Increase your Productivity When you have ADHD
Very often it’s the simplest things that make the biggest different in our lives. The same is true with increasing your productivity when you have ADHD. All you need is an kitchen timer! When you start to use a timer you will find it is a powerful weapon to beat procrastination and overwhelm. Plus the side effect is that you feel incredibly good about yourself as you are experiencing progress with your goals and tasks that had been weighing on your mind. A simple kitchen timer allows you to focus on one task at a time and start noticing a huge increase in your productivity.
How long should you set the timer for?
That depends on the task. If you are sitting at the computer doing mentally challenging tasks 30 minutes is a good amount of time. It is enough time to make progress on a project but not too long that you think you will never be finished.
If you are doing housework or de-cluttering 15 minutes is good length, as time seems to drag on when you are doing these tasks. However, you can experiment and adapt the amount of time you set your timer to match your personal preferences.
Why is the timer so effective?
Setting a timer helps to play a little trick on your brain. If you think you have to sit down and focus on a task for the next 4 hours that is very daunting and so you put it off. However if you say “I will just sit down for 30 minutes” that seems doable. When you have completed the first 30 minutes your resistance to starting the task has been broken. As our brain craves completion, you will naturally want to work for another 30 minutes.
What happens if I get distracted during those 30 minutes?
When you first start using your timer, you may find that thoughts or worries of other tasks pop into your mind. If this happens have a notebook by your side and jot down your thought. When the 30 minutes are up you can go back to your notebook and address anything you wrote down. You will find the more you use your timer, the less you think of other things while you are working on a task.
Go to a store today and buy a kitchen timer and enjoy your increased productivity.
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