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Hi, friend! I'll keep this short and sweet, because ADHD!
Whether you're newly diagnosed or have known for a century, Overachievers Anonymous: ADHD Edition is the podcast for you. Join me and my guests as we explore the latest research, share personal stories, and provide actionable advice to help you live your best life with ADHD.
Welcome to the Outsmart, A DHD podcast. I'm your host, Jamie Catino, board certified occupational therapist. Two-time Ted Speaker, A DHD coach, A DHD, advocate and Reality Show, contestant. Now let's talk about A DH. D.
Hello, you beautiful. Brilliant. A DHD human. How the heck are you doing today? I'm really excited about today's episode. It, the idea came from somebody who commented on a thread of mind , and the thread was, what's your most challenging part of working a full-time slash nine to five job? And their answer was along the lines of.
Being motivated in bursts. This person said, I can do a day's worth of work in an hour when I'm hyper-focused, but getting to getting me to do boring tasks can take all week. And this brought up something that I wanna talk about, which is the natural A DHD cycles of focus and intense rest. Now, before we get into all the specifics of that episode.
In the show notes of this episode, there is going to be a link for a free on-demand webinar called Before You Rage Quit Your Job. Try this and it's for high achieving people who are feeling burnt out at work. If that is you, there is a free webinar. That's on demand. It's recorded and it is ready for you.
In the show notes, there's also a link where if you're looking for an A DHD coach as a high achieving person, but you're feeling burnt out and you wanna get a free consultation with me, you can get it in the show notes. I'm probably the best person to help you out. Okay, back to the show. Now let's talk about the natural A DHD rhythms that we deny and try to amplify and just dunno how to work with before knowing exactly how your A DHD brain works.
Now let's talk about hyper focus. A DHD in itself is not really an issue with having attention. I know that many of you have been in a position before where you were really interested in something. And you started working on it, and then you just did more and more work on it. You were consumed by it.
You forgot that you had to pee. You forgot that you didn't eat yet, and by the time that you look up and look at your phone, three hours had passed and you didn't even realize it because it feels like it. It felt like it had been 10 minutes. That is hyper focus with A DHD. We have a hard time regulating our attention.
Not having attention in and of itself now. Here's the problem. If you have achieved this flow, not a not flow state, 'cause it's different than flow state 'cause it has to do with the attention because of A DHD. But if you have achieved this state before and you are a high achiever, there's a really good chance that you felt like you know what?
This is my new normal. Now, you went to work one day and you got a month's work of work done, and a day or a week's worth done and a day, and you're like, you know what? This is my new normal. Now, there was a day in your house where everything was just fucking everywhere, and in one day you vacuumed. You did your laundry, you did your dishes, you put things away, and then you did all your spring cleaning organized your.
Closets and you thought, this is my new normal now, and you told yourself that's how every day is going to be. Now let's talk about the problem with that. That is not how an A DHD brain works.
An A DHD brain does well, does best with those periods of focused energy, followed by long periods of deep rest. Your body needs just as much and more rest as it gives you hyper-focused time.
Staying in this state of hyperfocus or expecting yourself to be in the state of hyperfocus and trying to induce it in other ways is like having a car and expecting it to always go 100 miles per hour whenever it is driving. What happens when you drive a car really fast? The gas runs out a whole lot faster.
The same thing happens when you are in a hyper-focused state of mind. When you come out of it, you're going to feel exhausted. You're probably gonna feel good because intrinsically it feels good to get things done. It's also.
Been pounded into us with capitalism and having this intangible result and feeling like I am worthy and everything is great, but there's part of your brain that also really enjoys solving problems and doing novel things in a lot of types. A lot of times hyperfocus can be a. Derived from doing a novel thing, really enjoying it and continuing to do it for a long period of time.
Forgetting about all of your basic needs, like going to the bathroom and eating and whatnot.
But just like the car needs to stop and fill up with gas, you need to stop and rest, which is why I cannot emphasize this enough that follow following hyper-focused time, you need time of deep rest. And the faster you burn through that time, the more focused you are during that time, the longer it is going to take to recoup.
Now let's take someone who works at an office and they get a week's work of a week's worth of work done in a day. If that same person goes back to the office expecting themselves to do that every single day, it is going to be an issue. This is why it is so important that you are more in tune with your body and how focused you have been to know when you need to be not doing nearly as much at work.
I almost said Slack off, but I really hate that wording because it implies you're doing less hyper-focused Time gets a lot more done than. Maybe a neurotypical would do during that same amount of time, but you still need just as much rest. So that might look like crushing it on a Tuesday at work and then not doing a whole lot except chatting with your work buddies two through Friday.
And if you're looking for advice on how to look busy when you're not actually busy, watch the office. They seem to be incredibly skilled at that task. I'm thinking of, oh my gosh, what's the one guy's name that is an accountant, but he's not very good at it. Oh, this is gonna bother me. I have his cookbook and everything and I just can't think of his name right now.
