One challenge that many people with ADHD face with our work is finding that place where we can get in a flow state with our work and get things done without falling into the black hole of hyperfocus, which can drain us for days.
As a holistic performance coach for women with ADHD with a daily fitness practice, I often draw inspiration and strategies from my workouts that I can apply to my other work.
Ultimately, we’re aiming for the same end-game:
How do you approach a chunk of work, perhaps one that entails a heavy load, in a way that helps you sustain momentum without burning out?
A recent CrossFit workout offered a compelling case study in the issues that come up and the common mistakes we make. It also offered a lesson in how to strategize an approach to work to avoid burning out.
In this piece I’ll lay out the potential pitfalls, and in the following piece I’ll get into strategy.
The Workout
- 30 calorie row
- 21–15–9 Thrusters and Toes to Bar
- 30 calorie row
In case you’re unfamiliar with this format, the middle section of the workout flows like this:
21 Thrusters > 21 T2B > 15 Thrusters > 15 T2B > 9 Thrusters > 9 T2B
Consider The Transitions
As written, this workout already contains a lot of transitions.
Even for an elite athlete who might do each set of the movements “unbroken” — without putting down the barbell or coming off the pull-up bar — this workout has 7 transitions:
Row Erg > Barbell > Rig > Barbell > Rig > Barbell > Rig > Row Erg
That said, most people would not do this “unbroken.” At the very least, most people would break up the sets of 21 and 15 into “mini sets.” Many would also break up the set of 9.
The Objective: Momentum Without Burnout
There are infinite ways you can split up these sets. The smallest increments would be quick singles: putting the bar down after each rep. At the other end of the spectrum, you could split the bigger sets into the largest possible sets of 11/10, 8/7, and 5/4.
The goal is to split up this work in a way that makes it manageable over the duration of the workout, allows you to maintain momentum, and avoid adding long recovery time to your transition time.
The Tradeoff: Smaller Sets vs Bigger Sets
When determining how to split the reps, you’re navigating a tradeoff:
Every break adds another transition to the workout. Even though it’s not a true “task-switching,” it’s still an interruption that adds time and the potential for distraction or delay before you pick up the bar again or get back on the pull-up bar.
On the other end of the spectrum, if you try to do too many reps in one shot, you’ll risk maxing out, which introduces recovery time to your transition time.
The Two Ends of the Spectrum
Hyperfocus Mode: The Risk of Going to Failure
It’s tempting to go for as many as you can do until you max out. This is the equivalent of ADHD hyperfocus mode. In the moment, continuing while you feel good feels like a smart move, as it allows you to maintain momentum.
But once you hit failure, your system will need more time to recover before you can resume.
Also, the closer you get to failure within each mini-set, the faster you’ll accumulate fatigue through the duration of the workout. As you go through the workout, you’ll be unable to maintain your initial pace. You’ll need more breaks, and each transition will become longer as your system needs more time to recover.
That fatigue will continue post-workout. Because your system has overloaded several times in a short duration without getting adequate recovery, it needs a longer post-work recovery time before it is ready for the next thing.
Pomodoro Mode: The Risk of Too Many Transitions
You might think that it’s better to stick to the other end of the spectrum: doing more sets of fewer reps, with short breaks between sets. In theory, this can be more effective, assuming you can maintain a rhythm.
The risk of this approach is that you will introduce more transitions, which can kill your momentum. This is the reason why the traditional pomodoro technique (25 minutes of work followed by 5 minutes of rest) doesn’t work well for people with ADHD: work chunks that are too short combined with frequent interruptions kill your flow.
Why You Need a Strategy
Without a strategy, you’re likely to get stuck in either end of the spectrum.
In the next installment, we’ll dive into the strategy.
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