Clutterbug - Real-Life Hacks and Tips to Declutter, Organize and Clean your Home Fast - How to ”fake” Self Motivation, Self Discipline and Executive Function | Clutterbug Podcast # 27

Episode Date: September 24, 2017

Do you wish you could get more done? Do you want more self discipline, self motivation and more impulse control? You CAN fake Executive Function, even if you suffer from ADHD! You can easily create "external" Executive Function and finally achieve the success that you deserve. This podcast was sponsored by VideoBlocks. Start your free trial today and take your Social Media Marketing to the next level!  http://videoblocks.com/clutter Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Hi, and welcome back to the Clutterbug podcast. Today we're talking about self-motivation and self-discipline, which are two things that I completely struggle with. I'm a really impulsive person and I have ADHD and I always have even as a child. But I have found ways to overcome this, I guess, I don't want to look at it as a disability or even a negative, but I have found ways to overcome my own natural, just an ability to self-regulate, I guess, my emotions and my impulses. And I'm going to share some of those tips and tricks with you right now. Today's podcast is brought to you by Video Blocks. Video Blocks is a stock video site that I use. I used it to create my intro. I used it for B-roll footage. And I also use it to have really professional-looking Facebook ads.

And all of the videos and everything that you can find is royalty-free. You can download it. You can use it for commercial or personal projects. And they're always adding new clips. So you guys, go to VideoBlocks.com forward slash clutter. And you can try it for seven days for yourself. Let's just jump right in. And let's talk about self-motivation, self-regulation,

and all that stuff that comes up being impulsive, all those things that some people really struggle with. And some people don't. Some people struggle more than others. And I'm one of those people that always, struggled. And as a kid, I was extremely hyperactive and just basically out of control. I was bouncing off the walls. And back then, I mean, I'm almost 40, ADHD wasn't even something that I had even heard of before. And certainly my parents had never heard of it. And there was no kids in my class

that, you know, we're taking medication for this. There was the spazzy kids and the normal kids. And I was the spazzy kid. I actually spent an entire year of elementary school in the the hallway. My teacher moved my desk out there and I had to do everything in the hallway because I was so disruptive to the class and it wasn't that I wasn't bright and it wasn't that I didn't get good grades. I always had really good grades. It's just that I couldn't focus and I couldn't calm down and I just probably wasn't desperate need of some meds. Let's be honest. But my parents, I remember them taking me to the doctors a few times and they were told things like you know, cut out the sugar or less television and all of these sort of things that you still hear today.

You still hear today when you have a really spazy kid and obviously those things, they didn't work. And in my teenage years, I basically just lost my freaking mind. And without impulse control as a teenager, well, that just, I mean, if there was a rule, I broke it. And if there was a law, I broke it. And I left home really young. I left home at 15 and just didn't. whatever I want, whatever I wanted without any care of consequences. And obviously there were a ton of negative consequences. And it wasn't a fun time of my life to be, to be completely honest. So in my 20s,

my parents were supportive and they helped me get back on my feet. And in my early 20s, though, I was working so hard. And I had, you know, I always had one or two or three jobs at a time. I was making good money, but I was spending it as fast as I was making it. And, And, you know, I wasn't making the bad decisions anymore when it came to like just being a complete rule breaker, but I still had zero impulse control. I knew in my mind, you know, don't spend all of your paycheck on the first day you get paid, but I just was unable to control myself. And and I just did all these silly things without, yeah, without control. And I always wondered what's wrong with me. Why can't I seem to get my life together? Why am I so?

