watch this if you always procrastinate

If this sounds like you, please watch this video. You are a highly intellectual individual who wants to improve their life in any sort of area. You started to look for options and ways to improve your life and deepen your knowledge about self-improvement, productivity, how to manage your time, how to control over your life, how to achieve more, how to be successful.

Then, one day, you start to search how to be more productive, how to be more efficient, and you find yourself digging into the self-improvement, self-development kind of a niche. After a bit of time and after a bit of time of research, you see that there's so much content out there: like books, podcasts, maybe articles, some interviews with very successful people about life and improving yourself.

These are the facts. You start to consume them, and the tips that they gave really make sense for you. After a bit of consuming those types of media, you learn the basics of productivity, such as eating the frog, two-minute rule, breaking down the bigger project into smaller tasks, motivating speeches, and so many ways to cure procrastination.

When you think about them, they really all do make sense. For example, Mark Twain said, "If it's your job to eat a frog, it's best to do it first thing in the morning." If it's your job to eat two frogs, it's best to eat the biggest one first.

So it basically implies that the hardest task should be your first task of today. After you accomplish that, the other tasks are much easier than that. Since you know that, it will be much easier for you to accomplish every task you have and have a productive day. When you think about it, it really makes sense because once you accomplish the very hard task, all of them are much easier than that. So you should be able to do that, right?

But for some reason, all of the things and tips that you have heard that made sense in your head don't really apply in real life for some reason. When you search online, when you read about discussions on Reddit, it seems to work for everyone but not you. You try to understand the reason why it doesn't work for you.

You think maybe this method doesn't really work for me, so let me try another method. Then you try another method but it also doesn't work for you. You start to think maybe the problem is not the method; the problem is me. I can't apply them in real life. After multiple times of trying and failing, you start to blame yourself because other than you, it works for everyone. If the methods are coming from very successful people, then the method itself should be solid, right?

With time, you kind of lose motivation towards productivity, and you kind of believe that maybe productivity and self-improvement are just not for you. It's for people who can achieve their goals; it's for people who can keep the promises that they gave to themselves, and you're not that kind of a person. You can't even keep a promise to yourself, so how are you supposed to be successful, right?

But actually, that is not the truth. Of course, there can be various reasons why those productivity methods aren't applying for you. One thing I've realized in most adults who are struggling with productivity after trying multiple methods and failing for unknown reasons can be ADHD.

The reality is that ADHD in adults usually remains undiagnosed in 50 to 66 percent of cases. The symptoms of ADHD may continue from childhood to adulthood, yet many adults with ADHD don't receive a diagnosis. The estimated prevalence in the US is about 4.4 percent of adults, which makes about 10 million people around there.

Also, the problem with adult ADHD is that because you didn't get diagnosed in your childhood, most people don't even question their ADHD. One study estimated that 40 percent of adults who met the criteria for ADHD have a lower quality of life and generally struggle with productivity in some areas of work.

In order to understand whether you have ADHD, you can check out some protocols about the SM5, like how to diagnose ADHD. If most of the symptoms apply to you, I highly recommend you to check a professional and get a check about it because ADHD can affect every area of your life.

Let's talk about the problems in the productivity world that don't apply for ADHD. The way that an ADHD brain works is really different from neurotypicals. When you look on YouTube and when you read about other productivity sources, most people talk about neurotypical brains, so people without ADHD.

Of course, those tips will not apply for you because your brain simply works different. It’s not because you're less than them or if you have problems; it's just simply your brain works in a different way. ADHD is not necessarily always a bad thing. If you have a creative job or if you are able to have your freedom, an ADHD brain can actually make wonders.

So maybe the typical 9-5 job, sitting in front of a desk, might not be the best choice for you. But there are, of course, some areas that you can shine as an ADHD person; about them, we can talk about in a different video.

Let's talk about the differences between a neurotypical brain and an ADHD brain when it comes to the productivity world. There are three major flaws in common productivity. These three are motivation, distraction, and overwhelm.

Let's talk about the motivation factor. When it comes to neurotypicals—people without ADHD—they get motivated by importance, consequences, and rewards. They have deadlines, and when they know something is important for them, neurotypicals get motivated by that.

But when it comes to ADHD people, it is not the case. You know that you need to fill tax documents, and you know they're important. Neurotypicals get their tax documents done before the due date because they know the importance of it. But when you have an ADHD brain, it struggles to understand the importance of tasks.

An ADHD brain often struggles with prioritizing. When you have a bunch of tasks on your table, an ADHD brain gets easily confused, and it starts to prioritize the tasks that are not even a priority for you. Even though you know which ones are important for you, you kind of find yourself doing unnecessary tasks that aren't even priorities in your life.

When it comes to the best example, it can be the eat the frog productivity method. When you do the hardest part, the most priority task in your day at the beginning of your day, the rest of the tasks you shouldn't be worrying much about them.

