#077: Maximizing ADHD Productivity Using These 8 Tools

#077: In this episode, I discuss the importance of finding meaningful pursuits and share practical strategies for maximizing focus and efficiency. Enjoy listening!

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Timestamps

(00:00:00) Introduction

(00:02:25) Making the Most of 24 Hours

(00:03:14) My Journey into Productivity

(00:06:26) The Quest for Efficiency

(00:08:20) The Power of Maximum Focus

(00:09:15) Creating an Optimal Work Environment

(00:10:13) From Blog to Podcast

(00:11:59) The Importance of Creative Outlets

(00:13:34) Finding Your Passion

(00:15:31) Enjoying the Process of Productivity

(00:18:43) The Power of Daily Planning

(00:19:43) The Benefits of Micro Planning

(00:24:04) Harnessing Deep Work Sessions

(00:25:14) The Practice of Task Batching

(00:28:13) The Distraction Log Technique

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:00

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. So welcome ADHD High Performers to a new episode of the ADHD Power Podcast. Before we start this episode, I want to use this opportunity to say thank you from the bottom of my heart for all the love and support I got from you guys and support in regard to this podcast, and I'm really really grateful that I can do things in my life that are meaningful to me, and this podcast is part of it. I now simply want to say thank you for all your support and I wish you a joyful Christmas time, merry Christmas, enjoy the time with your loved ones and, of course, I wish you a happy new year. We are already, incredibly, in the last week of 2023,. It was an exciting year for me personally and maybe that's also interesting for you as well. I personally used sometimes the last week of the year to reflect a little bit about it what I did in the previous 52 weeks, what went well, what I can improve, how did I spend my time, how I maybe the things I want to continue doing and things I want to simply stop doing. And that helps me then to identify a little bit okay, or I would say it helps me to become again more intentional with my time. And not only intentional, I would also say simply be careful how I spend my time, because I guess one thing that we all have in common is that we have 24 hours available and I guess it's pretty, pretty nice to use those 24 hours the way how we actually want, do things that are meaningful to us, that we truly enjoy, and sometimes, at the end of the year, to do a little bit of a reflection routine served me well, it helped me on my journey and it may help you as well. So, once again, thank you so much, guys for all the support. Adhd, high performance you are doing great. Thank you for everything.

Speaker 1: 2:28

In today's episode, I want to share with you eight tools I use to live a productive life with ADHD. But before we I share with you the different tactics and tools I use, I would like to share with you a quick story how I got into productivity as someone with ADHD. So back in 2019, around the time I got my ADHD diagnosis and told myself to get my act together after months of depression, I started to learn a lot about productivity. I began to watch videos from YouTuber Ali Abdel, who talks about different strategies and tools to live happier, healthier and more productive lives in the end, and I learned about his routines and how I can learn more effectively when preparing for uni exams. I really learned a lot from him in terms of productivity, but also when it comes to learning in general at university. What are the most effective let's say, tactics, methods to learn effectively and efficiently?

Speaker 1: 3:34

At the same time, at university and in regards to productivity, a key lesson I learned from him that really resonated or I would say, not resonate, but resonate also, but stuck with me in my head, which I found really helpful, is basically Ali Abdel defines productivity as the art of doing things we enjoy in a way that makes us feel good and ultimately leads to success, and he basically emphasizes that the key to productivity isn't just hard work and discipline although from my point of view, those are also really crucial things, but rather finding joy and satisfaction in what we do, and this approach aligns basically with his broader philosophy that happiness and fulfillment are integral parts of being productive and successful. So one major thing I learned from that from the way he defines productivity is that it's not only about the output per unit of time, yet not only the output you produce per unit of time. For example, if you work one hour, how much outcome did you produce? It's also about meaningfulness, or meaning and enjoyment when it comes to productivity. Yeah, efficiency is a huge part of it, obviously, when it comes to productivity, but what makes productivity even better from my point of view is if we include in that equation meaning and enjoyment. And Ali Abdel he posted on Twitter once how he basically productivity equation and he wrote something like meaning times, efficiency, times, enjoyment. That equals productivity, and I guess that's a really cool way to put it like what productivity is? We want meaning, yeah, to pursue something meaningful. We want efficiency, so to do it as fast as possible in the most efficient manner and lastly, also enjoyment enjoy the thing, what we are actually doing. To go one step further once, I started to see the opportunities in mind evers and pursue a creative outlet that is meaningful to me. Things started to change and actually I became fundamentally more productive. So I started to include this meaning and I started to include enjoyment, basically my everyday lives, to do something that I truly enjoy, which is also meaningful to me, and at the same time I try to do it at the at maximum, with maximum productivity.

