ADHD VIRTUAL ENTREPRENEUR

Does it feel like it’s harder to focus at the end of the day for you?  For many folks with ADHD, particularly if you are on medication, the end of the day signals a decline in your ability to stay tuned into the task at hand.   There is nothing so frustrating as losing the momentum of the day to the downward spiral of disorganization and endless unfinished tasks.  One of my favorite strategies that can unlock the potential of increased focus is exercise.  Read the rest of this entry »

 As an entrepreneur, we are faced daily with decisions that can move us close to our dreams or push us away. With the wealth of talent, creativity, and darn right genius that moved you to become an entrepreneur, sometimes the frontal lobe challenges that ADHD creates can seem like a cruel joke.

You come up with a wealth of stunning ideas, but struggle with organizing them into products that you can launch. Your quicksilver wit is hot on the cocktail circuit, but can be damaging at networking events. You can pack a million things into a day, but somehow none of them get finished.

 When you are an entrepreneur who has ADHD, there are 3 things that are really important; organization, organization, organization. There is a wealth of books out there on organizing skills, but with ADHD, they don’t always work so well. It’s hard to organize yourself when disorganization is a major foundation of having ADHD.

 Of course it would be great to have someone to create systems to keep you organized and many people do just that. I am a big proponent of assistants, virtual or otherwise. But when you’re starting out, sometimes that just isn’t in the budget.

 Until you can afford to source out (and with hard work, it will be sooner than later), I’ve listed some of the tips that my clients have found helpful to organize the ever popular task of filing!

• Simplify your filing system

Intricate filing systems can complicate the process and make it less likely that you’ll do the filing in the first place. Group items into meaningful categories and start with that. My rental property paperwork gets filed in 2 folders and I dead file everything but the current tenant.

• Color code your files in a simple system

I suggest bright colors as they are easier to locate amidst a cluttered desk. The really important stuff gets the brightest colors.

• Get a great inbox for filing and don’t move it!

There is nothing worse than frantically searching the office for that one piece of paper that won’t turn up until the day after you needed. Even if you can’t get to your filing immediately, having it all in one spot can save you countless hours.

• Schedule filing time into your calendar weekly

I don’t think filing rates high on anyone’s list of fun activities, but it’s a real sanity saver when you can get it done on a regular basis. The time you save not searching for things is more than made up for in the 15 – 30 minutes the task takes when you do it regularly. Plan some great music, get a friend to help you, but get it done!

Keep it simple. Do it regularly. Enjoy the peace!

When people read about Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD), most folks conjure up pictures of an overly active, impulsive boy who can’t sit down or stop talking. The reality is that the ADHD picture varies dramatically, runs across gender, extending into adulthood. Read the rest of this entry »

How many multiple projects do you have going at one time?  Five, twelve, maybe twenty?  It’s amazing how easy it is to get overtaken by the excitement of a new project, the adrenaline rush of something fresh and provacative.  Yet, for folks with ADHD, with many projects, the excitement doesn’t last long enough to take you to the finish line.  Surrounded by stacks of paper, taunted by those lovely color coded files that you step over every time you walk into your office, it may feel that your projects become like the ghost of Christmas past haunting you throughout the day.  You may have found yourself asking “Do I really have to finish this?” to more than one of your little incompleted ghouls.  Here’s the good new!  NO, you don’t have to finish them all!  Read the rest of this entry »

I’ve been attending the ADHD Virtual Conference this week and I have been impressed by the breadth and depths of their presenters.  Sitting at home in my favorite chair has been a great way to learn and interact with the ADHD community.  This conference has brought to mind several things for me. Read the rest of this entry »

When you are dogged by distraction and confronting chaos, the lure of hyperfocus is totally understandable. Many people think of distractibility as the main attention disturbance of ADHD, but it is so much more. It is problems of attention on both sides of the spectrum which brings us to the topic of hyperfocus. Read the rest of this entry »

I had just seen my daughter off to Girl Scout camp for a week and was kicking back with a little non-animated television.  I had finished my weekly dose of George Stephanopoulos (man, I love that guy) when on came an infomercial for Tony Robbins.  Star after star extolled his virtues and how Tony Robbins had helped them reach inside and confront their fears so they could live life larger.  Famous people,  wealthy entrepreneurs,  and ordinary Joes like me, talked about how they found, within themselves, a drive to stay the path, to push themselves to live their dreams.

So it got me thinking.  Where’s my Tony Robbins?   Read the rest of this entry »

It’s 3 o’clock, the layouts for your marketing campaign are on the counter in pretty much the same state they were at 8 this morning.  How can that be?  It was the number one priority for your day and with 45 minutes till deadline the copy seems to be taunting your lack of progress.  You’ve been working at warp speed all day, so what happened?  Sound familiar?

With ADHD it’s often the case that best intentions are definitely paving the road to hell.  You know you’re not lazy; you know you’ve got great ideas and a kick ass concept, so what went wrong? Read the rest of this entry »

As a person with ADHD, you probably take for granted that multi-tasking is the norm. With ADHD, the brain is working on overdrive, jumping from one thing to the next (whether it gets finished or not is a topic for another day). Add to it we live in a society, which as a whole, seems to demand that we engage in more than one activity at a time; reading emails while on the phone, preparing the mailings while giving instructions to an employee, working on two projects at seemingly one time. Yet, most people with ADHD find that multi-tasking just isn’t helpful.

There’s now a lot of data to back up this up.The published work of Drs. Rubinstein, Meyer, and Evans (2001), (http://www.apa.org/releases/multitasking.html) indicates that humans, in general, are actually less productive when we multi-task and here’s why. Read the rest of this entry »

One of the challenges of ADHD is the pull to do many things at one time so that by the end of the day it sometimes feels like nothing has been accomplished.  In our personal lives that can be discouraging, in our businesses it can be disastrous.

Add to that a virtual business and now the ante is really upped.  In a virtual business responsibility for the structure is all yours and that can be a daunting task. Of course organizational skills that address the realities of ADHD are important, but for me the first step is to get a better carrot. Read the rest of this entry »