How To Get Anything Done With an ADHD Brain

This episode is all about how to get anything done with an ADHD brain using neuroscience.

And it's all based on kind of my experience as I was writing my book because if you guys didn't know, I've been diagnosed with ADHD. I used to really, really struggle with it. I used to be that kid in school. That was sent out into the hallway for talking all the time. I was super disruptive. I struggled to focus. I was impulsive. I was emotionally reactive and easily triggered and all the things. And if you would have told me just five years ago that I was going to be able to work on a book for six months

and write for seven hours nonstop without medication or stimulants or any of that, I would have laughed at you in the face. I would not have believed you. But through this process,

“I have grown so so much. And honestly, I've learned a lot on my entire journey in the past five years.”

I have done a lot to train my brain for focus and strengthen the executive networks in my brain and improve my executive functioning and regulate my nervous system, which are all extremely important pillars when it comes to ADHD especially. It's so important because one of the main things that we see in people with ADHD, including the past version of myself, is executive dysfunctioning. And this is why whenever I was writing my book, I was looking into ADHD in the newer research and just different ways

to treat it and looking into the things that I actually did for myself to improve my way of life. And executive functioning training is one of the main things that people with ADHD should be doing. You can look into it on your own time or you can work with me on it, if you do so, please.

But it's extremely important. And this is the first thing that I really want you guys to know,

just moving forward and throughout this episode. But just in life, is that focus is not just a productivity skill. It is a nervous system state. It is a way of living and being. It is a state that you live in that you can get into. To me, it's a state of living on purpose, living a life of intention, living as the creator that you are. You're not just focusing when you sit down and complete a task, of course you are, but you're not, it's not only then. It's as you move through life.

What are you focused on? Are you focused on problems? Are you focused on solutions? Are you focused

“on complaining? Are you focused on the wonders of the world in the beauty of life?”

So, focus is not just a productivity skill. It is a nervous system state. It's a way of being. It's a way of life. But let's talk about the three ways to get anything done. That I have sort of come up with on my journey of writing my book. And it all started after a few occasions, where I would roll up to the coffee shop. I'd be in my car, I had my laptop, my iPad, everything I need to go. And I would sit there in my car and I would just stare at the doors of the coffee shop.

And I would just stare at the doors and think about how much work I was going to have to do when I walked through those doors. I would just sit there, try to muster up the courage to go in. And this is something that I used to have to do back when I would go to the gym right back in the day before it was really a habit for me. But I'm sure you guys can all relate to this in some way, shape or form. There is probably something in your life that you're needing to do. But you're

just struggling to muster up the courage to do it. You're avoiding it, procrastinating it, whatever it is. And I actually talked about this in my community with my students in Minecraft. And when I was talking about how I went through this process, I had everybody, I said choose your player. Choose one thing that you have been avoiding doing. And I'm recommending you guys listening to this podcast, do that right now as well. This is going to be an interactive episode.

You're going to have a way to get this task done by the end of the episode. All right,

“you are going to know exactly what you need to do to get a done and stop avoiding and procrastinating.”

When I was sitting there, muster enough the courage. I finally went it, right? And me being me,

I was like, I need to look into the neuroscience behind this. What is going on? And what do I need to do to make it happen? Because I'm tired of dealing with this. I need to figure out what is happening in my brain. And so I did. I figured it out. And it all has to do with dopamine. And it's something called effort discounting. effort discounting is what happens when you're brain perceives the amount of effort something's going to take as greater than the reward you're

going to get at the end. Let me give you an example. Let's say I put your favorite snack right in front of your face. You would probably reach out and grab it. You'd probably reach out and grab it and take a bite and get some dopamine from it because why not? It's so easy. It's right in front of your face. Especially if you're a little hungry, you would probably take a bite. But let's say I put your

super steep hill. What are you going to do? Your brain is probably going to go, oh, that's not that good of a snack. I'm not really that hungry, right? You're going to start to come up with reasons why you don't really need it. What happened? The reward didn't change the amount of effort changed. This is called effort discounting, right? And this is what happens. This is what your brain

“does to normal everyday tasks that you need to complete. Except it's not a real five mile high mountain.”

