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13 Daily Habits You Need to Instill Into Your Life Immediately

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successful habits

No one performs at fever pitch all the time. But that doesn’t mean there are no tricks to boost your productivity. These 13 suggestions, make them daily habits, and never look back. “I regret becoming more efficient, more productive, more effective and more successful” said no one, ever. If you want to become a dynamo rather than a dawdler at work or in your personal life, take notice. It won’t take long to notice the change.

1. Keep a calendar

Whether it’s on the wall, in your pocket or on your smartphone, there’s no substitute for being able to look at your commitments and know what your time constraints are for the day, the week or the month. The part that will take some getting used to will be religiously filling out what your duties are. Make a habit of filling out your calendar as soon as you know a deadline, start date, etc.

2. Prepare in advance

Trust that you know yourself well enough to block out a few minutes each day to plan ahead.  It doesn’t matter whether it’s first thing each morning, or last thing at night. What matters is that you never forget to think about what you will accomplish during the next 24 hours. Written lists work for many people, and at least a portion of your daily planning should include evaluating the previous 24.

3. Get enough rest

Everyone is different. Whether you need 10 hours of sleep or function well on 7, strive to stick to a schedule so that you wake at approximately the same time each day, ready to go! We are all creatures of habit, and operating on too little or too much sleep can throw everything off.

4. Eat right

Your energy level, physical health and moods are largely determined by what you eat. So learn what your body needs and make sure to supply those needs. That doesn’t mean you have to weigh your portions to the ounce or that you can’t be tempted by a latte and a jelly doughnut on occasion. Just resolve to make a habit of consuming fresh, nutritious food – and take the time to enjoy it!

5. Find your niche

That’s an overworked phrase, to be sure. But it’s true. Formulas that work for most people don’t necessarily work for everyone. Find ways to remind yourself of what’s important each day, and learn what time of day is your best time. Develop your schedule and design your day with your strengths in mind. Schedule meetings and solo work when your brain is most engaged for those activities. Evaluate and embrace your individuality.

“Life is very interesting… in the end, some of your greatest pains, become your greatest strengths.” – Drew Barrymore

6. Regularly set goals

Write them, don’t just think them. Use a whiteboard in the office or a notebook on your desk. Share them, if appropriate. Give each goal a specific deadline, whether it’s a week or two years. Establish benchmarks if that seems like a logical way to accomplish those goals. Evaluate and analyze along the way, until it’s time to mark each goal “accomplished.”

7. Give up the “Try” mentality

Do or do not; there is no try“, as a small green man has taught many generations. If you commit to doing something, give it your all. People who consistently “try”, find themselves quitting at the first sign of adversity, rather than committing to complete the task.

8. Learn to say no

There are limits to what one person is good at. If you’re not the best one for a task, decline or delegate the duties to someone you trust. Whether it’s chairing a committee, writing a brief, directing a project, or promoting a product. There are also other limits: time, energy, interest, money, appetite, location and expertise. Know your limits, and insist that family, friends and business associates respect your limitations and your choices.

9. Get outside

Sunlight and fresh air do wonders for the mind as well as the body. Physicians and mental health specialists concur. The Environmental Protection Agency notes that typical humans spend as much as 93% of their time indoors AND that spending just five minutes a day outside can improve your mood and boost your self-esteem.

10. Get moving

This doesn’t mean relocate – although finding the right kind of space to run your business is helpful in its own right. But it’s important to disrupt your normal routine a bit during the day. If you work at a desk, get up and walk around a bit. Talk to coworkers, get a drink of water, take a slow lap outside, or just close your mind for just a few minutes every couple of hours. If most of your time is spent standing, take a break and sit a spell whenever possible.

11. Disconnect on occasion

Realize that you are not only what you do. Unplug. Take small vacations. You’ll be better and more motivated when you need to be. Almost no one can go full speed all the time, and many who try end up becoming less productive as a result.

“Sometimes you just need to disconnect and enjoy your own company.”

12. Develop single-task focus

Acknowledge that multitasking is largely a myth, and resolve to eliminate distractions in your life as much as possible. Move from one task to another in rapid succession if need be, but try to concentrate on one thing at a time. Even if it’s a small task such as writing an email, let your mind stay on topic until you’ve hit send.

