things i’ve learned about productivity, executive function, and how brains work from being a manager with adhd:
first of all, neurotypical people are not just inherently more organized and better at their jobs, so jot that down.
ask for action items in writing. don’t trust yourself to remember everything people ask you to do during a meeting or a phone call, especially in a remote work environment. it’s completely reasonable to say “great, can you just put that in writing and email it to me?” if they don’t do this, follow up to ask.
likewise: assign work the way you’d want to receive it yourself. be detailed about what you need, what processes to follow (if applicable), and when it’s due. i’ve found that literally everyone benefits from really clear and precise written instructions, and it also makes me feel like less of an asshole while giving people more work to do.
many of the guidelines, structures, and workflow processes you follow in order to keep yourself from falling into a pit of procrastination and executive dysfunction are often also good processes for making a team run smoothly and transparently without falling into chaos. also, successfully implementing new workflow processes that prevent dysfunction and chaos comes with the added bonus of making you seem like a much more organized and assertive person than you might feel like you actually are, so that’s a win-win.
LEARN WHAT TO PRIORITIZE AND WHAT TO DELEGATE. it took me a really long time to realize that i am not only allowed to assign work out to other people, but that it’s also frequently a necessary function of doing your job that most bosses take for granted that you already know! i feel like it’s a common thing among adhd people to feel like we have to “look busy” all the time to avoid the appearance of slacking off, and that asking for help will reflect badly on us. but i was in a 1:1 with my director at one point and brought up how my whole week was being eaten up by time-consuming busywork and he went “we have a coordinator, an assistant, and two interns for exactly that reason.” it turns out that being able to task out certain kinds of boring, labor-intensive projects that would typically send me into an avoidant cycle of fucking around and procrastinating doing the thing i dreaded made a HUGE difference in my executive function - i became MUCH more productive and energized and felt far less drained at the end of the day. nobody ever told me this, but i wish they had, so here you go.
i also have a theory that going through life and dealing with school and work when you have an attention disorder will give you this false impression that it’s normal to feel like you’re drowning in work, and that becomes a self-perpetuating cycle where you keep taking on more than you actually should because you’re so used to panicking and feeling overwhelmed that it never occurs to you that you don’t actually… have to feel that way? there’s this ingrained sense that you will just always feel like you’re struggling to keep up because your brain sucks, which means you end up mired in guilt and shame because you feel like everyone else is just effortlessly better at their jobs than you are, which reinforces the misperception that you can’t and shouldn’t ask for help because it’ll make you look incompetent. and THAT, in turn, impedes our career opportunities because you can’t develop skills like time management and good judgment and priorities that are so necessary if you want to advance. if you find yourself feeling perpetually overwhelmed by how much you have to do at work, there’s a real possibility that some of it can (and should!) be offloaded.
responding to an email “just wanted to confirm i got this, i don’t have an answer for you right now but i’ll circle back when i do” as soon as you get it and then flagging it for followup after the appropriate amount of time it will take to get that answer goes a LONG way toward making you appear responsive and productive to others, as well as preventing “oh shit i told myself ‘i’ll look into it and respond once i have an answer’ and now it’s five days later and i forgot to reply at all” moments. and no, admitting you don’t have an immediate answer to every question does not make you look like you’re incompetent or disorganized or bad at your job, despite what your shame-driven mashed potato brain guilt wants you to believe.
and if it’s helpful for anyone with a similar brain, here are the workflow secrets that i’ve developed to keep my shit together. idk if they’ll work for you, but there are 1 million stupid “productivity hacks” out there and it still took me years to independently develop a system that works for me, so if they help you too, awesome!
if it takes less than 5 minutes, do it now.
if it takes more than 5 minutes but less than an hour, put it on the “to do today” list. i physically write out this list every day on an old-school yellow legal pad, adding items as i go along along with - and this is CRUCIAL - a rough estimate of how long i think it will take me. you don’t have to do them in the order you write them down; alternate shorter tasks with more time-consuming ones and take short breaks in between. just try not to leave anything outstanding at the end of the day; if you do, you’re just making more work for yourself tomorrow. there is something that is just inherently very satisfying about physically crossing things off your list with pen and paper, and no calendar app has ever come close to approximating that feeling.
if it takes more than an hour and it’s not pressingly urgent, put it on the “to do this week” list. try to block off at least an hour (i aim for1-3) during the time of day when you are at your most productive - for me, that’s between 2 and 5pm, but for a lot of people it’s during the morning - and make that your designated head-down, deep work time.
i take an “eating your vegetables” approach to every list i make: if there’s something i have to do but will not enjoy, i will start with an easy, light-lift task, then do the unpleasant one, and then save the stuff i find easiest or most enjoyable for last.
i have inattentive-style adhd and find that “out of sight, out of mind” is often the biggest hurdle for me, so here’s the solution i developed that literally changed my life. for project managers, agency creatives, account people, or anyone juggling multiple projects with individual overlapping timelines: get a physical calendar for your wall that allows you to view multiple months at a time (this is the one i use. a 4-month calendar layout is perfect for the kind of timelines i’m used to dealing with in publishing, but your mileage may vary so pick whatever month view and layout works for you). hang it where you can always see it from where you normally sit, and use color-coded post-its and flags to map out the milestones and due dates for each individual project you’re working on so that you can ALWAYS tell where you are and what’s coming up at a glance. most adhd brains are notoriously not good at medium-term planning because time doesn’t feel real, and knowing where each deadline/due date sits and where all of your projects should be in relation to each other will really help minimize your risk of dropping the ball on any one of them.
last tip, which is small but feels huge for me: get into the habit of writing down all the stray thoughts and questions and random ideas that come up throughout the day in one place, and take a few minutes to go through them at the end of each day. some will have resolved themselves already, but if there’s any non-urgent action that needs to be taken from any of them, just make a little note of it, and then make that the first thing you handle the following morning. it’s so crazy how such a small thing helps reset my brain and remember whatever i was thinking about yesterday, but it really does, and i also don’t find myself going “i know there was something i needed to take care of but i can’t remember WHAT” anywhere near as often. again: maybe it’ll work for you, maybe it won’t, but this has been a game-changer for my shitty short-term memory.
i started writing out this list earlier today just for my own personal use, but i know that in the past, i’ve gotten good feedback when i’ve blogged about the workflows and processes i use to herd the 10 or 11 unruly siamese cats piloting my brain, so i thought i’d share it here in hopes that someone else might find it useful. i’m in my late 20s and still working on figuring out how to work with my brain rather than against it - it’s really a continuous and, i assume, lifelong process. but if any of these ideas do prove useful, or spark another idea that does, let me know, because i would be so happy to hear that.
