When you are dressed up really, really nice, like wearing your best suit when we say nice, we mean business nice, not out on the town nice necessarily. We’re talking about something you’d wear to go present at a conference. Do you feel like you can harness the power of your ADD to get more done?

Well then, (and this is true for people with or without ADD) if you’re having a difficult time or whatever, shower and shave or fix your hair, then put on your suit and crank. You’ll find yourself sitting up straighter, breathing more clearly, acting more confident, all because you’re more confident. It’s huge in order to eliminate all ADD distractions and get the proper mindset.

When you have ADD, it’s important to set yourself up for success every day, because you don’t want to have that experience where you get to the end of the day and say, “Dang, where did the day go? I didn’t get anything done.”

It’s about being successful, not worrying about what didn’t happen. Every day.

With ADD, it’s hard, but each morning, sit down and think, “Okay, what does my day look like?” Check your calendar for appointments. You can do this the night before; you can do it in the morning, whichever works best for you.

The next thing to ask yourself is, “Okay, what is it I’d like to get done today?” Write that down on a list.

Then, ask, “How long will it take to accomplish the things that I just wrote down on the list?” If one task is “write an email to someone,” write 15 minutes or however long it takes you. This accomplishes another objective and that is to make sure that you’re not writing down something that’s going to take way too much time, like write a book, for example, which won’t happen in one day.

Then ask yourself, “Okay, here are all the things I want to do with the time next to it. Do I actually have the time to do these things?”

This goes back to time mastery and is extremely important. Remember always, always, always, always overcompensate with the amount of time you’ll actually need. Triple the amount of time you think you’ll need!

Here’s the key for staying on task and not allowing your ADD brain to be distracted during the day. You’ve got that list written down. Put it right in front of you where you can see it for the whole day. I also expect that distractions will happen because it has nothing to do with ADD. That’s just the nature of being alive, right? Have you ever had that experience where you’re distracted and say, “Now what was I doing?”

But, when you’ve got tasks written down on a piece of paper, you can see what you need to do and say, “Okay, here’s where I was. Here’s I’m doing next.” That way, the ADD and other distractions won’t frustrate you.

Some ADD people just get distracted by outside noise or things that are happening. Another thing that you can do when you really need to get something done is to use music through headphones so that that’s the only thing really going on. The music comes into your ears so you can’t be distracted by phones ringing or people talking or other things happening. It’s perfect for people with ADD.

Try some of these techniques to help your ADD focus. They really work. And at the end of your power day, give yourself a perk. Be distracted in your favorite ADD way, like playing video games, computer games, reading a novel or a comic book, go out for a walk, or whatever. You deserve it!