Avoiding Toxic Productivity Advice for ADHD

Hello, my name is Jesse J Anderson. It's great to be here with you today. I'm so excited to talk about

toxic

productivity

and specifically how

toxic

productivity

affects our ADHD brains. In my case, I didn't discover I had ADHD until a few years ago. Years ago as an adult, probably like many of you, I knew early on that something was different in my brain. I knew things worked a little differently and I was having trouble getting things done and I didn't really know what to do. In this regard, what I discovered was that all my teachers knew that I was not reaching my potential, they did not really tell me what my potential was or what I could do to reach that potential, but I knew that I did not live up to what they said. .

I thought I should live up to it and the only thing I could really think of to try to live up to that was to try harder and man did that, not working, trying harder is not a solution when you have ADHD, you just don't like it. try it. Harder is not more effective if we are still struggling anyway, in fact, even more so, most people with ADHD are trying harder than most because we are simply desperate for a solution and we have very good intentions and we are simply not We can make them connect to our actual action, so trying harder is actually terrible

advice

for people with ADHD, although that's what we naturally turn to because we're just trying to make it work, but the real problem is that the systems were not there.

They weren't built for us, they weren't built with our brains in mind, there's a specific quote from the Hamilton musical that I really love and it really resonates with me and it's right at the beginning, Hamilton says he looked at me like I did. It was stupid, I'm not stupid and man, did this connect with me? That's how I felt at school. He knew he wasn't stupid. I knew he was smart and he was very smart at figuring things out. It was a big problem. solver He was great at brainstorming and had great ideas and stuff like that.

I knew I was smart and would also ace tests, but things didn't connect somehow and people said they thought I was stupid or all the other labels that people with ADHD give you being lazy, unmotivated, messy, everything. those kinds of things just piled up on me and I didn't know why and I didn't really know what to do with them. I never found a solution at school. I survived. It was because I was good at exams and that's why I ended up with enough C's and D's to pass because I would get great results on my exams and then I would just refuse to do any homework, but a little bit after I left school I found out. the getting things done movement that started when David Allen published his book Getting Things Done and soon after Merlin Mann's 43 Folders blog came out and while that really started the getting things done productivity movement in the early 2000s, did it?

You know? things were a bit revolutionary at the time, like email was becoming really important in our lives and so there's this whole new movement about how to do things and I thought this was finally going to be the solution for me, there was all these great strategies and tips and I ate it all up. I loved. I was going to do all the things. I did things in the inbox and used context. I even built a maverick PDA which, if you don't know, is basically just a bunch of index. cards a little cropped, I also tried kickless gtd which was kind of a predecessor to omnifocus and they made it to inbox zero.

The idea is that you never touch an email more than once once you see it act on it and get it out of your inbox, so you no longer have anything in your inbox. I did all these systems for years. I tried to make them work. I spent my weekends building what I thought was going to be the perfect solution. I thought this would be the solution. I would spend a whole weekend and it would work for maybe a few days or a few weeks or so, but eventually it would always crash and I never really knew why, but the problem is, these weren't built for my brain, they were neurotypical productivity systems. . they were created for neurotypicals they were even created specifically for david allen's brain uh gtd is the perfect system for david allen but for the rest of us it doesn't always work especially when you have an

adhd

brain and in david allen's book he talks about the requirements that are needed in a productivity system and the crucial requirement that is needed for those systems to work is trust and I didn't have trust.

I didn't know why I had no idea about ADHD at the time, so I didn't know. why I couldn't trust myself, but I knew it was true, I knew that these systems would always end up falling apart and I never really knew why the problem is that I couldn't trust my own brain and I think that really comes down to this. three main defects and neurotypical productivity the first is motivation and this really is huge. I think that is perhaps the most important point I want to share today and that is that neurotypicals are motivated by importance, rewards and consequences and these are not really motivating.

Likewise, for people with ADHD, we understand when something is important and obviously we love rewards, like if we do something and we get a reward at the end, that's great, it's a great way to potentially develop a new habit, but If you tell us, there is a big reward at the end of the path that doesn't really give us any motivation at the beginning to start, even if we increase that reward, the reward could keep increasing and it doesn't really give us the motivation we need. To start, the second major flaw in neurotypical productivity systems is distractions and bright objects.

