The Right Conditions for Focus

Give me multiple moving pieces, competing priorities, people problems, deadlines, incomplete information and a few unexpected fires.

I'm in.

I built a career in operations, where complexity was normal. There are environments other people experience as chaotic where my brain seems to look around and say:

Finally. Something to do.

ADHD can be funny that way.

But sit me down with something my brain has determined is pointless?

We may be here awhile.

For years, I heard that distraction was the enemy of focus. I didn't consider whether under-stimulation could also be the enemy of focus.

Sometimes my brain doesn't need fewer inputs.

Sometimes it needs the right amount of input.

That doesn't make ADHD a superpower. There is a difference between stimulating complexity and meaningless disorder. One engages me. The other can irritate the hell out of me.

The important word is context.

One of the biggest shifts I want Grounded in How I'm Wired to offer is this:

Before deciding you need to change yourself, ask whether changing the conditions changes the outcome.

Maybe it won't.

But test it.

Where does your brain do its best work, and is it where everyone told you it should be?

#adhdawarenessmonth #adhd #neurodiversity #operations #musingsofarecoveringexecutive