“Find the job that fits you.” It’s the advice everyone gives, and when you’re ADHD or autistic — and the market is what it is right now — it’s close to useless. Not because the idea is wrong, but because it hands you an ocean and tells you to find one specific fish. Too many choices, no filter, and a brain that already finds “just pick one” expensive.
So Page 1 of the Operating Manual isn’t about finding the perfect role. It’s about cutting the number of choices down before you do anything else.
Same fix, whether you’re hunting or hurting
Two situations, one answer. Maybe you’re job hunting and the offers aren’t coming — the Gen Z market is rough, let’s be honest. Or maybe you’re already in a role and quietly burning out. Either way the failure mode is identical: you pour energy into something that was never going to work for you. You fire off a hundred, a thousand CVs. Or you white-knuckle a job that’s draining you and tell yourself to try harder.
Both are the same mistake — spending your scarcest resource, energy, before you’ve decided where it should go.
The title and the package aren’t the whole story
Most people search by title and salary. That’s fair — you work for money, you don’t live for work. I’m not going to pretend money doesn’t matter; when I weigh up a better job for myself, keeping roughly the same level counts.
But if a role doesn’t play well with your energy, the number on the contract won’t save you. You need work that fuels you enough that there’s still something left for your life — your health, your mental health, your family, your friends. Trading a bad job for a worse one isn’t a win, even with a raise.
You’re not choosing a title. You’re choosing what you’ll have left at the end of each day.
The exercise: nine lines, ten minutes
Here’s the whole of today’s task. Grab a napkin — genuinely, a napkin will do — and write nine short lines, in three groups of three:
- Three tasks that drain you. The activities that leave you flat, however “easy” they’re supposed to be.
- Three tasks that give you energy. The work you can do and come away more alive, not less.
- Three environments where you thrive. The settings — quiet or loud, solo or team, structured or loose — where you actually function.
That’s it. Ten minutes, tops.
Why it matters: it’s a filter
Those nine lines aren’t a diary entry. They’re a filter you’ll use every time from here on. Before you send a single CV, you run the role past them: does this lean on the energising tasks, avoid the draining ones, and sit in an environment I work well in?
That’s how you dodge the two traps. You don’t spend twelve, sixteen months applying to everything and then desperately grab whatever says yes — the exact job that burns you out. And you don’t leap from a corporate role into one that quietly kills you over a few months. You narrow first, so the energy you do spend goes somewhere that can actually work.
How to use the manual
This is one of thirty-one videos, and you don’t have to watch them in order — who reads a manual front to back? Some come in small bundles that hang together; mostly, take the page you need when you need it.
Right. Your nine lines are the whole homework. Do them on a napkin, keep them somewhere you’ll see them, and bring them to the next task.
Show transcript
This is a good operating manual for anyone who's neurodivergent and struggles with finding a job or moving to a new one. And I don't have much common sense, so I'm just giving this away to anyone on this channel — I should be charging, but you know, what wouldn't you do for your audience. I'm Łukasz. I have a dual diagnosis of autism and ADHD, and I love helping people like myself with career and business. This is a series of 31 videos, but you don't have to watch them in order — who reads a manual in order? There are some groups of videos you can watch as a bundle, like this one and the next few. Consume them however you want. Me, I'll be jumping on this sushi in any order too — they just look delicious. I'm side-tracking. ADHD, first thing. Regardless of whether you're looking for a new job — and the Gen Z market is crap, let's be honest — or you want to move to another job, in both cases you don't want to waste energy on something that won't work for you. Spend too much energy searching and you can miss the one opportunity that actually would. Most people look for the title or the package. That's understandable — you work for money, you don't live for work. But the reality is you need to find something that plays well with your energy levels and fuels you, so you still have energy left to live and to grow. You wouldn't swap a bad job for a worse one — even with more money. When I think about a better job for myself, I think less about the money; keeping roughly the same level is fine. But you always have to consider your health, your mental health, your wellbeing, your family, your friends. So here's a very simple task for today. Take a piece of paper — a napkin like this one, anything. Write three kinds of tasks or activities that drain your energy. Then three tasks that give you energy. Then three environments that give you energy, where you thrive. We'll use that every time going forward, as a filter. Because if you're job hunting, you don't want to send a hundred, a thousand CVs. You want to first narrow down what kind of role fits this criteria — so you don't spend 12, 16 months searching, then desperately take a job and burn out. And you don't want to move from a corporate job to something that would kill you in the next few months. So that's your task. I'm going to go and eat this — it's a huge portion, it's lovely, and I'm starving. See you tomorrow with the next task.