Hey team!

This week, I'm talking with Dr. Judy Ho, a clinical and forensic neuropsychologist with a PhD in clinical psychology. She focuses on mental health, ADHD, and various psychological disorders. She is triple board-certified and is a tenured associate professor at Pepperdine University, where she teaches graduate-level psychology.

In our conversation today, we talk about how ADHD can impact self-esteem, the importance of understanding your brain's wiring, and practical ways to manage attention and relationships. Dr. Ho shares insights into how cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) can help train your attention and how reframing your thoughts can reduce self-sabotage.

In our conversation, Dr. Ho also shares some of her favorite strategies for improving focus, managing emotional regulation, and mindfulness to tackle ADHD challenges. Whether you're struggling with self-sabotage or finding it hard to keep up with tasks, this episode is packed with tips that will help you thrive with ADHD.

If you'd like to send me a question answer on the show feel free to head over to hackingyouradhd.com/contact and click the orange button

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Find the show note at HackingYourADHD.com/197

This Episode's Top Tips 

1. Train your attention like a muscle. Use a simple task and set a timer for 15 minutes, gradually increasing the time to strengthen focus. You can also work on capturing distracting thoughts by keeping a notepad nearby while working, jotting down distractions without letting them derail your task.
2. Try using multimodal mindfulness, which involves engaging multiple senses to stay focused, such as reading or taking notes, and then combining those activities with visual or auditory elements.
3. If you're procrastinating, ask yourself why and address the underlying reasons—whether it's fear of failure or overthinking. Often, procrastination is a sign that you have some need that is being unmet. Addressing that need can often help to get you unstuck.

Hey Team!

This week we're going to look at what is entailed in ADHD research—what it is, how it works, and what it all means for us.

Before we get going though I wanted to start with a brief explanation of what really drove my thinking about this topic—which now looks like is going to end up as a multi-part series.

So there's an idea called the illusion of explanatory depth, which occurs when people believe they understand something but, when asked to explain it, realize that they don't quite understand the underlying mechanism as well as they thought. Classic examples are things like how a computer works, how a bicycle stays upright, or how a toilet functions.

If I were to ask you how any of these things work I expect most people would say they could. But let's take the toilet example—I know personally, I'd probably start with something about the flush adding water and maybe creating a difference in pressure and… okay maybe I don't know how a toilet works. And that's the point here: with the illusion of explanatory depth, we have some understanding of what's going on, but when pressed for details, we often find those gaps in our knowledge.

And this was something that I was feeling about ADHD research and had me questioning what I really knew. That isn't to say that I didn't know anything but we hear all the time that new studies are coming out about ADHD, but what does that really mean? How is this research being conducted? Who's funding the research? What are ADHD scientists actually studying? Who's doing this research? What kind of research are they even doing? And what even makes one research study better than another?

We all have some semblance of feeling like we know some of the answers to those questions, but this is also where the illusion of explanatory depth comes in because the answers to all of those questions is far more complex than our initial assessment would grant.

In this series, we'll be examining these questions more closely. And in this particular episode we'll be focusing on the different types of research, the methods used, and some the challenges that researchers face when studying ADHD.

I also want to emphasize that I will not be able to cover everything in this series, but that's not the goal. What I'm hoping you get out of this is a better understanding of what goes into the making of the science of ADHD.

Find the show notes at HackingYourADHD.com/196

This Episode's Top Tips 

1. ADHD research is comprised of three categories: basic research, clinical research, and behavioral research. Basic research seeks to better understand the underlying causes of ADHD through genetic and neuroscience studies. Clinical research tests different treatment options, such as proper medication levels and the effectiveness of non-pharmacological interventions. Behavioral research studies how ADHD impacts daily life through observational and longitudinal studies.
2. As a spectrum disorder, ADHD manifests differently for everyone, making it important to recognize that symptoms and challenges vary across individuals. Combined with the high levels of comorbid conditions with ADHD, means that researchers have to be cautious when determining what's actually a factor in ADHD interventions.
3. Because there's no definitive medical test for ADHD, diagnosis relies on behavioral assessments, which can be influenced by cultural and societal factors, leading to both over- and under-diagnosis in certain populations. This creates challenges in ADHD research as it limits who should be included in studies. 

Hey team,

This week I'm talking with Jackie Silver about nutrition and wellness. Jackie is a Registered Dietitian with a Master of Health Science (MHSc) in Nutrition Communications. She has a firm belief that neurodivergent and disabled people deserve to live a healthy lifestyle but found the opportunities for these communities lacking, so she decided to start her own practice, Accessible Wellness. Her area of expertise is in working with kids, teens, and adults with autism, ADHD, and those with intellectual or developmental disabilities.

