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Time management and organization have never come naturally for me. When life became unbearable – a stable since the arrival of my second child – I saw experts. Once I did not think of listening to my rhythm and body. Productivity, I thought, there was something to master, nothing to understand.
Then I hit a wall.
I was tired of feeling like this, so I stopped fighting with my nature. I stopped taking productivity advice from those who do not have ADHD.
Over the years, I was trying to include myself in someone I was not doing – structured, disciplined and neatly organized. A person who can follow the system designed for a brain that did not work like me. Why did I ever believe that I can manage my time in the same way that they did?
The innings was subtle but changed everything. I am unstable, not now, moving forward with purpose. I know I will get stuck again, but I also know: I am following solutions that were never to work for me.
Today, what am i sharing Does Work – How do I work without drying myself in this process. Because when we work who we are, burnout is not a possibility. This is a guarantee.
Notes on productivity, comfort and merit
A note on productivity.
I define productivity that I said that I do for myself, for others – in a way that makes sense for my life. I spent two years, tried to fix the burnout by “rest”, only to feel worse with each passing day. Gets out, the rest is not just peace. Some types of rest are active, and learn to restore He everything changed.
A note on comfort.
Different types of rest follow a variety of productivity. To know what you mean to know your limits. Trying to act like someone without ADHD, only pushed me ahead with those signs. ADHD brain requires a variety of rest – emotional, mental, creative, physical, passive.
I do not recharge by watching TV. I recharge by reading, cooking, long walks and practicing pilates. For outsiders, it may seem that I am always going, but such a movement restores me. Sometimes, a junk drawer is organized self-care. The second time, this is a warning signal. When I am mentally dry, TV helps. When I get emotionally overwhelmed, it makes me feel stuck. Everything changed by learning the difference.
A note on qualification.
We are taught that we measure everything we produce. A part of my midlife journey is rejecting this, removing my value from my output, and focusing on it Construction Instead MeasurementIf you are in that thick, this post cannot be what you need today.
Your value is not your job. But making – making, shaking, nothing shape from nothing – YouIt is going to give life. This is a confidence-making. This is the thing that can pull you out of a spiral before catching you. When I began to respect my internal drive to make, the productivity stopped doing something I followed. This became a natural result of finding my flow. Speed, no shortage. Construction, not extraction. And it changed everything.
When I began to respect my internal drive to make, the productivity stopped doing something I followed. This became a natural result of finding my flow. Speed, no shortage. Construction, not extraction. And it changed everything.
Living with boundaries, both mental and physical
I am a working mother with hobbies, a social life and a good night’s sleep and a deep appreciation for daily physical movement. I do not want to give any of them. Therefore, I accept that I do not have long, uninterrupted stretch for deep focus work as I used to do.
I also admit that I never know that I need Rest Or motionThe only way to know is tuning in my body, and it requires emotional regulation, which is also difficult to access when you are oversted.
My ability to reach myself the most “producers” is limited and not consistent. Knowing that I am not always going to make the right choice, it helps me find some grace rather than falling into the spiral of shame. I used to dominate me as a human being to find some things about me. We do not do this anymore. A few days I can give myself what I want. Some days I just mess up. Life goes on.
It is unrealistic to get optimal productivity every day. When I do yoga, my body can feel completely different from one day to the other day. The minds are also like this. Many times happen Work and life feel like a difficult fight. Switching works seem more difficult than as much as they should. And there are seasons where efficiency is not just in cards – accepting which is important to find a way.
Because I don’t have hours to relax in focus, I have to hack my system. In doing so, I learned three essential principles that help me to work with a neurodergent brain: Simplicity, urgency and speed.
Here is how they shape my daily life.
3 Principles I follow for better “productivity”
Theory 1: simplicity
I maintain simple systems to capture ideas, document the tasks and organize all the above. The key is that the processes are easy to repeat and everything is easy to access – nothing is ever complicated. This is paramount.
I use the Note app And Reminder app On my phone too perception To save ideas and actions. I also write things on paper because I will never become a completely digital person. Brain processes the handwriting in a completely different way compared to typing. In addition to perception, the apps on my phone are very simple and easy to use.
