Hi, I’m Dr. Matt Jarman
You can call me Matt. 😁
Allow me to introduce myself...
My Background
I’m a Productivity Psychologist and ADHD Coach. I have a PhD in Organizational Psychology (on top of extensive training in Positive Psychology under the mentorship of Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi) and an MBA from the Drucker School of Management. I also have ADHD – something that was a challenge in school and as a professor, until I learned to channel it. I now see ADHD as my superpower.
I’ve been obsessed with productivity since college at UCLA and have been teaching productivity for 20 years, since graduate school. I eventually realized that current productivity approaches aren’t enough. They lack a solid psychological underpinning and don’t teach people the critical role of passion and excitement for thriving in school, work, and life.
Thankfully, my training in Organizational Psychology (the study of work-related behavior) and Positive Psychology (the study of the conditions under which people thrive), combined with my own original research, gave me the knowledge I needed to figure out a better way of staying productive and engaged in school, work, and life. After teaching as a psychology professor for 6 years (teaching psychology and leadership) I decided it was time to help a larger audience of students and professionals through Productive for Good. I want to give you the guidance that will free you to do great things in your work while being driven by excitement along the way.
My Other Sides
You've read about my Productivity Psychologist side, but there's more to me than that. I believe a key to thriving with ADHD and avoiding burnout is finding opportunities to pursue activities and skills that excite you, particularly in your school studies or paid work. I practice what I preach and have developed many passions and skills over the years that have come to define me, so I think it's also important to mention those:
My tendency is to learn new skills well-enough that I can then teach them to others, which has led me to teach classes/workshops on a wide range of subjects including productivity, language learning, meditation, social dance, and self-defense. I’ve also performed around the world as a professional magician, learning to perform fluently in Spanish and French along the way.
Most importantly, I’ve incorporated these passions into my different professional roles in creative ways that benefited my work while also keeping me engaged. I believe your interests and passions can similarly be key assets to your own productivity and work-life engagement.
My Approach
Productivity in general, and ADHD specifically, have lacked actionable frameworks for (1) understanding the source of productivity and ADHD struggles, and (2) assessing which techniques a particular person needs to overcome these struggles.
Given this, I’ve spent the past 10+ years developing a set of three related frameworks:
- A productivity framework for improving your productivity in general
- An ADHD framework for working with your ADHD mind to find greater productivity and work-life engagement
- A productivity leadership framework for leaders to facilitate productivity and well-being in neurodiverse teams they lead
These simple and actionable frameworks form the basis for all the work I do with students, professionals, and leadership teams.
