Why ADHD Gives You An Unfair Advantage.

In my work helping people to become better organised and more productive I’ve come across a phenomenon I call the “Entrepreneur Mind”. This is a state where a person continuously has ideas, and it feels as though their mind never shuts down.

Often what happens when a person finds themselves never being able to quieten their thoughts is they diagnose themselves (or get diagnosed) as having adult ADHD. Now, this could be true, but equally, it could be that a person has a different way of thinking about their work.

The problem with diagnosing a person with having adult ADHD is you immediately stigmatise them. Now they carry a label around their neck that tells them something is wrong with them. Yet, I do not think this is true.

If you have an overactive mind, it just means you are likely to be incredibly creative. You are always thinking of new ways of doing things, of seeking ways to improve, change and get better. You have the CANI mindset — the constant and never-ending improvement mindset — and there is nothing wrong with that.

Perhaps, rather than thinking ADHD is the problem, we could flip it and say that not having an active mind that is continuously thinking of new ways of doing things, of endlessly thinking of solutions to problems is not normal.

Every test I have been able to find online to see if I have ADHD has told me I have. Yet, rather than seeing this as being a mental illness, I see it as giving me a massive advantage over everyone else. My mind is very active, it generates a lot of ideas each day, and I find it difficult to sleep at night because my brain won’t shut up. Yet, I would never want it to be any other way.

These ideas drive me; they give me energy, excitement me and fill me with enthusiasm every day. Why would I ever want to change that?

However, if you do feel you have this entrepreneurial mind, you need to find a way to capture these ideas. This was an area I always struggled with in the past. That changed when I got my first iPhone; I discovered a way to collect my ideas into a notes app. As technology has progressed over the last ten years and cloud computing has enabled all your devices to talk to one another, you now have a remedy to collecting your ideas into a single place, and you need to use that ability.

More importantly, you need to make sure collecting these ideas is as quick and easy as you can make it. I find being able to get these ideas off my mind and into my notes app gives me space to think of other ideas or develop existing ideas. Either way, I see that as a huge win.

If you are one of those people who has a very active mind, then here are a few ways you can take advantage of this and make it work for you:

Make sure you have a quick collection system in place.

Whether you use an Android phone or an iPhone, set up your home screen so that your notes app or to-do list manager is easily accessible. You want to be able to collect these ideas quickly.

If it is difficult to collect your ideas, you won’t do it.

The same goes for your computer. Learn the keyboard shortcuts so that if you are in the middle of doing something and an idea comes, you can quickly write it down and then return to what you were doing before.

I use Drafts on my phone and computer and the app on my phone is in the dock, and I have a keyboard shortcut enabled on my computer to add an idea quickly.

Review your notes frequently.

Part of the problem when we are collecting a lot of ideas and notes is we collect them and then never look at them again. Instead, make sure you have time set aside either weekly or daily (depending on how many ideas you are collecting each day) to go through your notes and see if they are still relevant or are connected to previously collected ideas.

My Time Sector System came about over a few weeks. The original idea came to me while I was walking to the gym one day, and over the next few weeks other, connected, ideas came. Because I put all these ideas into my notes app, I was able to merge them when I reviewed my notes and eventually, the Time Sector System was born.

It was the reviewing that allowed me to see the connections.

Create an Incubator folder.

An incubator folder is a folder in your notes app where you can dump ideas that you feel you are not ready to develop yet. I have hundreds of notes in my incubator folder that I can reference every six months or so to see if any stimulate me to develop them.

I have several notes related to creating a masterclass group, a lot of notes for future online courses to develop and how to build my coaching programmes.

Most of these I am not ready to develop yet, but when I am ready, I have some fantastic ideas I can come back to and improve.

Learn to be self-disciplined.

This is a difficult one for me. I have so many ideas coming at me; it can be tough to concentrate on the work I need to be doing. Fortunately, I have taught myself to be disciplined and stick to the task in hand.

I do that by having a quick capture system, and I allow myself to wander off only after I have finished the work I am doing at the moment. It is a constant battle, but a battle worth fighting because by disciplining yourself to stay focused on your current work, capturing your thoughts and ideas and quickly return to your work you will find you get vast amounts of work done each day.

Having ADHD, or the entrepreneurial mind is not something to be ashamed of. It gives you a considerable advantage, and if rather than trying to quieten down your mind through drugs or therapy you embrace it and use it to your advantage you are likely to leave a very positive mark on the world.

Thank you for reading my stories! 😊

My purpose is to help 1 million people by 2020 to live the lives they desire. To help people find happiness and become better organised and more productive so they can do more of the important things in life.

If you would like to learn more about the work I do, and how I can help you to become better organised and more productive, you can visit my website or you can say hello on Twitter, YouTube or Facebook and subscribe to my weekly newsletter right here.