Hey - It’s Michael.
Writing this on a layover in Dubai - so far so safe. Enjoy the newsletter!
The Situation
You sit down at your work desk yet there’s a million things you’d rather do than work. So you start scrolling, watching videos, maybe even working on some task - an unimportant one of course.
Accept your ADHD Brain
It prioritizes tasks that interest you.
This is because the ADHD nervous system is interest-based. Tasks only spark focus if they’re novel, challenging, urgent or personally engaging - because dopamine levels are lower than in neurotypical brains.
In an ideal world you’d of course only ever work on tasks that fully engage your interest and are therefore easy to start. Since that is not always the case, a few simple environmental designs and routines will help you to start work you must complete - for whatever reason - without friction.
The System
Think of starting to work like a small wall you need to overcome before you are riding a bobsled downhill.
The key is to not use willpower but to lower that barrier by using tools to jump over it easily.
Principle:
Design your physical environment to start work without any friction.
Removing friction for an ADHD brain means clearing your environment of distractions and setting up everything so that you have all the necessary tools ready to do the work.
The analogy would be a painter who enters the atelier where the brushes, paint & canvas all lie ready to be used. If the painter first needs to go to the store and buy those utensils it’s going to be much more of a hassle to start painting.
In Practice
Prepare your physical workspace the day before your work.
Clean the workspace, fill a glass of water, write down your tasklist for the day.
Break down the first task of the day into small, actionable steps. The first 1-2 steps should take less than 5 min and should be very easy to complete.
Having set up your workspace and being fully prepared the night before will drastically improve the likelihood of you simply sitting down and starting to work.
The brain needs around 6 min to become engaged in a task, so if you are able to just overcome the first few minutes it’ll be a bobsled ride aftewards.
A quote to ponder on:
“Nothing is particularly hard if you divide it into small jobs.” - Henry Ford
See you next week - Michael