With ADHD, even though you know that the frog is there, you stare at the frog for hours. You wonder why you don't even eat the frog. You know that you need to eat it, but you don’t do it simply. You start to blame yourself, and you start to question yourself. That frog remains until tomorrow, and when tomorrow comes, you do the same thing over and over again until it becomes a problem.

Let's talk about the other productivity tip: breaking down a big project into all of its smaller steps. You break down the big project into smaller achievable steps but then because you are bad at estimating how much time it actually takes to do one task and understand how to prioritize those small tasks, you start to get really overwhelmed by it.

You start to think like, "Oh, maybe I should check Twitter. Maybe someone replied to me on DM. Oh, I should maybe check this documentary on this site." You find yourself browsing on a very unrelated topic for hours and hours. You say, "Oh, maybe I should do those small tasks tomorrow."

Then you delay all of these productivity methods should work perfectly, and they all make sense. For some reason, you don't eat the frog, and even though you break down the bigger project into smaller steps, you don't do them. If you don't do them, those methods don't work. So you question yourself: "Why am I not even doing them? I know that I need to eat the frog, and I know I need to accomplish those smaller steps."

But the problem is that ADHD brains are motivated by four C's: Captivate, Create, Compete, and Complete. Captivate is when something captivates your interest. When it's something new and when it's something interesting for you, your ADHD brain gets motivated by doing something new.

ADHD people are often really into new stuff; trying new things, even though it can be the same work. You're really keen on trying something new and doing it in a very different way. One thing I would like my fellow ADHD people to try is Morning Brew.

Morning Brew is a free daily newsletter service delivered from Monday to Friday, and it gets you speed in business, finance, and tech in just five minutes. The great thing about Morning Brew is that it is so captivating and is so different from traditional media, which usually tends to be a bit more dry and irrelevant.

In traditional media, you're bombarded with unnecessary information where your focus is everywhere because an ADHD brain just cannot simply tolerate that. But with Morning Brew, you will only learn about the key points about business, tech, and finance, which your focus can remain on while learning the things that you should probably care about if you're interested in those topics.

I want to stay in touch with the world, but I don't want to be bombarded with irrelevant information. In that case, my brain goes everywhere, and I lose my focus easily. It's completely free, and you will lose nothing by signing up. I will have a link down in the description below if you're interested. Just check it out, and let's get back into the video.

When you are working on a project, you need to try different productivity methods as long as they're working. The second C is Create. One good thing about your ADHD brain is that it is really creative. Since it is really keen to new things and is really creative, you like creating, and creative things excite you.

When you try a new pattern that you have never tried before, you are curious about the outcome. So your ADHD brain gets motivated. The other C is Compete. ADHD people love great competition, and competition motivates the ADHD brain.

The last C is Complete. Even though you know that you need to finish the task that day, you don't finish it, but suddenly when you have a day or less, you get really concentrated, and you give all your power into that task. You finish faster than everyone else. It's because you have ADHD, and ADHD works pretty well with deadlines, especially if they get closer.

When you have a very limited time, your ADHD brain fully concentrates, and you sort of gain the power of finishing the task faster than anyone else. You wish that if you could do this a week before, you would have a peaceful mind during the week. However, for some reason, it doesn't get activated a week before; it just only gets activated when the due date is really close.

When we generally summarize ADHD, the motivation comes from the momentum. ADHD people usually struggle with starting, not continuing. There are some people struggling with starting the task. When you start the task, you build the momentum, and you just keep going. But with other people, maybe you can try out, but you can keep your concentration.

ADHD falls into the first group. When you find a way to start for your brain, your ADHD will keep continuing doing it. Whenever you are struggling with starting one task, you need to pick one of the four C's: Captivate, Create, Complete, and Compete. When you pick one of those four C's and use one of the ways to create momentum, you will be much more likely to finish the task you have.

There are a couple of strategies that I have learned from a channel called ADHD Jesse. This whole video was inspired by his videos. I wish that there was a way I could share his video on my platform, but since YouTube isn't allowing it, I'm just going to tell the things that he's been telling in his videos. You should definitely check out his video after my video or just stop this video and watch his video.

One thing that really resonated with me from his video is what he said: none of these are going to work for everyone. Even the ones that work for you, they're not going to work every time. Take these and try them out, and if they work, use them while they work. If they don't, put them down for a while and try a different method.

I think this mindset is very nice because oftentimes when you find a productivity method, you get so invested in it that you think it's going to change your whole life throughout your life. The reality with an ADHD brain is that after a bit of time, the method doesn't really start to work anymore because your brain, your ADHD brain, likes new things. It doesn't like monotone routines in your life.

You need to try new things out; you need to constantly change. I know it is tiring, and I know it is a bit more difficult than for others, but you need to learn how to work with your brain. You can't erase your ADHD, so you need to learn how to work with it and how to live with it.