Speaker 1: 6:08

And to give you two examples from my personal idea for my ADHD journey. The first example is in my second semester at university, while pursuing a bachelor's degree in business administration, I achieved 33 credit points and 30 is the average, so three more. Basically and I'm not telling you that in any way like to brag, it's not about that, I simply want to use it as an example that when I started to do one thing, only one thing, right, I started to thrive. Because, as you know, with ADHD we have 1000 ideas we could pursue. Yeah, I could start a business, I could do a new hobby, learn a new language, whatever.

Speaker 1: 6:52

But once I started to do one thing right, so I focused all my efforts into one thing or onto one thing then I started to change. In my case it was the second after my first semester at university. I only passed three out of five exams, I wanted to change something, and one major change I implemented is simply I need to clear focus. Let's focus on one thing and do one thing right. Maximum focus, yeah, because the cool thing is then the question is not anymore like what I will do on a given day, it's already predefined. I really I worked really hard on one thing, and that is passing those exams with the best possible marks, and I had then a clear goal to aim for, which gave me, in the moment, energy and it also made it made it meaningful to me at the same time, and, quite frankly, I really enjoy the process because in that time, I used accountability to my advantage.

Speaker 1: 7:56

As you know, including other people in our pursuits, in our goals, is such a powerful thing. Whether we have ADHD or not, it's so impactful. I would say that's the reason why some people have fitness trainers. Yeah, that's the reason why some people go to we work, to have people around them, and what I did is I learned in a learning center with a lot of other ambitious people around me, everybody learning, basically, and at the same time, we had also a great time in our breaks, which also made the whole experience more, let's say, enjoy, or added a little bit enjoyment in addition to that, so that really would say that was a huge one for me, for my personal journey. And the second example is when I start my first podcast and publishing 89 episodes.

Speaker 1: 8:51

Also after my second semester at university pursuing my bachelor's degree, I had this, these. I always had this desire to start something, but that came up especially in the summer Month. I had this desire after finishing, after passing all my exams. I had this in, something was burning in me. I can't, simply I don't want to do nothing in my, my holidays Because, as you know, as a student, you have two, three months you have nothing to do. But you can also do an internship, of course, or Participate in summer lectures, courses, etc. But in my case I had a lot of time. I needed to do military also, but I wanted to do something with my time and I decided then to start a blog, which then emerged into a more podcast in the end. But I basically started to do something productive and Also where I can channel my creativity, and that I guess that is Fundamentally if we have ADHD. From my point of view, from my experience with now many clients and from my personal journey, finding a creative outlet is so, so important. If you have ADHD, that is also, by the way, I would say. So some people thrive and some people not, and finding a creativity, creative outlet, can really make the difference on that front. In my case, at least, it did, and it helped me because Once I started this project, it was pretty simple.

Speaker 1: 10:18

I started like, okay, podcasting then, and With that project along went many different things. I needed to create a podcasting website was my first WordPress website I created. I Needed to start recording podcast by the equipment so many different things that I really enjoy doing. Yeah, so I could use my creativity producing those episodes, writing the scripts, etc. And Having this commitment of publishing. Then, later on, when I started a podcast in 2020, right when Kobe tits hit around I guess April something, 2020 and I start to publish weekly episodes for some period and and sometimes in the beginning a little bit less consistent, but after I guess episode 27 every single week, and I would say that was definitely this commitment really helped me to shop Weekly and always to have this creative outlet where I can channel those ideas, basically Because I realize if I'm doing all day long something that is, let's say, does, includes more repetitiveness.

Speaker 1: 11:27

There I definitely can use can't use my, my creative brain and that is not something I would say what. What helped me on my ADHD journey too much, and that's kind of interesting. I also, in that regards, I remember the, this concept of farmers and hunters, that ADHD years are basically hunters, more creative people. We need to do something, channel our creativity. We are not the farmers. More repetitive tasks and, by the way, I don't want to go into depth in regards to that. If you want to learn more about it, search for Seth Godin, farmer Hunter. You will find a good, really interesting source about that. He also was on the faster than normal podcast of shankman In. It's actually quite a long time ago. It's a cool episode. You can search for that Seth Godin Shankman, you will find the episode, for sure. And there he talks a little bit about this concept of farmers and hunters, which is kind of interesting. If we have ADHD, I would say Point here. What I'm making is okay.

