ADHD Entrepreneur

That would not work for me. So for people with add, like little time slots where you do little actions don't work, okay? Because we're not going to be able to get into the work and be fully invested in it and get into a flow with it when we anticipate an interruption coming, okay? So if I set a timer on my handy dandy phone right now for an hour and a half, I say, cool, I'm gonna, I'm gonna go and write three chapters of my book or whatever, I'm gonna do something. I'm gonna spend the whole time worried about this alarm going off and knowing that an interruption is about to happen to me and worrying that I'm gonna miss that call that I have in an hour. Okay? So the Pomodoro method time slotting just does not work for us. I have run into, like, different struggles with working with contractors and other support people for my business. I had a contractor who insisted that I had to do 30 minutes of an activity every single day. And no matter how hard I tried to explain this, they just didn't understand that it's easier for me to set aside three or four hours to do something and really do it well than to do 30 minutes a day. 30 minutes a day I can't do. It just doesn't work for me. So we need, we need spaciousness, we need time. We need time to get into it without stressing that we're going to be interrupted. Okay? And this goes for pretty much everything, okay. But especially work that we don't like to do. Okay? Because we need some time to like, get into our groove, to set the scene, like make, set the music and find the comfy blanket and, and all the snacks and all the beverages. We need time to kind of create a system that works for us so that we can actually get it done. Okay? So that's one of the workflows that doesn't work. Now. I've just recently come up against this in onboarding some, some people to support my business. And they're amazing. They're amazing humans. They're really talented at what they do. And also their brain doesn't work like I do. So project management plan platforms, okay? Like ClickUp Monday, things like that. Great, great tools and also super overwhelming to people with ADD and adhd. Why? Why? It's supposed to organize all the work. But here's the thing about these platforms is they typically have big, long lists of shit you need to do and they typically tell you when you're overdue on stuff, okay? For people with add, anytime you're taking points away from them, anytime you're saying you're already bad, you've already missed this. What you're doing is you're making it even harder for them to get a little bit of dopamine. Okay? So people with attention deficit disorder don't actually have attention deficit. Like we are able to pay attention if we're interested in the sum into the thing or if we have enough dopamine in our system, okay? We're literally dopamine deficient. Okay? So for instance, I showed. I lost it. It's somewhere around here. I showed the other day these little lists that I do for myself for the day. This isn't because I forget to take my dog for a walk or because I forget to feed her breakfast or that I forget to feed myself breakfast. It's because crossing things off a list actually gives my brain a little drip of dopamine because I accomplished something, okay? That's one of the ways that you can give yourself more dopamine is making a list and crossing things off as you do stuff. As I say that, I'm gonna cross off going live from my list today. All right? Yay me. So anyway, now if any of these were shown as like, I was already in trouble for not doing them or I'm overdue or it's late, I. I'm actually. My brain won't get dopamine from finishing it, okay? That's just not how it works for me. So it. And it actually puts me further in the red of dopamine, makes it harder for me to feel at all productive in anything else that I'm doing throughout my day because I'm behind on so much stuff. So if you are setting up any project management stuff for yourself or for someone that you know who has ADD adhd, be very, very stingy with things that you're putting an overdue notification on because that is going to kill the productivity of the ADD ADHD person that you're supporting yourself or someone else. Likewise, really long lists of things to do. I will never forget being in sophomore year of high school and my biology teacher, Ms. Flint. I don't have to say anything here, you know? You know, she assigned this huge project to us and it was basically she handed out like two and a half inch thick piles of paper for this project. And it literally, the first, I don't know, four or five pages was a list of all the things that we had to do for this project. It was so mortifyingly overwhelming to Me that I couldn't even start it. I just couldn't even start it. And here's the thing. Like we're told to make lists and crossings off as we go. Yes and no. So if you have ADD and you have adhd, a couple things that help you is yes, have a master list of all the stuff that like is on your plate coming up, but that is not the list that you're working off of. You need to actually pull smaller items that are, that are critical for right now, that are time sensitive or are fun for you to accomplish. Okay? And no more than three at a time. No more than three at a time. More than three. You're going to get overwhelmed. Now that doesn't mean that you have your list of like 27 things that are, that are fun and miserable and hard and easy and all that stuff and you pull three things off that list each day doesn't mean that like come noon, once you finish them already, you can't pull three more. But you're not overloading yourself with more