Life of Matt

So for the past week or so, I haven’t had my medicine.  What suprises me is the amount of work I’ve managed to get done during that time.  For the first time in my life, I have strategies that can actually work to combat the ADD.   If you have ADD, here’s some things you can do to defeat it:

1. Work In Bursts

This is a Neil Fiore thing.  By making yourself only work for very very short periods of time, you can work WITH your attention span, instead of against it.  I’ve been changing the amount of time I work for from between 5 minutes and 30 minutes, depending on how much attention I feel like I have.

2. Schedule Distractions

You know you’re going to get distractetd anyway, so one way to make sure it doesn’t fuck you up is to actually schedule the time you’re going to get distracted, and set a specific amount of time that you’re allowed to be distracted.  Coupled with burst working, this allows you to any time you’re about to get distracted say “Wait, I only have 5 minutes left, and then I get to be distracted, just 5 more minutes.”  These two tactics together are super effective. 

3. Relaxation

Even with five minute bursts, I sometimes find myself bored and jumping around.  At these times, one great technique I’ve found is relaxation.  I typically use a combination of mindful breathing and progressive muscle relaxation.  The idea when relaxing is to have a quiet environment, a letting go effect, an internal focus, and a comfortable position.  I take a big breath in, and on each breath out, focus on another part of my body to relax.

4. Follow Your Interests

Instead of planning every second of every day, instead keep lists of the important things you need to do.  Then go down the list, and find the most interesting thing for you.  This helps keep you from getting bored.

There you are, 4 techniques you can immediately implement to help fight your ADD tendencies.  This stuff works, use it.

I’ve been thinking a lot about why I was able to fall so easily off track.  After all, the whole point of my leave of absence was to instill habits in me that would prevent me from falling off track.  And yet, I can’t think of a single habit that I’ve acquired that has truly stuck with me (except perhaps setting my alarm and waking).  This, despite the fact that I’ve been working dilligently to learn and acquire the proper habits.  I started to think that maybe I was choosing the wrong habits, or that some of the habits simply went against my core nature.

Then I realized the truth: I was simply trying to do too much at once.  Everything I had ever learned about productivity had told me to multi-task, to give my self options, and to focus on my life as a whole, rather than going about it in a piecemeal fashion.  However, I realized that THIS was what was holding me back.

And then, this sentence popped into my head:

If you try to do too much at once, you won’t end up doing anything at all.

That sentence has changed the way I’m approaching my leave absence,  and changed the way I’m thinking about improving myself.  Previously, I had been trying to instill a “structure” that would allow me to not  fall off I track.  I figured if I scheduled in reviews, planned daily, wrote lists, captured everything I have to do, wrote down goals, etc, I would have too much momentum and too many checks and balances to fail. But I didn’t realize something:

If I tried to do too much at once, I wouldn’t end up doing anything at all.

By overloading my brain with all these new habits, I was never able to get one of them in my brain long enough for it to stick there.  So like I said, I’m changing my tactics.  From now on, I’m going to be taking on one habit every 21 days, and that habit will be directed to only one or two goals.   I suggest that if you’re into personal growth, you take a similar tact.  Focus on one thing, and pound it into your brain until it sticks.  Because Remember:

If you try to do too many things at once, you won’t end up doing anything at all.