Productivity systems are full of distractions and anyone can get caught up fiddling with all the little details as if there is too much to tweak and continue refining even for those of us who don't have ADHD, but it's especially bad for us that distractions can be so detrimental to us. The system follows all these fun trails in search of shiny new objects, but at the end of the day we don't have a system that really works for us and the third major flaw It's that our brains have learned to shut down in response to being overwhelmed. when we have too much on our plate we just don't do anything, there's a point where we can be flying, do a lot of things and then we get to that point of overwhelming and that's it, I'm going to drop everything at once, um and it's all going to fail and neurotypicals often give the

advice

of "well, just suck it up and do the hard work, just force yourself to do it even if it's boring, even if it's not fun, just force yourself to do it, but with an ADHD brain, we We're incapable of doing that, it's not really a choice, it's not like we're choosing to sit on the couch and do nothing, our brain shuts down completely, it's definitely desperate to get the dopamine going and it knows that's not going to work for us. to give. the dopamine, so when we get to that overwhelming point we are completely shut down and there is no way we can overcome it to make it happen. people asked him hey what is Jim like what is it like to have a fourth child and he said imagine you are drowning and someone hands you a baby and that is what our brain that lacks dopamine feels when it does not happen when it does not absorb dopamine well, He just can't survive, he's desperate, he can't breathe, it's like he has no oxygen and you're trying to give him more and more tasks and responsibilities and things that he has to work on. it's like I can't even breathe here I need that dopamine I can't just ignore this basic need for dopamine to do these difficult tasks I'm drowning and you're giving me a baby you're giving me more work and responsibilities and we listen to this advice from experts or gurus of productivity or from books that try to help you get things done, they will tell you things like get up earlier, inbox zero, do stoic exercise two hours a day, not eat anything. carbs or sugar or fat or calories and finally eat the frog first and this is actually one of my favorite examples of neurotypical productivity tips that don't really work for most people with ADHD.

It comes from a Mark Twain quote that says if it's your job. to eat a frog it is better to do it first thing in the morning and people have taken this and the idea is that the frog is that ugly that task you do not want to do that difficult thing the advice is take that thing and do it Do it first thing in the morning in the morning and get it out of the way and then the rest of the day will be much easier. I heard this advice for the first time and thought, of course, why wouldn't I do this?

This is totally logical, it makes sense. For me, if I tackle this difficult task, if I eat the frog first, the rest of the day should be much easier, just get out of the way. Another popular neurotypical productivity tip is to take a big project and break it down into all its parts. individual steps and then you can see what are the tasks that you need to do to achieve that and it's another productivity axiom that actually makes sense, you hear that and you say, oh yeah, it's hard to continue with a project if you don't know what it's going to be involved in. , so let me break down all those steps and then I can put them into my system and then know all the things that need to be done in order to complete them, but the problem with these is it doesn't work it just doesn't work for us we tried to eat the frog first but what What ends up happening is that we just stare at the frog for hours and feel like a failure for

avoiding

it all day and doing nothing in the meantime, we're wondering what's wrong with you and why you can't follow this basic advice that should work just fine. for everyone else and we fear seeing that same frog waiting for you tomorrow.

We got caught up in that big task. It's too much and we just avoid it. and look at it all day and do nothing at all and with the other advice of dividing a big project into all of its steps it sounds logical, it makes sense, but then when we try to do it instead of dividing a big project into all of its steps we divide that overwhelming project in all its steps oh wow, there are many steps. I'm terrible at estimating time so it seems like this is an infinite project now with the endless steps, maybe I should check Twitter. or put something on Netflix and maybe I can start this project tomorrow, or maybe instead, this is what you do, you start breaking your project into steps, but eventually you get so bored of the steps that you think of something interesting and you open 50 tabs on that. topic and I end up reading about the history of the space program and did you know that Apollo 11 had to change course at the last second and landed four miles from its planned destination?

