7 Things You Can Learn About Productivity From Someone With ADHD
And how it is so sorely misunderstood.
My daily routine is one that sends people like my father, a lover of the 9-to-5 and a full, rich productive day with multiple forms of exercise, house chores and finding productivity when there seems to be none left, into an absolute rage. Especially right now in the midst of a pandemic, where the world left inside seems to be in a productivity war with the internet.
I’m very different. I sloppily wake up when I want to, because I know it’s not worth waking up early when my brain can’t come to terms with reality quickly enough, thus, work will start at the same time no matter how quick I get up. I do what I can at random points in order to maximise efficiency, as it comes in waves. I usually get bursts of energy and focus at 3am that creates an onslaught of articles.
Without a plan, without a schedule, most people determine it’s something to do with laziness or stupidity. But why am I leaving university with some of the highest grades in my class? Why do I manage to create some amazing things in short time spans but still need 4 hours to wake up? Welcome to my life with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder — or ADHD.
I first got diagnosed when I was 18, after years of getting OKish grades in high school with full-mark-predictions, I deep-dived into depression and anxiety just believing I was stupid. Why wasn’t the information going in, I’ve read it three times?!?!?! In this way, an ADHD diagnosis came as a relief. I wasn’t stupid, just different.
The first thing the doctor, and many websites on ADHD, will recommend is creating plans. Start small, they insist, but never stop making plans. I felt like I had done this my whole life. I tried to structure my life so rigidly and so in shape with those that are neurotypical that it almost killed me. My anxiety constantly compared, my depression told me I’d never be as good as that. It was only when I radically changed how I saw productivity that I started getting better grades, more work, and better writing.
- Find something that makes you feel happy or achieved in your day. Especially for the boring stuff.
It can be anything — a “half-way-point” walk, spending a good hour preparing a lovely dish, or creating a piece of art. I personally love all these things, and as soon as I do something I enjoy, my brain switches on again. I remember reading a Self article called ‘I Have ADHD. Here Are 9 Productivity Tips That Really Help Me’, in which an ADHD diagnosed psychiatrist and ADHD expert stated: “Most of the organizational strategies we implement fail because they’re boring”. It certainly resonated with me. As soon as I’m bored, my brain can’t do anything, but alas, life is made up of a myriad of boring must-dos that I can’t avoid forever and by making my day that little bit more interesting, it helps the load significantly.
Also, when you’re done doing something, whether that be a section in an essay, writing an article, filling out your taxes, please take a break before sending it off! I’ve caught myself out many times in a second reading after a cup of tea or a walk, because what I mistook for interest was me rushing to get the job done.
2. Relate the work to your passions. What you think is unproductive is actually just brain food!
This one can be harder to achieve, especially if your passions are something niche like carp-fishing. However, if you can relate that passion to taxes — DO IT. Even thinking about it differently, can change everything, especially as boredom and a flickering mind is the number one trait of ADHD. This is why certain apps like SuperBetter and HabitRPG are so successful, as they turn relatively boring daily tasks and self-affirmations into a videogame. My main passions are writing, activism, and drag. So, as writing is my main source of income, I write about, you guessed it, activism and drag. I go to a rally perhaps, which I can then go and write about. I write about my drag experiences, sometimes in drag, to make it more interesting. Nothing is unproductive!
3. Learn and do the things you want first. The order doesn’t matter.
I learned this the hard way. With ADHD, my mind flickers over ideas super quickly. If I have a certain idea for a point on an essay or article and continue to write it in a “typical” manner, i.e introduction, ordered points, and then the conclusion, I wouldn’t produce half as good content. Maybe I’m halfway through a paragraph on the personal experience of being non-binary, then suddenly my mind feels the urgent need to write something about the rights of intersex people, I need to stop what I’m doing and just write that part. As soon as inspiration and motivation do come, don’t hesitate to use it!
Likewise, when I started learning German, grammar studies was the last thing I wanted to do. If you know anything about the language, their grammar is hard. So instead, I did the fun bits of conversation — recorded some conversations I was having in English then tried to have them again in German. Funnily enough, I just picked up the grammar as I went along.