In our conversation today, we discuss strategies for making nutrition and wellness more accessible. We talk about some of the common challenges we can face while trying to feed ourselves with ADHD, like irregular eating, difficulty with meal planning/prep, and poor interoceptive skills. We look at how we want simplified, tailored strategies to help people where they're at, rather than simply overwhelming them. We also go into some of the dangers of diet culture and the need to have compassion for ourselves when trying out new strategies.

The Hunger-Fullness Scale

Neurodivergent-Friendly 30-Minute Meals

Be sure to check out Accessible Wellness

• On their Website
• On Instagram

And these great articles from the blog:

• 10 Principles of Intuitive Eating with a Neurodivergent Twist
• Forget to Eat? A Guide to Mechanical Eating for Neurodivergent Adults

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Feel free to ask me a question on my Contact Page

Find the full show note at HackingYourADHD.com/158

This Episode's Top Tips 

1. Common challenges we can face when dealing with ADHD and food are irregular eating, difficulty with meal planning/prep, and poor interoceptive skills - that is recognizing when we are hungry or full or somewhere in between. To help combat this we can use strategies like eating schedules, snack cheat sheets, batch cooking, and using hunger/fullness scales to help build up that interoception.
2. We can work on practicing mindful eating by paying attention to tastes, textures, and fullness cues even when we have distractions around. Remember that we want to focus on meeting ourselves where we're at and doing things that work with our brains.
3. It's important to be compassionate with ourselves and focus on small, sustainable changes rather than demanding perfection.

I know the term spiritual energy is going to throw a lot of people - so let's start off by getting clear on what I mean here. When I'm talking about spiritual energy I'm not talking about anything religious here, I'm simply referring to the idea that you have an energy reserve that you can tap into when you're doing something that matters. And specifically, something that matters to you - this doesn't have to be some higher calling type of idea.

One thing that really illustrates the idea of digging deep into that energy reserve for me is when I'm doing something like weight lifting. As I get to the end of my set I can find myself flagging, I can feel like I'm not going to be able to push the bar the 3 more inches it needs to go to rack my bar - and yet I can have my spotter tell me "you've got this" and my brain hears that and I push just a little bit harder and I finish out. Where did that energy reserve come from? As far as I was concerned I was already pushing as hard as I could and yet, with just a few words I was able to find that motivation to push a little harder.

Access to the human spirit isn't just limited to athletic endeavors. And our motivation to dip into this energy source often comes from doing meaningful work. Many people don't recognize meaning and purpose as potential sources of energy, but when we're doing work that aligns with our values we are able to accomplish so much more. 

Today we're going to be looking at three areas that we can use to access our spiritual energy: living their core values in their daily behaviors, doing the work that we do best and enjoy the most, and allocating time and energy in our lives for the things we deem most important.

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Show note at HackingYourADHD.com/spiritualenergy

This Episode's Top Tips

1. There are three areas we need to focus on for our spiritual energy: Living our values, working with our passion, and scheduling time for those things that matter to us.
2. Spend some time exploring your values by asking yourself what you can't stand - when you define what you won't put up with it is often helps define what we do stand for.
3. Work on finding what you are passionate about by defining what you are willing to put up with - further refine your passion by finding your work "sweet-spot" by finding where you are effective, effortlessly absorbed, inspired, and fulfilled.
4. Use your calendar to schedule your most important work - follow your energy patterns and try to schedule those most important tasks early in the day.

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Emotional Energy isn't as cut and dry as physical energy - there are no emotional calories that we can track and measure. And while there is no scientific delineation of how to measure emotional energy it's still something that we can all feel - we're not robots. We know that when we're feeling those positive emotions that sometimes we can barely contain the energy we're feeling - when we're seething with rage it can feel like we're going to burst. When we're sad it can feel like we want to melt into our beds and never be seen again. When we're overstressed it can feel like if we don't do something our skin is going to crawl off but even the idea of attempting that first step still feels like too much

Our emotions play a big role in our energy levels throughout the day. Just because we don't have a good way to measure them doesn't mean that we should write them off.