Speaker 1: 12:35

I started this podcast, I had a creative outlet and that, in the end, helped me by Simply having something in my life where I can be creative and, at the same time, productive. It's meaningful to me, it's it adds enjoyment to my life. So, long story short, main takeaway now from this my productivity journey, how I got into productivity. To harness my full potential as someone with ADHD, I need to follow a productive pursuit that gives me meaning and enjoyment, and the way how I found something I truly enjoy is by starting something, not and doing something. Because Through doing I created a passion for podcasting or learning for university exams. And that's kind of counter-intuitive to a certain degree, because most people now, or some people nowadays, state that you, you find your passion. But if we get a little bit more precise, what does that exactly mean? Finding your passion For me it I Realized that finding your passion you actually make you create your passion through doing. If you start doing something Like podcasting in my case, in the beginning you suck, yeah, and then you are. Then I ask myself how that can be my passion if I suck at that. But interestingly, through doing I got better and it became my passion to show up weekly and nowadays, yeah, I have my start, my second podcast, adhd power, and I really love recording those podcasts for you guys, and I would say the passion really merged through the doing. Yeah, not the flip side of it, which is you start something and it's immediately your passion. I would say, if you start something like that, you can find your passion. It's like During my bachelor's degree, I really started to enjoy the process of preparing for exams.

Speaker 1: 14:33

I like that feeling of knowing Okay, I have a deadline, we are all in the same place. I had my learning group, my teammates. Basically, we learned, we worked hard, we motivated each other, we used accountability, we showed up every single morning because, yeah, we had this commitment let's say 7, 30 or 8 am, you will be there at the learning center and you will show up, and that I gave me a little bit motivation and, yeah, that's, that's a little bit something, what I wanted to share with you. So basically and Passion is something that can be created, I would say, through the actual doing, and I hope that helps you as well. So, long story short, that was basically how I got into productivity and started to enjoy productivity Simply to do things that are meaningful, add enjoyment to my life and, at the same time, where I can be efficient with my time, that is productivity. And also, thank you, ali up doll, for all the great content you share. That's what I also wanted to share. Now let's go one step further. Would like to share with you now eight tools I used to live a productive life with ADHD, and the first tool is basically daily planning.

Speaker 1: 15:46

Creating a time block schedule increases the likelihood that I will persevere. Now, what is a time block schedule? It's pretty simple. You divide your day into different chunks, yeah, to different parts. For example, from 8 till 10 you do X, from 10 to 12 you do epsilon, and that helps you with different things. One thing is for sure, like being more intentional with your time. If you make active Decision how you're gonna spend your time, you actually you think about it and the likelihood that you are the more efficient is way Higher, because maybe you then don't waste time on social media because you plant oh, I will do, for example, a two-hour deep work session in the morning. So being more intentional with your time is a side benefit or a benefit that I experienced. And another thing is that you know hundreds of studies have shown that Plans having a plan or basically an implementation intention, if you want a fancy word, or effective for sticking to our goals, because If you have a clear plan, it's way more likely that we will persevere. And also, having a plan Helps with procrastination, since you know what you're gonna do, when you're gonna do it and where you're gonna do it. This is what called again an implementation intention. That's what I learned from Ali Abdul, but also from James clear shared that in previous episodes and the more specific you can get Basically to define okay what I'm gonna do, what I'm gonna do for example, I want to write two pages for my new book. I'm gonna publish what. That's the what, when, from seven till 10 in the morning and when, in my office. Now, you're really specific and that helps me also when I. That's the reason, well, part of the reason why I create like a daily time block schedule, because I know okay what I'm gonna do, for example, now recording this podcast episode, when I'm gonna do it Okay, currently it's 9 am In the morning, it's Saturday and and where I'm gonna do it in my office, yeah, okay, that's basically it. So daily planning really powerful.

Speaker 1: 17:58

I personally like to do my daily time block schedule or create this time block schedule always tonight, before, because then the next day I simply can start executing right away because in the morning one thing that I learned on my journey is really as fast as possible to start working. If I wait too long, start procrastinating. So I always make sure that I get up. Currently I'm waking up in 430. In five I start to work, or that's my goal. Sometimes I start in 510, past five, but that's really what I want to avoid. Therefore, I always want to start in five. In most days I start in five actually, and then I can start right away and I don't procrastinate. And if I then already have a plan in my calendar I can straight get to work. Otherwise, if I need to figure out what I need to do, I already spent some energy on that and actually that energy I won't not spend in that position because, yeah, it also can lead to decision fatigue.

Speaker 1: 18:54

If you do then a lot of decision throughout the day. Better use that energy that you got from doing the daily planning the night before. Use that additional energy for your most important decisions on a given day. I guess that's especially important if you are it doesn't matter where you are in the end to come up with good decision. That's, I would say, pretty fun and fundamental. Now let's go one step further.

