Are Your Online Courses Applicable for Someone with ADHD?

00:00:00.000 | [MUSIC PLAYING]

00:00:03.400 | All right.

00:00:05.880 | Our first question comes from Sufian,

00:00:09.520 | who says, is your new online course applicable for someone

00:00:13.120 | with ADHD?

00:00:16.080 | That's a good question.

00:00:17.200 | I mean, I have two courses, so I don't know

00:00:19.000 | which one you're talking about.

00:00:21.080 | Longtime readers of mine and listeners of the show

00:00:24.520 | more recently know that one of the areas I explore

00:00:29.680 | is alternative forms of pedagogy.

00:00:32.840 | So when it comes to the type of things

00:00:34.800 | I write about or podcast about, I

00:00:36.960 | did a lot of book writing, article writing.

00:00:39.240 | Obviously, I'm messing with audio and video

00:00:41.320 | as a way of delivering information.

00:00:42.840 | And another thing I have an ongoing experiment with

00:00:45.120 | is really focused online, high-end online courses

00:00:49.840 | as yet another channel through which

00:00:52.480 | you can deliver information.

00:00:53.800 | I mean, I'm very interested in innovation in this space.

00:00:56.360 | So I have a longtime working relationship

00:00:59.960 | with my longtime friend Scott Young, who actually

00:01:02.360 | has a whole company that does nothing

00:01:04.080 | but produce online courses.

00:01:06.400 | It's technically incredibly demanding.

00:01:08.520 | You have to have a support staff, an IT staff.

00:01:10.560 | It's not for the faint of heart.

00:01:12.760 | So he has this great company that does it.

00:01:15.160 | And we've collaborated on two courses.

00:01:17.680 | One, which was the first one, was called Top Performer.

00:01:21.640 | The course we did before I even wrote Deep Work,

00:01:24.280 | and it was about applying deliberate practice,

00:01:28.000 | the concepts of deliberate practice to your career.

00:01:30.800 | And we re-released that this year, I guess,

00:01:33.600 | or last year.

00:01:34.120 | Recently, we did a second version, like a 2.0 version,

00:01:37.720 | where we went back to the studio and we filmed new mini courses

00:01:40.760 | and new lessons.

00:01:41.440 | And we sort of upgraded the course

00:01:42.840 | because it had been around for a while.

00:01:44.720 | We've had 5,000 students go through that course.

00:01:46.840 | We learned a lot.

00:01:47.920 | So that might be what you're talking about.

00:01:49.760 | But then the first fall of the pandemic,

00:01:53.000 | we launched our second online course,

00:01:55.760 | which was called Life of Focus.

00:01:58.760 | And that has three modules to it.

00:02:00.120 | But it integrates ideas from digital minimalism, ideas

00:02:03.280 | from deep work, and ideas from Scott's book, Ultra Learning.

00:02:07.840 | So there's something in there about learning things really

00:02:10.240 | quick.

00:02:10.520 | There's something about being better at deep work

00:02:12.080 | and something else about the deep life more generally.

00:02:13.960 | So I don't know if you're talking

00:02:15.300 | about a Life of Focus or Top Performer 2.0.

00:02:19.640 | Either of those courses, I don't think

00:02:21.320 | ADHD is an obstacle.

00:02:25.200 | I mean, it gives clarity on here's

00:02:28.360 | what you should be working on.

00:02:29.600 | Here's what happens next.

00:02:31.880 | But then gives you, obviously, freedom

00:02:33.560 | to figure out when and how you execute that work.

00:02:35.880 | So I think whatever strategies you already

00:02:37.960 | use for organizing and scheduling your attention

00:02:41.160 | and time can be applied here.

00:02:43.480 | These courses are going to give you plenty of flexibility for,

00:02:46.760 | here's what you're working on this week

00:02:48.400 | for the next couple of weeks.

00:02:50.400 | But you can figure out how you want to get it done.

00:02:52.520 | Now, there's difference in the delivery.

00:02:53.840 | So Life of Focus has a method where

00:02:55.400 | you're working on one project for a month.

00:03:00.200 | So each of the modules has a month dedicated to a project.

00:03:04.000 | But then you get these quicker updates

00:03:06.160 | throughout the week that give you extra information

00:03:08.840 | and give you tips and support for the project

00:03:11.520 | you're working on.

00:03:12.360 | So that might actually be good if you're

00:03:14.020 | worried about your attention wandering away

00:03:16.400 | from the project.

00:03:17.000 | You get these quick updates to help

00:03:18.520 | keep you on track for working on a longer project.

00:03:21.680 | Now, from a timing perspective, we launched--

00:03:24.680 | Top Performer 2.0 was open earlier.

00:03:27.000 | And I'm not sure.

00:03:28.160 | It might be a little while until it's open again.

00:03:31.200 | Life of Focus, we're going to open that soon.

00:03:36.120 | I don't have the exact date.

00:03:37.280 | But I think we're opening that back up again

00:03:39.120 | for a new class at the end of January, early February.

00:03:42.360 | So stay tuned for that.

00:03:43.740 | If you're interested in learning about when these courses open

00:03:47.120 | up or whatever, at calnewport.com/blog.

00:03:51.960 | So on the website for my blog, on the sidebar there,

00:03:55.360 | I believe there's a link for both courses.

00:03:59.360 | If you click on it, there's a place

00:04:01.400 | you can put in an email address for the waiting list.

00:04:04.120 | And then Scott will just send a note when, hey, by the way,

00:04:09.320 | the course is opening again.

00:04:10.520 | I think sometimes also we do waiting list

00:04:12.240 | version of the courses where the people who

00:04:13.760 | are on the waiting list will say, if you're interested,

00:04:15.600 | we're going to launch a special version just for you.

00:04:18.400 | So anyways, check that out.

00:04:20.440 | Sign up for those waiting lists if you're interested.

00:04:22.280 | These are great courses.

00:04:23.280 | It's been a really cool experiment.

00:04:24.760 | We've had thousands of people take these.

00:04:27.080 | I think it's the future of what we do in pragmatic nonfiction.

00:04:31.680 | But sign up for those lists at calnewport.com/blog

00:04:34.720 | if you want to be kept up to speed.

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Are Your Online Courses Applicable for Someone with ADHD?

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