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Find the show notes at HackingYourADHD.com/emotionalenergy

This Episode's Top Tips

1. Our emotions play a big role in our energy management throughout the day - but emotions are complicated. While we can derive energy from both positive and negative emotions, we're better off using the energy from our positive emotions - The energy we draw off of emotions like fear or anger often comes with a price.
2. We want to build our emotional intelligence by trying to observe ourselves - check-in with yourself throughout the day and ask, what am I doing? and how is that making me feel? You can also go beyond that by asking how you feel about the emotions you're feeling.
3. When scheduling your day make sure that you are giving yourself time to recover after emotionally draining activities. 
4. If you need a quick fix to calm yourself down, try taking deep belly breaths. Deep breathing creates a physiological response that encourages your body to relax - as your body relaxes, your mind will follow.
5. Give yourself some time to let yourself think. With ADHD we spend a lot of our day go from one distraction to the next - but when we let ourselves have the goal of just letting our minds wander it can help us explore how we're feeling and recharge our emotional batteries.

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Today we're going to be looking at ways that we can work on cutting down distractions and staying focused. We'll also be looking at ways that we can better schedule our time to focus on when our brain is going to be working best and we'll also be looking at better ways to end our workday.

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Find the show note at HackingYourADHD.com/mentalenergy

This Episode's Top Tips

1. Mental energy is about our ability to focus and keep our focus. To effectively do this we need to stop trying to multitask and reduce the number of distractions we have around us. This means limiting notifications and creating a work environment where we won't be easily interrupted.
2. We can create smarter time blocks using our ultradian rhythms to guide us - breaking our scheduling into these 90-120 minute cycles allows us to focus on working when we've got the most energy and taking breaks when we're going to need them the most.
3. Schedule your most important tasks for early in the day. By completing what's most important first you'll never find yourself at the end of the day having missed those tasks. You can decide if it's best to eat the frog with this task or to ease into it.
4. End your workday with a shutdown routine to signal to your brain that you are really done with work. By only working while you are at work you'll make better use of your time and you'll allow yourself real time to relax and recover while you are at home.

Before we get going here, I just want to make sure you know that I'm not a doctor, and while this episode is a lot about your health, it is not intended and should not be construed as medical advice. Just because I say something on this show doesn't necessarily mean it will be the best advice for you - be smart and be safe. And when in doubt always consult your doctor before changing your diet or exercise routine.

Today's episode is a follow up to last week's on Energy Management, but this week we are just going to be going over the area of physical energy.

When we think about our energy levels, our physical energy is what we tend to primarily think about. We think about being tired or just needing a quick pick me up to get through our day. And our physical energy tends to be a basis for all our other types of energy (quick reminder those were: mental, emotional and spiritual along with our physical energy) - when we're physically exhausted it's hard for us to draw on our other wells of energy. Have a bad night's sleep? You might be feeling that brain fog all-day - blood sugar low? You might be more likely to snap at a family member over something not that important.

We need our foundation of physical energy to power our bodies and to let us fully engage with our other energy sources. In today's episode, we're going to be covering the three main areas that we get our physical energy from: sleep, diet, and exercise.

Show note at HackingYourADHD.com/physicalenergy

This Episode's Top Tips

1. Getting enough sleep is one of the most important things we can do for our energy levels. To help get a good night's sleep make sure you are allowing yourself to get 4-6 sleep cycles of 90 minutes. You can improve your sleep quality with a dark, cool room and by creating a routine to get you ready for sleep by your bedtime.
2. Instead of focusing on what foods you should or shouldn't be eating, focus on ways that you can make the habits of eating the right foods easier. By making the lifestyle changes you are more likely to stick to your new dietary plan - making mistakes isn't a set back it's just part of the path to changing your habits.
3. Aim to get 20-30 minutes of moderate exercise per day - we're just trying to get our heart rate up here. If you are just starting up, then maybe try starting with a light 10-minute walk and work your way up.
4. Along with getting enough exercise during the day, you also are going to want to be moving more throughout the day. During your breaks be sure to get up and stretch a little and don't let you're self stay in one position for too long.

Hey team, in today's episode, I'm talking with Alma Galvan and Bob Dietrich - Alma is a neural researcher and Certified Brain Gym instructor, Bob Bob Dietrich is an award-winning public speaker, event producer, and entrepreneur, and together they run Brainworx, an educational program that teaches adults and children how to help manage anxiety, behavior, and improve focus through simple, scientifically-proven techniques.

In this conversation, we talked about Alma's journey with raising two children diagnosed with multiple conditions, including Autism, ADHD, and Sensory Processing Disorder - and how those challenges led her down the road of discovering powerful techniques to help promote brain development. We talk about the pons and midbrain and how their underdevelopment can seriously impact our brain functions. We explore some simple exercises you can do to help restore some of this development and how our beliefs can shape our reality.

