Five reasons why Make It Happen Club is great for people with ADHD
If you have ADHD, chances are you’ve tried all sorts of things to help you get stuff done. Some of them may have even worked for a while! But if you’re here reading this my guess is that you’re still figuring it out.
Over the years I’ve noticed that my approach to productivity attracts folks who have ADHD (particularly women who’ve been diagnosed later in life).
For years I wasn’t sure why. But I recently read ‘How to ADHD’ by Jessica McCabe, and it was a revelation!
It turns out that as well as working for neurotypical folks, the planning process I designed for Make It Happen Club also ticks lots of boxes for those with ADHD brains.
So if you’ve been struggling to find a way of getting things done that works for you, hopefully this blog outlining why Make It Happen Club is great for people with ADHD will help.
Before we dive in, it’s not my intention to explain ADHD to you – I’m not an expert, and your first-hand experience is way more valuable than anything I’ve learnt during my research! I know that everyone’s experience of ADHD will be different, and can’t promise that Make It Happen Club will suit everyone. It’s no substitute for an ADHD coach who can help you find individualised ways to work with your brain across all areas of your life.
I’ve done my best to approach this subject with care, but please forgive me if any of my language choices feel jarring. I’m here to learn, so please do drop me a line and let me know if there’s anything I got wrong.
Ok. Ready?
Let’s go!
Here are five reasons why Make It Happen Club is great for solo business owners who have ADHD.
1. It reminds you what’s important
Make It Happen Club is designed to help you invest your time and energy in activities that move you closer to your goals, so you can grow your business and enjoy the life you’re creating for yourself.
But if you have ADHD, challenges with your working memory might make it hard for you to remember your goals, let alone the tasks you need to do to reach them.
Make It Happen Club helps by reminding you of what’s most important:
Every quarter - you get clarity around what you’d love to accomplish over the coming three months, and what projects you’re going to focus on to get you there.
Every month - you look back at your quarterly planning notes to remind yourself what you’re aiming to achieve. And then you choose what tasks to focus on during the month ahead.
Every week – you get an email reminding you to look at your monthly plan, with prompts to help you intentionally navigate the week ahead.
With those reminders keeping you on track, you can deploy whatever day-to-day strategies work best for you (checklists, calendars, stickers, post-its, reward charts etc) to help you stay focused on what’s most important.
The upshot? You don’t need to hold any of the important stuff in your head. You’ll always have something at your side to remind you of your priorities and the actions you need to take to move them forward.
2. It helps you make logical decisions
Executive Function (EF) systems, tend to be impaired in ADHD brains (that’s the set of cognitive processes that allow us to plan, prioritise, focus attention, and juggle multiple tasks). We know that already, right?
But the thing I didn’t know, is that there are two neural pathways underlying those systems. We can quickly switch between the two, but one usually overrides the other:
The “hot” executive function system takes over when emotions are high in the heat of the moment
The “cool” executive function is in charge when things feel calm and the stakes are lower.
As you can imagine, most people don’t make logical decisions or problem-solve effectively when their hot EF system is dominant.
So if you want to make intentional choices that align with your bigger vision, it’s important for your cool EF to take the wheel every now and then. That can be tricky, particularly for folks with ADHD, but it is possible:
“…as research has demonstrated, tapping into our cool EF – through reflection, contextualising, and analysing abstractly – can make it easier to make logical decisions, even when our emotions and motivation are pulling us towards impulsive ones.” (Jessica McCabe, ‘How to ADHD’, p.82)
That right there – reflecting, contextualising, analysing - is what we do in Make It Happen Club every single month.
The calm, quiet and grounding energy of the Club helps you tap into your cool executive function away from the chaos, busyness and distraction of day-to-day life.
From there, you’ll make decisions about what you’re going to do (and not do) during the month ahead, making sure those decisions make sense in the wider context of your life.
And because you’re creating your monthly and quarterly plans calmly and thoughtfully, they’ll feel logical and achievable.
Of course, having a plan created by your cool EF won’t magically stop your hot EF from taking over from time to time. But it will give you something to return to if you feel yourself being pulled towards impulsivity, so you can get back on track and keep moving forward.
3. It helps you take control of your time
“The time-related challenges those with ADHD face aren’t magically fixable by “using a calendar”. But over time, we can begin to gain control over our days, weeks, months, and years so we can choose how we want to spend our time, rather than time choosing how it spends us.” (Jessica McCabe, ‘How to ADHD’, p.140-141)
I love that quote not just because it acknowledges the fact that there’s no one-size-fits-all solution, but because it includes the phrase ‘over time’.
Figuring out what does and doesn’t work for you, is not a quick fix. It takes trial and error. Curiosity. Experimentation.
And those principles are at the heart of what we do in Make It Happen Club. Every time you return to a monthly planning session, you’ll bring a new piece of insight with you. And over time, you’ll discover more about what does and doesn’t work for you.
You might be reading this and wondering how on earth you’re going to be more productive if I’m not telling you which systems and processes to use to manage your time.
The answer to that is simple:
In my world, productivity is not about systems and processes.
It’s about clear thinking and decision-making.