such a disaster. And it wasn't until I get my late 20s that I started doing a lot of research into ADHD. And I started just sort of accepting myself as I was, as crazy and bananas as I was, and as disorganized and, you know, just impulsive as I was and turning some of those bad things into a plus and also finding ways to manage myself a little bit better. So what I found is I lack something called executive function. An executive function means, you know, it's impulse control, it's self-discipline, self-motivation. I mean, I'm not saying that I don't have any of that, but all of that stuff is sort of controlled by your prefrontal cortex. So it's the part of your brain that's in the front of your head. And when they take a look at brain scans and brain images

of people, children and adult with ADHD, what they've found is, there is a lot less activity in that part of the brain. And I mean, that the prefrontal cortex in most cases is smaller as well. So when people say, you know, ADHD isn't even really a diagnosis and it doesn't even exist and it's invented today by bad parents, I have to say that the research says that that isn't true. And what the science says is yes, that there are people born with smaller preprinted, prefrontal cortexes and those are the people that tend to be more hyperactive have more less impulse control those are the people who tend to have addictions to suffer from whether it's drug addictions or food addictions or it all kind of goes together part and parcel right when you're

talking about lack of control and it also goes with having a messy house with being just disorganized and it's not all bad though it's not all negative because there tends to be a lot of creativity and a lot of you know artists and musicians and um you know all these other wonderful traits that come along with it as well so i'm not saying it's like a oh my gosh or something wrong with you or your special needs or something like that but um it does make life a little bit more challenging in those areas when it comes to being organized or setting a schedule or, you know, having a lot of self-discipline and self-motivation. So let's talk about how we can overcome those. And believe it or not, you can sort of fake executive function. I mean, you might not have it

going on upstairs, but that doesn't mean that you still can't fake it. That you can't, even though it's not internal, you can have external, you know, executive function. And that's exactly what I discovered. That even though I don't have, you know, the skills inside to sort of force myself to remember and self-motivate and self-regulate and knock it into like watching Netflix all day, even though I can't, I can't do that naturally, I can use external tools to help me. And I mean, the tools are literally a piece of paper. And so we're going to talk about that coming up right now. Again, thank you to VideoBlocks for sponsoring this podcast. You can try your free trial at www.w.com forward slash clutter and definitely get started, you know, with some of the

beautiful studio quality videos today. So we're talking about executive function. We're talking about how executive function is the part of our brain that manages self-discipline, self-motivation, and controls impulses and makes those really logical decisions. And if you're like me and you're lacking that particular part of your brain, it's not, it's not a, it's not really that big of a deal because we can overcompensate with external executive function. So we're going to talk about what that is right now. So external executive function for me was it started with list making. And it started with taking all the things that are sort of swirling around in my brain that I know I should be doing. And, you know, I had these mental lists that would just go literally fly in one ear and out the other.

And I wasn't retaining it. I wasn't able to remind myself throughout the day, you should be doing this and you should be doing that. I'd be thinking about this and that and this and that, which isn't really necessarily a bad thing either. I was creative and coming up with ideas and I am a dreamer. and there would be so many incredible things going on in my noggin that the ability to make those lists and stick with them wasn't one of those amazing abilities. Let's be completely honest. So one thing that you really can do if you're like me and you're suffering from self-motivation, self-discipline, and impulse control is create yourself a daily routine and a daily schedule. And if you're like me,

you probably have resisted this your entire life because it is not in our nature. And it is not something that we naturally sort of want to do. Let's be honest. He wants to do that. But it does help us be successful in areas of our life and just our basic life skills. So I'm not talking about scheduling every minute. And I'm not talking about some rigorous schedule where you're working all day or, you know, you've booked yourself, this is the time, you know, from 9 till 10, you check your emails. And from 10 to 11, you, you know, do something else. I could never stick to that. I could never put myself in such a tiny little regulated box. That's just not my style. What I am talking about is thinking about the

things that you want to accomplish in that day, in that week, in that month, and in that year, and writing those things down. And then breaking that down further, having a daily list of the things that you just want to get done every single day. You can laminate it, You can make yourself a weekly list. You put it in a binder, wherever, whatever it is that you want to do, and then make sure that that list is somewhere really visible. So for a lot of people, you know, just having it in their brain, they're reminding themselves throughout the day to do those chores. If you're like me, you've thought about it once, oh man, this is the stuff I have to do today, and you're not giving it another thought for the rest of the day. And it really is gone. I mean,