Wait, what was the project I'm supposed to be working on again? uh, I don't say that in a light-hearted way, it's kind of a joke, but it's also true that I've done it and I'm sure you have too, so the problem with these, even though they sound like logical advice, logical advice that we should applied, they just don't work, it doesn't work for us, resulting in a feeling of guilt, we start thinking, hey, this advice is working for other people, these gurus or whoever recommends it, so it must work for other people, why not? It does not work for me?

Something must be broken with me, you try to force it to work which doesn't help the problem. Another problem is great intentions and failed actions. We wonder why our actions always fall short of our intentions. People with ADHD often have really good intentions, but our actions just don't align and we don't know why, and following this neurotypical advice often makes that compound worse, this makes labels like lazy or whatever even more hurtful because We know how hard we're trying to do. it works and we know our intentions are in the right place and it just doesn't work and the third is shiny objects and this is one that anyone has experienced, neurotypical people included, there are a lot of little distractions when you're building a productivity system when you're trying to find suggestions and tips and apply things in your life to make you more productive, but for people with ADHD these distractions are much more harmful, since we can spend an entire weekend working on the project and then we do nothing, but we continue to modify the system thinking that, oh, if I do this little thing and that little thing, that's going to be the solution and we get caught up in all these little distractions that are available when you're working.

With a complex productivity system, then what do we do about it? We need to recognize motivation, overwhelm, and distraction issues. Productivity tips are usually based on those neurotypical motivations,those that matter about consequences and rewards and that do not work for us, so we must find Another way to motivate ourselves, the way people with ADHD find motivation is through interest. Dr. William Dodson calls it interest-based nervous system. I like to refer to it simply as the four Cs of motivation because I find it easier to remember and those four Cs are captivate create compete complete with captivate it's about finding something that captivates your interest something that you find fascinating or interesting and you want go deeper and with create it's about novelty something new create something new those creative activities that provide dopamine because there is this anticipation of what the result of this creative activity will be and that motivates the ADHD brain, the third is to compete and many of us know how much we love a goodChallenge a good competition if you are like me, there is nothing that motivates you more than someone telling you that you can't do that thing that is impossible, suddenly I will prove them wrong and it becomes my goal in life and then that motivation appears because I'm going to face this challenge head on.

The fourth is complete and it is about establishing due dates and deadlines, something that makes urgency appear in our lives. Many times we will have a big project and we will avoid it. for weeks, but suddenly when the time for completion comes, when the completion date is just around the corner, then we can spring into action and get a lot done, so finding those deadlines and delivery dates is paramount. to motivate us to do things, the other thing that happens when we use these four Cs, when we encounter a task that uses captivate, create, compete or complete, it fuels our motivation, so we can use the energy we gain from doing that task and, in some ways, it extends to other work we do.

By generating this momentum, it's like we have a train on the tracks and it's not moving at all, but then we find something captivating or creative and we start doing this project and then that train starts running, we start generating that momentum and then, When we want to eat the frog, it is much easier, so instead of eating the frog first, we should eat the ice cream first. We need to find those things that give us that energy, that motivation, so that we can build momentum and the same goes for the frog. break your project down into all of its individual steps, instead we should break it down into the first few steps and then choose the ones that match those four c's captivate create compete complete which of those steps will align with one of them so that you'll be able to find that motivation and get you going, so with all that in mind, I have some strategies that I want to share with you and none of them will work for everyone, not even those.

What works for you is not always going to work the way our brain works, we just need things to be new sometimes and we will get bored of a routine that works, so take them and try them if they work, use them while it works, I mean , if not leave it for a while and try a different strategy, but I hope this helps you put those four C's into practice. My first strategy I like to call embracing the pivot and it's about knowing the future. During the time that our productivity system is going to fail, at some point we are going to lose faith in it and give up, so if you know that in the future it's okay, we don't have to feel bad when it doesn't work, but then We can know that in the future so that when we try a new application or a new system we don't put everything into it as if it were going to be the ultimate solution, we know that it will eventually fail. most likely we move on to a new system and that's okay, we don't need to feel bad about it, there is no shame that that system failed, it didn't fail, it worked for that time and now we are moving on to something new, we just accept the fact that that our brain wants those new things from time to time and we pivot when the time comes.

