Faster Than Normal: Turbocharge Your Focus, Productivity, and Success with the Secrets of the ADHD Brain

by Peter Shankman

There is a similarity among people with the kind of brain we share. There are major differences, to be sure, as each one of us is unique. But in a fundamental way, I “knew” Peter after about eleven seconds, and, I daresay,

It is good to know, when reading a book, especially a book that offers you advice on how to live your life, that the author is a good person.

Like sitting in my dorm room at Boston University two days into my freshman year, asking myself why I simply couldn’t shut up every once in a while, because I’d just blurted out something that I thought was funny, but no one else in the room did, and I was sure I’d just blown the next four years of my social life.

I won’t miss out on a potentially great idea simply because I’m afraid what other people might think.

What would you do if you weren’t afraid? The answers can be life-changing.

Resolutions fail for most people, but fail ridiculously hard for those with ADHD because we are unbelievably adept at convincing ourselves of anything, including talking ourselves out of things that we know we should do.

So Rule A in creating a ritual: The ritual has to come from a positive place. A negative place won’t do it.

Rule B in creating a ritual: Continue to work backward from the reward.

To put it another way, if you want something you’ve never had, you have to do something you’ve never done.

Rule C in creating a ritual: Build fail-safes. Fail-safes are exactly what they sound like: if A doesn’t happen, B kicks in to fix A.

Finally, Rule D for setting up a ritual: Visualize yourself achieving what you were going for with the ritual in the first place.

Remember: When you have ADHD, you’re all about the feeling. When that feeling is a healthy one, then building something (like a ritual) to make getting that feeling easier and more frequent is a good thing, possibly the best of things.

You need to move.

Am I hungry enough to eat an apple?

Clutter is just distractions waiting to happen.

There are things in our lives we need to control, or else they’ll control us.

Identify anything in your day that you can eliminate or minimize.

Sounds weird? Sure. But you know what’s weirder? Using ADHD as an excuse for not hitting my goals or living the life I want, or worse, letting ADHD and/or bad decisions lead me down a path that can negatively affect me for years to come.

I knew that nothing else in my life could be fully right until I was fully right.

can’t be at your best until you’re willing to put yourself first, and make yourself the priority you need and deserve to be.

SQUIRREL!: When you’re ADHD, one of the most beneficial things you can do for yourself, as well as for others, is to live your life “one minute in the future.” This means you’re constantly on the lookout for the effect that things you’re doing right now will have one minute, five minutes, an hour, a day into the future. (People in AA meetings sometimes refer to this as “playing the tape forward,” which is a wonderful tool for those with ADHD as well.)

“Soon” isn’t an actual due date. If you’re ADHD, always, always, always request a deadline. Deadlines are actualities, and actualities allow people with ADHD to plan their hyperfocus accordingly and get their work done on time, every time. This goes for your personal life as well as your professional life.

What matters is how you handle yourself, how you’re feeling, and how you’re able to focus on changing yourself for the better, not other people. Always remember that.

I focus my time on doing things that improve my life. I’m a constant reinvention of myself, always striving for the next great thing.