I don't have ADHD. I have a distributed work ethic.

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I used to be envious of those who can hyperfocus and go insanely deep on a topic.

I’m talking the Stephen Kings and Joyce Carol Oates who write for 8 hours straight.

I’m not one of those people.

I freelance for 3-5 companies and bounce around pieces like a rabbit 6 coffees deep.

Similarly, I’m always switching between 2-3 books.

I thought this was a failure of discipline or character until I saw this quote by AngelList founder Naval Ravikant.

No one said you have to finish every book - or even read it in order.

Once you buy it, it’s your book and it’s your choice what to do with it.

My generation was raised on Lucky Charms and Twitter.

We’ve been trained to multi-task and thought-switch.

But, I don’t think this is necessarily a bad thing.

While the narrative is that multi-tasking is bad for your work, I’m taking a refined approach: multi-tasking done right can improve your work.

Let’s reframe Naval’s quote to apply to writing:

The idea that you need to write for 3 hours straight scares off a lot of writers. So does the idea you need to finish (and publish) every piece you start.

I write for a living2. I promise you that you don’t need to do either.

Yes, some days, the cold brew hits right and I write for 2 hours straight on 1 article. But most days, I tend to bounce between like 3 articles in a single 30-minute window.

Like I said, I don’t have ADHD. I have a distributed work ethic.

Sometimes, I get far on a piece, grab lunch, and forget about it for a few weeks.

My Substack has 15-30 unpublished articles sitting there. My highest-read piece Digital Immortality sat in my drafts for 1-2 months before I was ready to finish it.

Multi-tasking on multiple projects provides me with the freedom to explore.

If I have an idea for a Late Checkout thread while I’m writing Brain Blasts, I jump to my Late Checkout notes and write that shit down.

I’m too forgetful of a guy not to do this.

If I’m braindead on one piece, I jump to another for a few minutes as a refresher.

I love the multi-modality4 of being a writer and creator: tweeting, essays, thread writing, outreach, research, design, etc.

I never get bored. I just bounce between the above all day.

With this in mind, I think there are multiple types of multi-tasking.

Here’s 4 I can think of:

1. Multi-tasking between multiple relevant projects

2. Multi-tasking between multiple parts of one project

3. Multi-tasking between project and passive distraction (like music or TV)

4. Multi-tasking between relevant project and irrelevant distraction (like Instagram or email)

Not all multi-tasking is equal.

I’m not advocating for the 4th (although I shamefully do it frequently), but we can’t pretend the 1st and 4th are the same.

When I multi-task on multiple projects, I make slower progress on one project, but greater overall progress on all my tasks. I often cover a greater breadth than depth.

For someone like me who is managing multiple projects, it’s hard to compartmentalize.

I’ve accepted I can’t stop an idea from popping in my head.

There is an economic theory called the spillover effect referring to the impact that seemingly unrelated events in one nation can have on the economies of other nations.

It’s analogous for coming up with ideas as well.

I often come up with my best ideas for Brain Blasts while writing seemingly unrelated freelance pieces for Late Checkout and The Wanderers.

Yesterday, I was working with Nick Greenwalt, the founder of The Wanderers, on a thread about lore and storytelling for NFT collections.

Suddenly, an idea popped in my head for a thread about a video of Kurt Vonnegut’s storytelling shapes I saw 2 years ago in college.

This turned into a completely separate thread on my personal account.

Like I said, I can’t help it if ideas come to me for one project while I’m working on another. It’s how my brain works.

I don’t have ADHD. I have a distributed work ethic.

 Podcast plug: Before I started working for him, I had The Wanderers founder Nick Greenwalt on the pod. His collection has done over 4.5k ETH ($15M) in trading volume and he’s learned quite a lot since he hopped in NFTs last year. The art is spectacular and the vibes are immaculate. Here’s the Spotify and Apple link.