Be sure to check out the free Workshop

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Find the show note at HackingYourADHD.com/brainworx 

Today we've got a bit of a different episode coming your way - in this episode, I talk with award-winning director Saman Kesh. Kesh is known for his narrative music video work with artists such as Basement Jaxx, Calvin Harris, and Placebo.

In our broad-ranging conversation, we talk about the creative process and having ADHD, medication, therapy, and a whole host of other topics. This episode is a bit more of the practical side of managing ADHD, and there are great tips littered throughout the episode.

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Find the show note at HackingYourADHD.com/samankesh

I want to start this episode off by saying that this is something I'm bad at - and not in the sense that what I do to celebrate is bad or that I'm not celebrating the small wins throughout my day. It's bad in the sense that I almost entirely skip the whole thing.

Recently this podcast tipped past half a million downloads. That's a pretty big milestone and is pretty indicative of how successful this endeavor has been. But it was barely a blip for me. I didn't want to acknowledge the success because it can be hard for me to acknowledge when I do things well.

So this episode is as much for me as it is for all of you and in this episode, we're going to be exploring what it means to have small wins and also how we can celebrate them.

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Find the full show note at HackingYourADHD.com/winning

This Episode's Top Tips

1. Celebrating our wins is a way to boost our confidence and it will actively encourage us to seek out that same success again.
2. We can differentiate intrinsic and extrinsic motivation by thinking of intrinsic as what to do because it's interesting and inherently satisfying. Extrinsic motivation comes from rewards or from avoiding punishment. Both can be important parts of how we celebrate our success.
3. Start celebrating your wins by acknowledging when they happen and then letting yourself do something fun to celebrate that success.
4. Don't get down on yourself when the wins aren't coming - we're not always going to have smooth sailing, but only focusing on what didn't happen tends to make us overlook all the good things that did happen.

Over the last few weeks, I have hit a number of points where it all just felt like too much - now there are a number of things that have contributed to this, but one of the keys always behind when I get overwhelmed is doing too much. This is despite the fact that even when I have too much on my plate it always feels like I should be doing more. That I could squeeze in just a few more things and then… well then I'd probably also still be trying to add more things to do.

In today's episode, we're going to be exploring why doing more isn't usually the best thing for us to pursue and how doing less can actually help us actually accomplish the things we really want to do.

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Find the show note at HackingYourADHD.com/111

This Episode's Top Tips

1. Prioritizing with ADHD can be difficult and that is only made more difficult as we add more and more to what we're doing. When we're able to pare down the amount we're doing we can then better prioritize all the things that actually need to get done.
2. We don't have to do everything that ends up on our to-do lists - it's okay to cross things out even if we haven't completed them.
3. We only have so much cognitive capacity to focus on any given thing and the more open loops we the more we are going to be drawing on that cognitive capacity. Our best bet for dealing with open loops is to work on simply opening fewer of them by taking less on.

Hey team, today I'm talking with Skye Rapson of Unconventional Organisation, a New Zealand-based coaching group that specializes in online coaching. They focus on providing research-backed and strengths-based ADHD support to help you get unstuck in your life.

In our conversation, we cover a lot of different areas, including one that I've really been interested in recently, systems. We get into what systems are and how important it is to tailor these systems to our own ADHD and then how we can even do that.

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Find the show note at HackingYourADHD.com/unconventionalorg

Checkout Unconventional Organisation

• https://www.unconventionalorganisation.com/
• https://www.facebook.com/UnconventionalOrganisation/
• https://www.instagram.com/unconventionalorganisation/

One of the thoughts I kept coming back to while working on my episode's on multitasking was what it really meant to be multitasking. I settled on using the idea of doing two cognitive tasks at the same time, but that left me with another quandary - what about when I'm doing one thing and just thinking about doing something else. Surely just thinking about something else wouldn't count as multitasking.

But still... There have absolutely been times when I've been thinking about something else and found myself getting engrossed in my thoughts and losing track of conversations or what I was doing. Clearly, my thoughts can play a big role in what I'm doing and if my focus is somewhere else then it certainly isn't here in the present.

Today we're going to explore what our brain is doing here - how our thoughts can kind of run away with us. We'll also be looking at hyperfocus and then bringing together how these things relate.

