Today’s guest is one of my executive function coaching clients, Helena Bowen. Helena is a speaker coach and speechwriter and supports speakers for TED, TEDx, and other major events. She has ADHD and came on the show to share her experience and what she’s learned about herself and her brain over the years. We talk about how Helena is learning to move beyond the frustrating and self-critical thought: “I know what to do, so why can’t I just do it?” Through coaching and her own experiments and data collection, she’s shifting away from viewing her struggles as character flaws—and instead, getting curious about what’s really going on.

You’ll hear Helena describe how she discovered that what looked like task initiation challenges were actually self-regulation challenges - moments of getting stuck while avoiding the difficult emotions that came up when faced with certain tasks. She opens up about the creative and often unexpected strategies that help her follow through - timers everywhere, mood tracking with the How We Feel app, absurdly tiny task breakdowns, and even art supplies and a foundation brush to outsmart her own brain and build systems that actually work for her. Doing things differently is part of being neurodivergent, and Helena rocks it and then some. I’m excited to share this conversation. I’m so proud of Helena and the work she’s done for herself in coaching over the last year and a half. I hope you’ll see yourself in Helena’s story, feel less alone, and maybe even feel brave enough to try something different. I know I have learned a lot from her approach to her EF challenges, so I hope you do, too!

Here are the show notes from today’s episode:

Learn More About Helena Bowen

Website

https://www.helenabowen.com

Instagram and TikTok

@helenaspeaking

Learn More about Procrastination and More

World's Leading Expert On How To Solve Procrastination - Dr Tim Pychyl

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dGIUtVu7w4Y

Struggle Care Ep. 70: How to Coach Your Executive Functioning with Hannah Choi

https://www.strugglecare.com/podcast-rss/70-how-to-coach-your-executive-functioning-with-hannah-choi

Ep 11: Procrastination: Why We Wait & What to Do About It

https://www.beyondbooksmart.com/podcast?wchannelid=y1lzulxlcs&wmediaid=n2bmc91r6d

Ep 43: Creativity & Executive Function: How to Enjoy the Brain Benefits of Each

https://www.beyondbooksmart.com/podcast?wchannelid=y1lzulxlcs&wmediaid=2o3uog9wpo

Ep 63: Big Tasks, Tiny Steps: A Procrastinator’s Guide to Getting Stuff Done

https://www.beyondbooksmart.com/podcast?wchannelid=y1lzulxlcs&wmediaid=ww20vsahvw