So, in a neurotypical brain, I think you

can let reward motivate you. The problem

is that in a neuroatypical brain, the

reward is usually insufficient to

overcome the difficulty of the task. One

of the most tricky things about ADHD is

that good habits are protective against

ADHD. But, the problem is that in order

to form a habit, you have to do

something really consistently. And if

you're someone with ADHD, doing things

consistently is really hard, right?

We're distracted, we have difficulty

focusing, we can't do the same thing day

after day after day. One of the most

ironic things is that habits will

protect you from a lot of the problems

of ADHD. The real tragic thing is that

even though the habit circuitry is

relatively intact in ADHD, it's

difficult to form good habits if you

have ADHD. So, if you've got ADHD,

you're distracted, it's difficult

for you to focus, it's difficult to stay

consistent, so you can never form a

habit. But, the really interesting thing

is once you form a habit, it will take

over even if you are distracted. Because

let's think about what a habit really

is. So, in my mind, if I've got ADHD and

I'm thinking about something else, and

my body is moving around doing random

things, what is it that's controlling

the random things that my body is doing?

Those are actually my habit That's my

habit circuitry. Right? So, the really

interesting thing if you look at what a

habit is, a habit is behavior that

happens on autopilot. A habit is

behavior that is programmed. A habit is

behavior that does not require your

attention, and in fact takes over when

your attention is somewhere else. And

this is exactly why they are so useful

for people with ADHD. Because imagine

for a moment that you did get

distracted, that you did wander around,

but there was an autopilot circuit in

your brain doing all of the right

things. Putting your keys where they

belong, putting your wallet away,

starting to do the dishes. Imagine you

could program your autopilot stuff when

you get distracted. That's what we're

going to talk about today. So, one of

the trickiest things as a psychiatrist

is trying to help my patients build good

habits. And this is where we have to

understand the neuroscience, okay? So,

ADHD is a disorder of two things. The

first is it's a disorder of our frontal

lobes, which allow us to plan and

execute tasks, allow us to restrain

impulses, retain focus, right? That's

That part of the brain is weak, the

frontal lobes. The frontal lobes are

basically the is the master controller

of the other parts of your brain.

They're like the orchestra conductor

that makes sure all the different parts

of your brain are working together. So,

in ADHD, this circuit is weaker or

impaired. So, your brain acts in a very

disorganized fashion. All your brain

parts are on kind of autopilot. The

second thing that's really different in

ADHD is your dopaminergic circuitry and

your reward circuitry. So, this is the

nucleus accumbens, the ventral tegmental

area. So, we see alterations in

dopaminergic sensitivity. This means

that some tasks give you a ton of

dopamine, like video games, pornography,

other random things when you're really

excited about something, right? You get

a bunch of dopamine from it for about a

day or so. And then your dopaminergic

circuits acclimatize very easily, so you

don't stay interested in things for

long. The other problem is that normal

tasks for a neurotypical brain will give

you a healthy amount of dopamine, but in

ADHD, it's hard to get that dopamine

flowing with boring stuff, regular

stuff, okay? Now, there's a completely

separate circuit of the brain, which is

the endocannabinoid habit circuitry.

This is the dorsal lateral striatum.

This is also sensory motor parts of the

brain, and this is actually

endocannabinoid receptors. So, this is

like a completely separate part of the

brain, okay? The habit circuitry is

relatively intact. So, what we want to

do if we've got ADHD is create a

situation where when our mind wanders,

when our dopaminergic circuitry is going

off track, our endocannabinoid circuitry

is doing exactly what it should be

doing. The tricky thing is that in order

to train the endocannabinoid circuitry,

in order to build a good habit, we need

consistency. And so, if you're having

trouble building consistent action, I

hope today's video will help, but I'd

also recommend you check out our

coaching program. We have a bunch of

neurodiverse ADHD coaches, and we've had

thousands of clients with ADHD. And

coaches are really good at helping you

solve for your individual problems so

that you can actually achieve what you

set out to. And so, we're going to talk

about how to build good habits in ADHD.

So, the problem here is that a lot of

the advice that we get about building

good habits doesn't work great with ADHD

because it assumes a neurotypical brain.