13. Set aside time to laugh

Productive, healthy people are often happy people. Know when it is time to lighten up and have some fun. Find things that make you happy and make sure to revisit them regularly. Use that calendar to find days or chunks of time to be entertained – you won’t regret it.

Which one of these habits are you going to start today? Leave your thoughts below!

Image courtesy of Twenty20.com

Gary Ashton is the CEO/Owner of The Ashton Real Estate Group of RE/MAX Advantage and the official real estate agent for the Tennessee Titans. Originally from England, Gary moved to Nashville by way of a brief stopover in Florida to pursue a career in music. He soon realized that Nashville was full of people much more talented than him, so he changed his focus back to his original interests of real estate and marketing. In 2004, Gary decided to make the move to a nationally and world recognized real estate company to support his growing interest in the web and chose RE/MAX. In 2016 at the RE/MAX convention in Las Vegas, The Ashton Real Estate Group of RE/MAX Advantage, was named as the #4 RE/MAX team in the world, as well as the #4 RE/MAX team in the USA and #1 RE/MAX team in Tennessee!

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Entrepreneurs

The Brutal Truth About Entrepreneurship with ADHD (And Why Most Advice Is Making It Worse)

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Image Credit: Joel Brown - Addicted2success

You’re not lazy. You’re not undisciplined… and you’re definitely not broken.

You’re an entrepreneur with ADHD, and right now you’re probably sitting on 19 unfinished projects, 47 open tabs, and a brain that feels like it’s running on 12 different radio stations at once.

You’ve read the books. You’ve tried the planners, the Pomodoro timers, the accountability groups. You’ve even hired coaches who promised to “fix” your focus. Yet here you are — brilliant ideas, massive potential, and a business that still feels like it’s one step away from collapsing under the weight of your own mind.

Here’s what almost nobody in the entrepreneurial space will admit:

The real struggle isn’t your ADHD. It’s that you’ve been trying to run a neurodivergent brain inside a neurotypical business model — and then beating yourself up when it doesn’t work.

Most advice for entrepreneurs was written by people whose brains work differently. They preach consistency, routines, long-term planning, and steady execution like those things are universal truths. For the ADHD entrepreneur, those “truths” feel like trying to swim upstream in cement. You can force it for a while (and you have), but eventually your brain rebels, the burnout hits, and you’re left feeling like a failure who just needs to “try harder.”

That cycle is quietly destroying more talented founders than cash flow problems or bad hires ever could.

The deeper layer most people never reach is this: your ADHD isn’t a bug in the system. It’s a different operating system entirely. And when you stop trying to install Windows on a Mac and start building everything around macOS, the game changes completely.

The Hidden Addiction That Keeps ADHD Entrepreneurs Stuck

You already know the surface symptoms — time blindness, rejection sensitivity, starting strong and fading fast, shiny object syndrome.

But the real trap is more insidious.

It’s the addiction to chaos and novelty.

Your brain is wired for dopamine. New ideas, big visions, last-minute sprints, high-stakes pressure — these things light you up like nothing else. The boring, repetitive, systems-building work that actually scales a business? It feels like torture.

So unconsciously, you keep your business in a state of controlled chaos. You say yes to too many things. You chase the next exciting opportunity. You avoid building the boring infrastructure because “I work better under pressure anyway.”

And every time the pressure gets too high, you crash, swear you’ll get organized next quarter, and repeat the cycle.

Meanwhile, the neurotypical advice keeps telling you to “just build better habits.” As if your brain is a poorly trained dog that needs more discipline instead of a high-performance race car that needs the right fuel and track.

This isn’t a character flaw. It’s neurology.

And until you stop treating your wiring as something to overcome and start treating it as your greatest strategic advantage, you’ll stay stuck in the same exhausting loop.

The Identity Shift That Changes Everything

The entrepreneurs with ADHD who finally break through don’t “fix” their brains.

They redesign their entire business to work with their brains.

They stop trying to become the consistent, routine-loving founder the gurus talk about. Instead, they become the architect of a system that leverages their natural strengths — hyperfocus, pattern recognition, creative problem-solving, relentless drive under pressure — while outsourcing or automating everything that drains them.

