This transcript was generated from the episode audio and may contain minor errors.
[Music]
I really appreciate the question in today's episode. It comes from a listener who struggles with ADHD, or at least who identifies as having attention deficit disorder. Sometimes it's the struggle, sometimes it's not. I think ADHD speaking from experience, and I'll share a bit more about this in my answer, it can be a strength and a weakness. It's a little bit of everything.
It's kind of like a superhero power, in that it comes with some downsides, but if you learn to harness it, well, there's some analogy there, we'll touch base on it. Robert, our listener, loves photography. He's even started a small business around it, but he finds it challenging to manage his time and tasks effectively due to his ADHD. And he's looking for tips on how to make this side also work with his unique cognitive style. So shout out to everybody out there who identifies as neurodivergent, who's been diagnosed with ADHD or OCD, or perhaps is on the autism spectrum.
There could be a variety of conditions. I don't pretend to be an expert on all of those things, but I do have some experience as noted. So let's get to it. A listener with ADHD struggling to keep the side hustle on track. How do you adjust your productivity strategy given that constraint or that variable?
Detailed question coming right up. [Music]
Hey there, I'm Robert from Huntsville, Alabama. I've been diagnosed with attention deficit disorder and want to explore side hustling. My condition makes it really hard to stay focused for long periods. And I'm concerned it'll hinder my productivity and effectiveness in a business, or at least it's always been a problem with my job.
Do you have any specific strategies or tools that could help someone like me balance a side hustle while managing ADD? [Music]
Robert, I really appreciate you raising this issue. We actually have a lot in common. Long ago in a past life, well, at least many years ago, I lived in Huntsville, Alabama for a brief time. I still have some family that are there.
And then also I've been diagnosed with ADHD for, well, I guess also a very long time since I was a kid. And then again, later in life as an adult, when I was struggling to write a book, I went back and it was like, "Hey, do I still have this thing?" And they're like, "Yep, you definitely do." And there are some things you can do, some strategies you can learn that will help you. And first thing is to just be aware of this condition and to do some research about it and to understand why your motivation level may be a little bit different from others. And in some cases, it is in fact a superpower because in some cases you are, when you're really excited about something, you're gonna work really, really hard at it. And that's great.
The downside or the flip side is when you're not excited about something, it's very difficult. And so that has a lot to do with the inability to focus, the inability to work on something. So one of the biggest things is as much as possible in life, try to orient your life around things you are motivated to do. And I understand that not everything in life can be that way. Like we all have different responsibilities and things that we just have to do.
But wherever you have choice, wherever you have autonomy, the more you can leverage yourself towards, these are things that I want to do, that I want to work on and work towards, the better off you're gonna be. And I actually think this is probably true for everybody, but just specifically for the ADHD thing or the neurodivergent perspective, motivation matters a ton. Practically speaking, I use the Pomodoro technique. This is not groundbreaking. Everybody's talked about it, but it works.
You basically have a timer and I have a physical timer that I keep on my desk and you set it to a period of time, 20, 25 minutes, usually no more than 30 minutes. And you're just like, okay, this is my time to work on this project and I don't look at the internet or other things. I don't transition to another task, another project, like for this 20 minutes, I'm gonna make myself work on this and then I'm gonna take a little break. And then maybe I'll do it again. You can do a few Pomodoros a day, but I do that every single day.
Again, it's not the most original recommendation, but I do it every day, it works. Great fit for people with ADHD. Next, maybe don't shy away from using technology to help. So tools like Notion, Asana, Trello, OmniFocus, these are different productivity apps. I think it's really important to not get sucked into them, like don't put the technology ahead of the task, but they do help.
They help you kind of identify what specifically do I need to do? So I don't just feel overwhelmed with a huge project. I really am breaking it down as much as possible into these little micro tasks. So these are things that I do every day and there's a lot more. Like this is kind of a short introduction.
We could do a whole long episode on it. In the first couple of years of the podcast, we had a series called Extended Cut where I would talk for like 15 to 20 minutes about a specific topic. So maybe this would be a great one to bring it back for her. But of course I wanna keep the daily episodes short and on point, something actionable for everyone. So I'll pause for now, but just to let you know, Robert, you're not alone.
A lot of us out there dealing with this in one way or another. And as I said, it can be a benefit as much as it can be a hindrance as well. Maybe even more of a benefit. Robert wishing you well, listeners wishing you well. New episode every day.
This has been episode 2,528, 2,529 tomorrow and more. My name's Chris Guillebeau. This is Side Hustle School. [Music]
From the Onward Project.
