ADHD at work

The whooshing sound of deadlines

Grey clouds of procrastination

[From my now ironically-defunct Newsletter]

Those grey procrastination-clouds have hovered over me for over a year, months go past, the nagging feeling that “I have to write my next newsletter” ever present in my mind. I continued to miss deadline after deadline.

This newsletter was originally planned to be monthly, then down-graded to quarterly and now I have largely resigned myself to it being an ad-hoc publication, hey ho! As Douglas Adams (author of the “Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy), once said:

“I love deadlines. I like the whooshing sound they make as they fly by”.
Douglas Adams

I am pretty sure Douglas Adams was ADHD himself: his humour, his stance on the environment, love of fast cars and technology and his disrespect for convention and authority, and most importantly his problems with those deadlines – all seems pretty ADHD to me. As Wikipedia notes, Douglas Adams “usually had to be forced by others to do any writing. This included being locked in a hotel suite with his editor for three weeks to ensure that So Long, and Thanks for All the Fish was completed!”

External pressure

Of course it would be easier, though more painful, if I had someone lock me in a hotel room or I had a manager demanding I meet my commitments or else!!! I would have written many more newsletters I am sure, probably writing each one late into the night immediately before its due date. But then I would probably hate my boss, resent having to do their work and be contemplating alternate employment.

Your own boss?

I like the freedom of running my own business, without a boss. The statistics show that people with ADHD are far more likely than “neuro-typicals” (normal people) to run their own business (six times more so, according to the Economist). Certainly a very high proportion of my clients over the years have been entrepreneurs or self-employed. ADHD adults choose to run their own businesses as they tend to be more innovative, creative, risk-embracing and passionate individuals but also because, like me, their maverick nature means they dislike authority, rules and deadlines too.

However the Catch-22 of running a business with ADHD – it’s great not to have a demanding manager insisting upon unreasonable deadlines, now you can work your own way. It seems to be too good to be true and of course it is, we need deadlines and plans to avoid perfectionism, indecision and procrastination. ADHD entrepreneurs can end up frustrated, poorer and miserable with themselves if they fail to set, plan and achieve their goals.

Some help

So it makes a lot of sense if you struggle with these issues to engage an ADHD Coach, not so that the coach becomes your new boss, but to help you become your own boss. To help you set realistic achievable goals; work in a style and a pace that suits you; to discuss, define and connect with your future plans and dreams.

I guess I need to have a chat with my own coach about my very fuzzy plans for my next newsletter!

Andrew Lewis

Andrew Lewis is an ADHD Coach, writer and founder of SimplyWellbeing. He has over 15,000 hours and 18 years of experience in coaching over 500 ADHD executives, ADHD business professionals and ADHD creatives. Andrew ran a major ADHD support group and an ADHD diagnostic clinic for a while. He is an ADHD specialist backed with business expertise from a twenty years career in software, from roles in programming, through marketing, sales and to running a few software start-ups. His ADHD insight is personal, with decades understanding his own ADHD experience and in bringing up his ADHD daughter. He has published his writing primarily via this website, with interactive ADHD courses in development.