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Find the show note at HackingYourADHD.com/wanderingmind

This Episode's Top Tips

1. The Default Mode Network is a collection of brain regions that are responsible for daydreaming, mind wandering and are primarily active in our wakeful resting state.
2. In neurotypical brains the Default Mode Network disengages when we start working on task-specific work - this relationship doesn't hold up in ADHD brains and is why we can drift off in thought while trying to do complex tasks.
3. Hyperfocus is when our concentration engages so much that we kind of just tune out the rest of the world. It can be a double-edged sword, however, because we can also miss cues to eat, use the bathroom and overuse our executive functions, and leave us completely drained when we come out of it.
4. We can help both our default mode network and our hyperfocus by taking breaks throughout the day. We can go further by using those breaks for positive constructive daydreaming where we let our minds wander with purpose.

With ADHD we get to hear a lot of advice on how to get past our various symptoms. Sometimes that advice isn't so bad, sometimes it's pretty good - I mean that's what I'm trying to do with this podcast. But more often than not the advice we get for how to deal with our ADHD is downright bad.

In this episode we're going to be exploring some of this unhelpful advice and what makes it bad and hopefully how we might be able to turn it around into something useful.

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Find the show note at HackingYourADHD.com/142

This Episode's Top Tips

1. Much of the ADHD advice available is not written by people with ADHD and doesn't consider the context and struggles of individuals with executive dysfunction. ADHD is a spectrum disorder with varying symptoms and levels, and advice may not work for everyone; individuals may have preferences or aversions to specific strategies or approaches based on their brain types.
2. Common ADHD advice of "just do it" or "if you really wanted to do it, you'd do it" oversimplifies the challenges of ADHD and doesn't take into account how the symptoms of ADHD are going to prevent you from following through on that advice.
3. ADHD is a real and impairing disorder, not an excuse or laziness. ADHD symptoms are chronic and significantly impact daily life.

In last week's episode, I talked about the Hot-Cold Empathy Gap and how it can be hard for us to really remember or predict how our state is going to affect our actions - one of the consequences of this is that we often label ourselves as lazy when we didn't do something. Our cold state brain tells us that we should have just done the thing, all the while neglecting how we felt. This disconnect is what leads to a lot of our self-judgment and in particular, those of us with ADHD often find ourselves labeling ourselves as lazy.

Why didn't I walk the dogs?

I was feeling lazy - or maybe I feel overwhelmed with work or maybe I couldn't find the leashes.

When we don't do something it's easy to label it as lazy, but often that doesn't tell us what was really going on.

Today we're going to be exploring the idea of lazy and how what we might want to start looking at it a bit differently.

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Find the show note at HackingYourADHD.com/lazymyth

Why do we make bad decisions in the moment?

We've all done things that we regret doing right? yeah me, neither - but let's say hypothetically there was something that we regretted doing - something that we said or did that we feel like doesn't really reflect on as a person.

Why is it I can have the best of intentions and still when it comes time I still make the wrong decision?

Today we're going to be exploring the hot-cold empathy gap and why it can be so difficult for us to predict what we're actually going to do in the moment.

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Find the show note at HackingYourADHD.com/empathygap

This Episode's Top Tips

1. The hot-cold empathy gap occurs when we fail to predict how our emotions are going to affect our decision-making when we're in that state.
2. This doesn't only apply to things like being angry or depressed but can also apply to our motivation or energy levels. Our ADHD can easily let us overcommit on projects because we fail to predict that we might have less drive and motivation when it comes time to actually do the task.
3. We can work on mitigating some of the effects of the hot-cold empathy gap by making the decisions we want to make easier to make in the moment. We can also use tools like accountability and breaking down our tasks to keep us on track.

Today I'm talking with Rick Webster of Rena-Fi - a psychology-based financial education platform. Rena-Fi provides ADHD-friendly ideas, articles, and materials to help with managing your finances.

Be sure to check out Rena-Fi.com

In our conversation today though, Rick and I cover a lot of ground outside of finances as well. Of course, we do talk about some ADHD financials as well, including that dreaded ADHD tax.

I had a lot of fun during this interview and I hope you'll enjoy it too.

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Find the show note at HackingYourADHD.com/renafi

And be sure to check out Rena-fi

• Rena-fi
• Youtube
• Facebook
• Instagram

This week I had the pleasure of talking with MJ Siemens from the ADHD Diversified Podcast and what a conversation we had. In it, we talk a lot about the imposter syndrome that often accompanies success with ADHD and why we often don't feel successful despite hitting all those metrics we were supposed to. We also talk a lot about how we can work on reframing our views on success so that we can feel good about all those things we accomplish.

