How I Used ADD to Build Great Businesses

Start your Day with more Productivity

I've got crazy ADD – always have.  Having started 9 companies in the last 20 years it's been my greatest strength and my greatest weakness.  As a Founder, you probably suffer from the same affliction.

Over the years I've learned to turn my ADD it into a super power.  One simple but powerful trick I've learned is to filter as much noise out of my head first thing in the morning.

I've noticed that most of my time is spent with random noise, not useful, actionable thoughts.  So the first thing I do when I wake up is make chocolate Pop-Tarts (I eat like a 10 year old) and sit next to my computer with a blank page in Word.

I type every thought that's been going through my head.  Every idea, every task, every random musing.  Nothing is left out.

I'll drift from "I need to make sure our customer acquisition costs for a new campaign are in line" to " "why was Gary Coleman shopping at a body armor store when he was accosted by a fan in 1994?"  Yeah, it gets that weird… but it all gets written down.

When I'm done, I then sort what's left into three basic categories – "stuff to do", "stuff to keep thinking about" and "totally random".

As it happens, very little of what's rattling in my brain involves things that actually need action.  Most of it is noise.  But by going through the deliberate exercise of pulling all of those thoughts out of my head by committing them to a document, I get to visualize and organize what was just noise.

After a few days and weeks, I've noticed a pattern.  The random thoughts tend to go away as they are committed and forgotten about and my most important action items more consistently occupy more of my mind.

Now I just need to get back to my Gary Coleman research.

Wil Schroter @wilschroter is the co-founder and CEO of Fundable.com. Wil has founded 9 companies including Virtucon Ventures, Fundable.com, Blue Diesel, Unsubscribe.com, Affordit.com, GotCast.com, Startups.co, and Bizplan.com.