4 Effective Strategies for Getting More Done with ADHD

I live with ADHD and I have since I was a little kid back then, it was something that I was really ashamed of that was untreated, unaddressed, and affected me in a myriad of ways. I look back at that time and I recognize that the adults in my life didn't really know what to do with me. They didn't know how. Approach ADHD in a way that was positive and I feel like there was a real disservice around it.

Certainly a lot of stigmas internalized and otherwise it translated into behavioral issues, into anxiety and coupled with the adverse childhood experiences, that I had resulted in a, a pretty traumatic educational experience. Certainly primary and secondary school were not positive and led largely to my decision not to continue formal education after high school. I love to learn and have found ways to help myself learn over the years and as an adult, but I still have challenges around ADHD now.

However, I see it more as my super. And as a really fantastic opportunity for me to engage my brain on a lot of different levels, I've had to learn strategies for this, and I wanna share some of them with you in the hopes that whether or not you have adhd, you'll be able to find more effective ways of getting more done and hopefully understanding better. Those, maybe yourself and those who have ADHD in your life. Welcome to Passion and Profits Without Burnout. I'm your host, Jacob Moore.

I'm a speaker, coach, childhood suicide loss survivor and filmmaker who left Hollywood to follow my heart of service. I've helped tens of thousands of people find the balance in their life between passion and profits. On the show, I'm gonna teach you how to build a trauma responsive, resilient, and impactful community and organization, all without burning out. Let's get started. I just want to preface this by saying that I'm not a, a medical doctor, not a healthcare professional.

I'm not a mental health professional. I come from a lived experience perspective. I offer peer support and mentorship and, I'm also unmedicated as far as pharmaceuticals go. when it comes to a d h. However, my, you know, wife takes pharmaceuticals for D H D and that's something that is a really positive experience for her and I think is, the right choice for a lot of people.

Today we're gonna be talking about strategies that are related to focus and productivity to help you regardless of how you are addressing

your attention or lack thereof. If you find it difficult to figure out tasks, which ones to pick. If you get anxious about making the right choice, if you feel like you're always procrastinating, if it's normal for you to do a dozen different tasks at once and feel like you're not getting anything done, if you feel like you get overwhelmed a. Then you are experiencing a lot of, the symptoms of ADHD and these things can make you feel frustrated. I know. It does.

For me, I have a lot of irritation with myself and, you know, over the years have felt really disappointed in myself and there's a lot of shame that sometimes comes with this, this idea or this inability to focus. Like I'd like. But being hard on myself doesn't get things done, and being hard on yourself isn't going to help you get more done. In fact, it will lead to possibly a shame spiral where it in fact has the inverse effect of getting things done.

And, that, well, that's not helpful for anybody. So put together this list. These strategies to help you get more done. Again, regardless of whether or not you live with a d h, adhd. So the first one, may sound pretty simple and intuitive, but getting back to the basics I find can be a really helpful place to start when feeling this frustration or overwhelm or just having a.

Challenge with deciding where to begin. And that is breaking down big tasks into smaller tasks. When you have adhd, it can be difficult to focus on the big picture. That can be fun and ideation is great. but when it comes down to actually productivity, it can be challenging. So when you start to feel that overwhelm coming on, and, and this is even for people without adhd. Leads to your brain actually shutting down and making you feel like you want to run and hide. I e procrastination.

Have you ever pushed your list off to the point or ditched something at the last minute? This often happens, you know, with things that are, you know, large projects or tasks where you just throw it away all together. That's definitely a sign that overwhelm is happening. So, For people who don't have ADHD or HA who have great organizational skillsets, it's a pretty simple process. You have a to-do list on one side, and you move the block from the to-do list over to a done list.

You take one thing and you move it over, and you take one thing and you move it over and you get it done, and you get it done right. It's just a, a simple, straightforward process. So I hear for those of us who have adhd, when you are looking at this to-do list, it's not these individual blocks that are tasks that are broken down. It, the entire list is. One thing, one big thing.

