Productivity

[IntoTheVoid]

Hi, folks,

There are many systems you can use when you want to be productive and/or organised. You can use some to-do lists, time-managements, time-blockings, pomodoro techniques, note-taking apps and so on. And so on.

Recently I've heard from a couple of sources, that for people with ADHD and/or autism they might not really work as our brains are wired differently. I've watched few Youtube videos about how productivity tips might not work for people with time-blindness and executive dysfunction and monotropism. And recently I've heard a podcast - I think it was "Autistic Culture" where they heavily criticised the book "Atomic Habits" as it's trying to turn us into Pavlow's dogs, train us mindlessly doing things and and so on and so on. They even called it pseudoscience as many claims in the book are not backed by any peer-reviews.

Ok, so I get it. The regular productivity system for neurotypical people might not work for us... However, what actually DOES work? I mean, are there any sources of productivity systems for people with ADHD and/or autism? I mean really, is there any good book on productivity and organising work that is focused on neurodivergent people? Or a YT channel, or a podcast? Blogs? Websites? Or anything at all?

Or perhaps you can share your personal system that works for you. What you do if you don't want your work to be chaos and you won't keep forgetting things and such?

Thanks for your replies

 

[Neonatal RRT]

Just for reference, I work in a large metropolitan hospital. Very busy. Tons of distractions. Phones going off all the time. I joke around when I say, "Trying to get from point A to point B often means going through the entire alphabet." . If I get things bunched up, 3-4 people calling, wanting something, if there isn't anyone to help, then I just say, "You're #2, or #3 in the queue." I have a list of things to do, and then all my distractions and interruptions. I simply work off of a list. I also have to triage patients on the fly. The most important or potentially life-threatening things get my attention first.

At home, I am not that organized, because, frankly, it just isn't that important, and I am not on a time crunch. I will get to it sooner or later.

 

[Neonatal RRT]

Productivity, in part, is subject to one's motivation(s) and time constraints. If I know that I MUST do something and I have 10 minutes to do it, it's going to get done. I can't afford distractions and interruptions. Laser focus. I generally am not a fan of the stress involved with procrastination, but I am highly productive in that situation.

Widen out the time frame, lessen the importance, and now there is a little more flexibility. Add more time, lessen the importance further, and it may not get done at all.

Years ago, my wife would have this habit of giving me a list of things to do while she was at work. It was a miserable failure because she would give me 6, 8, 10 things to do, as well as, the fact that in my mind, they were "wants", not "needs". So to me, they were not that important. I might do one or two of those things, then try to make up excuses why I didn't do the other 6. Not good.

My wife and I have learned that (1) if she is to make a list of duties (a) it is a high priority "need" and (b) it is limited to about 3 things. I am all about triaging and prioritization. This is what I do, day in, day out, at work. (2) Her priorities are NOT mine. She has a completely different focus and set of interests in her world. Accept that, as frustrating as it may be sometimes, and we can get along.

 

[Outdated]

I was the Production Manager for a print company and that kept me incredibly busy, organising everyone else's jobs and making sure they had everything they needed in advance as well as doing my own jobs. It seemed to just be something I had a knack for and I was very good at it. In other places I worked at your job was a lot easier if your Production Manager was good at what he did but not everyone was good at it. Some were better than others.

I think you can certainly learn to be better organised in the way you prioritise things but this just doesn't come naturally to a lot of people and can take a bit of effort to learn. Another part of my job was training apprentices and you had to try and figure out the best way to teach each individual kid, they were all different with different strengths and weaknesses and different ways of understanding things.

I think when it comes to all this self help type of advice it's not going to be helpful for very many people at all.
"One size fits all fits no one."

For myself, I have an unusual memory and it's very rare for me to ever forget anything. The same as Neonatal RRT just mentioned, I work off of lists but they're never written down, they're just in my head. And as circumstances and priorities change items get shifted higher or lower on the list, here and there taking an opportunity to kill two birds with one stone.

Also like Neonatal RRT mentioned, this doesn't translate to doing things around the home for me, I live like a pig most of the time. Yet when under pressure I perform really well.

 

[Judge]

Ironic in that I once used to teach time management relative to insurance underwriting at the corporate level. Where the most difficult part of it all boiled down to one's ability at self-discipline and sticking to the process at all times.

Where I emphasized all incoming work being immediately assessed in terms of three priorities, their "A, B & C's". A of course being what needed to be prioritized first, B second, and C with the least priority and most versatility relative to being put off in favor of the other two priorities.

To simply move the "hot priorities" first and foremost without fail. And never to just let your work literally pile up around you with any sense of indifference. At a time when we still worked with physical files and folders which could easily overwhelm one and their workstation/cubicle if they lost control of so many incoming files.

Kind of like watching Lucy at the chocolate factory conveyor belt scene.

In as much as there was one person in my department who didn't need such training, he was also one of the very few persons I look back on my life to realize how likely it was that he was on the spectrum as well. As for the underwriters I trained specifically with regards to time management, in hindsight none of them were neurodiverse.

As far as note taking goes, no matter how critical or benign, I am lost without my Post-It notes always being somewhere to remind me of something.

 

[Shevek]

I'd like to be writing for appreciative students, but I'm not getting re-posted, so to feel productive, I apply "Extra-Chairicular Activity" - I get out of my addictive on-line spaceship and go looking for something that needs attention. Soon, it will be moving snow for exercise. Recently, there's been a lot of deep cleaning and re-organizing to make shop work easier. At the low point, I only had a trail through the shop mess, but then I cleared a small space for making art metalwork, my favourite trade, and since then, it has made news again. I always like to push the envelope in design, even if it is just figuring out how to use available scrap to make a personal convenience.