Speaker 1: 19:17

Second tactic is, after daily planning, micro planning, again planning. But the difference between daily planning and micro planning is significant. It's like the flip side of it. Basically, micro planning now is all about breaking down a project into bite size chunks. So having clear action steps makes the project more approachable. That simply means if you have something in front of you, you break it down. That is called micro planning. The second tactic I want to share with you now, to get really precise, I give you now three steps how you can implement that in your life If you struggle with overwhelm, with ADHD overwhelm.

Speaker 1: 19:54

Step one write down the main task. That's what we already did more or less in daily planning. We know what we're going to do. For example, organize my home office. That's the example. Step two would be then break down the task into bite size steps. For example, if we take again organizing my home office, the different chunks or steps could be the cluttered space, sort and organize documents, set up your work area, organize office supplies and then create a maintenance routine. Now you got really. You are really specific. You have different chunks. Now it's way more approachable. It's not anymore so overwhelming, because oftentimes, if we are all well, we it's the reason is the task is too big, like saying starting a business or writing a book is a huge project, but when you start breaking it down, it becomes less overwhelming, it's more approachable. At least, that's what's helping me, or what helps me.

Speaker 1: 20:49

Now. If you then still are overwhelmed after the second step of breaking it down, break it even further down. Let's take the example we had before in the second step. Now this step of sort and organize documents. Let's only take that one and break it further down. For example, you could say then okay to, in order to finish, sort and organize documents, I will gather all documents, categorize documents, discard unnecessary papers, choose storage solutions and, lastly, label and file. Okay, I break it down even further. Yeah, or break it further down basically makes it less overwhelming and it doesn't matter how small the step is. If it works for you, great. Yeah, for some people, the smallest step is, for somebody else, maybe a bigger step. It doesn't matter whatever works for you, but break it down.

Speaker 1: 21:38

This is something that not only works for ADHD years, that works for everybody. I would say it's so impactful. I do that all the time because it adds so much productivity to my life. It reduces overwhelm, it helps me to become more productive, and sometimes I use just two minutes to do that. Yeah, for example, if I start working let's say I have a time block eight till 10 or or five till eight I short, take two, three minutes, I write down a plan, some bullet points, and then I start. But not the other way around. If I simply start immediately, sometimes it can become overwhelming and also, um, I'm less efficient and I feel stressed out sometimes because I act haphazardly, I don't have a plan, I don't know what I'm doing exactly, I work a little bit, here's something, then in here's something, and that's, in the end, not really productive, right? So again, those three steps.

Speaker 1: 22:39

Step one write down the main tasks. Step two break down the tasks into bite size steps, bite sized steps. And step three, if you are still overwhelmed, break it further down. That is called micro planning. The second thing I do to live a productive life with ADHD. Third thing mono-tasking. Studies have shown that by doing one thing at a time we are four times more productive. Thus, as an ADHD year, I use daily deep work sessions which strengthen my concentration muscle. Deep work, again, you are doing one thing for, for example, 90 minutes or two hours, three hours, doesn't matter, but you are doing one thing at a time and that is especially, I would say, really helpful if we have creative projects Writing a book, writing to a certain degree also a report can be something creating a PowerPoint presentation Now, in my case, writing the script for a podcast episode and, interestingly, you will be amazed how much you can get done in 90 minutes if you set a timer and do one thing at a time.

Speaker 1: 23:45

One thing at a time so powerful because it strengthens your concentration muscle. But if you have ADHD or don't have ADHD, it really helps. I remember an ADHD book where the author clearly pointed out that this is also applicable for ADHD. If you do one thing at a time, you strengthen your concentration and you can build up a really strong concentration muscle. It needs a little bit of practice, obviously, as everything in life or more things, but the more you practice it, the better you will get at it. And you can start really small, with 10 minutes, 15 minutes, chunks of doing one thing at a time and you work your way up and in my case, for example, I'm now able to do really long, deep work sessions. Or, from my point of view, if I compared where I started. This is something that definitely made a huge difference. But I also I work my way up. And also, if you set yourself a timer for that period so if you say, okay, I do a 90 minutes blog which also, from high performance perspective, 90 minutes is a good time amount To get a lot of things done then your brain sometimes needs a little bit of break. But it's also a little bit individual, I would say. But in the end, 90 minutes, you set yourself a timer and you do one thing at a time and you will be amazed how much you can get done At least that is what happens in my case sometimes and then I can really finish an entire podcast script. Or when I have creating a new module in my coaching program, whatever it might be, I can get so much more or get so much more done in that time period. So main thing here monotasking.

