Squirrel. Squirrel. In this episode, we're talking about 50 ways

to focus. Wait, no, fuck that. Who has time for

50? We're talking about five ways to focus

when you're an ADHD entrepreneur. Squirrel. Hi, I'm Katie

McManus, business strategist and money mindset coach. And welcome to the Weenie

cast. Squirrel. When I was planning this

episode, I was super excited to share 50 ways

for you to focus as an ADHD business owner. But then I remembered,

wait, we have ADHD. That's way too many

items. We don't have the attention span for that. I don't have

the attention span to make that list, and you do not have the attention span

to listen. So we're going to do the top five. One of the most

common questions I get from my clients, from people

who follow me on social media, and from you, my listeners, is

how do you focus when you have ADHD and you

run a business? Right? Because one of the things about having ADHD is

we thrive in structure, but we massively

suck at creating it for ourselves. And when you run a business,

guess. Who'S creating the structure around that? You are. And

so finding different ways to focus becomes your new

holy grail adventure. And the shitty thing about

it is. That what helps you focus will change over time,

right? Because we also need variety. And

so what works for us for. Maybe three months will have an expiration

date. At one point, it'll stop working and. We have to switch tactics,

which is why I'm giving you five. And because we are coming up on

the holiday season, we'll have some great holiday present

ideas for you and your ADHD family members and loved

ones. So listen to the end so that. You can hear that list.

As I go through this list, I've heard from a lot of listeners that you're

using a lot of the tips that I use for yourself and also for your

kids. So I'm going to be giving you what works for you and also

what will work for the little humans that live in your house as well, if

they have ADHD. What I share here, I'll also be sharing

how I did it. As I was growing up, through middle. And high school

and college, I didn't take any medication. I found

strategies that helped me focus, get through classes, get a's in

some classes, C's in others, but by using some really

simple techniques, that really helped me get down to work. And so I'm

going to share those with you as well. And after having said that, the first

one probably won't work for your kids.

You. The first tactic for you to focus better as an

ADHD business owner is to do some body doubling. Body

doubling can look like a lot of different things. So for a lot of people,

it's like a coworking session. For others, it's just having someone else

in your space while you're getting work done. You know those movies

and those tv shows where the main character at some point

realizes that they have to get their life together, so they invite their girlfriends over

and they clean out their. Closet with their friends there. I remember this scene

specifically from Sex in the city. I'm actually convinced that

is an ADHD thing, right? Because how many times have

you tried to do a household activity like

cleaning out a closet or organizing your kitchen? And

alone, you only get so far, and usually you get to the point

where you've made the biggest possible mess that you possibly

could, and then you get tired and you're like, oh no, there's no going back.

And also, I've lost all of my executive function to continue

this project. One of the things that can really help you push through in

those scenarios is by having a friend around and they don't even

necessarily have to help. They could literally just be there

playing on their phone, having a glass of wine while you

are doing everything that. You need to do in your kitchen. But it

makes a massive difference. You have company. You have someone there

who's almost holding. You accountable to getting it done. Now the perk to having a

friend over while you're doing this is like they're going to feel like a dick

if they don't actually help you. So you will ultimately get some

help. But I want to give you full permission to

ask your friends to do this with you. And you can lure

them over with cheese plates, wine, chocolate. You

can put a movie on for them like they're a toddler that you're trying to

keep occupied while you're doing something. And then you get to

have a movie on in the background as well. You can even invite several

friends over. I used to do this when I lived in San Francisco and I

needed to meal prep. I would invite a friend or two over for dinner

and I would cook dinner, but I would also cook a lot of the dinner

so that I would have enough for my lunches for. The next few days.

It made all the difference. It made it so much more fun, and it

really kept me to a routine for the period of time that. It worked for

me because like I said, it had an expiration date. Like most things,

the other way that. I've done body doubling in the past. Is

I've reached out to friends who. I know are also working on their.

Businesses and I've asked them do you want to do a co working

afternoon or a co working Sunday? And we

decide on whoever's house has. The biggest dining room table

or the. Most comfortable places for you to sit down

and the strongest wifi. And everyone brings their

laptop and whatever. Things that they're working on and you.

Hang out for a little bit, you maybe grab lunch and then you

sit. Down and you do work. One of the best parts of this coworking

session is that whenever you have an idea or you're not sure about.