This is the layer most ADHD entrepreneurs never reach because it requires something terrifying: accepting that you are never going to be “normal” at entrepreneurship… and that’s exactly why you can win bigger than most.

Your ability to see connections others miss. Your tolerance for uncertainty. Your capacity to go all-in when something lights you up. These aren’t liabilities. They’re unfair advantages in a world that rewards speed, creativity, and bold moves.

The shift is simple but brutal:

Stop trying to manage your ADHD. Start designing your business around it.

How to Actually Build a Business That Works With Your Brain

  1. Stop fighting your energy cycles — weaponize them. Most ADHD entrepreneurs try to force 8-hour focused days. That’s insane. Instead, track when your brain actually works best (for many it’s 10pm-2am or random 4-hour hyperfocus bursts). Build your schedule around those windows. Protect them like gold. Do the deep, high-leverage work then. Use the low-energy periods for admin, calls, or recovery.
  2. Build “chaos containers,” not rigid systems. Traditional project management tools feel like cages. Create loose but effective structures that give your brain freedom. Use tools like Notion with massive flexibility, or body-doubling (working alongside someone virtually), or even hiring a “chaos wrangler” — an assistant who thrives on turning your scattered ideas into executable plans.
  3. Turn your rejection sensitivity into rocket fuel. That intense fear of letting people down or looking stupid? Channel it into creating ridiculously high standards for your customer experience or product quality. Use it as fuel instead of letting it paralyze you.
  4. Outsource the parts that make you want to die. The execution, follow-through, and maintenance phases are where most ADHD entrepreneurs lose. Hire or partner with people who love the details. Your job is vision, strategy, and big swings. Let someone else own the spreadsheets.
  5. Create external pressure on your own terms. Deadlines and public commitments work wonders for the ADHD brain. Use them strategically — announce launches, create beta groups, or work with coaches who understand neurodivergence instead of fighting it.

The entrepreneurs with ADHD who are quietly crushing it right now aren’t the ones who finally became “disciplined.” They’re the ones who stopped apologizing for how their brain works and started building empires that are specifically engineered for it.

They have teams that handle the boring stuff. They have systems that flex with their energy instead of fighting it. They’ve turned their “flaws” into the exact reasons their businesses stand out.

Your ADHD brain is not the enemy. The enemy was trying to play the game by rules that were never designed for you.

The moment you accept that and start designing everything… your calendar, your team, your offers, your processes — around how you actually operate, the struggle doesn’t disappear… but it becomes manageable, even exhilarating.

You were never meant to fit the mold. You were meant to break it and build something better.

The world doesn’t need another cookie-cutter entrepreneur. It needs the chaotic, brilliant, all-in, slightly unhinged visionaries who can only operate at full power when the game is built for them.

That’s you.

Stop trying to fix yourself. Start building the business that was always meant to be run by a mind like yours.

Your next breakthrough isn’t going to come from working harder or being more consistent. It’s going to come from finally giving yourself permission to work differently.

And when you do that? Watch what happens.

The same brain that once felt like a curse becomes the exact reason your business becomes unstoppable.

You’ve got this. Not despite the ADHD. Because of it.

If you want to learn more from me or send me a personal message I’ll respond to you on Instagram at https://instagram.com/iamjoelbrown speak soon!

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Health & Fitness

The Health Planning Habits That Support Long-Term Success

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Image Credit: Joel Brown - Addicted2success

Most people think about health planning only when something forces them to.

A medical bill arrives unexpectedly. An insurance issue appears during treatment. A diagnosis changes how future care needs are viewed. Suddenly health planning becomes urgent instead of preventative.

The problem is that long-term health stability is usually shaped by smaller habits built quietly over time, not just by major decisions during emergencies.

That includes physical health habits, of course, but it also includes how people approach insurance coverage, preventative care, financial preparation, and long-term healthcare planning before problems become immediate.

The families who navigate healthcare stress most effectively are often not the ones avoiding every issue entirely. More often, they’re the ones who built systems early enough to make difficult situations feel more manageable later.

Consistency Matters More Than Perfection

A lot of health advice still revolves around extreme change.

Perfect diets. Aggressive routines. Complete lifestyle overhauls.

In reality, most long-term health success comes from consistency people can realistically maintain for years instead of months. Small preventative habits tend to matter more than dramatic short-term efforts that collapse under pressure.