That guy be that guy after you have a long bout of hyper focus because you need the rest. I promise you that as long as you're getting your work done, your boss is not gonna notice when you are not working that much because you already got everything done on a Tuesday. And also you don't need to tell them that you got everything done on a Tuesday.
As far as they know you are still working on it.
Now what oftentimes happens is when you. Expect yourself to stay at this level of hyper focus, you will burn out. This is where a lot of burnout stems from, is from the overachiever thinking, this is my new state of being, so therefore I need to keep up this pace every day. Then you feel like a complete failure when you're not able to work at this capacity.
But that's the problem. You are not meant to work in this capacity all of the time. You do not have this capacity all of the time. What do we do about it? Set your day up to be able to get in those hyper-focus periods. I am not against hyper-focus periods 'cause guess what? It's going to make your life a whole lot easier.
There are things that you need to get done every single day, right? Most adults that live. Anywhere in the world and have things that need to get done every single day. If you're listening to this, you probably have either a business or a nine to five job or a career or something that requires you to get things done every single day.
So tap into that hyper focus. Step one, take a really good look at what time of day do I have the most energy and focus. I've talked about it many times in this podcast that most things that I do during the day are done between 10:00 AM and 2:00 PM. Why? Because that is when my brain is most alert and focused.
Anything that I do after 2:00 PM is going to take significantly more energy than it would have had I done it between 10:00 AM and 2:00 PM. If you're looking for ways to get into that hyper-focus mode, optimize your environment for it. That might mean noise canceling headphones. That might mean having childcare so that you're able to focus on a task that might mean either saving your meetings for later so that you can have the focus time to do the.
Nose to the grindstone work, or it might mean having those meetings earlier in the day so that you can actually attend those meetings and be present for them,
but it's time to really check in with yourself. When is it harder for me to focus on a task for a sustained amount of time? You probably have a general idea right now. You might wake up in the morning and feel like you're ready to go if you take a DHD medication, which when I did, I would time it so that I was taking my A DHD medication first thing in the morning, and I knew that my focus time would start about an hour after I took the medication because that's when it would.
Be kicked in A DHD medication is a really great tool if you are already on it, if it works for you to slip into that hyper focus mode. So optimize your environment, make sure there's not a lot of distractions around you. Minimize the distractions as much as you possibly can. Set boundaries with your coworkers.
Let them know I'm focused right now. I'll get back to you later. Put a cute little sign up that says. Anything like in hyper-focus mode, leave me alone. I don't know. Make it fun, make it quirky. Do whatever you've gotta do, but protect that hyper-focused time and. When it's over, allow yourself deep rest unapologetically without guilt.
Because here is the thing, without that rest, you are not going to be able to hyperfocus. Now, you might tell me, Jamie, I have pushed myself really hard before I have done it. I've been in hyperfocused mode from one day to the next. And to that, I wanna ask you, were you in hyperfocused mode or were you just.
Borrowing from your future executive functioning from your future energy. Do you feel exhausted? Did you feel exhausted? If you feel exhausted every day, I can promise you that you are not working wi within that cycle of hyper focus. Followed by deep rest. It is very easy to convince yourself that you are doing this because you get a lot done.
But getting a lot done does not mean that you are working within this cycle of hyper focus, followed by deep rest.
So set up your environment so that you are able to get into a hyper focus mode. Make sure you're wearing comfortable clothes, maybe having some noise canceling headphones on. If the light is too bright and it's bothering you, dim it. Have it comfortable chair. Have a fidget next to you for when you feel like you need to fidget.
Get your snacks next to you so that when you are inevitably hungry, you don't even have to get up to get them. Create an environment where everything is within arm's reach other than a toilet. You probably don't wanna be working with an arm's reach of a toilet if you do that and work during the time that your brain is.
Most focused and most energized, you're gonna be able to get a whole lot more done, and you're gonna be in a much more hyper-focused mode than if you had been doing it at a different time or in a different environment. All right, my friends. Today's a short episode, but it's honestly probably one of the most important.
Send it to your friends who have a DHD because there's a really good chance that they're feeling guilty, feeling like they need to be in hyper-focused mode all of the time. I am looking at you high achieving overachievers, perfectionistic, feeling like you are never doing enough. Those are the people who I really want to hear this episode.
Now if you are struggling with this in your daily life, my coaching is exactly what you need. In the show notes of this episode, there is a link in the show notes to schedule a free consultation with me where we can talk about one-on-one A DHD coaching. I would love to help you implement this in your daily life.
This alone is an absolute game changer to any high performer with a DHD. All right my friends. I will talk to you next time. Oh, and really quick, if you can take one moment to give me a five star review on Apple Podcasts, it would mean the absolute world to me. I personally thank every single person. I thank you on this podcast for everyone who takes the time to do that.
Alright, that's the end of it. I'll talk to you next time. Bye now.
Are you a high achieving woman with a DHD looking for a coach or maybe an event coordinator looking for a wildly captivating speaker? Perfect. Go to outsmart adhd.co. That's out. Smart adh adhd.co to get in touch. And before I forget, would you mind taking a minute to share this podcast with someone you love?
It would mean the world to me. Thanks, my friend. Until next time.