Something, you can pop your head out. Of your laptop and you have a bunch

of people around you who are also doing work but are also open. To

helping you talk through it to. Make this effective for folks with

ADHD. You don't want the session to be too short. You want to give

it at least 3 hours of actual work

time so that you can really get into focus. And

get those creative juices flowing. You also have the

option for doing body doubling virtually. And

this is actually something that we have in the hyper Focus membership. It's one Friday

a month from 01:00. P.M. To 04:00 p.m. Eastern Standard Time

on one Friday each month. And if you're curious about

joining the hyper Focus membership, then I want you to go to the link in

the show notes and submit your name and email so that you can

be on the shortlist to be notified first. When we open the

doors again we have a coworking session. And in this

coworking session you're on. Zoom and you check in. In the

beginning you tell everyone what you're going to be working on. And then we go

off camera and. Off audio and work for basically the full

3 hours. And at the end we check in. And tell everyone what we

accomplished. We celebrate and then we go on with our day. The

fun thing about body doubling is that you can actually do this without. Other people

knowing by going to coffee shops. One of the things that I

notice. That works best for me is when I go to work in a

coffee. Shop or even in a pub, it. Has to be busy enough that you

can't overhear and understand other people's conversations, right?

Because if you're trying to think of how to say something and you're typing. Something

up, but you have someone complaining. About their ex spouse

sitting next to you and that's all you can hear. You're not

going to be able to focus on the thing. You're going to be eavesdropping on

their. Gossip, which, I mean, no shame on that. If you want to

eavesdrop, eavesdrop your. Heart out, but it

won't help you do a lot of work. So you want to find a place

that either has really bad acoustics for people having

conversations and so there's a lot of ambient noise or that's fairly.

Quiet, but has other people present. Now, I

mentioned before that this is. One of the few that will probably not work for

your kids. And this is because your kids, and I'm speaking

specifically about homework. No kids want to do homework,

especially kids with ADHD. You put them in a setting

with. Their friends and they're not going to do

shit. They're going to mess around. They're going to find a way to avoid

doing the work. And I'm sorry, kids, for outing you on this, but

I've been there and. It just doesn't work. One thing that you could

do if you're a parent and you have your own business and there's work that

you need to do is maybe you could do some coworking with your kids.

Now the only struggle here is you're. Going to have

to take that part of your brain that wants to nag them

to focus and do their thing. You're going to have to push that part of

your brain to the backseat, right. And really focus on

your work. One of the things that will help this

be less about you making them. Do their homework is you get to. Ask

them, hey, I actually have this. Big project to work on and

I. Work better when I'm working along with someone. Do you want to

do a coworking session and do it in a way where they feel like

this is a bonding experience, where they're helping you as. Their

parent and also getting to do. Some work themselves so that they

don't. Have to do their homework later. This doesn't work for all kids, but

it works for some.

The next item on our 50 focus tips cut down to

five focus tips list is moving while

you work. Unless you've been living in a cave for the last year,

you will have seen a ton of social media videos

of people working at their standing desks while walking on one of

those treadmills. Now, it seems silly, but this is something that

really does help people who have adhd focus

more. When I was in 7th grade, I had this

geography teacher who was a major hard ass did

not care about making any of the topics interesting

or easy to learn. All she cared about was us

memorizing the capitals of countries and different

geographical locations, whatever. It was really

fucking boring. And I failed or got a

d on the first two tests because I. Couldn'T get myself

into the mode of. Actually memorizing what she wanted me to

memorize. Now, after talking to a couple of people who were in the

grade ahead of me who'd been in her class, I figured out a couple of

different strategies that would help me learn better. So, first and foremost, I got

colored index cards. And not just like the pastel ones, the

bright neon ones. Second, I went out and I bought, or I didn't

buy. I was in 7th grade. My parents bought one of those little tiny

stepping machines that you don't really move that much, but like your legs

are moving. We then bought a music stand that I would have right in

front of. Me, and I would go through my. Flashcards

with the maps right in front. Of me and these index cards so. That I

can memorize information. Now, this is something that I urge. You to do

with your children if. They have a really hard time memorizing stuff, or if

they have any work. That they need to do that they really struggle

to sit down and do. As an adult who runs my

own. Business, oftentimes when I'm on the phone. With my clients, I'm walking around my

kitchen island. Other times when I'm brainstorming different

programs, I want to roll out different freebies I want to create. I'll actually

set up a bunch of papers and pens on the floor with my yoga mat,

and I'll be stretching. And as I stretch, I'll just kind. Of let the ideas

come to me. And mid stretch, I'll get an idea. I'll stop

stretching, because sometimes it's dangerous to write stuff while you're in a certain position,

and I will make note of whatever the idea is, and then. I'll go back

to stretching. This is a great way to take scale of your body at the

same. Time as you're doing work. And I'm convinced that

sometimes ideas are. Locked in

those knots that you have in your muscles, and sometimes you just need to roll

them out or stretch them out, and all of a sudden the ideas hit your

bloodstream and you have them and you can just run with them. Moving while you're

working is absolutely essential to doing

your work well. We operate best when we're in motion.

