If you know how to harness your ADHD it can become a super power. Yesterday I wrote a sermon in about 3.5 hours. I taught an OT class to Jr. High students. I recorded a couple podcasts and then after family dinner I researched my ancestry for about 2 hours before working out. I don’t say this to brag in anyway. It’s actually a normal Thursday for me. But my daughter came up to me during my post-dinner deep dive and said, “Dad are you working or are you doing this for fun?” and I realized I was locked in and intensely focused. I’m not an expert on ADHD. I was diagnosed when I was young. My parents were told by a child psychiatrist that kids with my level of ADHD usually end up in prison. They put me on meds. I hated them and they took me off of them after a couple of months. But eventually I learned how to harness my ADHD and become hyper focused to achieve my goals in life. Here’s 4 things that work for me. 1. Build a schedule around your goals that maximizes urgency. I can’t write my sermons a week in advance. I don’t know why. I’ll read and research and think but I can’t write. I write my sermons on Thursday mornings before I preach on Sunday. I usually get them about 90% done and then return to them Saturday night to finish them. This is true of almost everything I do. Until it’s urgent, I procrastinate and do something else, anything else. But when it feels urgent and the pressure builds I can lock in for 3-4 hours at a time. 2. Break up your deep work with physical work. I usually work out over my lunch break. Currently, I work out every day. I mix it up between BJJ, CrossFit, rucking, mountain biking, golfing, and running. When I type that out, I sound crazy. But I’ve got a lot of interests and it keeps me moving without getting bored. 3. Caffeine and Nicotine help me focus. Since I’m 46, I can’t do caffeine after 2 pm if I want to get good sleep. So I do one pour over in the morning before my time with the Lord and usually something after lunch. My post lunch caffeine intake depends on what I’ve got to do. If I don’t have something that requires intense focus I’ll just drink a zevia. If it needs intense focus, an iced coffee or maybe an energy drink. For Nicotine I use Alp 9mg’s and I keep them in about 90 minutes at a time. I use about 5-6 of them a day but occasionally more. 4. I get between 7-8 hours of sleep a night. If I get less, I’ll struggle all day long to focus.