Speaker 1: 25:29

Third one, fourth one, is task batching. What I'm doing here is basically I bundle related tasks into one time block and that is called you can also call a shallow work session. So I have, let's say, emails to answer. I have a lot of emails to answer, or I have some admin stuff to do, or chores maybe. And then I simply think, okay, how can I batch that into one time block? And to drive that point home, I give you an example. Let's assume you are living on the countryside and you need to go to the city for three things, three tasks. Now the point is, if you go to the city, you are not going three times there, three times back. You go once there, you do all three tasks and you go home.

Speaker 1: 26:15

That is the principle of task batching you do everything in one one go, basically. And the same applies to task batching, for example, with emails etc. So you think, like okay, I have 30 emails to answer. Now I take one task or task batch that I have one time block, for example 45 minutes or 60 minutes, and I go through all of them. Or, for example, if you clean your apartment, I personally like to do that. I do all at once, like like all different tasks in one time block, because then I'm done after 45 minutes, for example, way faster than I would. Okay, I will start a little bit, then I will do a break and start reading something.

Speaker 1: 26:56

It can be nice on some days, maybe, to be a little bit more spontaneous. I get that, but, for me at least, I like to follow more this approach and I have more time for other things that I truly enjoy, but also when it comes to cleaning. By the way, sometimes you can make it enjoyable. I listen to a podcast and it's not that much of a burden, and again you can see the opportunities, the positive opportunities, in actually cleaning. How can I clean really, really clean by apartment, just kidding, but you get the chest. So point is task batching. That helped me to become more productive Real, quick ADHD high performers. You may know that we don't run any ads to grow this podcast, so the only ask that I have for you is that you help me spread the word to help more working professionals and entrepreneurs with ADHD overcome 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. The single thing that I ask you to do is just leave a review that takes you 10 seconds or one time with your thumb. That would mean a lot to me and, more importantly, it may change someone else's world.

Speaker 1: 28:05

Fifth one is distraction lock. This is a really powerful one. So whenever an idea, thought or task pops into my mind during a deep work session, I write it down on a blank piece of paper. As you know, with ADHD we can have thousand ideas, since we tend to be more creative than the average person. Now the cool thing is OK, we have those ideas, those are great, but they can become a little bit distracting. It's not actually a cool thing to do. That can be a little bit difficult. Now, the way how I approach that is, or how I handle that during a deep work session I simply have a blank piece of paper next to me where I write on the top the date of today. For example, today is the 23rd December of December. Then I write below that to do, and on the right side I wrote write notes. Yeah, cool thing is now always when something pops into my mind like, oh, I need to do, I need to answer this email.

Speaker 1: 29:03

In a deep work session, for example, something pops into my mind, I write it immediately down and then I will continue with a task at hand so I don't get distracted and later I will not forget it. I have written it down because so much things in our in our head. We need to write them on paper to not forget them. That's also, I would say, part of the reason why David Allen, productivity guru, said something like our brain is for having ideas, not for holding them. Yeah, we have great ideas, but we need to write them down, yeah, otherwise we will forget them and we become maybe we are a little bit more distractible.

Speaker 1: 29:35

So that's a really powerful tool I personally use and at the same time it not only helps you with the distraction management, it can also help you with impulsivity because, for instance, if you have, let's say, oh, I have this idea, I could do X, y thing. Now I want to buy something on Amazon, for instance, you have this idea. Then you write it down and later throughout the day, maybe in the evening when you do the daily planning for the next day, you again have a look at that and you can think is it really a good idea to buy that? So you have this barrier in place between you and the thing you want to do. Then you again reflect upon it and you actually realize, ok, it's maybe a little bit expensive and currently I don't have too much money, so it doesn't make sense to actually buy that, so you get the chest here.

Speaker 1: 30:28

It can also help you maybe with impulsivity. At least it helps me to write down the things and later come back to them and not immediately take action on it. That is the distraction lock. Really, it helps me prevent sinking into spirals of thoughts and thus getting distracted by my ADHD brain. I would say yeah, and at the same time, really we can actually we leverage through that strategy the positive things of ADHD, like creativity. We have those ideas, we write them down and we will not forget them. Otherwise, we have to those great ideas. We will forget them if we don't write them down. Ok, all right, that's the distraction lock 6 1, 6 tactic to be productive with ADHD active breaks.

