Maybe you’ve heard this before: “Don’t put it down, put it AWAY.” This mantra is frequently repeated internally by folks with ADHD to reduce the accumulation of doom piles and personal clutter. It’s not uncommon for us to lose our keys, our phones, or our minds on a regular basis simply because our brains frequently go on side quests or autopilot and we often lose touch with our immediate needs and surroundings.
Might I offer another mantra that might also be helpful to those of you who have ADHD as well? “Don’t do it now, do it THEN.” Let me explain.
We LOVE our hyperfixations. We just can’t resist those creative urges, and those creative urges can sometimes manifest the absolute best parts of ourselves. They might reveal our short term interests or they might just reveal our deep seeded creative geniuses. The compulsion to chase those things is real and it’s urgent and it’s something we need to talk about, because hyperfixation is kind of like the opposite of executive dysfunction, isn’t it? And executive dysfunction makes us feel like garbage. So why wouldn’t we want to do the opposite of what makes us feel like garbage?
Don’t resist the urge to put the creative tasks away if you have time and space to explore them, however do be aware of the time and space you have to actually pursue these things. If you’re anything like me, you have a running list of ideas compiled somewhere next to your keyboard, on your smartphone, in your calendar, glovebox, or just in the back of your mind. Keep that list going and keep it close. Throughout the course of your career you’re going to be inspired by fresh ideas or even other successful agents and the impulses to pursue those ideas are oftentimes very strong ones. Giving way to that impulse can be a heavy dose of serotonin, almost like a treat to those of us who experience ADHD and other neurodiverse functions. It’s a treat, my friends. Here’s how I wrote, planned, and mapped out an entire year’s worth of content in a single afternoon.
This, my friends, is a prime example of how ADHD can be a superpower:
I knew well in advance that I had big plans for 2025. Namely, I wanted to write this book! Knowing this, I also wanted to make space for writing which meant I needed to have as many of my own metaphoric ducks in a row as possible before the new year. This included many things including planning our family vacations, personal and business budgets, lead generation touches, and of course, my social media strategy.
In October of 2024 I decided that I would create enough content in advance for the entire first quarter of 2025. I was going to decide on a few specific themes (like Motivational Monday or Taco Tuesday) and stick to those themes throughout the quarter, roughly equating to thirteen posts per theme. Knowing this, all I needed to do was figure out what my topics would be, and since I was giving myself several months to figure it out, I knew it would happen. We ADHD folks are notorious for procrastination, aren’t we? But here’s the magical thing I’ve figured out: it’s not just procrastination, but the inspiration that happens when our brains register that deadline. October passed and my list was empty. November came up short as well. By mid-December, I was nearly panicking because I was about to fail a New Years Resolution before the new year even started! Four days before New Year’s Eve, my husband took the kiddos on a day-trip to visit his folks. I brewed a pot of coffee and parked in front of a roaring fire. I put pen to paper and with a geriatric farting dog at my feet, and I sketched out not three but six daily topics. From there, I opened the design app Canva and created a design for each of those topics. Once the motivation kicked in, I created not just enough content for the first quarter, but for the entire year for each of the six themes. This, my friends, is our superpower. My entire social planner was sorted in time for dinner, and I had most of the January posts scheduled before the clock struck midnight on January 1, 2025.
