The One with the UNIC Brain and the 'F' Word

No this isn’t a typo. Or at least not really. 

For this post, I mean UNIC for Urgency, Novelty, Interest, and Challenge – a powerful tool for remembering how to ignite, sustain, and manage motivation and attention.

But first things first: it has been four years since my first ‘real’ LinkedIn post. And much has happened since: I left my very safe and cushy day job, developed a business, met a ton of wonderfully touching and interesting people, gave many talks, coached many beautiful minds, and learned. Learned. Learned. Learned. And now please bear with me as I continue to learn and hope to share some of it more regularly here.

In one of my latest talks (for a law firm), I noticed I kept using the word “interesting” as I went along and explained neurodiversity at work. Interesting, interesting, interesting… When I think back on it, I think I was doing something that is quite typical for me: I was using ‘interesting’ instead of ‘important’. Why? Because that’s where my mind latches on. Where my attention sticks. Where my energy flows. As a dopaminergic personality (a term I came across reading the brilliant ‘Molecule of More’), ‘important’ must be ‘interesting’ to be important, and so the two for me almost mean one and the same.

This realisation threw me back to my 2022 TEDx talk where I introduced the UNIC acronym (Urgency, Novelty, Interest, and Challenge) as a way of finding proxies for 'importance,' a notion that doesn’t register well with the ADHD brain due to inherent executive functioning challenges. If you ask a person with ADHD to do something “because it’s important”, well… they’ll need a lot more than that for their brain to take it seriously and get started and follow through on it. To avoid disappointment and ensure things get done, introducing the UNIC elements in everyday life will benefit not just individuals with ADHD, but absolutely everyone who wants to bridge the gap between intention and action.

Urgency

Urgency plays a critical role in the lives of individuals with ADHD. The ADHD brain often struggles with time management, task initiation, and procrastination, making it difficult to get things done without a pressing deadline or consequence. Urgency creates a sense of immediacy, compelling us to focus and take action. This phenomenon is closely tied to the brain's production of dopamine, a neurotransmitter that is essential for motivation and attention.

Academic research supports the importance of urgency. A study by Brown and McMullen (2001) found that individuals with ADHD benefit from external structures that create a sense of urgency, such as deadlines and timers. These tools can help initiate and sustain attention on tasks, making them feel more important and manageable.

How to inject Urgency into your life:

- Use timers and alarms: To keep a sense of time and timebox your tasks. You might already know this, but how and when to use them may not be as obvious. Try apps like Pomodoro to simulate deadline pressure.

- Set short, clear deadlines: Maybe you don’t work or think in terms of days, weeks, or months like many template planners and time management apps are set up to do. If your ‘sprints’ and deadlines are different, you will quickly get frustrated with those tools and stop using them. Again.

- Break tasks into smaller, actionable steps: Make tasks a lot smaller and more actionable. ‘Finish presentation for Monday’ isn’t actionable and will feel vague and repelling. Make sure you differentiate a task from a project.

- Be real with time: If you think you have ‘plenty of time’ left until your next big deadline, you don’t. If you think you have ‘eight days left’, you don’t. Helping my clients see ‘real time’ creates urgency and gets things moving.

Novelty

Novelty is another kind of brain candy, especially for people with ADHD. The ADHD brain craves shiny and new things because they trigger dopamine production, capturing attention and driving motivation. This taste for novelty can sometimes be perceived as distractibility when really it can be harnessed positively.

The role of novelty in stimulating attention is well-documented. Research by Volkow et al. (2009) indicates that novel stimuli can increase dopamine release in the brain, enhancing attention and engagement in individuals with ADHD. Introducing novelty into daily routines can benefit everyone (not just ADHD folks!) by keeping tasks fresh and engaging.

How to inject Novelty into your life:

- Try new hobbies or activities: Engaging in new hobbies or learning new skills can provide the stimulation that the ADHD brain craves. This keeps you motivated and excited about your activities.

- Keep your environment dynamic and stimulating: Regularly update your workspace with new tools, layouts, or decorations to maintain a sense of novelty and keep your environment engaging. Learn where it stops being engaging and becomes distracting.

- Change up your routines regularly: Working in different environments or adjusting your schedule can help recalibrate the brain for the next task or re-spark the current one. There is no one-size-fits-all. In ADHD coaching, my clients learn what they can influence to stay engaged.