it's probably in there, but it's so, it's so, like, hidden by all the other wonderful things we're thinking about that we're not able to do it. So we don't have that sort of self-motivation regulation thing, but when you have a list of the things that you know that needs to get done, and it's in plain sight, so right above your computer or right on your fridge, or somewhere where you're going to see that all throughout the day, that's your reminder. That's, your, you know, motivation to check something off the list. That's your mental memory. You know, you're like, oh, yeah. I have to send that email or I have to finish this chapter of my book, or I have to vacuum the floors today. And it's very likely that you won't get everything done on

your list. And I rarely do. I try to keep my daily list to under 10 things. So first of all, it's not overwhelming. And second of all, I don't feel that self-loathing, self-defeat thing. can't accomplish most of the things. That being said, I rarely complete everything. But the simple fact is having the list in the first place means that I'm going to accomplish so much more than I would otherwise. And it's also just that mental reminder that I need to keep myself going in the right direction to take those steps forward towards my ultimate goal. So if your ultimate goal is save money or to be better with money, having lists where you can see that say things like transfer $5 into your bank account today, or having a little note in your wallet that says, do you really need this? Do you

really want this? And you've taped it to your credit card. I mean, yes, you have that impulse. You want to buy that thing right away. But when you pull out your credit card and you have that visual reminder that most people, it's naturally in their brain, but you've put it on paper, it's putting it back into your head at the appropriate time. So these are little tricks that I do to sort of overcompensate for the stuff that I'm lacking in. And for me, it's really, really worked. And it definitely started with goal setting. So I thought about what is my long-term goal in life? What is the thing that I really want? And when I first started, the thing that I really wanted was to be a stay-at-home mom, more than anything in the world I wanted to be a stay-at-home mom.

But I also had to earn a living. I had to earn money being a stay-at-home mom, which was so overwhelming. So I made a list of all the potential jobs that I could do working from home. And then I broke those down into, okay, which ones are really practical? And then I broke them down into, okay, what are the steps that I need to, take to achieve like each of these different things. And and that's and that's really where I started. I started by putting it out in my fridge, the steps I needed to take. And that was the visual reminder that I needed to accomplish those steps. And before I knew it, you know, I had tried a few

different businesses that failed miserably, but I kept with it. And within a few months, I had found a way to earn a full time living while staying home with my kids. So, um, that's something I mean I could hardly I couldn't find clean underwear when I first became a grown-up I I couldn't manage a checkbook I I couldn't do anything I just I was just floundering in all areas of life and when I really started making goals and writing lists and doing daily to-dos and putting them in a really visual spot and being so diligent about doing it every single day after a few months it became a habit and I I would write my list in the morning and I would accomplish the things on the list.

And before I knew it, here I am today making my living as an organizing expert. Not only organizing other people's homes in the community, but doing things like television shows and radio shows. And I wrote a book and I just finished my second book. And I mean, it's kind of ironic, obviously. It's totally ironic when you think about it. And I'm still to this day, I never correct. my lack of executive function. I still don't have it. I still don't have that natural discipline and motivation and impulse control, but I've found a way to do it with paper. I found a way to

substitute all the things that I'm missing on the inside with things on the outside that can really help me still achieve the exact same effect. So I want you to give it a try. And if you've been reluctant in the past or if you've tried it and not stuck with it, I want to just encourage you to try it again and try it again. I can't tell you how many times I started and then failed and started and failed and then I was putting a reminder in my phone every morning to wake up and do it and eventually it caught on and it really is the single greatest thing that has ever happened to me. And I know it can have the exact same effect for you. Whether you already have executive function, I think it can just even improve it. I think it would even enhance your own natural ability and make things even better. So give it a try

today. Create yourself a goal list and then break that down into steps that you need to accomplish that goal. Instantly you have a plan. And then break that down into to-do lists, to do checklists, to accomplish that plan to complete that plan and put that some more really, really visual that you can see every single day. And I promise you, even if you only check off a portion of your list every day, you are going to be so much closer to that end goal than you were before you made the list in the first place. So thank you guys so much for listening. I hope you enjoyed and I will see you next time. Again, I want to give a thank you and shout out to video blocks for sponsoring this podcast. Check out video blocks for royalty-free videos and photos.

I use them to create great and professional-looking intros for my YouTube video and of course engaging Facebook ads. Thanks again.