Hacking Your ADHD

Hey team! I've been working on this episode for quite a while now and was kind of worried it would never be finished, but I managed to salvage what was useful and polish it up quite a bit.

Today, we're discussing long-standing goals and how we can create systems that help us achieve them. I'm really interested in exploring this topic at length, so I expect this won't be the only episode we have discussing systems.

In this episode, we'll be diving into the tools and strategies that make our ADHD work for us, not against us, and I'll share some of my own experiences along the way with developing these systems. We'll also examine how we create systems and what really goes into making them work the way we want them to. Sign up for my Newsletter Any And All Distractions Feel free to ask me a question on my Contact Page Find the full show notes at HackingYourADHD.com/186 This Episode's Top Tips

1. Plan with your natural habits in mind rather than striving for unrealistic perfection. Work on developing systems that you can rely on, even when you're not at your best.
2. Avoid overly complex systems that can create more points of failure. Remember that executive dysfunction affects our ability to follow through with our best intentions. By simplifying our systems, we can lower the bar for entry and make it easier to get started.
3. Understand that no system will be perfect, and it is important to adjust and maintain it as needed. No system is going to "fix" our ADHD, and that shouldn't be our goal when building our systems.

Hey team! I had a listener write in recently asking about finding purpose and how they just feel like their life is a bit of a mess. They don't know what they want to do and they feel like everyone else has it together. So in today's episode we're going to be exploring these ideas, while at the same time questioning if these are even the right questions that we should be asking. I'm going to dive into a number of ways that I don't have my own life together and we'll also be getting into self-determination theory and how we can apply that to looking at what we want to do with our life. Sign up for my Newsletter Any And All Distractions Feel free to ask me a question on my Contact Page Find the full show notes at HackingYourADHD.com/185 This Episode's Top Tips

1. No one always has everything together. Don't compare your lowlight reel to someone else's highlights—everyone struggles, even if they aren't advertising it. It's unrealistic to think that we need to have everything together all the time; just focus on doing what you can.
2. Tasks like managing emails are ongoing processes, not one-time achievements.
3. Self-determination theory's principles are autonomy, competence, and relatedness—all of which are incredibly important for us to cultivate in managing our ADHD.

Hey Team!

This episode we're doing something a little bit different, I'm going to be sharing an episode from another podcast that I think you'll enjoy.

It's called ADHD Aha!, hosted by Laura Key. It features candid stories from people who share the moment when it clicked—their ADHD Aha moment—when everything started to make sense—that they, or someone they know, has ADHD.

I recently checked out a few episodes like the one with Caren Magill where she shares her story of going from dropping out of high school to now managing her own ADHD and working as an ADHD coach. And it's great listening to this episodes and hearing these stories because of how so many of the experiences and emotions the guests talks about mirror my own.

And I was recently a guest on the show, chatting with Laura about my own ADHD Aha! moment, which is what I'm sharing with you today.

In the episode, you'll hear about managing emotions, organizing tasks, executive dysfunction, and mastering daily routines. Be sure to checkout ADHD Aha! on your favorite podcast player. https://lnk.to/adhdahaPS!hackingyouradhd

One of the questions that I've been getting a bit more frequently recently is just trying to understand where to get started with ADHD - and I think this is a question that a lot of us have because there is just so much out there on ADHD and it's hard to know where even to begin thinking about what you might want to be doing.

In today's episode, we're going to be exploring this idea by first looking at some of the areas that ADHD entails, how that knowledge can boost your ability to manage your ADHD, and also take a look another look at the Wall of Awful.