This is just what your brain perceives it as. And this is why it's so difficult to do the thing that you need to do. So what is the thing that you're avoiding doing? And hold it in your mind right at down. Let's talk about the three ways to smack effort discounting in the face so that it can

disappear and you can get we need to get done. So the first way to smack effort discounting in the face

and complete whatever it is you need to get done is to make the hill smaller. This is where my beloved saying that I sort of came up with back in the day, start small and send it comes into play. How can you make the task that you're avoiding as tiny as possible? For me, when I was writing my book, it was let's just go right for 30 minutes. 30 minutes. That's it. It made it so much easier. It minimized the barrier to entry. So it can go start. Because that's a lot of times

the hardest part is to start. For my one student, it was sending an email. And I said, well how about you just tell yourself that you're going to go and write the first two sentences of that email? How can you break down your task into something smaller? If it's cleaning the house, let's do it for 10 minutes. One thing that I know to be true is that the dopamine does not come

until after the first 10 minutes. I love this hack because motivation doesn't come before you start.

Dopamine is increased when your brain perceives evidence of progress. And when you break it down you start small and you send it, I know damn well that when I sit down and I write for 30 minutes, it's going to start feeling good after about 15, 20 minutes. And then I'm not going to want to stop. When I hit that 30 minute mark and I'm going to keep going, I know that, but I'm not going to

“tell myself that I'm going to tell myself all you need to do is sit down and do it for 10 minutes.”

Just do it for 10 minutes. You've got this. So how can you make the hill smaller? How can you make the perceived effort tiny so that your brain will stop avoiding it? Because your brain's again is just trying to keep you safe. It's trying to keep you safe from the discomfort of all the effort your task is going to take. Trick it. Tell it it's not going to take any effort. How can you make the hill smaller? Let's talk about number two. The second way to smack effort discounting in the face.

Make the hill more fun to climb. For me, when I was writing my book, I actually went and got a pink keyboard. And at the time I had Valentine's mails where when I was finishing my book up and it was the most aesthetic experience. My nails were sparkly and shiny and I would look at them and they were pink and they matched the keyboard and I literally if you if you open up my photos on my phone, you will find lots of photos of my fingers on the keyboard because it was so aesthetic and I loved

looking at it. It made it more fun. Another thing that I did is I would call it my best friend who is in her PhD and she's writing up her manuscript as we speak and we will be writing at the same time. This is something that is super helpful for people with ADHD as well. It's called body doubling, right? There are websites and services for it. We do it in Minecraft, but also you can do it with your friends. If your friends are on the grind as well, just literally get on the

phone or get on FaceTime or do it in person and work with them. Work with your friends. That's something that I personally did. We would send each other pictures of our setup to write. Right before we would start, I would send her a pick of my setup. She would send me a pick of hers and then we get going and I found myself so much more motivated because I knew my friend was working too at the same time. So I made it more fun. There are plenty of ways to make your tasks more fun.

So how can you make the Hill more fun to climb? Get whimsy with it. Get whimsy with your tasks. It's really funny because I said that in my talk at Southwest West last week and my brother,

he actually showed up which was incredible because I wasn't expecting him to and he literally

texted me this morning and he was like, "Get whimsy with it." But it's really true. We shouldn't be separating work and play. How can you make your work more fun? How can you make your tasks up today more fun? How can you make them more enjoyable? Maybe it is going and getting making

“up a delicious drink. I remember someone asked me in Minecraft, "Well, I need a cook and clean."”

I'm like, "That's simple. Put on your favorite show or your podcast and audio book or your favorite music." Dance while you're doing it. Something that I love to do while I cook is dance or watch a show or something or watch it. Interesting YouTube video and learn something cool. There's so many things that you can do. But especially with the example of cleaning, I was like, "Well, first start small, it's all yourself. We're just going to do it for 10 minutes." And then

You can do them all if you want. So lower that barrier to entry, start small and send it,

“and then get whimsy with it. How can you make it more fun? Stop taking everything that you do.”

So seriously, the weight of the world on your shoulders is just putting so much more pressure than there needs to be. It's okay. There just be relaxed and loose with it. Take a moment to give yourself permission to just take it a breath. Lower your shoulders just relax. Not everything you do has to be super locked in, super grind, extra top speeds, super power. Not everything has to be like that. It's fun. Personally, I have a great time getting into that state, but not everything has to be like

that all the time. How can you get whimsy with it? How can you get whimsy with your tasks some today? How can you make your tasks up to day more fun? Whatever that thing is that you're avoiding, that you're procrastinating, doing, how can you infuse a little more fun into it? I ask myself that all the time. Even if I'm not avoiding it, and I'm just like, I'm not really super excited to do this. I immediately ask myself, okay, how can I make it more fun? Sometimes it's changing my outfit.