That principle applies financially too.

People often spend more time researching investment strategies than understanding their healthcare coverage or preparing for future medical costs. But healthcare instability can disrupt long-term financial plans surprisingly quickly when households are unprepared for how expensive even routine care can become over time.

The practical side of health planning is becoming harder to separate from overall financial planning now than it used to be.

Preventative Planning Reduces More Stress Than People Realize

One overlooked benefit of health planning is emotional stability.

People who understand their coverage, maintain preventative care routines, and think ahead about healthcare decisions often describe feeling less overwhelmed when unexpected situations happen. The goal is not eliminating uncertainty entirely. That’s unrealistic.

The goal is reducing how chaotic healthcare decisions feel under pressure.

That’s one reason broader conversations tied to healthcare and health insurance have expanded significantly over the last several years. Rising costs, changing coverage structures, and increasing healthcare complexity have made long-term planning more important for average households than many people expected.

Healthcare is no longer something most families can comfortably approach reactively forever.

People Underestimate How Quickly Healthcare Costs Compound

One reason health planning habits matter so much is that healthcare costs rarely arrive in one dramatic moment alone.

More often, they build gradually:

  • recurring prescriptions
  • specialist visits
  • ongoing treatment plans
  • insurance deductible increases
  • long-term care considerations
  • unexpected procedures layered on top of existing expenses

Families often absorb these costs incrementally until they realize how much financial pressure accumulated over time.

That gradual buildup is part of what makes proactive planning valuable. People who think ahead about coverage structures, emergency savings, provider networks, and preventative care tend to adapt more smoothly when healthcare needs eventually increase later in life.

The difficult part is that many households delay these conversations because they feel healthy right now.

Healthcare Decisions Have Become More Complicated

Another challenge is that healthcare systems themselves continue evolving quickly.

Insurance structures change. Telehealth expands. Employer-sponsored benefits shift. Prescription pricing fluctuates. Patients now carry more responsibility for understanding deductibles, provider networks, and out-of-pocket exposure than previous generations often did.

That complexity creates decision fatigue.

Even relatively organized households sometimes feel uncertain about whether they’re making good healthcare choices because the systems themselves are difficult to navigate confidently. A lot of current health insurance trends discussions reflect this larger issue, healthcare planning is becoming less about isolated medical events and more about long-term sustainability across entire households.

People want predictability, but healthcare systems increasingly feel harder to predict.

The Most Effective Health Habits Usually Feel Boring

One thing people rarely admit is that good long-term planning habits are often not particularly exciting.

Scheduling preventative appointments. Reviewing insurance annually. Building emergency savings slowly. Staying physically active consistently. Maintaining realistic routines instead of dramatic cycles of burnout and reset.

None of those habits feel dramatic at the moment.

But over long periods, they create stability that becomes incredibly valuable once life gets complicated. The people who navigate healthcare stress most effectively are often the ones who built ordinary systems early instead of waiting for perfect motivation later.

That applies financially and physically at the same time.

Why Long-Term Success Depends on Adaptability

Health planning is ultimately difficult because people’s lives keep changing.

Careers shift. Families grow. Aging parents require support. Medical needs evolve. Financial priorities change over decades in ways nobody predicts perfectly in advance.

That’s why the strongest long-term health planning habits are usually flexible rather than rigid.

The goal is not building a flawless plan that never changes. It’s creating enough structure, awareness, and preparation that future adjustments become manageable instead of overwhelming.

Most people cannot control every future health outcome. They can, however, build habits that make uncertainty easier to navigate when it eventually arrives.

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Life

Why Moving to a New City Can Change Your Mindset

Discover how moving to a new city boosts neuroplasticity, builds resilience, and reshapes your mindset

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How relocation changes your mindset

Relocation is always a challenge. Rebuilding and restarting your life requires you to step outside of your comfort zone. (more…)

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Change Your Mindset

The Hidden Reason You Can’t Stay Consistent

If motivation keeps failing you, the real issue isn’t discipline. It’s the identity shaping your habits and long-term success.

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Identity-based habits

Success often looks like a time-management problem. You buy a planner, set reminders, and hope that next week will be different. For a few days, it works. Then stress hits, motivation drops, and old patterns return. (more…)

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