Seder Boost

A practical system for bochurim and avreichim who want to stay focused, without burning out. 

It's the middle of the second Seder. You sat down with a sincere intention to learn Rashi and one small Tosfos before Ben Hasdarim. Twenty minutes later, you've checked the clock three times, your eye is on the door, and you can't even tell me what Rashi said. You just read it. You shuckel a little harder, like maybe that'll help. It doesn't.

Welcome to seder with an ADHD brain.

Here's the thing. You're not worse than the bochur next to you who's been pounding in one place for two hours. It's not that you're not shteiging. Your brain just doesn't do three straight hours of one sugya without renegotiating the contract every fifteen minutes. His brain doesn't ask for a renegotiation. Yours does. That's how your brain is wired.

And once you stop trying to learn like him, you can start learning like you.

Years ago I started doing this thing for myself, mostly to survive. Eventually I gave it a name because everything needs a name. I call it a Seder Boost. There's no chiddush in it. It's just learning the way an ADHD brain actually wants to learn. In sharper bursts, with breaks in between.

Here is how it goes.

Before you sit down, pick the chunk. Not the whole seder, the chunk. "The next ten lines with Rashi." "Finish this Tosfos." "Five lines, klor." Whatever it is, you should be able to say it in one sentence. If you can't, the chunk is too big.

Set a time. Twenty-five minutes is a good place to start. If you're flying, push it. If you're cooked, drop it to fifteen. The number is less important than the fact that you know there is an end.

Put your phone, no matter what kind you have, away. Either outside or in your shtender, on silent, face down. I tell myself I'm doing a Boost, but nobody else in the world knows that's what I call it. Way too cringy. Tell your chavrusa you want to learn. If it's the type, tell him biretzifos, or just tell him the amount of time. Whatever it is you say, just so long as he knows that for the next 15, 20, or 25 minutes you're not picking up your phone. You're not getting into any coffeeroom kvetcherei. You're not looking up because someone walked by. You're in.

When the time is up, get up. But decide how long the break is before you stand, otherwise five minutes becomes 17 and your brain is somewhere completely different. The climb back is harder than the original seder. Walk, stretch, grab a coffee or a sip of water. Five minutes, maybe seven, then back in.

If your seder is two hours, that's three Boosts. If your seder is ninety minutes, that's two. If your seder is forty-five minutes, that's one and you don't really need a system for it.

I'll tell you what it looks like when it works. A bachur I was coaching told me, "We did two Boosts in second seder and I got more done in those two than I usually get done in the whole zman." He wasn't pushing harder. He was working in the shape his brain actually fits.

Get up. Take the break. Make it a minute if you want. The whole point is that you stay fresh. If you burn yourself out by minute forty because today felt strong, by minute ninety you'll be staring at the wall, convinced you were lazy. You weren't lazy. You skipped the break.

Call it a sprint, call it biretzifos chunks, call it Yankel. The brain doesn't care what it's called. The brain cares that there is a beginning, a clear goal, a clear end, and a real break after.

Some days you won't nail it. The brain just won't cooperate no matter how cleanly you set it up. That's seder with an ADHD brain. But on the days it does work, you walk out of seder feeling like you actually did something, instead of like you wrestled a sugya for three hours and the sugya won.

That, more than anything, is what a Seder Boost gives you. More you in the seder. The learning comes with it.

Yehuda
rebyehuda.g@gmail.com
058-718-5065 (Israel) / 732-523-0963 (US)
www.LiveUpADHD.com