I Tried Tom Hanks’ Favorite Productivity Hack For Two Weeks


I subscribe to several productivity leaders, including James Clear and Tim Ferriss, but I also acknowledge there’s more to life than being “productive.”

As a freelancer, I set my own schedule, which is both a blessing and a curse. And in addition to my freelance writing work, I also started working on a huge research project at the end of March.

I don’t talk about it much, but I also have ADHD. Consequently, what I used to think of as multi-tasking when I flitted from one thing to the next is actually having a limited attention span. I would proudly tell people that I could do “a whole bunch of things at once,” but really, I would do something for 2 minutes, then switch to another thing, then forget about that first task for several hours while I proceeded to a THIRD thing, then freak out when I realized I had to finish the first thing like yesterday because it was due tomorrow.

I relied on the adrenaline rush from a looming deadline to finally GET THE THING DONE and then had to scramble to complete other responsibilities that I had neglected while hyper-focusing on the pressing task.