So, great example of this is, you know,

there's a book by James Clear called

Atomic Habits. It's an awesome

bestseller, and he basically breaks it

down really simply. He says, "There's a

cue, there's a craving, there's a

response, and there's a reward." The

problem is that for this cycle to be

intact, you need a relatively

neurotypical

dopaminergic circuitry. So, let's start

with a cue. So, he says, "Make something

in your environment that triggers you,

reminds you to do the task, right? Like,

create a sensory trigger." Makes perfect

sense. The problem is that if you've got

ADHD, that cue doesn't work nearly as

well because your brain is also picking

up all these other random cues. Like,

"Oh, yeah, like I see this I left a

to-do list on my fridge. Let me Let me

look at the to-do list. Oh, I see the

to-do list. I need to do something." And

then you start to walk, you turn around,

and then you look out the window and you

see something else that you need to do.

So, cues don't work quite as well. The

other problem with ADHD is that we tend

to be less responsive to the same cue

after time. So, if you're someone who

like leaves a reminder on your fridge

and it reminds you the first day,

reminds you the second day, but then on

the third day you filter it out, it

stops working. Second thing, once you

see the cue it triggers a craving, which

is great, except your craving circuitry,

which is dopaminergic, dopamine in the

nucleus accumbens, gives you cravings,

gives you pleasure, and gives you

behavioral reinforcement. That is also

altered. And so, when you see the cue on

the fridge, it may trigger a craving,

but there are lots of other cravings

that you have, and the the biggest

problem is actually in the response,

which is that the joy that you get from

completing a task may be down-regulated

significantly if you have ADHD. That's

the whole problem with the disease is

that, you know, finishing my to-do list

just doesn't give me the dopaminergic

reinforcement that like getting high

does. And so, this becomes a real

problem. So, this is great advice, and

if you can use it to build habits, like

I'm sure people with ADHD have benefited

from this, but my point is that it's

harder to apply. So, instead what we

need to do is figure out a strategy to

build habits that fits our neurotypical

brain, that actually doesn't rely on

dopamine, that actually really focuses

on the endocannabinoid circuit. So, how

do we do that? Step number one,

understand how long it takes to build a

habit. So, there's this stupid idea

floating around, I don't even know where

it came from, that habits take 21 days

to build. Research shows that habits

take anywhere between 18 and 254

days to build, with the median amount of

time being about 66 days, okay? So, step

number one that a lot of people with

ADHD mistake that they make is that they

try to build too many habits at the same

time. The habits that they try to build

are built are chosen out of desperation.

I need this to be habitual. I need this

to be habitual. I need to do this to be

habitual. And so, then what you do is

you're working on this and you're

working on this and you're working on I

know what I'm going to do. I've got

ADHD. I'm going to work on habit one on

Mondays, habit two on Tuesdays, habit

three on Wednesdays. You're building way

too many habits. So, what I recommend to

people that I work with is you pick one

habit, just one, and you're going to do

it for 66 days. You're going to do it

for two months. One habit every two

months. Now, if I say that to you, your

response is going to be, "Dr. K, that is

so long. That's not going to be enough.

I can't do a habit just every 66 days,

right? That's like that that feels

impossible. It feels like it's not going

to be enough." Exactly. So, your

response to this question has to do with

your frontal lobes, which do a very bad

job at projecting how things are going

to be in the future. And the

dopaminergic parts of your brain are not

going to like that. They're like, "Give

me a habit now. I want to have it in 21

days. I want a big habit. I want a good

habit."

Don't listen to those parts of your

brain. Pick a habit, stick with it for

66 days. You're only going to do one

thing for 66 days. "But what about all

the other parts of your life? Leave them

as the mess they are. Continue working

on I don't care. You're going to fix

this one thing." Second thing, what kind

of habit should you build? The key thing

is to make it very small. So, a good

example of what I would recommend is put

your keys away. Never put them down.

Really simple. So, if you've got ADHD,

what tends to happen is when we get

distracted, I've got keys and I'm going

to set them down somewhere. And this

seems like such a small thing. But when

I talk to my patients, what I find is

that a disproportionate amount of their

stress comes from trying to find their

keys. Like, once every week, I'm looking

for my keys. I'm late to a social event.

