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Productivity Rules for ADHD Brains Stuck at Work

Focus. Prioritize. Delegate. These are the standard rules of productivity. And they don't work for ADHD minds. People with ADHD operate differently. We need incentives, positive affirmations, and visible deadlines. Here are 10 ways to light a fire under your brain's butt.

7 Comments: Productivity Rules for ADHD Brains Stuck at Work

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  1. Aw come on, what’s with the “unconscious mind not computing negations” claim, where’s the accurate, clear and authoritative content? And where is the source of it?

  2. “Did you know that the unconscious mind does not compute negation in language? That’s right — the deepest recesses of the mind don’t process the word “no.””

    That is an _incredibly_ bold claim to make as an offhand comment in the last slide; is there a citation to some sort of linguistics study that firmly establishes this? I’m honestly not even sure what this means, especially considering that the existence of an “unconscious mind” as distinct from the conscious mind is itself still under debate.

    But the first issue that springs to mind is that you don’t negate verbs the same way in all languages. How does this apply to, for example, languages where negation is indicated by verb inflection instead of an adverb, where you actually use a different verb form to indicate negation? Or ASL, where for certain basic verbs negation is indicated by the position of the sign relative to yourself? And why negation specifically, and not other forms of verb modification like tense, or count, or animate/inanimate?

  3. Hello JOMA231,
    I’m a writer with ADHD, and have written 8 fiction books now, and published one. When you are a writer at heart with ADHD, you will find that you can get into a groove writing and completely lose track of time. What this sounds like to me, is more of the struggle of learning the craft of writing, versus a challenge stemming from ADHD. I don’t know where you are in your writing journey, but I recommend:

    1) studying craft books on writing, so you will become more confident in the writing itself,

    2) do exercises where you have to write quickly WITHOUT going back and editing (ex. Nanowrimo, or using a writing book, or software that doesn’t let you edit during a certain period of time).

    3) Understand that CREATIVE WRITING and EDITING use two different sections of the brain, so it is beneficial to only focus on one at a time. Just tell your editing brain to ‘Go away’ for awhile while you write. I mean you can’t edit something that isn’t written, right? AND every single professional writer in the entire world has to edit their work, and pay editors…

    three books: Larry Brooks: Story Engineering, Your first 50 Pages by Jeff Gerke, Emotional Craft of Fiction by Donald Maass, and website: KM Weiland, Kristen Lamb, and Storyfix/Larry Brooks. WRITING IS A CRAFT. Something we learn, not something that we’re just magically born with. Good luck!

    Um, as for planning, YOU have to be passionate about writing. YOU have to know WHY you are writing. WRITE IT DOWN. Also consider if you have conflicting desires, such as you want to spend time with your kids, but you want to spend that thirty minutes in the evening writing–thus taking time away from your kids… (bonus tip: Get up early before the rest of the family to get your writing in. Google Robin Sharma and productivity–I learned SOOO much from him!)

    PS. Check out this great article for adults with ADHD and symptoms.
    https://www.additudemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/3-Defining-Features-of-ADHD-That-Everyone-Overlooks-2.pdf

    1. Hello Doc,

      Fantastic advice! I’m copying & pasting to a separate doc that I can print nice & large, to help keep me motivated. I know what I “want” to do — but get so doggone caught up in procrastivity processes that I end up floundering.

      Thanks for responding to JOMA last year!
      ~ RitaC

  4. I’m an aspiring writer and I’m having trouble actually writing. If its not doing an actual brain dump of my ideas, I feel like my ideas are trash and end up playing around with my story. Does anyone have any tips on how to get my brain to accept the story and keep the plan in mind or in sight. Also, I need some ADHD friendly planning tips for writing as everything else is not working

  5. Did I miss something?
    Where are the tips?
    Where is the rest of the article?
    or was I just not focusing hard enough? Lol

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