hi I'm Dan Martell technology
entrepreneur investor and creator of SAS
Academy in this video I'm gonna go
totally off script and talk about how I
manage my ADHD without medication and be
sure to stay at the end where I'm going
to share with you guys a list of
resources that I use to kind of enhance
the strategies are going to be talking
about in this video so if you deal with
ADHD or have somebody in your life that
struggles with it you probably feel
frustrated that every day is a crapshoot
you don't know if you're gonna be
productive you don't know if you can get
any level of focus every time you start
to read you know 30 seconds later you're
off to some other thing you're probably
already clicked off this video or
thinking about what you're gonna have
for lunch or maybe you're feeling tired
you don't have the energy or it's just
something feels off and when you take
your medication maybe and look I'm not a
doctor I'm not gonna tell you what - I'm
just gonna tell you what I've done but
my essentially my experience has been
that if you do things right you can get
super clear you can summon a super
focused state at will you can ensure
that every day is your best day and you
could really manage the way you show up
with your unique ability in your zone of
genius and just who you are which i
think is absolutely the superpower I've
got a video I'll link up below it's one
of my most popular videos why I'm doing
this one on why I think ADHD is my
superpower but without sharing with you
the strategies that I've learned over
the years implemented into my life in my
day then it's hard for people to
understand how that could look so I'm
just gonna walk you through what a day
in my life looks like if you feel
inspired to adopt any of those things
feel free to do that but this is really
just my take I don't play a doctor on
the Internet
be sure to consult with your physician
figure out what's appropriate for you
and just test things I think that was
the biggest thing that I've learned over
the years is just trying tweaking etc
now what happened was is at eight years
old I got diagnosed with ADHD and for
many years I felt broken it actually
sent me into kind of a spiral of
depression and you know making some
really bad
decisions in my life and you know
there's a whole story on kind of how
that impacted me and where I ended up at
really rock bottom and how I've turned
my life around since then to now where
I've you know I've started five
companies I've hired over 500 people in
my career I became millionaire when I
was 27 and investor in 30 other
companies and look I don't I'm not
sharing that stuff to to brag I'm just
sharing it because I want to give you
context for what's possible when you own
who you are and you figure out is there
a better way to tweak things to
essentially turn it around as a power
instead of a deficit one is nutrition
what you put in your mouth definitely
affects your brain your mind your focus
and the first thing is sugar I think
that is probably the worst thing that we
as a society have introduced into our
lives most of you don't even realize how
much sugar grams of sugar you're
consuming on a daily basis and all I ask
is that you look on the back of the
packages and most of you are probably
consuming your sugar through liquids
through the beverages that you drink on
a daily basis so taking those things out
going back to water first thing I do
when I wake up every morning is half a
liter to a liter of water first thing my
feet hit the ground I grab my water ball
it's ready to go I drink it that just
hydrates my body as soon as you wake up
you're dehydrated hydrate your body have
that bottle next to you drink throughout
the day just water and that'll help
quench that thirst for any kind of high
sugar supplements now the other thing is
is I'm a big fan of low carb high
healthy fats so for the most part my
breakfast that's probably if you want to
dial in anything dial in your breakfast
I go
avocado egg whites maybe one egg lots of
vegetables and it's really simple and
clean it takes me like seven minutes to
cook up and that just sets the whole day
from there it's always just proteins and
salads and again I'm not saying I'm not
judging what you eat I'm just saying if
you want to see if you could help you
know counteract some of the downsides of
your ADHD just try tweaking your
nutrition is probably the biggest area
if you drink coffee with lots of sugar
and cream start trying to drink it black
I mean it'll it'll change every
thing I mean just on an energy level is
gonna change anything so so nutrition is
the first place number two is sweat
everyday I know for a fact that if I
don't work out I don't have the same
impact in my work my creativity is not
there my ability to focus my ability to
communicate is is is depleted and so my
rule is just sweat everyday when you
wake up get a workout in do something it
can be as simple as doing 30 push-ups
you know I have a workout when I travel
and I'm in a hotel room it's essentially
four rounds of 20 reps each of jumping
jacks air squats push-ups and sit-ups it
takes about you know depending how
fasten moving but 10 to 12 minutes and
that's all you need to actually get a
good workout in every day in the same
spot you're standing you don't need any
equipment no nothing and it's gonna get
your sweat on and that just sets it for
me my mind like I love to run I love to
do CrossFit but I don't do those things
for my body per se I do them for my mind
and I'm telling you if you're not
working out if you're not moving your
body then a hundred percent it's gonna
affect your ability to focus so that's
that's a big area
number three is sleep so many
entrepreneurs so many individuals like
yourself that have ADHD have a really
hard time going to bed having a deep
sleep and the reason why is your mind is
racing so you know at the end of the day
there's a few things I do one I sleep
with a sleep mask to make sure that the
room is a hundred percent dark I use an
app on my phone for white noise so I
don't get interrupted throughout the
night you can use an app like sleep
stream which is incredible again I'm
gonna link those up below and or any app
that really creates a white noise
