The Productivity advice that actually works for Neurodivergent people
How to help when you have an entirely different brain
Let’s say you’re a manager and one of the people on your team is struggling with their work. In this hypothetical scenario, you are more neurotypical, and your team member is neurodivergent (ADHD, Autistic, Dyslexic, etc).
When this person is failing to meet deadlines, losing critical notes and information to complete their tasks, or consistently showing up late to meetings or events, how do you resolve this productivity conundrum?
What should you do?
Well, to answer that, let’s first start with what you absolutely should NOT do
.“Here’s what I would do…”
In our zeal to be helpful, nearly all of us are locked and loaded with advice we’ve successfully implemented in the past. It’s natural. It’s human.
It is also not helpful, a lot of the time.
For a solution to be applicable and useful, we must consider that the underlying context needs to be similar. In cases where two people have fundamentally different ways of processing the world around them, the context is different enough to render a lot of advice useless, or worse, harmful.
“Have you tried journaling?”
What most inspired me to write about this, is the abundance of productivity advice I see passed around the neurodivergent community from well-intentioned, neurotypical people. This can include things such as:
- Advice about the best time to wake up
- Advice about the best time to go to sleep
- Suggestions to “Eat the Frog” (Doing the big tasks first thing in the morning)
- How to start journaling
- How to keep a paper task list
- How often to take breaks
- and much more…
The problem with all of this advice is the underlying assumption that the people seeking solutions, experience their challenges in the same way as others. But each person’s brain is unique, and that will influence everything from their energy levels throughout the day to what sort of advice is even realistically possible.
When neurodivergent people hear this sort of advice, we either roll our eyes at the obvious lack of understanding, or we try to adopt it only to inevitably fail and blame ourselves. The last thing any neurodivergent person needs is any more shame for failing to do things our brains weren’t designed to do.
Qualified Advice
I know there is a hunger to understand how to best support neurodivergent colleagues.
I’ve gotten questions from coaching clients, offline via email, and after speaking engagements about how to work with neurodivergent colleagues.
The first thing that I explain is that they must understand that no matter how noble their intentions are, they simply have the wrong brain to offer solutions from a place of experience.
As a side note, this is true when speaking to anyone whose identity varies significantly from your own. This can include race, gender, sexuality, dis/ability, age, class, etc.
As a white guy, I know that sharing a particular advised path to success with a black woman is going to be woefully uninformed since our lives have presented each of us with very different obstacles, opportunities, and privileges. Even if some of the advice is applicable, I still would not be the best person to give advice. I would, however, still have ways of being helpful.
The better approach is to start by being deeply curious to understand the full scope of the situation. Ask questions, without judgment, to inform how you might offer useful support.
Once you have a little more understanding, hopefully, you will see that the best role you can play is offering support and resources, including assistance finding and bringing in others who can more appropriately speak to the challenges your teammate is experiencing.
So, what’s the advice?
I’ve got a laundry list of things that work for me (Autistic and ADHD), but that doesn’t mean it will work for your colleague. However, it does mean that I’ve likely experienced similar challenges and can better navigate the process of finding a solution.
So the advice is, if you’re not autistic, don’t presume to have a solution for what an autistic person is struggling with. If you’re not dyslexic, don’t presume to have a solution for the things a dyslexic person struggles with.
The advice is to ask questions and help find resources and people that your team members can identify with and advice they might apply.
Here are a few of the best things that help me live a better life with ADHD and Autism:
🎧 Listen to Brain.fm (I literally use this app everyday)
⚡️ Learn more about Hyperfocus: The Complete ADHD Productivity System (includes Super Brain)
✓ Try the task list built for our brains: Todoist
…
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