So even if you have multiple things on a to-do list, the the list itself is one big overwhelming thing and oftentimes there's this feeling of you have to do all of it. or else you have failed. If you don't get everything done on a list, then you have failed and that all or nothing mentality is very overwhelming and a lot of time leads to shutdown. So when you break down, A big task into smaller tasks and you, you actually go through the process of imagining yourself completing them.

Then you start to start to see them not as this big nebulous thing, but as the individual tasks that they are. If it's a time sensitive project, it can be really helpful to estimate how long it will take you to do each of the smaller tasks that make up. This larger task and assigning a planned time to each one.

It's important though to keep some, you know, room in there for the inevitable time expansion that happens as you're working on tasks, because certainly distraction is a big part of this process. So if you feel like something is going to take you 20 minutes to get done, schedule 30 minutes just to be safe, just to give your yourself that buffer, because under planning time can also lead to that sense of failure, and that's not helpful for anyone.

And, and generally people are going to underestimate the time that, that it takes to get stuff done. So if you set the bar really low, each time you check something off a list, that's a win. And that is reinforcing the fact that like, hey, you can get things done, you can win, you can accomplish these things. And that's, that's really great for, from a positive psychology perspective. Dopamines and you know, just reinforcing the fact that like, Hey, you're good. You can do this.

So, you know, each of these tiny tasks can be a single element of a larger project, and it can, that in and of itself can lead to overwhelm. So putting those, the rest of the list away and out of your site, out of your. Your line site can be helpful so that you can literally just focus on this one thing that you're doing. I use a tool called samma, which is, a computer program that is both on my, on my computer and on my phone.

And I, I use it for, I started out with objectives that I want to accomplish for, a week or longer periods of time. And, Break that objective down into tasks. And then each week I'm able to, to spread those tasks out through the week during, time blocks. And that is really helpful for me to just focus on that, and I can actually put it on my calendar so that each one shows up when I need to address it. And not looking at the entire list at once is really helpful.

And again, crossing things off that to-do list one by one really gives you the motivation to then work on the next thing. I'll leave a link for Sun Samma in my, show notes here so you can check it out.

It's a really fantastic program and, really relatively inexpensive for a lot of those types of programs. So, the second strategy for getting more done with A D H D is to work in short time bursts. . When we manage A D H D during a time when there's so much information coming at us with our phones and our computers and families and TV and everything going on, it can feel impossible to focus when there's so many distractions all the time.

The trick is to schedule time for both productivity and distractions so that when your mind wants to wander, You can just remind it that like, hey, I have a, an actual scheduled time of distraction coming up, so if you just hang on just one more minute, we'll be good. We can actually go and do that thing that interesting distracted thing. But for right now, we're gonna focus. So one great. One great strategy for working in short periods of time is a Pomodoro timer.

So this has existed for, many, many years. originally in the form of a physical pomodoro, tomato shaped timer that like a kitchen timer that you would set for a specific amount of time. When it's done, you're done working. Now there are some great tools. One of them is, Pomo focus, Pomo focus.io. I'll leave a link for that in the show notes as well. And Pomodoro is, is a really a technique that is focused on 25 minutes of work, followed by a five minute break.

So it's a 30 minute chunk of time, 25 minutes of work, five minute break. And there there's lots of apps and opportunities to use a Pomodoro. It also gives you a transition between tasks.

So if you put tasks that take a lot of mental brain power and you do those first, then you know, giving yourself that break afterward and transitioning to something that like maybe takes men less mental power, you're going to be using your mental energy more efficiently and giving your brain that break that it needs as you transition before tasks. So, you know, can always take more time. The 25 5 is, you know, something that is, generally accepted.

But if you can focus for 45 minutes and then take 15 minutes off, great. If you need to, you know, work for 15 minutes and take five minutes off, that's fine too. But use that break wisely. Actually. Get up and get away from your work. Go take a walk. Make yourself some tea. If you wanna get on social media, if you wanna talk to people, you can do that.