It’s about consistently, repeatedly…
choosing which projects or ideas to work on next,
getting clear about the teeny tiny steps you need to take to move forward, and
protecting space for what’s most important.
At the end of the day, that’s will help you feel in control. NOT a complicated spreadsheet, beautiful planner or fancy app that’s fun for a few hours, until the novelty wears off. (That’s not to say you can’t use those things if they work for you - just don’t skip the part where you take space to think and make those intentional choices.)
The magic of Make It Happen Club is in the prompts, the guidance, and the gentle questioning that empowers you to choose how you want to spend your time.
And if things go a bit wonky, that’s ok! When you join Make It Happen Club, there are lots of opportunities to get back on track. You’ll get weekly reminders to check your action plan, and then every month you’ll come back to the treehouse, notice the lessons and create a new plan to keep you moving forward.
4. It helps you stay motivated and overcome obstacles
We do a few things to help you get motivated in Make It Happen Club, from considering why the projects and ideas you’re working on are important, to getting your subconscious on board by imagining yourself having a productive, on-purpose month.
But I know that motivation will only get you so far. We also need to proactively address the barriers that might get in our way. This is true for everyone, but even more so for folks who have ADHD.
“We don’t just need enough motivation to complete the task. We need enough motivation – and often time – to climb the emotional wall in front of it.” (Jessica McCabe, ‘How to ADHD’, p164)
When you’ve struggled to complete a task many times in the past, it takes an emotional toll. Those feelings of shame, failure and self-doubt build up, creating what Brendan Mahan, founder of ADHD Essentials, calls a “Wall of Awful.”
That wall can become a huge barrier to getting things done, so if you want to make progress you need to find a way to climb it.
That means noticing the emotional stumbling blocks, the knowledge gaps and the resistance that are standing in your way, and finding a way to work through them.
And in Make It Happen Club, that’s all built into the process.
During our planning sessions, as you’re thinking about the projects and ideas you’re working on I encourage you to notice and write down any obstacles that come up. There’s no point pretending they don’t exist. They’ll keep raising their heads when you least expect it, and you’ll end up playing an infuriating game of whack-a-mole.
Instead, you’ll identify what makes up your own Wall of Awful, and figure out how you’re going to climb it. (What tools do you already have that work for you? What help will you ask for?)
In Make It Happen Club, instead of running into a brick wall time and time again, you’ll set yourself up for success by finding a ladder, leaning it up against the wall, and allowing yourself time to climb it.
5. It helps you feel capable and empowered
At no point during any of our sessions do I ask you how much you did or didn’t get done.
That might seem odd in a space that’s all about getting stuff done!
But I know how much shame people already carry when they don’t do the things they said they’d do, and it’s my mission to remove that layer of judgement, not add to it.
Just because you underestimated how long something would take and didn’t get everything done, that doesn’t mean you failed. Or that you’re broken. Or stupid. Or not cut out for being a business owner. Or any of the other things you tell yourself when things don’t go according to plan.
Make It Happen Club is here to build you up, replacing self-doubt with self-belief, and confidence in your ability to get stuff done.
We all need that from time-to-time, but it’s especially important if you have ADHD, have been trying your whole life to fit into systems that aren’t designed for you, and have spent quite long enough feeling like you’re failing, thank-you-very-much.
Not on my watch.
Make It Happen Club is a judgement-free space where you get to learn what works for you so you can keep putting one foot in front of the other.
As one member tearfully shared at the end of a session:
“I’m really achieving the steps. I've got evidence that I'm doing it, and satisfaction that it is progressing. It’s building up a trust in myself, changing the image I had about myself.”
Isn’t it remarkable that the simple act of showing up to monthly planning sessions can change your self-image in such a profound way? Imagine what you’ll be able to accomplish when that self-belief and confidence keep on growing month after month.
Could Make It Happen Club help you too?
People have called what I do in Make It Happen Club ‘magic’ and ‘witchcraft’, and honestly? I’m still trying to define what it is that makes it so effective!
I knew I didn’t want to create yet another space that assumes everyone works in the same way, and makes people feel there’s something wrong with them if they can’t follow a rigid, prescriptive system.
I know you’re not a machine. That you have a life as well as a business. That you have quirks, challenges, natural tendencies and preferences. And so Make It Happen Club allows for all of that.
It reminds you what’s important, helps you make logical decisions, puts you back in control of your time, encourages you to be proactive in overcoming obstacles, and boosts your self-belief. It also includes other things that are great for folks with ADHD, like body doubling, encouraging space for fun and rest, and breaking projects down into small steps.
So, what do you think?
Would that help with your productivity?
If you have ADHD and are looking for something to help you get stuff done, I hope I’ve given you enough of an insight to know whether or not Make It Happen Club might be a good fit for you.
If you’re curious, head here to find out more.
(You might also find this blog helpful: How Make It Happen Club helps solo business owners be more productive)
A final word from two Make It Happen Club members who have ADHD
Vie and Lois were kind enough to share their experience of Make It Happen Club. Take a look at the videos below to see how it’s helped them.
Find out more about Make It Happen Club here.
Huge thanks to Jessica McCabe for her beautifully written and well-researched book, How to ADHD.