Hacking The ADHD Brain

I really like this series. The feedback so far has been awesome! I think I’ll try to do more series posts. I generally have enough to say. Plus, I’m learning a ton of great stuff that I love sharing. Earlier this week I talked about how sleep affects our ability to reach peak performance. Then I gave a run down on food and what we can do to extend those precious hours of attention in the morning. If you didn't know already the secret is eating protein for breakfast! So I hope you are getting how crazy important the morning can be for ADHDers. Today I’ve got a bit more for you.

As a review, ADHD is a group of symptoms primarily lumped into a few separate categories: inattention, disorganization, hyperactivity, and impulsivity. So if we are going to hack our brains and get the most out of our mornings we need to keep these in mind.

If you have been following along with this series, you have tuned up your brain and it’s ready to go. It’s rested and fed, and now you just need to point it in the right direction.

Pick One

It’s that simple. With ADHD you need to accept that you may have a limited amount of cognitive resources to play with. In a pinch though, we can do a ton of work if we limit our attention to just one task at a time. Multi-tasking is our norm. Our default. But sometimes you need to be firing on all cylinders. This is what I am talking about here. So pick one thing to do for your maximum operating time (whatever that is for you. 30 minutes, an hour, or three hours), and go for it. When I was working through my dissertation, I learned this the hard way. I would struggle just to write a page of content. Nighttime, afternoons, both were terrible. It wasn’t until I targeted my mornings that I was able to begin making serious progress.  So do the most important thing first in the morning. Pick one thing from your to-do list and do it, but make sure it’s the most important one. What challenges your brain the most? Whatever it is, do that first. You will have a head of steam built up after these first few steps and you don’t want to waste it on video games or email. Make it count. I love this quote from Mark Twain:

"If it's your job to eat a frog, it's best to do it first thing in the morning. And if it's your job to eat two frogs, it's best to eat the biggest one first."

Location

Inattention is a bear when you are trying to focus and produce quality work. It can sneak in with the slightest movement or sound. That’s why the place you choose to work is so important. If you have a choice, pick a spot that you have the most control over. Can you turn lights on or off? Can you heat or cool it? Do anything and everything to make it free from distraction. If you are trying to learn something or remember something, research shows that it’s really important to consistently study/practice in a similar environment. When you find yourself beginning to wander, keep track on a piece of paper. If your spacing out more than four times an hour and your not finished, you can try moving to another location. Get up, pack up and move to the other side of the office. Move to another cubicle in the library, or leave your home and go to a coffee shop. The hack here is to pick a novel space in order to amp up your ability to focus.

Crank Up The Silence

If you’re like me and most other adults with ADHD, the last thing we want to do is sit still or be in silence. Recently, this is almost impossible for me. Just the thought makes me want to smash something or run screaming from the building. It’s funny – we want to cling so rabidly to the one thing we wish we could change about ourselves and that drives us crazy, day in and day out. But again this comes down to the cognitive science. Meditation actually promotes growth in our brains, helping us decrease impulsivity and increase memory. Seriously! So here is the tip. You can increase your morning productivity by starting it with silence. Get up a bit early and sit in silence. Don’t think about your day, don’t think about what you’re going to eat or the next big event you have.  Don’t even think about what you are about to work on. Just sit and focus on your breath, and the sounds around you. Time yourself and start small.  Five or ten minutes should be a good place to begin. This will be difficult and totally uncomfortable, but remember, you’re growing brain cells. If you need a crutch, add white noise like a fan to focus on. When you get better, just add time.

Be Social

My favorite way to stay focused and add structure to my morning is by adding people. Social norms are a great way to curb impulsivity and keep you accountable to the greater goal. So make your first project a team event. Cooperation is a great way to stimulate your brain and crank up the dopamine. Better yet, add food and people, twice the dopamine, twice the productivity, creativity and attention that you need to get the job done. Another way you can add people without physically adding people, is to use social media or texting to keep friends up to date on your work. Use them keep you accountable. For example, I told all of you in my post on Tuesday, that I was going to publish Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday. And I made it happen, when I normally may have found something else to fill my time instead.

Get Your Meds/Caffeine Onboard

Unlike other cognitive disorders, ADHD is highly treatable with medication. Over 70% of diagnosed individuals have positive results with medication! That’s significantly better than most other conditions treated with meds. If you’re like me and are not medicated, you might struggle with this. Fighting with yourself constantly to convince yourself, “I don’t need this right now,” or “I’m weak.” You might be able to perform ok, but you might not. It’s really a crapshoot, determined and affected by the day’s events and a ton of stuff out of your own control. This is for those with a diagnosis and know that ADHD is a real issue for them. Just get it on board and roll with it. Your morning will be better.