If you'd life to follow along on the show notes page you can find that at HackingYourADHD.com/116 Support me on Patreon Feel free to ask me a question on my Contact Page This Episode's Top Tips

1. ADHD is a spectrum disorder, meaning that you are going to have a variety of symptoms to varying degrees. Your ADHD is unique to you, and how you treat your ADHD is going to be a matter of figuring out which symptoms are affecting you the most.
2. One of the hardest parts of ADHD is getting past our internalized messaging around who we are - if we haven't taken the time to work on accepting how our ADHD affects us, then it is easy for us to blame our problems on ourselves as personal failings instead of accepting how our ADHD can hold us back.
3. The Wall of Awful is the emotional impact of repeated failure, and it makes activating on tasks even more difficult - there are 5 ways people try to get past the Wall of Awful, two don't work, and one works but is damaging to our relationships and then two that work - the two that don't work are staring at it or trying to go around it - the one that works but is damaging is trying to hulk smash through the wall - the two that work that we want to focus on are climbing the wall and putting a door in our wall.

Hey team! In today's episode we're joined by Dusty Chipura, a passionate advocate and ADHD Coach, to explore the nuanced world of ADHD and pregnancy. With her personal and professional experience we will be looking into the challenges and questions that often come up with this subject. There is a huge gap in what we know about ADHD and pregnancy and it can be hard to find good information. Dusty is an outstanding coach and a font of knowledge in this area. Even if you aren't pregnant or planning on a pregnancy soon this episode is well worth listening to. Sign up for my Newsletter Any And All Distractions Feel free to ask me a question on my Contact Page Find the full show notes at HackingYourADHD.com/184 This Episode's Top Tips

1. It's important to recognize the gap in ADHD research related to women and pregnancy. This means that you need to be aware of what the current research suggests. This also means that you will have to be more of an advocate for your needs during pregnancy because it's possible that you will be more informed about ADHD and pregnancy than your caregivers.
2. With that in mind there is a need to prioritize building a support system, including healthcare providers knowledgeable about ADHD as well as community support for emotional and practical assistance.
3. There is a likely impact of ADHD on pregnancy-related executive functions, such as organization and time management, and so it will be important to develop and employ strategies or tools to mitigate these challenges (this is where a support network can come in extra handy).

Hey Team! Accountability is one of the best ways to help you work through those things on your to do list that you just don't want to do. But finding accountability isn't always easy. In my conversation today, I'm talking with Joshua Greene, co-founder of the co-working app Groove. In our conversation today we'll be talking of course about how Groove works - and specifically what sets it apart from many of the other co-working and accountability apps. We talk about following our energy flow, especially in regards to nontraditional work, how counterintuitive weak social ties can create a better accountability experience, and accountability also applies to so much more than just productivity. Sign up for my Newsletter Any And All Distractions Feel free to ask me a question on my Contact Page Find the full show notes at HackingYourADHD.com/183 This Episode's Top Tips

1. Coworking can improve our ability to stay on task by utilizing the accountability that comes with just having someone else there with you (even if it's only virtually).
2. One of the strongest forms of accountability actually comes from weak social ties, because weak ties strike a balance of providing enough familiarity to foster accountability without the closeness that might encourage us to just take it easy .
3. It's important to find and follow your personal energy peaks throughout the day and allowing for breaks and social time when you need it to help maintain high levels of engagement in your work.

Hey team, this week we're talking about our weeks and how we can get more out of them with a weekly review. The idea behind a weekly review is to look back on how things went and use that to help us figure out how we want our next week to go.

In this episode, we're going to go over the benefits of performing a weekly review, look at some of the ways to make doing it easier, and then get into the nitty-gritty of how to actually perform it. Find the full show notes at HackingYourADHD.com/122 Feel free to ask me a question on my Contact Page This Episode's Top Tips

1. The point of a weekly review is for us to not only look back at what happened last week, but use that knowledge to help us plan out how we're going to approach our next week. It allows us to gain clarity over what we've done and what we want to do.
2. When we're performing our weekly review it is important to keep ourselves out of judgement - we're not trying to beat ourselves up over anything we didn't get to, we're just looking to make next week better.
3. One of the most important things for making sure we complete our weekly review is to actually build in the time to perform it on our schedule. By building in and protecting our time to perform a weekly review we are far more likely to follow through on our intentions.