4. Set easy standards and don’t expect perfection.
It’s easy to run away with “the flow”, as I call it, where I just get stuck on things that don’t require deadlines, working on my favourite things, choosing the most important things first. But, the capitalist turnstile carries on and deadlines do need to be met. Google Calendars is my best friend, and I don’t just shove it in on one date. I make sure I get as many types of notifications in advance of the deadline. The ADHD brain is constantly looking for something else more exciting, so constant reminders are a must, especially those that are visual, bright, noisy — because who knows? As soon as you get reminded about your deadline, you might get an email ping with an exciting proposition or your partner might ask you to help with mowing the lawn and then bam! Your brain just erased it.
Stay easy on yourself — separating deadlines into smaller easier tasks and deadlines sometimes makes this work well for someone with ADHD.
5. Prioritise creativity — you’re made for it!
I am of the firm belief that humanity is made to create, but people with ADHD have this talent especially. Our brains are made to link things together artistically, that perhaps other people can’t connect, take David Bowie The ADHD brain can connect everything they’ve seen today, compare it to an experience they had at 8 years old, relate that to a universal emotion and turn it into a poem. All because of the lack of ability to concentrate on the boring stuff.
As stated in a report by the Scientific American, to be creative means to have a “conceptual expansion, or the ability to loosen the boundaries of concepts”, and as people with ADHD reject many in-place concepts like educational methods, structure, and above all, time-limitations, their creations can be amazing. The ADHD people tested in the report showed more originality, more rejection of common structures, and higher conceptual expansion.
6. Unless necessary, do away with time constraints.
My best work, as aforementioned, comes out at about 3am, sometimes I wake up with a start at 5am, have some inspiration, and have to do something immediately. Sometimes, I can’t work until 9pm after staring at the screen of my computer the entire day. Inspiration, motivation, and productivity don’t always come easily to anyone, but motivation is especially spontaneous to those with ADHD. Solid structures have never helped me, and in fact made the other aspects of my mental health much worse. Unless deadlines and early starts are inevitable, I try to set out a few tasks for the day and don’t stress about what time they get done. The work produced is much higher quality than when I had a nine-to-five structure, trust me.
7. Your environment is everything. Like us, it needs to change!
So you’re settling down to work in the same place as before, and suddenly it’s not working? Maybe last night you were writing on your bed, but now you can hear Facebook ping and your neighbour making a noise? Personally, before the pandemic, I would sit in a different seat in the library every time I tried to work. New space, new environment. I get too easily used to spaces, and as soon as I find comfort in a place, it’s my home. This is obviously terrible when you need to work with ADHD — I can put my feet up, distract myself with anything and everything.
As we are currently in a pandemic, I try to move around the house as much as possible, sometimes even different areas on the floor and outside. I’ve even taken my phone with me into the middle of the woods and written a section on an article about gay rights. With places I can’t change, I try to commit to a small change a day. Maybe that room needs cleaning and re-ordering a bit? Maybe I can sit this way today?
The Takeaway
No, this doesn’t work for everyone. In fact, I’d argue that if most people followed my routine and considered what I did to be productivity, their lives could end in shambles. However, considering my life is primarily in the creative sectors, my ADHD has helped me connect things together that neurotypical people just can’t. In my various workplaces, it’s helped me to come up with new ideas and solutions that the standard nine-to-fiver can’t link together. Yet again, I’m regularly late with no sense of time whatsoever.
I believe I saw a comedian once write how productivity was either having about eighty organised files, timers, and full calendars, or having a thousand bees function in a human suit. It is true, the files and timers and calendars may help you if your dream includes a job that has an intense structure. But I know which one I am, and how much I’d prefer to buzz around making beautiful pieces of disorganised but creative honeycomb for the world to enjoy.
My question to you is this: Do you want to start prioritising structure or revolutionary ideas in your productivity? What does the world, and what do you, need most?