The first strategy is embracing the pivot, embracing the change, appreciating it, knowing that you will change your productivity method at some point. It's a very freeing method in my opinion. Another tip that can really apply to ADHD people is changing your environment.

This is actually something that I used to do when I was in high school. When I was studying in my room, even though I had literally the perfect desk setup, I couldn't really concentrate at some point because I really started to get bored of my room. Everything in my room kind of distracted me for some reason, so I was actually going to different cafes to study and work.

New places were giving me motivation. After a week, let's say for a week, I was studying in various cafes and trying new places out. After a week when I came back to my room, I could really focus in my room even though it really distracted me a week ago.

Having multiple places that you do study and work is really good for an ADHD brain. Another thing that you should consider when it comes to the strategies is using time-based goals. I've actually seen a couple of videos saying how time-based goals are not good and you should set non-time-based goals, like outcome-based goals.

Let's say you want to learn a language. Neurotypicals get really motivated by it because when they finish chapter five, no matter how long it takes—30 minutes, an hour—let's say they plan an hour in their calendar for chapter five. If they finish it in 30 minutes, how lucky they are; they have 30 minutes of free time.

When it comes to ADHD, let's say you plan an hour for chapter five. You find yourself procrastinating for 50 minutes and trying to finish the chapter in 10 minutes in a rush, and it is really stressful at some point.

Rather than saying, "I'm gonna finish this in an hour," this amount of chapters, just say that "I'm gonna do studying for an hour." You don't know how much you're gonna be able to finish, but you're gonna dedicate your hour to studying.

When you set a clear goal of saying chapter five, you're gonna procrastinate that; that is inevitable. No matter how strong your self-discipline is, your brain will try to procrastinate. Rather than trying to set a goal, just tell yourself, "I don’t know how long I will be able to focus, but if it’s 15 minutes, I’m gonna study language, and I don’t know how much I will achieve, but I'm gonna do it anyway."

If you want to make reading a book a habit of yours, don't say, "I'm gonna read 30 minutes before bed every night." Just tell yourself that you're gonna read maybe five pages a day, so that it is a very easy action to start. You can build the momentum, and you can continue it.

If you tell your ADHD brain that you're going to read 30 minutes every day, I’m pretty sure you’re going to procrastinate and not do it, delaying it until tomorrow. So tell yourself that you’re gonna read five pages, which is a very achievable thing. Once you start to read those five pages, you probably will keep continuing.

Even if there are days that you don't continue and end up finishing reading only five pages, just be happy about it. The important thing is consistency. We're not aiming for perfection; we're aiming for consistency. Since productivity and self-improvement is a lifelong journey, it is important that we continue the game and actually show up.

Whenever you are trying to build a habit, do micro commitments because we're not really good at committing to a bigger project. By doing micro commitments you will be able to actually achieve reading five pages, running maybe for five minutes.

Over time, the more you accomplish them, the more confidence you gain and the more you understand how your brain works. Another thing that is really debatable in the productivity world is the Pomodoro timers. Some people don't really like Pomodoro timers; however, for the ADHD brain, Pomodoro timers can actually work wonders.

The ADHD brain really likes due dates or deadlines, and the Pomodoro timer creates a deadline for you. When it gives you five minutes of break, you need to come back in five minutes. You can set up a different variation of the Pomodoro method, maybe 30 minutes studying and then 15 minutes rest.

But after 15 minutes, once you get the notification of the timer and once the 30-minute study session starts once again, it creates some sort of a deadline illusion that you need to do immediately. This is actually really important.

When you have a Pomodoro timer, it creates a deadline effect, which your ADHD brain likes. So mix and try different Pomodoro techniques like 50/10, 30/15, 45/15, whatever, and try to find the one that works for you right now.

Another thing that ADHD Jesse recommends is making it a game because the ADHD brain loves competing. However, when you're competing with others constantly, it can really turn into something toxic. If you want to compete with someone in a healthy way, that someone should be yourself—your past self.

Let’s say you finished one chapter yesterday in 30 minutes; try to aim today to finish it in 25 minutes and see if you can achieve it. You try to be more productive, and you try to compete with yourself. It can be in the gym or it can be anything; you track your progress and try to aim for one percent better that day.

Since you're constantly trying to improve and constantly compete with yourself, it kind of turns into a game. Rather than the task itself, your main focus is shifting to, "Can I do better this time?" If you couldn't, there is no need to be disappointed by yourself because at least you showed up, and there's tomorrow waiting for you.

There’s no need to give up, and struggling and failing is really normal with an ADHD brain. The only important thing is showing up, constantly trying, and aiming for one percent improvement each day. Thank you so much for watching this video, and thank you ADHD Jesse for the amazing content you created because it literally saved my life and saved me from self-blaming myself. I thought it could be really helpful for everyone.

I will link his video down in the description below so you can also check him out. He is currently writing a book about ADHD; you can join the waiting list from the link in the description below because I believe that it's going to be a very, very helpful book.

So, thank you guys, and bye!