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September 23, 2026
I’ve been doing this since college, and until I was diagnosed with ADHD, I just thought I was a little odd. I work better when other people are around. Not helping me, not talking to me, and definitely not asking me how it’s going. I just need them there, doing their own thing.
In college, I couldn’t study in my quiet apartment, so I’d pack up my books and head to the noisiest floor of the library. My friends thought I was nuts. Decades later, when I had four months to write ADHD for Smart Ass Women, I ran into the same problem. I could spend an entire morning avoiding my manuscript at home, then walk into a coffee shop and write for hours.
So why does the same brain struggle in one environment and work brilliantly in another?
In this episode, I’m exploring why working around other people can help us get started, why silence isn’t always the answer for an ADHD brain, and what we might actually be borrowing from the environment around us. I’m also sharing how this led me to create the AOK Hive, a place where we can work alongside each other and get things done.
Maybe we need to stop asking why we can’t make ourselves do something and start paying attention to where our brains actually work best.
“I work better when other people are around. Not helping me, not talking to me, and definitely not asking how it’s going. I just need people around.”
-Tracy Otsuka
“Put me at home and I am suddenly aware of everything. Put me in a coffee shop and it is a completely different brain."
-Tracy Otsuka
“Maybe instead of asking, ‘Why can’t I make myself do this?’ we should be asking, ‘Where does my brain do this best?”
-Tracy Otsuka
"Changing the environment can completely change what the exact same brain is able to do."
-Tracy Otsuka
"The point is not to make your brain adapt to another system. The system should adapt to the brain you have that day."
-Tracy Otsuka
"Body doubling may work for completely different reasons for different people. One person may be borrowing accountability, another stimulation, another a sense of time."
-Tracy Otsuka
- Tracy shares why she could study in a crowded library but struggled to concentrate in her quiet apartment.
- While writing her book, she discovers that deadlines, accountability, and genuine interest still aren't enough to help her start.
- Working around other people helps her get started, revealing that wanting to do something and being able to start are two different things.
[11:07 – 28:32] Body Doubling, Stimulation, and the Right Environment
- Tracy explores how social facilitation, background noise, and other people working nearby can affect focus and task initiation.
- She explains why strangers in coffee shops help her concentrate while interruptions, feeling watched, and competing demands at home do not.
- Using her son Marcus’s homework experience, she shows how changing the environment can make the same task easier without changing the person doing it.
[28:32 – 51:33] Learning What Works and Building the A-OK Hive
- Tracy explains the gap between knowing and doing and why ADHD support needs to be available when and where a task happens.
- She encourages listeners to study the times they get things done easily and identify what they are borrowing from their environment.
- Tracy introduces the A-OK Hive, a community for working alongside others, and explains how to use it when you need help getting started or finishing a task.
ADHD isn’t a productivity problem. It’s an identity problem.
That’s why most strategies don’t stick—they weren’t designed for how your brain actually works. Your ADHD Brain is A-OK Academy is different. It’s a patented, science-backed coaching program that helps you stop fighting your brain and start building a life that fits. 👉Learn more here
- A quick start tapping guide: Download Here
- Website: tracyotsuka.com
- Instagram: @tracyotsuka
- YouTube: @tracyotsuka4796
- Tired of ADHD strategies that don’t work? Here’s what actually does: programs.tracyotsuka.com/sign-up
- AOK Hive: tracyotsuka.com/hive
