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CONTEXT

I remember reading a book called "Outliers" and one of my favourite chapters was "No one who can rise before dawn three hundred sixty days a year fails to make his family rich"

It talks about a situation where an individual is battling with a math equation after a long time and then they finally get it.

This happens to me a lot! You think to yourself

• "Why am I being slow?

• “Am I thick?" You just wanna be fast.

There's nothing cool about being slow... I changed my view...

I embrace "slowness" 🐢

I like taking things in at my own pace. This applies to:

• Reading an enjoyable book

• Processing complex tasks

• Watching a series

• Watching lectures

It ensures I don't miss any key info. I make it a key thing to conceptually understand what it is I'm doing. This is the bedrock of what's to come thereafter.

As King Solomon in the Bible once said: "In all thy getting, get UNDERSTANDING"

I'm not here to preach or evangelise but I believe that, from experience, once I've understood something, there's no stopping me.

As much as I like things at my pace, I'm aware that "time waits for no man", and there has to be some sense of urgency.

Earlier in my career:

I was obsessed with SPEED and VELOCITY.

In the process of doing this, I made a ton of mistakes and errors. My work looked sloppy and it made me look bad and incompetent. And upon review, I'm thinking, how the f*ck did I do that?

During my final Professional Accounting exams, I had a couple setbacks on ONE particular exam.

All because I wanted to pass it as quickly as possible. After another failed exam I got pledging to reread the chapter.

Then FINALLY realising that I never understood it. I misread a key concept and ran with that understanding into the exams (which is why I failed)

I rebooked the exam and passed. I went on to become a Qualified Accountant.

I could've saved myself some money, by just taking things slow and steady like the Tortoise 🐢 rather than the Hare 🐇. Those Accounting exams were not cheap!

As a self-proclaimed "psycho competitor". I want to win! I thought winning meant getting there first.

Winning for me is running my own race and getting the best out of myself.

DEEP DIVE

In today’s post, we’ll dive into ways neurodivergents can embrace the tortoise method to achieve results

1) Identify your learning style

Play to your strengths, I'm a visual learner!

This aids my working memory and understanding. So when I take notes I'll do the most:

• Snips

• Pictures

• Annotations

• Mind maps.

Anything possible to get my mind to digest the concept.

I'm a visual person, I know neurodivergent people who are audio and they record their notes on their phones to refer to it later. We're all different, with strengths that are unique to each individual.

2) Keep a 'How-To' always

This is my "work Bible" and it is all in Microsoft One Note. It has everything there. As per 1) I think I'm a visual learner hence I have a lot of snips and screenshots to help aid my clear thinking and working memory.

Each time I would do work that required laser focus, I would refer to this 'How To' doc before, aiding my mental clarity on what I need to do, reducing anxiety and enabling me to be 'in the zone', or in flow mode'

3) Regularly review your notes

Have you ever written notes, only to review them later and then you're like "This doesn’t make sense?" This is me!

As per above, I like to refresh my memory by briefly glancing over my notes before doing the work. I find that it:

• Reduces procrastination

• Provides mental clarity

• Reduces bottlenecks

4) Ask questions

Upon constructing your How-To manual, there may be some parts that I've:

• Missed out

• Overlooked or

• Just not understood

So I'll make a note of the elements of the work that I'm unsure of and ask questions on these points. This further solidifies my understanding of what it is I'm doing. Providing more clarity.

5) Plan and Execute

This is my favourite part and where my magic happens (Mainly out-of-the-box thinking). Caveat, I must have points 1) to 4) nailed, overwise this point is meaningless.

The key theme across this is mental clarity, allowing me to know what and where I'm working. Also Identifying potential stumbling blocks as early as possible and addressing them with steady speed.

I set manageable and achievable goals:

• Daily

• Weekly

• Monthly

With the ADHD brain I have, I used to want to do everything in one go. Rush Rush mode.

Each time I did that, I found that I could've done a better job, and I feel worked up.

By steadily planning and breaking down my objectives into bitesize elements I find:

• It reduces the feeling of burnout

• Energy expenditure is spent better

• I accomplish more - dopamine.

RECAP

1. Identify your learning style

2. Mental clarity is a pre-requisite for the slow and steady

3. Embrace ‘slowness’ like the tortoise

MEME OF THE WEEK

Finally,

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Stay Different,

The ADHD Exec

Disclaimer: I am not your psychiatrist, coach, doctor. Neurodiverse Diary does not provide medical services or professional counselling and is not a substitute for professional medical care. Everything I publish represents my opinions, experience, not advice.