ADHD at Work: Why the Easy Stuff Gets So Hard (4-Minute Quiz)

You get a lot done. It just costs more than it should.

The task you meant to do on Monday is still there on Thursday. The project that was nearly finished last month is still nearly finished. You catch up in the evenings, and people keep bringing you their problems.

Trying harder rarely fixes this. Seeing which habits are doing the damage does, because then you can change the right thing.

The Fast Brain Map shows you. In about four minutes, you’ll answer 18 quick questions about your last four working weeks, plus three about you. You’ll get a clear picture of where your time and energy have been going, and one practical thing to change this week.

What the map looks at

Fast brains tend to get stuck in a few predictable ways. Each one is a habit that usually started as a strength, and it probably helped get you where you are. The catch is that each needs a different fix. A planner won’t help if the problem is finishing, and a deadline won’t help if the problem is too many ideas. So the map works out which habits you’ve been leaning on lately, and points you at the fix that fits.

Exploring. New ideas keep arriving, and they’re good ones. So you start the next thing before the last one’s done, and your week gets rearranged around whatever looks most interesting. It feels like progress, but the things that matter most move slowly.

Sprinting. Important work waits until a deadline, or another person, makes it urgent. Then you do it fast, and often well. The cost is the days you spend carrying it around beforehand, and the late nights at the end.

Solving. You love cracking a problem. Once it’s cracked, the rest feels like admin, so work sits at 90% and the follow-ups pile up. Other people only see what gets finished.

Fixing. You’re good at rescuing things, so people bring you their problems and you take work back when it’s going slowly. It’s quicker in the moment. Over time, everything starts to depend on you.

Everyone does all four sometimes. Most people lean on one or two, and that shifts with the job and the season. These describe what you’ve been doing lately, which means you can change them.

The map also checks two things that make everything harder: how hard setbacks have been hitting you, and what your way of working is costing you in energy, evenings and weekends. If the cost is high, your result starts there, because that needs attention first.

What you’ll get

• A plain-English read-out of the habits you’ve been leaning on

• What they’ve been costing you

• One small, specific thing to try this week

• A link to keep your result and come back to it

How it works

Every question asks about something you’d have noticed yourself, like a task you put off or a project left nearly finished. There are no trick questions and nothing to prepare. Answer for a normal week, not your best or worst.

Free, about four minutes. At the end, you’ll enter your email to see and keep your result.

Who it’s for

People with busy, fast-moving minds who get a lot done and want it to cost them less. You might have an ADHD diagnosis, suspect you have ADHD, or simply recognise yourself here. You don’t need a label to take it, and it can’t diagnose anything.

Why I made this

I lived on white-knuckled effort for 47 years. Two burnouts and an adult ADHD diagnosis later, I realised pushing harder wasn’t the answer. I made this so you can see what’s been happening sooner than I did.

Take the Fast Brain Map