Speaker 1: 31:09

So when I feel overwhelmed or I can't focus anymore too much, I simply move a little bit around. I do 51 push ups and 51 squats. Excite note why 51 and not 50. What I learned on my journey from one successful entrepreneur I guess it was successful entrepreneur something like always do one rep more, always do one thing more. And I started to apply that to different areas of my life and actually, yeah, it started to. It really helped, I would say. Now point is when I'm doing a break, an active break. It increases dopamine and therefore reduces stress in my ADHD brain. Again, regain focus, I can crush the overwhelm.

Speaker 1: 31:55

Basically, and that's kind of interesting because if you move, if you exercise, you increase the chemicals in your brain, like dopamine or epinephrine, etc. And those are basically the same neurotransmitters that get enhanced or increases when you take similar medication, like Ritalin for example, and you not only can increase those chemicals through the means of medication, you can also increase them in a natural way. So, and by the way, whatever works for you if you take it and that's what I'm saying here if you take medication plus, you work out even better maybe. Yeah, you will see what best works for you. It's not a recommendation, it's only what best works for you. I'm really happy if medication works for you. I'm really happy for you if that works for you, if you can live a good life. If you don't take medication to work out as well, I'm really happy for you. Whatever works for you. I'm only sharing with you some, some ideas, but I would say the evidence is pretty, pretty clear. When it comes to working out and ADHD, that is a great thing to do for most people, but always question what I say, figure out what. What best works for you. Yeah, so that's short point here.

Speaker 1: 33:14

Now let's move on Nature walks. That's the seventh one. Nature Walks. The Nature calms my mind and supports me in solving complex business challenges. I guess I remember from the book Scattered Mind of Gabbermatt, written by Gabbermatt he actually wrote about that that the Nature calms the ADHD mind, and definitely it does. I like to do once a week, or I try to do once a week I go for a long walk with a loved one or alone, and definitely it helps me to increase my creativity level.

Speaker 1: 33:52

Again, not always I do a walk, depends a little bit how much I have on my plate, since I love working and do a lot of things. I sometimes don't do it, but always when I do it I feel pretty good, especially Sunday mornings, getting up early and then go for a long walk I remember this summer I did that quite a lot and simply walk and then later sit somewhere under maybe a nice tree, sit on a chair and read a little bit on my Kindle or my physical book, whatever I have with me. So Nature Walks also, I would say, a powerful thing. I also remember this quote from some I forgot who said it but sometimes you need to slow down to speed up. So that means sometimes you go for a comfortable Nature Walk. You slow down, you think you don't work, but later on it can help you again to speed up. When Monday starts you are fully present, fully focused, creative, back again, back on track. So it's always yeah, sometimes, I would say also a good thing to slow down.

Speaker 1: 34:57

It depends a little bit at which point of your in your career you are. You have maybe currently a season where you are saying no to a lot of things, and that's totally fine. If you're ambitious, go for it, go for, give everything. But sometimes you need to say the no to a Nature Walk, absolutely, that's what I did, but that is required if you want to achieve exceptional results, I would say, because you can't expect extreme results by doing mediocre or normal things. That's what I learned from Novel Robbie Kandt Extreme people, extreme results, require, to a certain degree, extreme people. You can't expect abnormal results if you do normal things. So if you are someone with ADHD, you want to build something big, whether it's a business, or you want to become an executive in a company, yeah, for a certain period in your life, you may say no to a lot of different things, and I always try to think a little bit in seasons. That's what I learned from Alex, from Mosey.

Speaker 1: 35:55

So I see life in seasons. So, for example, now I'm currently in a season of no. I say to a lot of things no, for example, meeting friends etc. Or party Anyway, that's not what I enjoy anymore but basic. Or when it comes to breaks at work I am currently working in the internship my lunch breaks are work for my own business. Yeah, I don't do lunch breaks. I eat and work at the same time. So I say to a lot of things no, but I actually love doing that and it is hard work for sure, but I believe that is required if you want to achieve exceptional results. And, by the way, if that's not you, that's totally okay. Whatever works for you. Once again, but I will see life a little bit in seasons and that helps me to understand. Okay, now I am in a current, currently I'm in a season of no and later maybe I will work less. I will say less no. I say yes, more yes to other things. Yeah, maybe the point is having a little bit an understanding of that maybe can help you also on your journey. And I would say any.

Speaker 1: 37:01

What I actually experienced on my journey, but also what I saw, what other people are doing and what worked quite well for them, is they focus for six months or one year completely on themselves. Because I believe, or at least that what is what worked for me. If I first focus on myself, in a sense of, first I need to clean up my own room, bring my life in order. When I have mastered that to a certain degree, I can go one step further and go out into the world. Basically, yeah, that's like on my ADHD journey first I needed to make sure that, okay, I'm stable, I can do the things that I want to do. Then later I started to do other things in addition to that. Yeah, that's a little bit the idea behind this first clean up your room and then go out, and not the other way around, because nowadays I see sometimes people they want to give advice and they haven't walked, talk, they go and they teach other people what they by themselves didn't experience, so they don't know the nuances, the details.

