11 Good Habits to Have as an Entrepreneur with ADHD — Part 2
Two years after writing Good Habits to Have as an Entrepreneur with ADHD — Part 1, on the cusp of my 36th birthday, after reflecting about my past year’s lessons, I decided to visit this channel. My self-management improved so much in this period! The original habits remain valid; those are additional additional strategies that now are part of my routine.
Tiny habits that go a long way to make life easier and better:
Work from different places. It’s part of ADHD to get quickly bored, so having different places to work from can help change the routine and give the sensation of novelty. Besides my own place and the co-working space, I have a few coffee shops I like to rotate in between, so I don’t have decision fatigue and still keep things fresh;
Forget your phone; social media is cheap dopamine. The ADHD brain has a higher tendency to lack dopamine. This hormone/neurotransmitter provides us with the feeling of reward (you can read more about it in this article from Harvard Health), and therefore, we crave it the entire time since it’s one of the reasons for we to feel happy. The problem is that when we feed ourselves with its distracting cheap version, we end up lacking the rich, good ones such as hobbies, workouts, healthy diet, etc;
Stay in contact with nature. Being in nature helps to increase levels of dopamine, reducing stress, depression, anxiety, and anger. Whether it’s going for a hike, swimming in the ocean, going for a walk near the water, or something simpler as growing and watering your plants. It’s an easy mood booster!
Practice yoga to exercise stillness and focus. I started over a year ago, and it has absolutely changed my life;
Co-work so you can mirror and be more “effective.” “Body doubling” is a productivity strategy used to finish possibly annoying tasks while having another person beside us, keeping us focused on the task at hand, reducing distractions, and increasing motivation. For this one, there aren’t enough studies on how it works, however, the speculation is that it works because it forces us to choose a specific project, set a particular time frame, and be accountable to another person;
Take small, planned breaks during the day. Allow yourself to give a guilt-free break to your focus for a coffee/tea, prepare a snack, or even water the plants if you work from home. According to Francesco Cirillo, the creator of the Pomodoro® Technique, the ideal unit of work is 25 minutes followed by a 2–5 minute break. Use this website or this Chrome extension to help you time it;
Break your tasks into smaller ones. It’s simple: taking a small step rather than a big one is easier. Progress builds momentum! Once you take many small steps, you realize you’ve come a long way;
Surround yourself with inspiring and up-lifting people. The people we spend time with are the ones shaping our mindset;
Keep your space organized. Organized home equal an organized mind! Before sleeping, take 10 minutes to tidy your place: pick up objects you might have left around, make sure the dishes are done, and wipe the table and the kitchen counter. Do the same process in the morning to do the bed and vacuuming. Having your home organized daily helps you not to accumulate housing tasks and not have to reserve a big cleaning-up moment that often causes us to procrastinate. Pro tip: play three songs to make this time more joyful and help you time how long it takes you to finish your mini-cleanup;
This point is more of an update of one of the points already mentioned since we have other tools now. Use platforms such as ChatGPT and Google Gemini as personal assistant to brainstorm, organize, have second opinions, etc. Don’t use it to do your brain job, but it can be an excellent tool to delegate and make your life easier;
The hardest and most transformative one: Have self-compassion and use an encouraging tone when talking to yourself rather than being harshly self-critical when you fail, make mistakes, or feel inadequate. Keep your inner-talk with kind tone, the same way we do to our loved ones. This is a powerful tool for resilience.
Sunrise walk by the Lachine Canal.
Article originally published on Medium on Nov 18, 2024.
