Strategies

My theory of ADHD is still incomplete, but I believe the recent rapid increase in diagnosis reflects an increase in ADHD symptoms in the general population(distractability, impulsivity), not just an increase in "detection", and certainly not an increase in the genetic predisposition for the ADHD neurotype.

For people with the "new" ADHD, I think it's possible to fully resolve symptoms with the strategies shown here. I am not one of these people.

No matter how intense I am, I will always seek novelty and adventure. I will always seek automation. I will always have some inclination to distraction.

I now see this as a good thing. It enables me to get really obsessed about things I find important.

After 2+ years of using these strategies, I'm MUCH less distractable and MUCH more obsessive. Let's get into it!

Hyperstimulation

The mainstream scientific consensus is that ADHD symptoms are primarily caused by low dopamine(and other catecholamines) activity, especially in the prefrontal cortex. I agree with this.

This makes me especially susceptible to low effort, high stim, high novelty activites like social media, video games, and drugs.

These cause IMMENSE dopamine release, which can kill your neurons, so they intentionally decrease the sensitivity of their receptors.

Now, everything is hard, boring, and impossible to focus on.

In the modern world, you NEED strong systems and structure that enable you to use technology without getting distracted.

For me, the best system is not to use it at all. One of my core principles is not building anything that requires me to *personally* use social media.

When I used to make content, I used momentum to avoid distraction.

Momentum

Objects in motion tend to stay in motion, and objects at rest tend to stay at rest. I've found that I can basically guarantee productive days just by getting in motion(working) right away after waking up.

The more work I get done in the morning, the more work I'm inclined to get done in the rest of the day.

I like to do my most challenging, focus-requiring work first, and autopilot or distracting tasks later in my day.

Momentum is the first principle of every schedule I build. It's the main variable I'm thinking about when I run experiments.

Health

This is a big one. It's also where we're going to lean on mechanisms and self-experimentation, since we don't have enough research. None of this anything even related to medical advice!

I believe that elevated oxidative stress("inflammation") has a massive negative effect on dopamine production.

Mechanism

The rate-limiting step of dopamine production is the conversion of tyrosine into dihydroxyphenylalanine(DOPA) by tyrosine hydroxlase.

The rate-limiting factor of this conversion is the availability of BH4, which donates electrons to the reaction.

Every time this reaction happens, BH2 needs to be regenerated to BH4 to donate electrons again.

Free radicals(with unpaired electrons) steal electrons from BH4, degrading it into BH2, and prevent it from being regenerated.

When you have an imbalance between free radicals and antioxidants (electron donors like BH4), that's called oxidative stress.

This imbalance is present to some degree in anybody with any metabolic disorder or chronic inflammation(most people).

This might seem overly-mechanistic, but we know it isn't trivial, since we know TY->DOPA is the RL step of dopamine production, and we know BH4 availability is a common RL factor of TY->DOPA.

The conclusion of this reasoning is that anything that causes significant oxidative stress will lower dopamine production.

That might sound complicated, but all it means is that your state of health influences your dopamine production significantly.

The biggest needle movers, in my experience, are simple:

Sleep: 8.25-8.5 hours in bed, don't eat 2 hours before bed, no screens after dinner, cold/quiet/dark room.

Training: I like lifting, and I'm starting to do more cardio. All that matters is that you train hard enough and often enough.

Nutrition: 4-4500 calories(50% C, 20-25% P, 25-30% F). Leanish meat, potatoes, fruit, vegetables. I eat most of my carbs after training.

Health is all about experimenting and finding what works best for you. The only good imperative I've found is: "Stay curious."

Deep Work

In order to focus on something difficult, I've found that I need to be very intentional about creating an environment with basically zero distractions.

If I get sidetracked for 2-3 minutes, it'll take me at least 20 minutes to get back in the zone, if I do at all.

Because of this, I like to structure my day in a way where I get all my important work done inside two huge blocks(2-4h).

I don't do important work spontaneously or randomly, only when I'm committed focusing for an extended period of time.

If you want to learn more about this concept, I strongly recommend reading "Deep Work" by Cal Newport.

This is what my schedule looks like at the time of writing(4/8):

This is more of a "sequence" than a "schedule." Instead of having exact set times for everything, I just have a sequence of activities.

I developed this strategy 2 months ago. It gives me lots of flexiblity in case there are any unexpected events or variation.

I'm still constantly experimenting with new ideas and strategies. Again, I think the best imperative here is just to stay curious.

Most recent is "adventure days." Every once in a while, I'll spontaneously abandon all my schedules, systems, and structure to go do something random and new.

Some people call this a "weekend." But I think knowing exactly when your day off will be makes it less exciting.

As soon as you try to systemize adventure, it loses its magic.

Conclusion

This is a VERY brief introduction to my ideas on ADHD and productivity.

Hope you enjoyed.

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