Speaker 1: 38:15

And, of course, you can also learn from somebody who didn't went through the same thing, but what I experienced, the most helpful tools and tactics I learned are basically from people who implemented the things and they are living the things, like, for instance, anali Abdal, for instance, andrew Huberman, for instance, jordan Peterson, people who practice things in their life. They know what they are talking about and ultimately, I try to follow a little bit the same approach, also following a little bit the principle of Gary Vaynerchuk, a successful entrepreneur like simply don't create document. In regards to my content, I publish more Sometimes, of course, I create to a certain degree, but I try to document more than I did in the past, because in the past also, quite frankly, I did the same. I gave advice and I haven't done the work before. So I researched topic, which was great, some people benefited of that, but I haven't implemented that already in my life. It was more after the episode, because now I learned it. So I actually did the opposite what I just shared with you. But over the time I actually realized, the more I start implementing, I start learning about the nuances and details. This is way more important than talking about tactics. I learned from somebody I, but I haven't implemented them. So basically now, for instance, this episode, everything. What I'm sharing with you are, in most cases, things that I experienced myself, or I tried it, I implemented it and I share with you my lessons. What worked for me? Yeah, and as you know, every ADHD journey is differently. Take what best, what you think makes the most sense for you, yeah, okay now, I shared a lot with you.

Speaker 1: 40:04

Coming back to the main step here, the seventh tactic is nature walks, something that really helped me also. The last tactic is reflection. Now, for a lot of different people, reflection means a lot of different things. Now, personally, I realized that reflection simply means for me to think about what I did. Pretty simple, I think about what I basically did the previous hours, previous days, previous month or years. To make it really simple how I reflect my life on a daily basis is through a simple reflection routine at the end of the evening where I identify one thing I could improve and one thing I'm proud of. I guess I learned I'm from Cey Shetty two, three, four years ago. I can't remember exactly. I guess it was Cey Shetty.

Speaker 1: 40:57

Point here is this routine is so simple and it literally usually takes me around five minutes on average, and I speak it out loud, usually on my way home in the car or on my motorcycle when I'm back in Switzerland currently I'm in the US Point is I make it so easy and make this reflection routine as easy as possible that I can stick to it for an extended period of time. Because what I started a little bit to do is always, when I start something, ask myself is this something I can implement for a longer period? In the best case, all my life? Like, is working out five times a week something I can do all my life? Is this reflection routine, at the end of the day, something I can do all my life? And if the answer is yes, yeah, I think that makes sense and I know I just recently started more to think about that when it comes to what I let into my life, because you can let so much things in your life, but if you do it, then for one month and then actually it fades. I don't know how helpful that is. We want if we start doing something because over archingly like the goal is not to start working out. The goal is to stick with it for a long period. Yeah, stay working out. It's like the goal is not getting married. The goal is to stay married. Yeah, you get the chest, and then we can think a little bit more long term wise and be careful.

Speaker 1: 42:25

What exactly, in regards to our habits, we let into our life? Like, for instance, if you say, okay, I want now to read three hours per day, is that something I can do for an extended period of time? Most likely for most people. I would say not, okay, then maybe I can reduce is to reduce it to 30 minutes? Is that doable? Yeah, I guess 30 minutes I definitely can maintain on most days. So already that's an important point of data, I would say. And again, this refers a little bit to the point of what James clear wrote, wrote in his book in regards to making the habit easy. Make the habit easy. Basically, you reduce it to its easiest form.

Speaker 1: 43:09

Again, this reflection routine I share with you. I make it so easy that it is really unreadable not to not do it. Yeah, five minutes, come on, I tell myself, five minutes you definitely can do, man. So again, this makes it a little bit easier for me by simply reducing the time I spend on something. Yeah, in regards to now, that reflection routine, at least it helped me in regards to that so long story short.