there's a bunch of free ones out there
and just make sure that you turn off all
electronics before you go to bed I'm a
big fan of reading and this is the funny
part
maybe you can't read because you get
distracted really quick well what
happens with me is I've taught myself
that if I start to read in bed I go to
sleep so it's funny now that when I'm
reading a book I literally will fall
asleep just because that's what's been
programmed in my mind so be sure to get
yourself a little reading light and a
book and every night fall asleep with
the book on your chest and it's a great
way to go to bed your mind will go to
sleep where the sleep mask white music
on or white noise on and you will sleep
so ideally at least seven hours
I try to aim for 8:00 for morning
routines I'm a big fan of
tools to really just take all the best
practices that I learned have it stack
them into my day so I don't have to
think about it so I have a morning
ritual if you don't have one I highly
recommend the book miracle morning by
Hal Elrod and it will walk you through
his framework called savers mine is a
variation of that I've been doing mine
for before his book was written but it's
an incredible book and it'll just walk
you through it but the big thing for me
especially with ADHD is meditation your
mind is so powerful and if you're not
meditating for at least five minutes
just eat in your life well I can't
meditate every time I sit down I my mind
races yes I agree but if you can learn
to take control of that if you can just
sit there in silence and just be in awe
of how your mind kind of goes all over
the place and just bring it back a great
app like headspace to just help you
understand how meditation works whatever
it is for you if you're not meditating
and you and you want to get off
medication and self-medicate your ADHD a
little bit I just don't know how you're
gonna do it because it's just part of
exercising the muscle which is your mind
and ability to focus and just and and
just be aware of what's going on and
really just the I'm just in awe of how
our minds work and how we can have kind
of two different views of what's going
on in reality so morning rituals to me
it's it's everything from what I eat my
exercise my gratitude journaling
meditation the movement part that's just
locked in but that if I don't start off
my day with that then my whole day is
just woo up for a roll the dice and
we'll see what happens five thirty
minute Pomodoro work blocks so my mind
works best when I know exactly what I'm
working on and I focus it in on a
30-minute window essentially I do twenty
five minutes of work five minutes of
rest and that rest is usually breathing
techniques
stretching standing up moving around
whatever it is but for twenty five
minutes I have a timer set I know
exactly what I'm working on and I go
deep and and there's just something
about the gamification of having that
twenty five minute timer and I'll link
up a tool I use below called be focus
but it just allows me to just not easily
get distracted and go get browser
blindness where I jump on Facebook or
you I mean for many of us it is it is
second nature
I'm a hockey guy all of a sudden my
fingers without even thinking about it
open up the browser and start typing
Facebook and I'm like what the am I
doing here
so if you're having those issues
consider setting a timer Pomodoro is an
incredible technique super simple to
allow you to focus on your work six
energy management I truly believe that
like there is a circadian rhythm to life
and to seasons
etc our day follows a certain energy
pattern in flow and for me what I've
learned it could be different for you
some people they swap it for night
versus morning in the morning is when I
do my best work output meaning any
creative work anything I want to I want
to create or things that I know I'm
gonna have a hard time doing like
reviewing financial statements or
whatever it is in the business reviewing
contracts I need to do that first thing
in the morning when my mind is most
aligned with what I need it to do and
then what I do is I then load my whole
afternoons talking to people from an
energy point of view so I just think
that if you don't know what your energy
flow is for the day really consider
studying it understanding how you feel
and mapping to that so that you can put
the right types of tasks and work in
those windows like I don't do meetings
before lunch the reason why it's because
I don't want to use that time that I
know I can be focused and create
something when I can just push my
meetings to the afternoon now maybe
you're not in a position to be able to
do that but there's probably other
elements from an energy flow in your day
that you can restructure and what I
called a party you can change the time
of day that you focus on those tasks and
those those pieces so that you can get
the most out of your focus 7 music now
if you made it this far you probably
don't have ADHD I'm kidding it just
needs the content on point but for real
I used to play background music while I
worked I do my best work in coffee shops
and busy airports I use VEVO on my Apple
TV so that I can play that in the
background just like a music video it's
like the modern-day MTV but now what I
do is I actually have an app called
focus at will and you know there's
science behind it but it's different
channels you essentially complete a
questionnaire and it'll tell you what
kind of new
based on who you are again it could be
hocus-pocus all I know is those toons I
use the up-tempo channel on focus that
will for me just totally gets me in the
zone so if I map that with my 30-minute
Pomodoro's and I have my music play in
the background I can be anywhere at any
time and just boom crank out some work
so if you don't incorporate some level
of auditory distortion in your workday
videos you just don't want to have stuff
that you're watching and definitely
don't put on you know don't go binge
watch house of cards on Netflix put
stuff that you don't have to listen to
but it's there and it's kind of a beat
and a rhythm and it'll help you I know
it helps me really stay focused when I'm
to get something done immediately and I
