How I hacked time to get things done with my smart ADHD brain

See that dude with the scythe at the top of this mid-18th century clock? It's Father Time, ready to cut your life thread when time runs out.

No pressure.

If, like me, you have a brain that is time-blind and wildly ambitious, you likely plan a thousand times more than is actually humanly possible.

Which means that

=> either you never start work on a project because something inside you realises that you're planning the impossible and are bound to fail

=> or you start, push yourself, go on for WAY too long without breaks and then feel exhausted and completely dissatisfied with your progress afterwards

The problem is not you - it's the completely unrealistic expectations of your untypical brain, which we're not even going to try and fix because they're also a superpower.

Instead, we're going to redirect and refocus.

Here's how:

=> Restrict the amount of time you’re ALLOWED to work on a project <=

Instead of giving yourself gruelling schedules to a work on a project, do the complete opposite.

Give yourself only 30 minutes. Or, if you need some time to really get into it, 1 or 2 hours max.

Now your brain has a fun new challenge: rather than trying to figure out how to get a whole project done in an impossibly short amount of time, instead it focuses on getting as much done as possible within that crazy short slot you’ve set yourself.

Because hey - it loves a challenge and will rise to the occasion.

Constricting your time is the sexy secret to getting shit done - who’d have thought.

,

And in addition to actually being productive, there is another MASSIVE upside: the immense satisfaction you feel afterwards because you've done exactly what you promised yourself you'd do.

So thank the dude with the scythe for the inspiration and start constraining your time.

Image courtesy of the fabulous Rijksstudio:

Cartel clock, Charles Cressent, c. 1740 - c. 1745

gilding, h 115.0cm × w 52.0cm × d 38.0cm - Rijksmuseum