You know, it can be something as simple as that. The third tip for overcoming effort discounting and getting that dope immune so that you can get it done is to make the top of the hell more rewarding.

“How can you make whatever's at the top more rewarding? I know personally for me, right?”

I always wanted to write a book, and I know some of you might be thinking, because I was asked

this question actually in Minecraft as, you know, if we always have to motivate ourselves to, you know, work on whatever it is that we're wanting to achieve and work on our businesses or whatever, you know, is it really meant for us if we're always having to, like, push ourselves or whatever? And this is the way that I think about it. Because there were a hundred percent days where I woke up and I was excited to write my book. But then there were also days where I was just, you know,

not peak energy. And that is a normal human thing. So let's just take a moment to recognize that. It is a normal human experience to not wake up on a hundred percent dopamine mode. It is actually completely normal to some days have more energy and more motivation and more exciting and more inspiration and other days to not. That's actually part of the human experience. And I think a lot of times we tend to pressure ourselves and think that we should be feeling that way all the time.

And that's just not how our brains and bodies work. I know especially for me as a woman that goes through her cycle every month, my hormones are changing all the time. And so I am also aware of that and aware of where I am and my cycle. And so if you are a cycleer, then maybe looking into that is helpful too. But my answer to one of my students questions when she asked me that, it was just that. It was, we all are operating on these cycles and it's not normal to wake up and just be,

go, go, go every single day. It's completely normal to experience abs and flows. We're like water. We're like waves, right? And so these are really for the days where maybe we're lacking that motivation or we're not having that energy that we usually have. And we're needing that little extra for push, right? And also I don't think that it's necessarily a bad thing to design your tasks for dopamine. Because if I'm being completely honest with you, whenever I got probably

to like month four of writing my book, I just really wasn't loving it anymore. I mean, there were some, I don't want to lie. There were some days where I really was. But when I got toward the end, it really was just like, I can't wait to finish this. I just want to get this done. But even on those days, and I actually told my Minecraft student this as well, even on the days where I was super unmotivated and just, you know, not feeling it, not having the energy, even on

those days, I would ask myself, is there anything else I'd rather be doing? And my answer was no.

There was never anything else I would rather be doing. I was like, I definitely still want

to write a book, I definitely still want to publish a book, right? And so there was never anything

“else I'd rather be doing. And so knowing that is extremely important because there are going”

to be days where you don't feel like waking up and moving toward your dreams or your goals or your job, right? There are going to be days when you feel like that. But then ask yourself, is there anything else I'd rather be working toward right now? And if the answer is yes, then maybe check in. But for me, the answer was no, I'm moving toward my dreams. This is my dream. And then I'll like, all right then, let's design our tasks for dopamine so we can get it done. So that's exactly

what I did toward the end of the process of writing my book. The first thing I did was I actually found this pair of shoes. I had seen these pair of shoes online that I really wanted. They were kind

of expensive. They were a pair of sneakers. They were pink. And they were kind of expensive. So basically

I kind of told myself, you know, you can't have these until you're done writing your book. And that's something that I like to do sometimes with hold reward until I'm done completing a

whether it's doing Pilates or going to the gym, working out, going for a walk whenever it is.

I don't let myself have much until afterward. Usually, that's not a punishment. That's just, oh, I have something to look forward to afterward. And guys, dopamine isn't just released when you get the reward. It is released in anticipation of a reward. And so when I'm over here knowing that I'm going to get a match at the end of, oh, hell, yeah, I can't wait. I'm getting little dopamine anticipating that reward. That's something that I studied whenever I was in my PhD when I was studying

“drug addiction and we were investigating craving, right? That's what craving is. It's dopamine”

released in anticipation of a reward. And so that is one way that I would sort of design my tasks for dopamine and holding a reward till afterward. But toward the end, the shoes just were

not enough. Like a six-month project is deserving of more than a pair of shoes. If I mean,

if I'm being honest, right, it deserved more than that. And so actually in the past, and the last maybe three-week stretch of me writing, we planned a trip to go to the Bahamas. And it was to, you know, go and check out potential venues to have our wedding. But for me, it was a, it gave me a deadline. I was like, I want to be done writing this book before we go to the Bahamas, because I also want the Bahamas to be kind of a celebratory trip to celebrate me finishing my book. And so that

deadline, that hard deadline of me finishing before my trip, and also that anticipation of the trip, was the motivation I needed. I was writing every day from 12 p.m. to 2 a.m. Some people might ask, oh, but isn't that unhealthy? Yeah, I mean, look, I've said it once and I'll say it again. Work life balance is a scam. If you try to balance everything at one time, you're going to get balanced results. And a lot of times, balanced results are mediocre results. I was still