Interest

So this is the real meaty one. Interest is perhaps the most central element for individuals with ADHD to thrive. When something genuinely captivates us, it can trigger a state of hyperfocus, leading to peaks of productivity and creativity. Hyperfocus is a hallmark state of ADHD, where the brain becomes deeply engrossed in a task, often losing track of time and external distractions.

Academic studies highlight the significance of interest. According to Hidi and Renninger (2006), interest can enhance cognitive functioning and learning outcomes, particularly in individuals with ADHD. Of course, lacking meaning and reward in tasks is hard for anyone. But for people with ADHD, it can be physically painful. Boredom and tediousness are our kryptonite.

How to inject Interest into your life:

- Align work with passion(s): The most professionally fulfilled ADHD people I have coached include lawyers, architects, accountants, software engineers, politicians, journalists, baristas, social workers, tattoo artists, and doctors. There are no types of jobs more or less ‘suited’ to ADHD – don’t let any coach fool you into thinking there is.

- Align your job with your processing modalities: Not all ADHDers are visual or creative, or like to talk or move a lot. Sometimes you are in the right job per se, but it feels excruciating because you are not focusing on the aspects that genuinely interest you or you could be doing it differently.

- Surround yourself with stimulating content and people: Noticing the media, content, friends, and colleagues that keep our minds active and engaged can be very helpful in making a task or goal continue to feel relevant. Differentiating them from pure distractions, however, is even more paramount, and my clients need help with this.

Challenge

Challenges activate problem-solving, a skill that many ADHD people like to enlist (sadly, even when they don’t have to!). A challenging task is engaging because it provides a sense of accomplishment when overcome. This engagement can be a powerful motivator, driving individuals to push their boundaries and achieve their goals.

Research supports the effectiveness of challenges in enhancing motivation. Csikszentmihalyi's (1990) concept of "flow" describes a state of deep engagement and satisfaction that occurs when individuals face tasks that are challenging yet achievable. This state is particularly beneficial for individuals with ADHD, as it is where they find sustained attention and intrinsic motivation.

How to inject Challenge into everyday life:

- Set small, achievable challenges: Break down your goals into smaller, manageable challenges that you can tackle step by step, celebrating each success along the way.

- Turn mundane tasks into games or competitions: Add an element of fun and competition to routine tasks to make them more engaging (see ‘Note on the F word’ below).

- Learn your boundaries and then only push them: My yoga teacher recently told me that, in her opinion, being advanced in yoga means knowing exactly how far you can go and how much you can stretch yourself (discomfort) without creating injury (pain).

A Note on the ‘F’ word

A client once suggested adding a fifth letter to the acronym: F for Fun. While fun is indeed essential, I decided against it because "FUNIC" just didn't have the same ring to it. But my client was right: fun cannot be overstated in maintaining motivation and joy in what you do. Incorporating fun into your daily life, whether through work or leisure activities, can significantly enhance your overall well-being.

Conclusion

Embracing the UNIC framework—Urgency, Novelty, Interest, and Challenge— can be a game-changer for individuals with ADHD and can also benefit everyone looking to enhance their productivity and engagement. By integrating these elements into our daily lives, we can create environments where tasks naturally feel important and engaging. Stay tuned for more tips on life design for neurodiversity, ADHD, and general engagement and well-being.

You are welcome.

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• Find out more about mondaycoach 

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References:

• The Molecule of More: How a Single Chemical in Your Brain Drives Love, Sex, and Creativity—and Will Determine the Fate of the Human Race by Daniel Z. Lieberman and Mike Long

• Brown, T.E., 2005. Attention deficit disorder: The unfocused mind in children and adults. Yale University Press.

• Volkow, N.D., Wang, G.J., Kollins, S.H., Wigal, T.L., Newcorn, J.H., Telang, F., Fowler, J.S., Zhu, W., Logan, J., Ma, Y. and Pradhan, K., 2009. Evaluating dopamine reward pathway in ADHD: clinical implications. Jama, 302(10), pp.1084-1091.

• Hidi, S., & Renninger, K. A. (2006). The four-phase model of interest development. Educational psychologist, 41(2), 111-127.

• Csikszentmihalyi, M. (1990). Flow: The psychology of optimal experience. Harper & Row.