You may be one of the lucky ones that has not experienced the overwhelm of thoughts and ideas with little action.  Perhaps you are the one that gets an idea and implements immediately.  If you are not sure you have Entrepreneurial ADD here is short check list for you to self diagnosis.

Check all that apply:

1. You have a great idea for your business, but then don’t take it to implementation ___________
2. Your “To Do List” is filled each day and rarely do you accomplish any of the tasks ___________
3. You love to network, but the business cards and contacts are never put into your data base for follow-up __________
4. You can’t find your Business Plan if you have one at all ___________
5. Your target market is a moving target ______________
6. You are easily overwhelmed with all that you have to do ____________
7. When all else fails you clean your office/desk to feel an accomplishment_______________
8. You don’t feel good about your work production at the end of the day ________________

If you checked more than half you may be experiencing EADD (entrepreneurial attention deficit disorder)

Please dont’ get me wrong.  I am not making light of a disorder that affects many people.  I am speaking to the Entrepreneurial mind that may suffer from ADD.  As an entrepreneur you went into business because you see the potential in opportunities all around you.  You have an active mind and great “out of the box” thinking.  But that same love of ideas that brought you to start-up your own venture is also getting in the way of you making it a success.

Because of your active mind you get easily distracted.  You are more than likely a multitask-er that will start on one thing and then jump to the next and the next and then realize you can’t always remember what it was you were originally working on.  Each topic you hear, read or discuss takes you on another path and you are eager to discover where that path leads.  Problem is… you keep jumping paths so you rarely find the end to the journey you started on.  Now this can be exciting. Each day, a new opportunity.  But what happened to the great idea you had started your venture with and never finished?

I love the entrepreneurial mind, I am one myself and suffered from many of the symptoms I listed above.  I don’t know if I can say there is a cure for EADD, but I can tell you that there are steps that can be taken to alleviate symptoms and keep you on track.  I am sure some of these you have heard before, if not all of them.  The challenge is to take action to implement these steps so that your chances of exposure to EADD can be lessened.

1. Determine if you are a morning, afternoon or evening person
2. Once determined – plan, yes plan your day around the time that provides you with the most energy and concentration
3. Set a schedule or a “chart of tasks” keeping in mind those that will require your full attention and place them at the time of day when you attention span is at its peak.  (notice I did not use the term “to do list” which can have a negative connotation to some)
4. Chunk your morning, afternoon and late afternoon into 20 minute intervals to begin with.  The average person can not concentrate on a task effectively for more than 20 minutes at a time.  After that the mind tends to wander.  In order to stay on task set your computer alarm for 20 minutes (or other timing device) and then you won’t be tempted to keep looking at your watch to see how much time has passed. Isn’t it better to have 20 minutes of quality time on a task verses a day of jumping around from task to task and completing nothing?
5. Seeking assistance for those tasks that your are not proficient at or are not directly related to your business is only doing smart business.  Example… If your computer has a problem, don’t waste time trying to fix it yourself, take it to an expert in that field.  If you need to input business cards to your data system, hire someone to do this for you and keep on track implementing your original idea.  All the little things that can pull you away from the main purpose of your business are costing you more in time and money than if you employ someone else to take care of these items for you.
6. Know when to give an idea a proper burial and move onto the next one.

This is a short list, but given more and it could become overwhelming.  Short and sweet helps EADD people stay focused and move forward.