getting my eight hours of sleep when I was writing from 12 p.m. to 2 a.m. every single day. I was still, I was so sleeping. I would sleep till like nine or something. So I was still getting enough sleep. Was I doing anything else? No. No. I was maybe getting up, moving my body, doing a little mobility, and then eating and getting right back into it. My brain was filtering for nothing other than right your book. That's how you get things done. Now that didn't happen forever, right? I did that

for a stretch of time. And now I'm not doing that anymore. So that's where the balance happens. That's where the balance happens, right? It happens between the waves of life, not all at once. And I've spoken to a lot of my students about this and a lot of people about this. And I think it also, it can be a huge relief when you realize that. It can be a huge relief when you allow yourself to be like, oh, hey, I don't have to balance everything all at once. The balance can

happen between the waves of life. I didn't have a social life in that stretch of like two, three weeks, no social life at all. I wasn't doing anything except for eat, sleep, right? But

“that's what it takes sometimes. And I think a lot of people don't want to hear that. But if you talk”

to a lot of founders, they'll tell you that's what it takes sometimes. Talk to founders of businesses, people that are going after big goals and dreams. It takes sacrifice. It really does. And it takes those stretches of big push. Knowing that those don't last forever, right? But it takes sprints. There are sprints that you need to go on. And honestly, I didn't suffer through that three

weeks band at all. I actually felt amazing. It feels really, really good to make progress toward

your goals and dreams. And as long as it's not, you're not, you know, pushing yourself to the point where you're burning out, it feels great. And then you balance it with the waves, right? Then I want to trip on to the bomb is so. I worked on that trip, so I'm not even going to lie and say that it was so relaxing because it honestly wasn't. But with all that being said, that is how I made the top of the hill more rewarding. Now, that's a huge thing. That was a huge task. Writing an

entire book is a huge task. You guys might not be avoiding writing an entire book. You might be avoiding making some calls, writing some emails, building a website, whatever it is, writing your house, it might be something smaller, content creation, whatever it is. How can you reward yourself afterward? Maybe it is planning a meal or hanging out with your friends this weekend. I know for me when I was in college, I was way more productive throughout the week when I would

plan at plans on Friday night. And I know that's because it don't mean when you have something

“to look forward to, you are way more productive. So maybe you should plan something, right?”

To look forward to, it doesn't have to be a trip, it can be something small, it can be a dinner, it can be hanging out with your friends, it can be completely free, or it can be buying yourself something, and sometimes for me it's buying myself an outfit, it can be, you know, getting yourself a macho or a word or just little things like that. It can really be so small, but planning a reward for after you complete it a lot of the time and make it undeniable,

make it really good. If it's something that you're just like, man, and it doesn't really motivate you, it doesn't work. It has to be undeniable, it has to be so good. So let's summarize the three

you break whatever it is that you're avoiding down into the tiniest first step so that you lower

“the barrier to entry and it becomes easier to actually initiate the task so that you can then go”

work for 10 minutes or do whatever it doesn't need to do for 10 minutes, get that dopamine from the evidence of progress that your brain sees and be on your way. Number two, how can you make the hill more fun to climb? How can you get more windsy with it? How can you make the tasks of today more fun? And number three, how can you make the top more rewarding? How can you make it undeniable? How can you make it so good that yeah, of course I would climb that hill. Of course I would.

And now guys this episode would not be complete without talking about our three wonders of the week. We gotta do that and I highly recommend you guys do them too. My three wonders of the week the first one is actually based on one of the stories that I shared with you all in this episode. So I finished my book right and then I realized, oh hey I should go buy myself those shoes that I've been waiting on buying. Got really excited, got a lot of dopamine and then I went online and they were out of stock.