can't waste any time getting into that
zone eight block time one of the most
important habits that I have is that I
know exactly what I'm doing on a 15
minute interval throughout my whole day
some of you might think that's crazy
over scheduled and structured that's
cool you can think that I could show you
my results they speak for themselves the
reason why I'm able to put out so much
content and deliver so much value to my
coaching clients to be able to build
businesses invest in other companies be
value out of be present for my family
take incredible amount of vacation every
year is because it's all structured when
I I don't need to know what I'm doing
this afternoon I just know that it's
packed because I review my day the night
before and I read my week on Sundays so
block time is the habit of actually
scheduling going in your calendar
dragging dropping and putting in the
description of that calendar entry
exactly what you're gonna do to move the
needle forward so that way I don't sit
there and I call it bleed time between
different events or you know you have a
meeting with somebody and they keep
talking and you have nothing scheduled
in your calendar so you keep talking all
of a sudden a thirty minute meeting went
to a sixty minute meeting all those
things add up so I'm a big fan for focus
point of view to really help me mitigate
the ADHD is to block time with these
specific tasks I want in the description
and then use my Pomodoro timer to make
sure that I execute in those thirty
minute windows nine build a team a
support network people around you
now many of you guys are saying dan I do
not have the financial means to do that
and I can understand that but I will
tell you this ever since I was in junior
high school and there was class projects
where there was you know activities or
we were playing a sport or playing in
the backyard with my friends building a
tree house etc I got really good at
growling and recruiting people to help
support me in what I was creating okay
and to me that's no different than your
life there are certain things that you
would love to do for eight hours a day
that other people and you probably don't
think this is true I guarantee it I know
for a fact my bookkeeper sandy is
amazing she loves to do bookkeeping and
spreadsheets and numbers and if I took
that away from her and I said hey you're
gonna start to write blog posts she
would freak out because she doesn't like
to do that if I said hey we're gonna
stick a camera in front of you and we're
gonna record some videos she'd be like
oh my god no way I quit so I know for a
fact there are people in your life that
would support you in a certain area you
could swap out certain tasks you could
ask for favors you can look for leverage
you just need to have enough self-worth
in the value bring the other people to
be able to ask for it that's the biggest
challenge I'm gonna get into that whole
you know a bag of whatever but you need
to bring people into your life to
support you into things you struggle at
because I know for a fact there are
people out there that love to do that
work the things you hate to do other
people love to do and if you can bring
that in and tweak your day and tweak
your projects so that you can have that
and it takes time years maybe but you
build towards that one day you will wake
up and realize that ADHD is a hundred
percent your superpower it's the reason
why you're so energetic and creative and
you know able to produce outcomes that
other people aren't an uninspired by
instead of making it a crutch or a
deficit or a weakness and that to me is
my hope for especially for all the kids
watching this if you're watching with
your parents just know that again
I felt broken at eight and there were
people that showed up in my life and
showed me that there was possibilities
and they believed in me in a way that I
didn't believe in myself at the time
and through that journey of
entrepreneurship is the awesome ultimate
personal development program and for me
programming became a new addiction where
I could really get focused on kind of
going deep on something that wasn't
illegal or got me in trouble and since
then I just decided I don't want to take
medication to deal with my ADHD and that
was a decision I made probably eight
years ago
and it was a transition and I added all
the things I'm talking about in many
other stuff I'm probably forgetting to
just say no I'm gonna own this I'm gonna
tweak it I'm gonna work my way through
it and I can tell you it's been almost
ten years since I made that decision is
probably the best one I show up as me as
Dan not as somebody else and it feels
absolutely freakin amazing and I hope
this for you so quick recap
one is nutrition two is sweat everyday
three isn't sure I get incredible sleep
four is focus on my morning routine five
is the Pomodoro Technique the 30-minute
focus of work productivity six is energy
management seven is music eight is block
time and then finally nine is build a
team of supporters if you've gone
through the transition yourself or if
you feel like you're going through it
now and you need some support just leave
a comment below there's incredible
people are part of the community that
can relate also be sure to check out the
other video on ADHD is my superpower you
will just say you know when you go watch
it
it's the hundred percent contrast okay
that was Dan Martell three years ago and
this is Dan today and maybe it was a
little bit chubbier maybe I didn't
understand how video worked and all this
stuff I've done a video every week for
the last three years so go check it out
maybe it'll inspire you to start a new
creative endeavor because it's been
probably the biggest blessing in my life
is having a community of folks like
yourself watching these videos so that I
can serve in a bigger way so hope this
video finds you incredibly well if you
liked it be sure to click the like
button leave a comment below subscribe
to my channel super appreciate you guys
watching I'll see you in the next video
I mean we're either when Dan asked me
about the shirts I wear a lot of people
ask me like we're gonna get your shirts
your shirt games on point I'm like well
I don't know