Another strategy is pomodoro timers, you don't have to be strict with it, I think it's 25 minutes of work, five. minutes of rest, I like to do maybe 15 minutes of work, 10 minutes of rest and then sometimes I get really focused and get into a rhythm. I still set a timer so I don't lose count. things, but then I might say okay, I'm going to do 40 minutes and then I'm going to take a 10 minute break and I just mix it up by having those timers. I can look down and see it and then I know it's like that. provides that urgency to do something, another strategy is to look for side quests, now you have to be careful here because obviously side quests can derail us a lot, but sometimes you're looking at a project and it's really important, it's the one you have to do. ends and you can't move on try to find that side angle that might be a little more interesting and then you can build momentum that way because we might worry about distractions it might be helpful to set a deadline or a timer here so you don't end up doing quests secondaries all day, but it can help you build that momentum again so you can then tackle the more difficult aspects of that project.

Another strategy is just micro commitments that sometimes start. It can be really hard, so if you commit a little bit to getting moving, that can make a big difference, so instead of saying I'm going to clean the kitchen or even I'm going to do the dishes, maybe it's just me. I'm going to put away five plates or two plates, something really small and then most of the time that's going to add up like okay, now that I've started I can do a little bit more, but give yourself the freedom to walk away if that's the case.

It's enough to know that I washed both dishes, I washed that micro commitment and that's enough, but getting those small commitments can help kickstart things like that. Another strategy is to change your environment. We long for that novelty, something new and a lot of it. Most of the time I go to work at a coffee shop even though there are distractions and sometimes for some work that doesn't work out very well, but many times the novelty of people moving around just sparks creativity and can motivate me to get it done. . Some things that are done, part of it may be the body mirroring aspect, but part of it is just the hustle and bustle which can be kind of interesting as long as it doesn't distract too much from whatever you're working on, just some strategies more here.

Another is to turn exams or paperwork into a game and this really sounds silly, but you can do things like, I'm going to answer the questions in reverse order or I'm only going to ask every third question first, something like that. It doesn't seem like a big deal, I can add a little more interest to it, which will help motivate you to get things done. I know it sounds silly, but that little thing that I'm going to do every other thing first. seems to add a little bit of that extra motivation and you can even add that challenge or urgency, set a timer for five minutes and challenge yourself to see how many you can do and then another strategy is to use the time. based goals​​so instead of saying I'm going to write a thousand words tonight maybe you could just say I'm going to write for 20 minutes tonight instead of saying I'm going to clean the entire office just say I'm going to clean the office for 10 minutes.

I'm going to do this for 15 minutes and an added bonus of doing this is that you learn a little bit about how long tasks take because we're usually not very good at estimating time, so set the time in advance. and then simply seeing how much can be done, one can feel accomplished. Hey, I met my goal of trying to do this for 10 minutes and two, now I know. Hey, 10 minutes of work on this is about what it looks like and ultimately I just want to say changing the world and making it a better place. I hope you can use these strategies.

Put them into practice and make a change. Make a difference in the world. It won't always be perfect. You will fail. Sometimes I fail all the time. uh it's a struggle that we're always going to struggle with, but when you persevere and you don't blame yourself, you can make a difference in the world, it can really have a big impact. Thanks for listening to this talk. I hope you enjoyed it. You found something useful. If so, I'd love to hear from you. You can follow me on Twitter and Instagram and mark the same username, which is just my first name, middle initial, last name, so jesse j anderson, I have the same username for In all those places you can also find my website where I have a link to my free ADHD newsletter and that's also jessejanderson.com.

I'm finally writing a book about ADHD called Refocus, a practical guide to ADHD. I would love for you to do it. check it out, it's at refocusbook.com. I'm writing it publicly so you can see on the website the current table of contents and things I'm working on and you can even suggest things you think would make sense to include in this. book and you can also sign up for the waiting list while you're there