Hey - It’s Michael.
The wind is back, pretty excited for kitesurfing. Enjoy the newsletter!
The Situation
You spend an hour scrolling before starting to work. Then you spend an hour watching videos instead of doing this one big task. Or you’re deep in work - just wanting to finish this little thing and suddenly a few hours have passed, you haven’t eaten and you read a bunch of angry messages from people close to you.
One of the main reasons for both unwanted procrastination and hyperfocus is the ADHD brain’s difficulty to switch modes.
Accept your ADHD Brain:
Transitions of focus are difficult. ¹
In ADHD brains, the prefrontal cortex takes longer to disengage from one activity and engage in another.
This is why it feels impossible to start, switch or stop activities that seem less stimulating than what you’re currently doing.
The System
Instead of using willpower (or worse, blaming yourself for your brain’s natural design) set up systems to reliably switch focus & modes.
Let’s assume life is black & white and only consists of [fun], [work] & [relaxation] modes to illustrate better:
You get up, eat [fun], write that report [work], get lunch with your partner [relaxation], have meetings [work], chat with colleagues [relaxation], write emails [work], play tennis with your friend [fun], have dinner with friends [fun], read & sleep [relaxation].
Each of those activities stimulates your brain differently which is why it’s hard to switch from one to the next.
Principle
Mode shifts are easier with routines & external cues.
It sounds tedious but life really gets a lot easier if you design internal routines & external cues around each mode shift.
You’ll see the biggest changes by starting with those big 5 mode shifts in any given day or week:
Stopping fun & starting work
Breaks during work
Stopping work & starting fun
Stopping work & starting relaxation
Stopping fun & starting relaxation
In Practice
Write down ways to design your environment so that it gets very easy to switch modes.
Personally I prefer [work] → [fun] → [relaxation] as the general flow because my [fun] activities are pretty stimulating, making it hard to [work] after them. I’ve also found it incredibly useful to downshift gradually & properly to avoid being overexcited before sleep.
A quote to ponder on:
“You don’t rise to the level of your goals. You fall to the level of your systems.” - James Clear
In the next few weeks I’ll share concrete systems I personally use for each mode shift.
See you next week - Michael
Smith AB, Taylor E, Brammer M, Toone B, Rubia K. Task-specific hypoactivation in prefrontal and temporoparietal brain regions during motor inhibition and task switching in medication-naive children and adolescents with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder. Am J Psychiatry. 2006 Jun;163(6):1044-51. doi: 10.1176/ajp.2006.163.6.1044. PMID: 16741205.