I use the bucket system for digital files (and physical objects in my house), something that I first learned about the author of Casey Davis How to keep home while drowningI use digital buckets to organize files on my computer in these categories: two-do lists, writing, business projects, content manufacturing, family, our home, learning, finance, mental health, cooking, travel, physical health and customers.
Theory 2: urgency
Those of us who are deeply familiar with deepest, know that it is a bad habit that “works” because we work after feeling time pressure. However, I came to know that when I relax and quickly run to do everything quickly, I think I lack my work because I don’t have time to practice deep work and get all my ideas out. To break the cycle of laxity, I need to create my own urgency. This principle comes in playing through the timer used by me (more on it).
Principle 3: Speed
With any action, I have long known that the most difficult part is starting, which is why it is so important to create speed. Because infection is very difficult for people with ADHD, the principle of motion continues us.
To create my daily speed, I applied a dawn routine, which is down to the basic things and prioritize the first most challenging thing. I get up, drink coffee, and sit down to work immediately. This creates a natural flow of dopamine that can take me through the day. I used to meditate and stretch before working, and now I do it after doing so that focuses a lot. When I use this type of speed, I feel amazing and ready to deal with anything.
4 Productivity Equipment I Swear
For the same reasons I am a fan to use pens and paper, I like physical equipment that is not on my phone. There are always four on my desk here.
1. Stay on the trek planner: This planner helps me plan each week details.
2. Timer: This is to practice pomodoro technology and to follow and create urgency and obstacles. I have three of them.
3. Brick: Select the app on my phone for a fixed amount of brick block time. It is very important to me to have a physical device to limit my digital access. The brick wins for its simplicity.
4. Apple headphone: To lock and out tune. White noise, sound bowl, EDM, rap. No matter what it is until I can hear what is going on around me.
I also turn to a few selected resources and people for advice on productivity:
My work routine
Sunday night or Monday morning, I dump everything in myself Stay on the trek planner—What, thoughts, and note I have collected throughout the week in my notes and reminders apps. Then, I use Easenhover Matrix To explain what is necessary, what can wait, what can be delegated, and what is just noise. I hate the plan, but I have learned that everything becomes easy by pushing through this step.
When it is time to work, I take it Brick And Watch Wherever I go – whether it is my office, dining table, or a coffee shop. I put it on myself HeadphoneChoose a task, and set a timer: 25 minutes For small tasks like email and caption, 45 minutes For deep work like writing and design. The timer prevents me from falling into perfection (which is just relaxed in disguise).
I also set firm Physical and digital limitationsMy phone stays out of reach, my texts are on silent, and if my office divider is up, my family knows that I need uninterrupted times. This is not right – kids still move inside – but it helps everyone to take more care Essential It actually means.
At the end of the day, I ask myself: Do I need to push or call through a night? If I feel that finishing my two-two list will prove that I would “worked hard,” I go to bed. If wrapping a final work will help in tomorrow’s speed, I give myself 30 more minutes. Any stringent rules – just in tuning.
I used to dominate me as a human being to find some things about me. We do not do this anymore. A few days I can give myself what I want. Some days I just mess up. Life goes on.
Inconvenience
I do not take it easier now because I know how difficult simple things can be. I used to wait for the right circumstances to write – now I connect things in the middle of the grocery store. I follow the ease when it presents itself.
But inconvenience is always there.
When big projects look heavy (Namaste, write a book), I think of Phil Stutz Pearl wire Concept- Progress is adding a small action just at once. Some pearls are not great, but the points have to be added to them. Starting is 80% of the fight, and the resistance never completely disappears.
Over time, I have come to appreciate the pain of hard work. It snatched my ego from productivity and I saw the meditation power of the bus doingThe pain of making comes from so much care that we are afraid – and it is beautiful.
We do not need to go back to our way into the Hustle Culture, but perhaps we have been far away in the other direction. I know I did it. Now, I think about self-care as self-respect: How can I be elected to the honor that I care most today?
There will always be parts of the process that we hate, but the more we do it, the better it is that we move forward. And in doing so, we care deeply about life.
Kate is the founder of Wit and Delight. She is currently learning to play tennis and is forever Testing her creative muscle boundaries, Follow it on Instagram on @Witanddelight_.
