? And if you are constantly distracted, maybe you can work on your distraction management and starting using implementing macro and micro planning and creating an environment that supports concentrated work. Yeah, all right, that is simply the 10, 9, 10, 90.
Speaker 1:And once again, maybe something real quick to mention here, because I got asked this question sometimes why exactly doing the night before the daily planning? Pretty simple, in the end of your workday. First of all, you have not anymore so much energy. Therefore, that's maybe a good time now to use those five minutes to do something shallow, what doesn't require so much brain power, like planning, for example. Yeah, so you plan your next day and the cool thing is now, the next day, you can immediately start executing. You don't need to think, okay, what exactly I want to do today, you simply execute. And this is especially important because if you are planning your day the morning, you're already. You need to do, you need to come up with decisions like this is I will do here, this, I will do at this time. You are doing decisions, but you could save that decision power and direct it towards more important things, like your business, like your job, whatever to make better decisions there, but not in the morning to figure out what exactly you want to be doing with your time. Therefore, I really like to do that the night before. Simply having a shutdown ritual doesn't take a lot of time five to 10 minutes updating my major to-do list, transferring my notes into my to-do list, for example, or note-taking system, et cetera, creating a time block schedule and then simply saying the magical words schedule, shut down, complete. What is an indicator for my brain that now I'm not anymore allowed to do work, which helps me with work-related thoughts afterwards when I finished work, because then I can simply conquer them by saying I never would say the magical words if I haven't planned out my next day and made sure that everything is in order. Point here is simply, I planned out the night before my next day and that saves me a lot of decision-making power and I less suffer from decision fatigue. All right, that's basically it.
Speaker 1:1090 may be also interesting to you, so let's do a quick rundown. We covered six systems that I use in my life someone with ADHD to live a productive, healthy and high performance life. System. One was the 525 rule of Warren Buffett. Again, write down your 25 goals or priorities and then circle to top five and only focus on those. Second thing what we covered is implementation intentions simply a fancy word for having a plan. Create a plan increases the likelihood that you will stick to it. Third thing is create your second ADHD brain assistant that allows you to have like an external reflection of your brain where you can store your ideas, your tasks, what you won't be doing on a given day. Fourth system absolute focus, doing one thing at a time and not multiple things. Fifth system task batching. Yeah, ask yourself what are related tasks that I could do in one single time block. And the sixth one, what we just covered 10, 90, 10% planning, 90% executing. All right, guys, that was simply it.
Speaker 1:Thank you so much for listening to this episode to the ADHD Power Podcast. And maybe, last thing, at the end of this episode, it would mean the world to me if you could support me by simply subscribing to this podcast. Like that, you're helping me on my mission to help 10,000 high performance with ADHD to overcome procrastination. So what you can simply do, you can leave a review, subscribe to this podcast. And also what you can do, of course, if you think somebody else would benefit of this podcast, send a link to her, to him, and yeah, like that, you can support me on my journey. So thank you so much for listening. I wish you a wonderful, productive week. Bye, guys, border.