The third item on this list is music. You want to find the

right playlist for you to do a specific

task. I've actually found some really interesting ways

to do this. So, like, if you're reading something that's kind of boring, but you

have to do for work, find some music that the theme kind of goes along

with what you're talking about or what you're reading. Know, and this is great for

your kids, too. So say they have to read a fantasy novel for

their english class, and they're really not into it because they're not interested in

fantasy at all. But find a soundtrack from Lord of

the Rings or Harry Potter or another fantasy movie

and make a playlist on Spotify with only the ones

that don't have any vocalizations. Right? Because instrumentals tend to be more

helpful because we don't have that voice in our head distracting us. This creates

a really cool immersive experience for the person who's

reading. Because not only are they reading about this fantasy

world, but they have this music in their mind that kind of creates this

extra level of ambiance. Now, say you have to read a marketing

book about doing Facebook ads. Put on some

electronic music. I haven't actually seen the movie the social

network. I can't imagine the soundtrack is very. Good, but

maybe you can listen to that. Who knows? And if you don't know what

the. Social network is, it's a movie about. The creation of Facebook.

Anyway, I probably didn't need to explain that.

I remember back when I was studying for my certified

sommelier exam where you have to just memorize a crap ton

of information from soil types to what's the grade of the

hillside in Germany where the Riesling grapes are grown? To

different alcohol percentages that are allowed. In France

versus California. To be qualified as a wine or

to be qualified as something else. It was not fascinating

stuff to learn, just those little itty bitty nuggets. And

I remember it was around the. Time that I'd heard a song by massive

attack, which we can link in the show notes for you. It's kind of

dark, twisted music, but for some reason,

it was what I needed to be able to sit down and study.

I played one of their albums on repeat, probably about 500 times while

I was studying for you. You need to figure out what music is going to

work best for you. And if you're a music lover, it's really tempting when you

start listening to music that you really love to just listen to the music

that's not the right music for you. It has to be music that can kind

of like, fade into the background, but it takes up enough of your brain

space that you're not able to get distracted.

The fourth item on our list of 50, cut down to

five, is you want to exercise before you do

the work. Now, I've talked about this a little bit before about

how lactic acid impacts your brain and allows you to focus

more. Now, I'm really bad at referencing information, and so

before I recorded this episode, I actually went online

and I found. A very

technical article about how this actually works, and

I did not understand a word. So I copied and

pasted that paragraph and put it into chat GBT and asked chat GBT

to reword it in a way that a 7th grader could understand it, which, by

the way, is my new favorite hack. If you want to take it, please be

my guest. And Chat GPT very kindly

came up with this. In simple terms, when your body

is. Working normally, a substance called lactic acid. In your

brain helps give energy to your brain cells.

It also sends signals to control how your brain

works, helps your brain remember things better, and

makes connections between nerve cells stronger. So

lactic acid is a chemical that's released in your muscles when you're doing certain

exercises. So if you lift weights, you know how you feel

really, really sore the day after you lift weights. That's because you have

lactic acid in your muscles. And of course, it doesn't stay in your muscles. It

travels all throughout your body and. Ends up in your brain and helps you focus

more. Another thing that can help you build up some lactic acid in

your system. Is if you do intermittent

sprints, you can do this in a very short amount of

time. If you have 20 minutes and you're. Willing to get a little sweaty,

go outside, sprint as hard as you can.

For 15 seconds and then walk for a minute. And

then sprint as hard as you can for another 15 seconds, and then

walk for a minute and repeat that. Until your time is

up. That will be enough for you to. Build up some lactic

acid and be able to focus really well later on in the

day. So if you're committed to doing exercise as your

thing to help you focus. Better on your work, you want to. Be aware of

two things, okay? So first and foremost, you want to be sure that you're giving

your body. Enough protein, because when you have lactic. Acid in

your body, because you've worked. Your muscles, it means your muscles are actually

breaking themselves down and rebuilding. So you're getting

stronger, but your body's. Going to need the building blocks to be able to do

that. I don't care if it's protein powder, if it's chicken, having some extra

eggs each day, make sure you're fueling your body

correctly. And also, water intake. Your

brain cannot function well if it's not lubed up properly. So make

sure that your brain has enough water to function. Which brings me to

our final item on this list of ways to focus. Ooh,

what am I going to say next? Well, you'll have to keep listening to find

out. But first, squirrel, squirrel, squirrel, squirrel.

Which brings me to our final item on this

list of ways to focus. You want to come up with your own

comfort checklist. This will be different for most people, but there are some

standard items that. Go across the board for all of us. Now,

speaking of hydration, you want to have on your

checklist your drinking vessel, your water

drinking vessel. And I say it like that because. We all know

that we all have one particular container that we will

drink water out of. If we don't have access to that container, we won't

drink water. You can give me mugs. You can give me smaller

cups. I won't drink water out of them. I will drink them out of this

massive bottle that my producer Neil actually bought for me.