Speaker 1: 43:32

Basically I identify one thing that I could improve something that is really uncomfortable. Yeah, if I think about it. For instance, let's say I had a dispute with somebody or I had an intense conversation and I was a little bit too impulsive and then I reflect upon that and I rethink again like, or think about, my behavior. Was I maybe a little bit too impulsive? What can I do in the next time? How can I have difficult conversations like that the next time that I don't get so impulsive? So we reflect a little bit on it and, by the way, that also this routine helped me to process some past happenings in my life that really for a long period stayed in my head and made me sometimes not feeling good, but when I started to again reflect upon it and confronting myself in the most detailed manner as possible like so really detailed, basically it is uncomfortable, but it helped me to reduce, to reduce and almost, almost eliminate the suffering, I would say, which is also quite a good thing in the end. Yeah, it is uncomfortable in the moment, but the more precise I confront me myself with this uncomfortable situation back in the days in, for example, in school, I had something that happened I interestingly, really, I decreased significantly the thoughts about it.

Speaker 1: 45:02

Yeah, it's similar, like I guess a lot of schools of psychology are following exactly the same approach confront yourself with something that's uncomfortable to decrease the suffering. For instance, if you have nightmares. I remember I guess Jordan Peterson shared that in a podcast like I hope I paraphrase that correctly like something like if you have like nightmares, the best thing you can do after you had a nightmare and you wake up, you confront yourself as precise as possible again with this nightmare in order to reduce them. And if you do that over and over again for months and years, maybe you you can better your life photo, you can change your life for the better. Yeah, all right, that's in regards to reflection, one thing you could improve. On the other hand, one thing you're proud of, really important, something you're grateful for, because that forces a little bit positivity. It could be a simple thing like oh, today I had a cool conversation, or today I simply had a tasty lunch, whatever it might be.

Speaker 1: 46:01

I personally follow this approach. I identify one thing I'm proud of. Yeah, and on some days it's, for example, hey, I created a really cool podcast or content on social media, or I had an amazing one-on-one call with a client of mine and that immediately fuels my brain then a little bit with dopamine, because I'm actually confronting myself with the positive things that happen on a given day, especially if we tend to be people that think, oh, every day is so bad, all bad things, start figuring out a little bit of positive aspects. And I would say what is also really important, what I'm never doing in those reflection calls or I try to, at least I try to do that never complain. Yeah, because complaining is really, that's really something I detest in my life and complaining doesn't help me at all and because always when I complain about something which in the past time it happens really really rarely I always feel bad because it doesn't help me at all. If I call, it doesn't serve me well you know. So I would like more to be proactive. It's like what Steven Kobe wrote in his book the seven habits of highly effective people like, and them something like be proactive.

Speaker 1: 47:15

If you have a challenge in front of you, don't complain about it. Say things like okay, we have maybe a challenge, what can we do to overcome that? What can we do differently? What can we learn? Yeah, it's a way different approach or like, on the other hand, saying like things like, oh, everything is meaningless, we will never solve this challenge, everything is bad, it's big problem. You know, you get the gist, but once I started to really focus on the solution say, hey, actually, yeah, it's a challenge, but let's figure out the solution.

Speaker 1: 47:49

Things started to change for the better, definitely, and I would say that is also backed by science, by fostering, cultivating a growth mindset in your life. Ultimately, that can help you to overcome, maybe, certain challenges of ADHD. Yeah, because you start focusing on the solutions, you say things like I don't know something yet, so you're, you're open to learning, you want to learn. It's not like that you say I don't know that I never will change, I am like I am. Those are pretty fixed mindset things to say I would say. On the other hand, if we have a growth mindset, we say, yeah, I have this challenge, but let's figure out what I can do differently and that worked really well for me or helped me on my ADHD journey. So, long story short, we covered a lot of things in this episode.

Speaker 1: 48:41

Let's do a quick rundown. First, I share with you my quick story how I got into productivity again productivity, how Ali Abdullah defines it, like productivity equals meaning times, efficiency, times, enjoyment. Then I share with you eight tools I used to live a productive life with ADHD. The first one was daily planning using a time block schedule. The second one, micro planning breaking down a tasks, tasks into bite size steps. The third one is monotasking doing one thing at a time. The fourth one is task batching. You batch different related tasks into one time block, distraction lock. The fifth one basically a blank piece of paper where you write thoughts, ideas, tasks down when something pops into your mind.

Speaker 1: 49:30

Six one active breaks. So whenever you feel overwhelmed, stand up, move a little bit around. Maybe you turn on the music, you move your, you move your body, yeah. Seventh one is nature walks. If you feel like reduced creativity levels your ADHD brain is not anymore so creative go for a nice walk in, in best case in nature, or at least that's something to consider. Helped me on my journey. Eight one is reflection. Every day I do a quick reflection routine. One thing I could improve, something I'm proud of, pretty simple, all right, guys. I hope that was helpful for you and once again, merry Christmas and a happy new year. Thank you so much for listening to this podcast. I wish you all the best from my, from the bottom of my heart. Bye, guys.