Hey team! After last week's episode on toolkits I got a request to do another episode like it but specifically on sleep tools. Now before I jump in on the episode I want to talk for a minute about why I typically haven't been doing so many episodes on specific tools. What it comes down to is that often the specific tools aren't what's important - what tends to be more important are the strategies and reasons behind the tools. I kind of think of like if someone told me that they needed help fixing their bike and I handed them a wrench but they actually had a flat tire. Sure a wrench is great for fixing a bike when it needs something tightened, but without the understanding of what's actually going on behind the scenes that tool may actually be useless. A specific tools can make all the difference when implementing strategy, we just need to know the why behind it. So for this episode we're going to be skipping a lot of the basics of sleep - I'll do another episode specifically about all that. What we're going to be focusing on in this episode is our sleep hygiene, which is just a fancy way of talking about all the good habits we have related to our sleep. And so we will get into the why behind what we're doing but in each section we'll spend some time talking about the specific tools - and I'm going to try and include links to everything I talk about in the show notes - and none of these are going to be affiliate links, just either things I use or have used and probably a few other things just as options - so if you want to follow along with the show notes you can find them at hackingyouradhd.com/182 Sign up for my Newsletter Any And All Distractions Feel free to ask me a question on my Contact Page Find the full show notes at HackingYourADHD.com/182 This Episode's Top Tips

1. The four pillars of good sleep include duration, quality, regularity and timing.
2. Create a bedtime routine tailored to your preferences and needs to signal your body it's time to wind down. You can limit screen time before bed by utilizing app blocks or screen time features to minimize exposure to overly stimulating content.
3. Optimize your sleep environment by ensuring darkness, maintaining a comfortable temperature, and investing in bedding that promotes relaxation, such as weighted blankets or sensory compression blankets.

Hey team! We're chatting with Maddy De Gabriele, an Australian science communicator who's turned her personal journey with ADHD into a mission to help others. Through her Adult ADHD Starter Kit and corporate workshops, Maddy breaks down ADHD management into bite-sized, easily digestible pieces. In this episode we dive into specific tools that can become part of your everyday toolkit for managing your ADHD. We discuss timers, headphones, pillboxes, blankets and more in this episode. If you've been wanting an episode that goes into the actual tools that I and many others use in their day to day ADHD life, then this is the episode - Maddy brings the goods. Sign up for my Newsletter Any And All Distractions Feel free to ask me a question on my Contact Page Find the full show notes at HackingYourADHD.com/181 This Episode's Top Tips

1. When we're looking at what goes into our tool kit we need to be thinking of both the physical and mental items that can assist us throughout the day.
2. It's important to work on getting past the idea of how we "should" be able to do certain things and look at what tools will let us actually do those things.
3. It's important to work on understanding and accepting ADHD as a chronic condition. We need to recognize ADHD's impact on our daily life and work on employing practical tools and strategies to mitigate those challenges.

Hey team! This week we're talking with the host of the ADHD Wise Squirrels podcast, Dave Delaney - as many of us Dave wears many hats — keynote speaker, author, and of course podcast host. Dave has actually been podcasting since 2005, although he only recently started up ADHD Wise Squirrels after his recent diagnosis. With that diagnosis, Dave has been on a mission to support others in the community and break down stereotypes that surround ADHD. In our conversation today we discuss everything from the impact of ADHD on personal development to the power of storytelling in building connections. Dave brings a blend of professional insights and personal experiences that provide a host of strategies to tackle common ADHD challenges. It's fun conversation and I hope you enjoy it as much as I did. Sign up for my Newsletter Any And All Distractions Feel free to ask me a question on my Contact Page Find the full show notes at HackingYourADHD.com/180 This Episode's Top Tips

1. Recognize and accept your ADHD, allowing yourself the flexibility to navigate challenges without harsh self-judgment.
2. Identify and cultivate personal coping strategies for ADHD-related challenges, such as body doubling for productivity or mindfulness to stay present.
3. Many of us with ADHD have a natural inclinations towards entrepreneurship that we can use to funnel our creativity.