And I was like, look, maybe I shouldn't have without this reward. Maybe I should have just bought myself those shoes. I was a little upset if I'm being honest. And you know I looked though and they had them in stock in California. So I did not give up. I was going to call the store and see they could ship them to me from the store. And I didn't do it because it was past closing time that

“night. I believe it was Sunday night. And then the next day was Monday. And I was talking about, you know,”

yeah I'm like, how, maybe whatever. Whatever. I was over it. And so I went anyway, Monday rolls around the next day. And I go online, I go to their website and I'm going to try to see how I can, you know, get the phone number to the store location of the shoes are at that in my size. And I go and all of a sudden the shoes are magically back in stock. Literally a day later. And to me, that was just such a wonder the week. Just within 24 hours the shoes that I really wanted are back in stock. And that was,

I think that was God being like, do you really want those shoes and actually being like, let me, let me make sure you really appreciate them. And I really appreciate them now because I almost couldn't have them. I was literally walking around after I saw them out of stock like then they

would look so cute. Just outfit, you know, you know how it goes. All right. So number two, my second

one or the week is actually another thing that I shared in this episode, which was that my brother

“pulled up to my talk at South by Southwest. I did not think that he was going to come just because”

of the event that I was at. And you know, it was kind of, he, he didn't think that he'd be able to get into the event, which, you know, hindsight is 2020. I'm like obviously I could have got him in. But anyway, we didn't really talk about that. We were, I don't know, he was at South by Southwest for work. And so I wasn't sure whether or not he was going to need to be at certain events, certain workshops, whatever. Anyway, the morning of he asks me, he's like, hey, I'm what's

time you speak and where I'm. I sent it to him, not really thinking anything of it. And then maybe 30 minutes before I go on, my fiance is like, hey, your brother's texting me and he's like, he's out of way. I was like, what? He's not as well. He's coming. He's walking here right now. I just got so excited and he actually got there. He got there right as I was going on. And so I wasn't able to, you know, initiate him getting in. And so he just went up to the front. Apparently there was a huge

long line outside of this event. And he went up to the security guard and told the security run, I'm Emily's brother, look, you can look at my badge, last name's McDonald's, like, work, we're siblings. She's literally going on right now. I need to get in there right now. And the security security guard went, we need a VIP escort. And so he got a VIP escort into the event, into the workshop that I was speaking at. And as I begin on the first slide, I see him walk

through the door in the back. And it just made me light up. And I was so happy. He's like, one of my best friends. I love him. And so I was really happy that he got to be there. And then just it made it so much more enjoyable. And then afterward he was really hyping it up. He was, he was really hyping up my slides. He thought I built them with AI. He was like, good, you want use AI to build those, plus I know I built those myself. And he was super impressed, which was awesome. And the talk went

absolutely phenomenal. It was great. Everyone loved it. Everyone was laughing and nodding the whole time. It was so fun. And tons of people were asking me questions afterwards, which was so cool. I had the best experience. So it was really a great time. So those are two wonders of the week.

Obviously the event could be another one because it was absolutely incredible. But I will say my

third wonder the week is actually that I ordered some athletic wear last week. And it got in yesterday. And as I opened the package, there was a free shirt included. I don't know whether it was on purpose or on accident. But I already had the shirt. They put in there. I kind of want to give a fourth wonder of the week. And this happened at the airport. I walked into the bathroom. And I went to the bathroom. And I walked out. And the line was so long to the airport bathroom. And this happened

restaurant or a coffee shop or something. And then as we were leaving, it was packed and the line was

“so long. And what I know to be true is that when you go somewhere and it's empty. And then all”

of a sudden it's packed means you're super magnetic. Means you have super magnetic energy. And so

that's my fourth wonder of the week is that I was receiving evidence of me just being super magnetic

because the places I was going were empty when I arrived and crowded when I left. So I was just attracting all the energy to wherever I was at. And those are my four wonders of the week. Highly recommend you all do yours. Keep tracking them. Have a little notes folder that you enter your wonders of the week. They're out the week. It's so awesome, so helpful. I've experienced a change in my perception of reality through practicing them. Highly recommend you do it.

So guys, thank you so much for your time energy and attention. In this episode, I appreciate you more than you will know if you are someone who is interested in learning more about the systems, especially focus, executive functioning, creating the right systems, regulating yourself.

“And you know, just ADHD, brain in general, I'm actually holding a class. I believe when this episode”

comes out, it'll be this week. I'm holding a class this week on focus, ADHD, attention, all of that. I'm holding a class going through all the systems to free class. So come, it's going to be one of my last classes for a while. So highly recommend you guys come. It's going to be a

brand new class that I've never taught before. And it's going to be great. So I highly recommend

you guys come. The link to join is in my bio or you can go to @mindcraft and you can sign up and register for your spot, save your spot there as well. But anyway, guys, I am sending you all so much love, so much good energy. I hope you guys have the best week ever. I'm rooting for you.

“I believe in you. You are worth it. You deserve it. So go get it. Have a great week everyone.”

I'll see you guys in the next episode. Bye, guys.