than three. Okay? I don't know why three just seems to be the magic number, but it just is. And if you're watching and you know any of this to be true or it's a little different for you, for you, please pop it in the comments. I'd love to hear. Okay, so that is how workflow clothes can mess us up and how to do them a little better. Okay, next I want to talk about self care and how we can royally screw ourselves over by not doing the right self care for ourselves. Okay, first and foremost, sleep. Sleep is this magical thing that the universe has come up with that allows for us, our bodies to reset, to rest and to give our brains a break. There's a theory they don't actually know, but there's a theory that the rest of our system has like a waste management system that like just cleans up all the cells and gets rid of like junk atoms and like gets them out of our body. Our brains don't have that. Okay? The only time our brain can literally get rid of dead cells and broken junk is when we sleep. Okay? So one of the reasons it's really critical for people with ADD to, to sleep is because it cleans out our brains. Now when I say sleep, I don't mean like seven hours, I mean like eight or nine hours a night. Eight or nine hours a night. And just stick with me here, okay? People with ADD and ADHD are incredibly creative. Okay? So we're deep thinkers. We make connections We. That no one else can make, okay? This is why we're really good as artists and as lawyers and as coaches and in big problem solving roles, okay? Which is why we're so good at entrepreneurship, okay? Because we just know how to put things together in a way that just seems kind of nuts, but works. Okay? That takes energy. Okay? That takes brain power. The other thing is because we're dopamine deficient, trying to get work done, especially work that we're not psyched about. Work that we don't like. Takes so much more energy to get done than for a neurotypical. Okay? So you really do have to prioritize sleep. And when I say sleep, I mean regular bedtime and regular wake up time and eight to nine hours, okay? You can fight me on this, but let me tell you, once you. Once you go to eight to nine hours, you can never go back, okay? You never go back. It's amazing. I do it. I started. I started getting eight to nine hours. I think back in 2015. I literally cannot not sleep eight to nine hours. Now there's no robbing myself of sleep. My body's like, no, we need this exercise. Exercise is really critical. So if you have add, adhd, you know that you feel better and more able to focus after you've moved your body. Okay? This is kind of why I look like this all day up to a certain point, because I have to just put workout clothes on and convince myself that I'm gonna work out, to be able to work out so that I can get more stuff done. Anyway. There have actually been studies that when you exercise and do exercises, that helps build up lactic acid in your muscles, meaning you do weight lifting or you do like high intensity stuff like spring sprinting. They. The lactic acid that builds up in your muscles actually gets transported into your brain and it helps quiet some of the. Some of the synapses. And I misquote. I'm like the worst person at referencing stuff because I read stuff. I'm like, that's cool. And that looks well referenced. I'm just going to quote it somewhere and I forget where. I thought. Anyway, it just basically helps you focus more. So if you have lactic acid in your body, congratulations. You have basically taken nature's ADD medication. You're better able to focus. Stress management. Now, stress management can look like a bunch of different things. It could be going for a walk, it could be meditating, it could be doing a kickboxing class, you know, which also checks off the exercise list. When you, when you have a lot of things in, in your brain and it's swirling and you're just like in that squirrel, squirrel mentality, you're constantly stressed out that you're going to forget something important. Okay? And your brain, because you're so creative, starts playing this reel of all the awful things that are going to happen to you and your family and your loved ones and, and your life if you forget this one thing. Because we forget stuff a lot or we just, you know, it just falls off the radar. That kind of stress works against you and it works against you being able to produce enough dopamine to overcome the cortisol and the adrenaline that's in your system. Okay? So you really do need to practice something daily. Journaling also, you know, I had Amanda Stern on last night and we talked about journaling. That's also a great way to manage stress. But to her point, you probably want to do it with a priority prompt that gears you up towards something positive. Because if you have anxiety and stress, you're just going to downward spiral. Okay? You have to do something to manage your, your, your mind and your stress levels. Okay? So this is the self care. If you don't do all this stuff, it's not like you're going to self destruct. I mean, you will kind of, but it just means you're not going to be the best version of yourself. It means that you're not gonna be able to accomplish as much as you know you can. Okay? Now, so we've covered workflows that don't work and how to make them better. We've. We've also covered self care and like, what's really critical. And so I did a thing is here. Hi, Chris, Welcome. Next, I want to cover how to explain to neurotypical people all these wacky ways in which you're different. Okay? And the example I like to use is that it's kind of like talking to a colorblind person and a