And I love it because it kind. Of operates like a sippy cup and. I

feel like a toddler because it's massive and my hands look really small

around it. We're going to link this bottle in. The show notes, so if

you're missing. Like, a hydration vessel

in your life. You can really check this out and. See if it's the right

vessel for you. The other cool thing about this vessel is it's literally

half a gallon of water. And so I try to make sure that I

drink three of them. I fill it up three times in a day. That makes

sure you're plenty hydrated. And of course, a lot of these items that I'm going

to mention are great Christmas gifts if you know what works for

your ADHD loved one. Speaking of beverages, if you have

ADHD. Chances are you're not satisfied with just

one beverage. You need at least three. You need one

to hydrate, one to caffeinate, and one for fun.

So you need to make sure that. On your comfort checklist, you have your

favorite mug and you also have whatever. That fun drink is.

So for me, this is Spindrift, which. Is my go to sparkling

water or. Any kind of sparkling water. So if you have an

ADHD loved one who loves sparkling water, and that's their fun

drink. A great gift to get them is. A sodastream, so they can

have endless sparkling water for a fraction of the price.

And no, I'm not being sponsored by sodastream, but if they want to pay me

money. Hi, sodastream people. Our email is

katie@katiemcmanus.com and really, if. Any of

the brands that I've mentioned in this episode would like to

sponsor. This podcast, again, my email

is katie@katiemcmanus.com. Other things on your checklist

you want to think about, what are the things. That you will get up to

get. When you're trying to sit down and. Focus to work, right? So for

me, it's beverages, it's snacks. One of my

favorite places to order snacks from is this place. It's called

nuts.com.

Nuts.com. They have a whole

variety of different. Snacks and tons of nuts, which are a very

healthy snack. I try to keep these on the healthy side because

it's really easy to just mindlessly snack while you're trying to get something

done. Be very conscious of what you're picking for this. Other things that can

distract you from your work are if your clothes aren't.

Comfortable, there's nothing wrong with wearing soft. Pants if you're sitting down

to do. Creative work, if you're doing the work. From home

mullet, where it's professional up. Top and fun on the bottom,

then make sure that those professional tops feel actually

comfortable. So often, especially us women,

will sacrifice our comfort to look professional

and that we're not doing that anymore. If something's

not comfortable, it does not. Belong in your closet.

And this includes, if any tags bother. You, cut them out. I also

like to keep a different. Selection of shoes under my desk. I don't really do

this consciously, but it kind of works that way because when I get to my

desk, I. Always just take my shoes off, which. Is kind of why whenever I

can't find my shoes, my go to place is my office. Like, your

feet can get cold or they can get hot, so you want. To have different

shoes available to you. I'm not really a sock person. I know some of you

are. I just don't understand it. In addition to that, you want to make sure

that you have any blankets, pillows, other things that will

allow for you to be comfortable, but not so. Comfortable that you fall

asleep while you're doing all this focus

work. So fuzzy blankets, pillows that actually

support your lower back. Because let's be real, none of us. Are getting any

younger. And back support is really important. And when you have this

comfort checklist, what you want to do is literally. Write it down

or type it up. And anytime you are about to sit down

for a good several hours worth of work, you have to get a

ton done. You have to really focus. You have to be creative. You want

to make sure you go. Through this checklist and get everything

on. It so that it is available to. You wherever you are. This

will allow for you to get into focus faster because you're not

thinking, oh, I forgot this thing. Oh, I forgot this other thing. Oh, I'm hungry.

Oh, I want this. The only thing that really can distract you is that you'll

have to pee. Because you have so many beverages. One of the most critical

items for your comfort checklist is your favorite

type of pen. And you know what I'm talking about. We all have

them. For me, it's the pilot g

2.38. It's a clicky pen. I always

chew the top of the. Clicky bit, but I'll chew it to. The point where

I'll chew it off and then I can't use the pen anymore. Partially because it's

too hard to click, but also because I can't chew it. Then there's no

part to chew. Then I have to get a new one. Now we're going to

include a bunch of links to different things that you can buy for your

ADHD loved ones. But I'll be real. I'm going to include an Amazon

wishlist on here. If you want to gift me any of these things, I will

love it. Squirrel. If you're ready to stop being a weenie and actually run a

business that makes money, then go ahead and book a generate

income strategy call with me by going to

weeniecast.com

strategycall. On this call we will talk about your

goals, your dreams and your frustrations in getting

there. And if it's a fit for both of us, then we can talk about

different ways to work together.

Katie like

ten packs of this on the Amazon.

And. And she really likes Ben's.

Squirrel. Squirrel. Squirrel. Squirrel.