But just note that things that are, you know, distractions are hard to come back from that really engage your brain like short social media clips, or scrolling through pictures or lots of interactions or information coming at you. May actually lead to more distraction, so use that time wisely and as works best for you. All right, let's move on to the third strategy for being more productive with A D H D. And this is to set a time limit for a task. This is also known as time boxing.

So people with H ADHD are often perfectionist and tend to overcompensate for the ADHD symptoms. Because they see them as behavior flaws. I know I did for a long time, and I, I really saw it as like a, a behavioral or even a character flaw. But that's why sometimes even with a Pomodoro technique, you can get stuck on a task. For example, you might keep working on a presentation. For all of the Pomodoros, those 25 minute slots, and you might fill up an entire day with that.

It's challenging when you want something to be perfect and you can, and you

keep working on it, keep working on it, keep working on it, and it's hard to remember that sometimes, like enough is just good enough. This podcast is a great example. It's so hard for me not to stop. Rerecord and do that from the very beginning. You know, I hear my son in the background and I'm like, oh my gosh, that's gonna bleed through on the recording. And the voiceover artist in me and the, you know, audio nerd guy in me is like, I have to have clean audio and that's not gonna work.

I flubbed this sentence. I said like an so many times that people are gonna think I'm dumb. I have to restart this, right? Perfectionism can be a poison. So how do we avoid this from happening? The answer is time boxing. Which is to allocate a fixed period of time for a planned activity, and then put it in your calendar and just like when you're scheduling a meeting, once that block of time is done. that's it. You it.

It's in there like a meeting, like an important meeting that you can't cancel, you can't reschedule, and you cannot be distracted. During that meeting, you are meeting with the boss or the client, or the person who is going to determine your fate. This meeting is set in your calendar. This box of time cannot be moved and. You can't work any more than that. It's a meeting that has to finish at a certain time because that person has to get on a plane and leave.

And this is your time, this is your shot. This way you can really see how much time you're dedicating to a task and not go overboard on it. So here's an example. You have a presentation for work, and it's due in two days and in your calendar you block out six Pomodoros. So that's two and a half hours for this. That's due on Tuesday afternoon, and then on Wednesday you can block off maybe one podo to review it and make any necessary changes.

So you've put in an adequate amount of time to get a presentation done, but knowing that you only have two and a half hours, there are some things that a perfectionist mind is just going to have to say. I gotta set that down and move on for the sake of getting it done in this time period, and then still having the opportunity to review it or tweak it on a separate day when you have fresh eyes on it.

The thing that I always remind myself with these kind of situations is this presentation may be what I am sharing right now today, but I still have the opportunity to go back and tweak it later. So if I want to add more Pomodoro, I can do that. If I want to add more time to work on something later, I can do that and still have it be perfect in the future. But for right now, it needs to be good enough because there are other things in my day that I need to attend to.

And if I spend eight hours focused on one presentation, then what else is getting left over and what else is just getting backlogged that I'm gonna have to deal? Anyway at another time. So what if even after organizing your list and setting time limit for each task, you still still don't feel motivated to get started? Are there ways to address that obstacle? Well, let's, let's find out, here's another strategy for, getting more done, perhaps working from home or working.

In an office is a challenging environment for you. Depending on how your brain is, maybe being in a social environment is challenging for you to focus. Maybe being by yourself and being alone and distracted is a challenge for you. So there's an opportunity for you to connect with like-minded fellow people by joining a virtual co-working space. If procrastinating is stopping you from getting work done, then this strategy is great for.

, find someone who needs to get work done as well, and then work with them in real time. They don't have to help you with your task or vice versa, but they can work on their tasks while you work on yours. And it's an accountability co-working session, and it works because. provides this connection and accountability and focus and sort of this like idea of, of someone else, you know, watching you or keeping tabs on you and they can help you get more work done.