colorblind person who can can't see blue and trying to explain different shades of blue to them. Okay? Because to neurotypical people, it sounds insane that our brains don't work the same way as theirs. Okay? There are some people, so I'm a narrative thinker. So there's a voice in my head that is constantly narrating what's going on. Going on. What? I think about stuff. You know, sometimes it's annoying, sometimes it's fear mongery, sometimes it's really inspirational, sometimes it's just. It's just there some People actually don't think with a voice in their head. Some people actually think in, in images. Okay. There's, I think it's like 10 of the population things in images or maybe less. And people with dyslexia think in like 3D images, okay. Which is why they mix up words, because their, their brain is literally recreating the book that the word is in. It's insane how diverse our brains can be. It's so magical. And also, we can bump up against, you know, we can have problems when we're, when we're working with people who don't quite understand, okay? Like the dyslexic kid who's trying to explain to the teacher that they. They're pretty sure they spelled brain correctly, but they really wrote. Brian. Hi. Stephen Doyle, Welcome. Good to see you. And Citadeno, I hope I'm pronouncing your name correctly. I'm loving all the emojis. Thank you. Now, now a few things that you want to explain, explain to your neurotypical part counterparts is your dopamine deficiency. Okay? So, like, the fact that you don't have a lot of dopamine the beginning of the day. So that whole thing like eat, eat the frog first or whatever, eat that frog speaks to doing the hardest thing that's on your plate that day, early on in the morning. People with ADD and a dopamine deficiency can't do that because we don't have enough dopamine to actually get ourselves to even start. Start it. So for people with add, we need small, simple, easy to do tasks like these things that we get to cross off our list and, and give ourselves a dopamine drip before we can get to the big things. Okay? When we have that, we set ourselves up for success and we can accomplish so much. But if we give ourselves that big, hard, difficult task that we don't want to do in the beginning, what we end up doing is putting it off and putting it off and putting it off and filling it in. Filling that time in with bullshit tasks that we can't cross off a list doesn't give us any credit, and we end up deeper in the hole of dopamine deficiency. Okay? So we have to start with smaller things throughout the day. All right? How overwhelm works for a person with add. Like, like I said, when we're making lists of stuff, we have to just pull three things that we're focusing on. So when you're working with someone who is, is diagnosed with add, adhd, or thinks they just have it because let's be real, a lot of it is self diagnosed. Coming to them with like a massive list of things and saying, I need all this is not helpful because our brains literally see that list and we lose all, all ability to prioritize. Okay? You coming to that person and saying, hey, I need this one, this two and this three. What can I do to support you to get this? That is going to be the most helpful thing. Okay? Something that's really not helpful is coming to the person saying like, you have a whole list of stuff that I need back by this time, like, where is it? Okay. Especially if like you're not actually defining the list and the items. Because then the ADD mind goes to oh my God, I've forgotten stuff. And we get into this shame spiral of oh my God, I've forgotten all these things, like what is it? And then we can't even start prioritizing because we don't remember what's on the list. Okay? So you need to explain dopamine deficiency and overwhelm. Okay? We need help prioritizing sometimes, okay? By the way, the fact that we need help prioritizing doesn't mean that we are not smart. We're massively intelligent. Okay? It just means that our brains work differently and it processes information differently. That's it. We need to explain about time and hyper focus, you know, so if you're working with someone who has add, assigning tasks in a small period of time is not helpful. Okay? Saying hey, I need, like this is the thing that we need from you. How much time do you need to accomplish it and what would be the best way for you is going to be so much more helpful. It's going to be so much more helpful. Okay? Because writing an hour a day may not be the way your ADD person gets stuff done. It may be that they need to block off a whole day, just go down the rabbit hole and get hyper focused and have a really sore back and neck at the end of the. Because they've been hunted over a computer doing the thing. Okay, you need to talk to your ADD ADHD person to determine what's best for them and how they're going to be able to get into the work. Okay? Progress updates, progress updates. So how do I just. Kindness for everyone. Kindness for everyone. Who does this. Progress updates for people with add. So say I don't have add, but someone else does. And I'm asking about like, what's the progress report on this thing? It is robbing that person of dopamine because it's a constant reminder that they're behind on something, even if they're not behind on it. This is the crazy thing. If they're not behind on it, but they still have to do it, you pestering them about it makes them feel like they're in trouble for not doing it. Okay? Which robs them of dopamine, which robs them of being able to. To actually get more stuff done. Okay, so you think you're being helpful? Not so much progress