I'm late to work. I'm late to something

else. I'm stressed out about it. Now I'm

spending all of my energy looking for my

keys, so I'm cognitively exhausted by

the time I go to work. I'm 30 minutes

late and I'm already spent for the day.

Ruins my whole day. So, one of the key

things I found working with people with

ADHD is they grossly underestimate the

value of very small things. So, for two

two months, we've got one job, which is

to put your keys away. Never put them

down. Now, how do we make this more

possible, okay? What we want to do is

focus on a transition. So, the

transitions are the most dangerous parts

for people with ADHD. Once I get down

and I activate hyperfocus.exe, I'm doing

pretty good. But it's in between things

that I waste so much time. I they'll

even be really productive, right? Like I

got two hours of work done, then I got

home, and then two hours disappeared. I

don't know where they went. So, focus on

that habit building during a transition.

So, when I come into the house, I want

to, you know, put my keys away in the

same spot every single time. And the

cool thing about that is that if you

train that behavior, then your mind will

do it even if you're distracted. Okay?

So, you want to focus on the transition,

focus on doing one thing right during

the transition. Put your keys away. You

can pick whatever else it is. It doesn't

really matter, okay? Is you really want

to make it easy to do the task. So, what

I strongly recommend is that you

organize your environment to make it

easy to do the task. So, if we're

putting our keys away, we want to

designate a basket for our keys. And

there's a lot of good evidence that

shows that organizational tools will

buffer us against the problems of ADHD.

So, if I have something like a

bookshelf, if I have a particular place

to put things, that works incredibly

well. So, we want to organize the we

want to focus on the transition, which

is the when we are going to build the

habit, and we also want to focus on the

dimension of where. So, where is this

action kind of taking place? So, we can

create a basket for our keys, or it

could be something as simple as when I'm

transitioning from work to home, I'm

going to stop at the gym. So, try to

anchor the when and the where to build

this habit. And it's okay for the habit

to be small. Next thing that we want to

do, and this is really, really, really

important, is think about what will make

it hard to engage in the behavior. So,

in a neurotypical brain, I think you can

let reward motivate you. The problem is

that in a neuroatypical brain, the

reward is usually insufficient to

overcome the difficulty of the task. So,

when I'm working with patients with

ADHD, there's a lot of research that

shows this. There was one study that

tried to get 437 people to exercise

every week. And what they found is

focusing on building a complex plan

actually reduced the average amount of

exercise by 217 minutes. And planning

for obstacles, focusing on the

difficulty, what makes it hard to

exercise, actually increased exercise

time by 184 minutes. Okay, so this is

what's insane. Building a complex plan,

especially if you've got ADHD, is not

what leads to really good results.

Focusing on the things that will mess

you up, which is usually what happens,

right? That's the problem with ADHD, is

that you have the best of intentions,

but then you some problem gets in the

way. So, the next thing that we really

want to focus on is what is the

obstacle. Anticipate ahead of time what

the obstacle will be that will get in

the way. And so, if you put these things

together, hopefully what you can do is

build one habit. And if you can build

one habit over the course of 2 months,

it may not have a big impact. But here's

the other really, really, really big

thing. When I talk to my patients with

ADHD, what we tend to focus on is

building six habits per year. We're

going to take six things that you are

now programming your body to do

automatically. And that removes the load

of six problems from your life. Over the

course of 4 years, that's going to be 24

problems that you don't deal with. The

other little secret thing, just to give

you guys like your ventral tegmental

area, your dopaminergic stuff, and your

your frontal lobes that that want things

faster. What I'm going to tell you is

once you start implementing this method,

you will get better at the method. And

so, you will be able to handle larger

habits or implement habitual change more

frequently because you will develop the

habit of building habits. And once that

happens, the whole the whole ballgame

changes. So, if you guys want a

complimentary perspective to like

neuroscience and habit building,

strongly recommend you check out our

lecture on puer aeternus, which is a

Jungian sort of big picture approach to

understanding how ADHD shapes your life.

It's not really ADHD, but so many people

in the lecture were like, "Oh my god,

this describes me so well, and I used to

think I had ADHD. Now I realize I'm also

a puer." And if you want to know what

the hell that means, check out the link

in the description below. It'll take you

to our website. It's an awesome lecture.

People really love it. Check it out with

our free trial and see if it's for you.