So, having a virtual session and getting like work partners, it, it signals your brain that it's time to work and time to get stuff done and can help you be less distracted. And then when you commit to working with someone, Then when your tasks are done, you're more likely to like follow through and actually keep your promises to them. If you're interested in, virtual coworking sessions, there's a great. Place called Flow Club that you can check out.

It's an online co-working community and the entire process is guided by a host, so you don't have to figure out anything in order to get all of the benefits from it. I'm actually gonna share one, one bonus focus technique here that is like pretty simple for me, but it really, it's really helpful and that's ritual. Ritual. And. Help me put my brain into the focus and, flow mode.

So for me, it's, you know, coming in my office or going to a cafe and sitting down, having my water, putting in my noise, canceling ear buds, putting on a specific playlist. So I use the same playlist every time. It's, it's time for me to focus. I use. Sulf edge frequencies, so I'll use alpha, beta, theta different, not . It's not a, not a, a Greek order, but they're frequencies.

That actually program your brain for focus and attention and when you're getting into, and, and different ones can be used for different types of focus. I think I'm gonna do, an actual episode on, the Soul Edge frequencies because they're fascinating and the way that it helps your brain, actually get into different states, whether that's hyper-focused or creativity is, is really, really cool. You know, then I'll, I'll put on, you know, specific music.

I have my yellow legal notepad with my red pen, and that's my process every single time. If I'm doing any sort of creativity and ideation, big St. Big, you know, brainstorming stuff, you, you can't see it. But on the other side of my office here is this gigantic whiteboard. Same thing. I, I clear it all off. I, I have my red sharpie, or not Sharpie. It's a, it's a whiteboard. My, my dry erase marker. it's in red and that's what I use to brainstorm and that's what I use to get all of my thoughts.

Just dump it down. But what I'm getting at here is ritual and routine can be really helpful for getting our brain signaling our brain that, Hey, it's time to focus. This is how I have made a D H D, my superpower, understanding that I have so much in my brain, so many thoughts, so many ideas, instead of. seeing that as a negative thing or somehow a flaw.

Now I celebrate it and I say, yeah, this can be frustrating at times, but if I push myself to use the way that my brain works to actually get more accomplished, it's a really, it's a beautiful thing. I can use strategy and I can maximize productivity, but it's, it's important for

me to also just allow my brain to do what it naturally wants to do sometimes and not always force it into a focused strategy. It's important to be aware of burnout as well, especially. if you experience hyperfocus as a symptom of adhd, cuz that that can be the flip side of it. So make sure that you schedule downtime as well and let your, your brain during a certain time of each day, and certainly at least one day a week just. B, just do what it's gonna do.

So along with those strategies that I mentioned before, you should also carve out some time each day, 10 to 15 minutes at the end of each day, or an hour, hour and a half each week to reflect on how you manage your time and work. Don't just think about areas of improvement, but celebrate those wins as well. Those things that you have, have worked on and those tasks that you have accomplished are, are, are worthy of being celebrated.

And the more you do that and the more you have that ritual, that shutdown ritual at the end of your day and week, just like a planning session, set your brain up for success the next time It doesn't need to. Such a struggle. We don't have to fight against h d or fuels out-of-box thinking and creativity and keeps you full of energy and enables you to even focus and thrive with deep work as well.

So I hope that these tips have been helpful and I hope that, just talking about a d h ADHD and sharing, openly is helpful for you as. So, please leave your your comments on, on this show. I would love to know what strategies are helpful for you. If you have ideas for me to share, in future episodes, let me know. I'm happy to explore opportunities for, for new, new ideas. And I love this self experimentation as well. So send him my way and let's check him out. All right. That's it for.

Thanks so much and until next time, be well. Thanks so much for listening to Passion and Profits Without Burnout. I hope that you found some impactful takeaways, and if you did, I'd love to hear from you. Share a screenshot on your IG story, tag me or send me a quick message. This show is for you, so any feedback is welcomed. Hey, and make sure you're also subscribed to the show so you don't miss any of our new episodes. And if you. Take a few minutes to leave me a five star review.

That'd be greatly appreciated. Thanks for listening and be well.