reports. This is kind of like the workflow where there's a project management platform that has something's overdue. It just. It makes it that much harder. Also, just so you know, the add person over there has the same amount of hours in the day, and they're looking at their calendar. And this kind of happened to me the other day was I had two hours blocked off to do stuff that I was kind of behind on. And all morning I got pings from some people asking me about it. So those two hours turned into me responding to the progress report questions rather than doing the things because I like. It's so hard in that moment to prioritize. Well, I need to communicate well with them. I need to communicate well with them. All of a sudden, those two hours are gone, and I still haven't done the thing for them. Okay? So progress updates and, you know, questions, you know, you think you're being helpful. And also, you really need to design with this ADD person what works best there, okay? Because how they're blocking off their time in their mind will be interrupted by requests like that. The other thing, you know, I'm a big believer of going above and beyond. Okay? So when I worked at this luxury resort on Cape Cod, you know, through my high school and college years, in the summer, our. Our mission was surprise and delight. You know, go above and beyond, do heroic acts for your. For your guests to go above and beyond and over. Deliver on the experience. Do not do this with people with adhd, okay? So if they ask for a very specific change in protocol, if they ask for a different way of communicating and they're specific about it, know that they know what they need better than anyone else, okay? The fact that they're asking for this is because their brains will literally be able to function better and help them complete tasks better if it's set up in that specific way. Sometimes some people will say, great, well, what if we do this whole overhaul and completely change the system and do all this stuff? The ADHD person then has to say, no, no, like they have to shut down your idea, which we hate doing because we're so creative and we hate it when people shut down our ideas. No backpedal. Just, I just need this one change. And oftentimes when they're asking for that change, it's because they're almost at the breaking point. They're like, they're already in super overwhelm. And like, this one thing will just help them get out of it. It's like, this is the aspirin that will get rid of our headaches so that we can actually get the work done. But when you change the whole game on them or you propose, make a bigger proposal for changes that they don't need. It's kind of like saying, oh, you have a headache. Let's give you a migraine. Let's give you a migraine. It's not, not the aspirin you asked for. Here's a migraine. Then it just derails the whole thing. So I, and I, I, I wanna, I wanna just be very respectful and honor that you're going above and beyond. And for most people who are neurotypical, yeah, those, those ideas might be helpful, but for someone who's neurodiverse, who has a hard time, you know, getting over these little hurdles to get stuff done, it doesn't help. It actually creates a bigger hurdle for them. Okay. Because they then also have to explain to you how their brain is different and how they don't function like normal people. And for a lot of people with add, if they were diagnosed later in life, there's a bit of shame attached to it. And even, even for people like me who are diagnosed as a kid, like, there's a little bit of shame in being different. And so you've just put them in a position where they have to explain this thing that they're ashamed of. And you don't want to do that. I know you don't want to do that. That's not something that you're intending to do. But it can happen very easily when you try to completely change systems on them when they're asking for one small change. Anyway, that's pretty much all I have today on ADD and how to function better in the world on it. I hope this is super useful to you. If you have ADD or ADHD and anything was helpful here, please let me know. Also, if you work with people with ADD and ADHD and this helped you understand them better, please also let me know. Yeah, that's all I have. I'm shocked. Talking about ADD and adhd I wasn't more distracted, but I'm really passionate about this topic. A lot of my clients find that they have ADD and. Or they. They are already diagnosed, so they kind of figure it out through working together. And it's. It's honestly one of my favorite, favorite personality types to work with because there's so many creative ways to find systems that work for the ADD mind that really light people up and that tap into their strengths. And one of my deepest joys, and this is something that I find joy in for myself as well, is finding ways to make work that used to be miserable to do actually fun for the ADD mind. Yeah, it's. It's. It's a whole process. It can be very creative. And if you're an entrepreneur and you struggle with this and. And this has been one of the hurdles that you've had in growing your business, then please shoot me a dm. I'm more than happy to hop on the phone and see if we're a fit and if we're not, to put you in the direction of some resources that might serve you. Anyway, I'm Katie McManus, business strategist and leadership coach at. Thank you for tuning in today. Happy Friday. Happy Earth Day. I hope you have an amazing weekend, and I will see you all next week. Bye. Oh, oh, oh. And thank you for those of you who tuned in. Hans and Chris and Steven and Citadeno and everyone else who didn't.