Taking Control: The ADHD Podcast

Our community is full of learners — students of all stripes. But the act of learning is different for those living with ADHD. It puts new pressures on different parts of the brain. Sitting and digesting new information is a challenge over long periods, and building a map to structure your own learning path in an environment of uncertainty can cause deep anxiety.

Whether you're pursuing a degree or testing for a new certification, this week we offer tools and strategies to help you be a smarter and more effective student with your ADHD!

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• (00:00) - Welcome to The ADHD Podcast!

You're busy enough as it is. But what happens when you're offered a new project, grand opportunity, great chance to show off? How do you know if you can afford to say... yes?

Today on the show, Nikki breaks down the process you can use to shed the stress of saying yes, and build strong and confident boundaries that help you decline with love. From crafting smart priorities so you better understand the time you have available, to determining if you’re ready to make the emotional commitment to a new project. Jump in!

• (00:00) - Welcome to The ADHD Podcast!

Living with ADHD is a mystery. Sometimes, we’re completely present and aware of our symptoms, sure. But most of the time, we aren’t completely aware of what we’re doing, why we’re doing it, or the impact our symptoms are having on others… until we’re thrown in a laboratory.

Today on the show, Pete shares his experience in just such an environment. A perfectly benign social engagement offers the opportunity to see just how ADHD symptoms are triggered and resolved over minutes thanks to some clever puzzles… and the urge to escape.

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It’s paper day! Dealing with your paper piles requires a unique approach that is more of a cousin to the four steps we’ve been practicing thus far. First thing to note: paper organizing has no end! Once you wrap your head around that, we can get started in building a system to efficiently categorize and stay up-to-date on the paper without becoming overrun by piles!

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You’ve done the hard work. You’ve purged and sorted, and you’ve found a way to effectively assign spaces to your things, things to your spaces. But how do you keep those spaces and systems functioning? You turn to maintenance.

Maintenance does not mean that you’re in a constant state of organizing. That would be exhausting! This week on the show, we’re talking about what maintenance is and how to set up smart systems to support your new organized self. Plus, we answer a bonus listener question about managing passwords in the age of epic breaches.

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We’ve made it! For those who have been listening to our organizing series and wondering where all the organizing is, this week is all for you! But remember, each step in the organizing process is critical — especially for those living with ADHD! — so just as you’re taking the organizing step seriously, that can only come thanks to your efforts in sorting and purging before it. This week, we’re talking about effective use of your space, how you think about space, and how you approach turning your space into a home for your things!

We are proud to be guests in Linda Roggli’s 4th Annual ADHD Women’s Palooza! For a whole week, 30 top ADHD experts gather online to present about ADHD as it specifically relates to women. Registration is open now, presentations begin on February 25th! Oh, and did we mention it’s free to attend? That’s right, as long as you can make time to watch the sessions during the Palooza, it’s free. But you can get all kinds of great bonuses with a paid ticket so check it out!

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In part 2 of our organizing series we're taking on sorting and purging. How do you handle making the tough decisions that will ultimately lead you to reclaiming your space? You build some new muscles... starting today!

First, we’ve got a listener question that takes us deep into the avoidance spiral hole, and a reminder that if you haven’t invested in a password vault to keep your usernames and passwords secure, 2.2 billion reasons just hit the open network.

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If you haven’t noticed, there is a lot of energy around getting organized in the air right now. Spurred on by the new Marie Kondo show on Netflix, we’re getting more and more questions about the so-called magic of tidying up and, most importantly, is this an ADHD-friendly way to handle your stuff? As you can imagine, we have opinions!

This week on the show we’re digging into our roots to talk about organizing with ADHD, kick-starting a five-week mini-series on the organizing process, and how to get organized in a way that is kind to your ADHD.

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Some call hyperfocus the hidden superpower of ADHD. It’s characterized as this amazing reserve of focus that you can turn on to accomplish great things, health and wellness be damned! If you’re living with ADHD, you know what a misunderstanding this can be. Sure, hyperfocus can be a massive reserve of energy, akin to firing a glass cannon into the open ocean — it’s a reserve that too often destroys itself with no ultimate reward.

Today we’re talking about what goes into hyperfocus with an eye on creating a more productive, targeted experience for ADHD that the experts have dubbed flow. Is it possible to build a model of understanding our hyperfocus states such that we can train our brains to get better at it? Join us and share your experience, too!

Along the way, we wrapped up four questions you can ask of yourself to determine whether you're likely to find a state of flow in a project. Consider:

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Does the internal chatter of ADHD really sound all that different than that of those who don’t live with it? Our guest today has been working among other leaders in the field to help find those Gremlins in our heads and quiet them down, making room for the benefits that come with the positive voices and stories we write about our own contributions to the world around us.

Jane Massengill has been coaching adults with ADHD for the past 20 years, helping them learn to put the brakes on their internal chatter long enough so that they can begin to experience their bright spots instead of focusing on their dark spots. She is the Director of The Gremlin-Taming Institute, and speaks to audiences of all kinds on the benefits of learning how to listen to yourself.

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Thank you for supporting The ADHD Podcast on Patreon!

• (00:00) - Welcome to The ADHD Podcast!