By Jeff Copper, MBA, PCC, PCAC, CPCC, ACG – September 23, 2024
Play is not just for kids… especially for adults with ADHD. Let’s talk about de-stigmatizing play. All too often, adults think of play as childish, but for those with ADHD, playing or having fun in the workplace has value in the business world. In this blog post, we are exploring the significance of play that can enhance creativity and executive functioning.
Often, individuals go into their profession because they are enthusiastic about it. They probably took their current jobs with a lot of excitement and interest in what they would be doing but over time, especially those with ADHD, lost interest and forgot what was exciting about it.
Moving forward is difficult, because they are stuck, or they see everybody else moving faster. They feel like they have to just do more and work harder; they’ve lost their play and passion, which in fact makes it take more time to do the same work.
In the workplace, focus and attention are precious commodities. If your workplace presents unique challenges for you, it is possible to make it fun and still be productive. Remember, enjoyment (or fun) and work productivity are not mutually exclusive, so how does that look?
Try creating a positive work environment, visually stimulating but organized in a way that minimizes distractions. If possible, add color, playful elements, or inspirational quotes. These will help to create a morale booster. You could also break down your tasks into small chunks that feel less overwhelming, or you could set aside small bits of time to take breaks. Add an element of challenge, like setting goals or rewards. These can add excitement where even the most tedious or boring task feels like fun.
Finally, be curious; experimentation can turn the most boring jobs into opportunities for discovery. Reframe your challenges as puzzles or new adventures. If you approach tasks with a spirit of playfulness, you’ll find you can use your unique strengths and talents to succeed in the workplace and enjoy every step along the way.
If this topic interests you, please check out my video interview with Dr. Kirsten Milliken, “ADHD: In Every Job That Must Be Done, There Is an Element of Fun.”
TRANSCRIPT:
Jeff Copper: Welcome, everybody, to this edition of Attention Talk Video. I’m your host, attention coach Jeff Copper with Kirsten Milliken, my sidekick on attention talk radio. Kirsten, welcome to the show.
Kirsten Milliken: Good morning. I was going to kick you while I was standing here, but I didn’t think that’d be very nice.
Jeff Copper: That’s not playful.
Kirsten Milliken: It’s not playful at all.
Jeff Copper: Lead us off-
Kirsten Milliken: Standing this close kind of is.
Jeff Copper: Lead us off. We got a little quote we want to start things off with.
Kirsten Milliken: “In every job that must be done, there is an element of fun.” That was a Mary Poppins quote.
Jeff Copper: She’s wise woman.
Kirsten Milliken: She was a very wise woman.
Jeff Copper: The reason we’re doing this quote is, I don’t think people realize the value of play and the role that it plays in child development, executive functioning, and actually in the creative process.
Kirsten Milliken: I think that they’re totally missing that in child development, but then you talk about moving that into developing yourself professionally, or developing yourself as a parent. Play continues to play a role in our development and our just being.
Jeff Copper: One of the reasons that this show came about is actually to talk about play, and you have a channel, PlayDHD.
Kirsten Milliken: We do. Stacey Turis and I have a show called PlayDHD.com, and we always say it’s our internet-based television show, which sounds so special.
Jeff Copper: It does, doesn’t it?
Kirsten Milliken: Then, we also have the website PlayDHD.com, where there’s lots of content for adults. I just want to point that out, because a lot of people hear “play”, and automatically they think we’re a channel for kids, but we’re actually for adults.
Jeff Copper: One of the things about this is I want to destigmatize a little bit the notion of play, because there are many ADHD executives out there who are bored and struggling with their jobs, or they have different aspects that are difficult, and we know that stimulation and fun is not overrated. Work is overrated, however, and that notion, if you’ve got some things that you’re struggling with, bringing play to that environment can be really helpful.
Kirsten Milliken: It can be. Most people, hopefully, have gone into whatever profession they’re in because they were passionate and excited about it. They probably took their current jobs with a lot of excitement and interest in what they were doing, but over time, especially if you have ADHD, you can lose interest and forget what was exciting about it, because we get stuck, or we see everybody else moving quickly and we’re not, so we feel like we’ve got to just do more and work harder. We lose that play and passion, which in fact makes it take more time.
Jeff Copper: Exactly, exactly.
Kirsten Milliken: Harder to come up with ideas.
Jeff Copper: Exactly. Let’s just talk about what that might look like. Imagine that you’re an individual that needs to make some sales calls, cold calls. It’s not all your business, but it’s part of the business, and it’s the part of the business that really drives your business, but that’s the thing that you procrastinate on the most. Bringing an element of play to this, like, “I’m going to see if I can make a person laugh in a call,” would be an example of … Your goal is to make the cold call, but for the play and fun part is you’re going to try to get the person to laugh in that process and be just clever and creative to do that. That would be a way where you can be playful and make what would be an ordinary difficult thing, at least a little bit more fun so you wouldn’t procrastinate.
Kirsten Milliken: Oh yeah, there are lots of ideas. That was a great example. There are lots of ideas for things like that. You can make it a competition with a coworker. One of my favorite is guys who will have competitions to see if they can get one of their coworkers or somebody on a sales call to say a certain word, which becomes a challenge. There’s all kinds of ways to play.
Jeff Copper: In a prior life, I was in the insurance business, and we used to do these conferences all the time. I remember I would sometimes ask questions and argue and stuff like that, and I realized, we had the same conference every year, we’re covering the same material, nothing was going to get done. I realized that my questions were just aggravating the situation, so I used to play this game that I was only allowed to make one comment or ask one question, and I would go to a buddy of mine and say, “If I violate this, I got to give you like $100.” He said, “This is really cool. I want to do this thing too.”
It was kind of fun because, all day you were looking for that one thing, where you could get that one dig, that one question out. I got to tell you, it actually made what would normally just aggravate me into a heck of a lot of fun. Again, I’m just bringing play into the work environment as a means to liven up and get it exciting.
Kirsten Milliken: Yeah, and doing it with somebody else, again, takes it to a whole other level. If you can get a playmate, if you will, involved with you, it makes it even better.
Jeff Copper: Absolutely.
Kirsten Milliken: But yeah, there’s no reason why even if you don’t work for Google or IDO, that you can’t be having fun when you’re working.
Jeff Copper: The only other thing that I want to really highlight too, is the role playing is involved in creativity. I had heard years ago that if you worked at 3M, that you were supposed to spend 10% of your time, I call it playing, I forget the term that they did, but basically you were supposed to screw around with stuff. From what I understand, the Post-it as we know today, is a direct result of somebody who had some adhesive that they had done and it wasn’t working, but it didn’t tear some stuff off, and they played around, and the Post-it was born. You look at that industry, all a result of play.
Kirsten Milliken: Exactly. There are a lot of companies that will give, it’s free play. You can do nothing wrong. We’re not going to ding you for this if you make a mistake. There’s no wrong ideas. Out of that are coming these fantastic things, because failure is not possible at that time, and that really is what play is.
Jeff Copper: Absolutely. I will admit that some people, we go out there, we work, we get stuck in a rut, and we get blind to some things. You need somebody maybe creative and fun to figure that out. Look at this. You’ve got creative and fun. If you’ve got writer’s block in terms of play, contact Kirsten at PlayDHD. I’m sure she can help you out.
Kirsten Milliken: I would be happy to help anybody out by playing.
Jeff Copper: Kirsten, thanks for coming on Attention Talk video. I appreciate it.
Kirsten Milliken: Thank you. Thank you, Jeff.
Jeff Copper: Take care.