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Find the show note at HackingYourADHD.com/successwithmj

Be sure to go check out ADHD Diversified on your favorite podcast player!

Self-diagnosis has become a hot-button topic in the mental health world as social media has ramped up many people's awareness of many of these conditions. But how valid is that self-diagnosis? Some people argue it's dangerous while others argue that self-diagnosis is as valid as a formal diagnosis.

In today's episode, we're going to wade into this minefield and see what grains of truth we can pull out and where this tool is useful and where it isn't.

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Find the show note at HackingYourADHD.com/selfdiagnosis

This Episode's Top Tips

So yeah, this is normally where the top tips would go, but I'm not sure that works as well for this episode, so I just wanted to break things down real quick here. What I'm trying to get at with this episode is that self-diagnosis tends to be an issue of equity and the fact that not everyone can easily get assessed for their mental health conditions is a problem. There is still a lot of stigma and misinformation around ADHD so getting that diagnosis can be difficult. What it comes down to though is what that diagnosis is going to do for you - if you need medication and accommodations then, yes absolutely go seek that formal diagnosis, but if you're just looking for better ways to work with your brain, going with self-diagnosis isn't a bad option. And to be sure if you do go the route of self-diagnosis, just be sure to be open to other options. As we went over there are a lot of ways that ADHD symptoms can show up in other mental health conditions, so just stay open and stay curious.

And at the end of the day, it doesn't really matter what you're diagnosed with as long as your doing those things that makes it easier for you to work with your brain.

Executive function is a hot topic around ADHD - and more specifically how we often have a deficit in it.

One of the trickiest parts about executive function is that there isn't a universally accepted model of executive functions - I know that feels kind of surprising because it seems like something that is talked about as much as executive functions is that we'd have something that is generally agreed upon. So for this episode, we're going to be focusing on Russell Barkley's self-regulation model - although I'll certainly be pulling from other sources as well.

I really like Dr. Barkley's model of self-regulation, because in many ways we can actually look at ADHD as a disorder of self-regulation itself. And that's exactly what Dr. Barkley proposes, that executive function and self-regulation are the same thing and that with ADHD we have a deficit in our executive functions and therefore a deficit in our self-regulation.

As such, I'll be using executive function and self-regulation interchangeably throughout the episode to help emphasize that they are the same thing.

In this episode, I'm going to go into exactly what executive function and self-regulation are, how we use them and how we can get back on track when we find ourselves missing some of that self-regulation.

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Find the show note at HackingYourADHD.com/executivefunction

This Episode's Top Tips

1. We can think of executive functions and self-regulation as the same thing.
2. Our primary executive functions are working memory, cognitive flexibility, and inhibitory control.
3. We have a limited resource pool for our executive functions and we use some of it every time we engage in self-regulation. Fortunately, we can help restore some of these resources by doing things like taking a break, having a snack, and getting some exercise.
4. One of the best ways to help with executive function is to modify our environment so that we're reducing the amount of self-regulation we need to do. This means doing things like putting away distractions and making time more visible.

Today I'm talking with Ben Ahrens the CEO and Co-founder re-origin which is a science-based, self-directed neuroplasticity training program. Ben was a former trainer and semi-professional surfer who became bedridden with Chronic Neurological Lyme Disease for over 3 years. In his search to help heal himself, Ben sought out and consulted with top neuroscientists and cutting-edge doctors from all over the world. His successful recovery led him to working with these same neuroscientists to develop the program that became re-origin.

In my talk with Ben today we discuss how we can start with just one breath, the power of changing our beliefs and how important it is to embrace the process.

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Find the show note at HackingYourADHD.com/onebreath

My friend and colleague, Bob Dietrich, is interviewing me and over 40 other amazing experts on The ADHD Toolbox LIVE!

This FREE video series is packed with tools and strategies for overcoming overwhelm, anxiety, procrastination, executive function challenges, and much more. This is a must-have for any parent looking for solutions for their child.

Join for FREE here

Hey team, welcome back to another questions and answers episode - today I am going to be giving a follow up to my episode about doom boxes and try and clear a few things up - I'm also going to be answering a question about what some of my favorite apps are for productivity and focus.

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Find the show note at HackingYourADHD.com/DoomboxQandA 

This week I'm coming in with my second episode in the success with ADHD series and I'm talking with Brendan Mahan. Brendan is a dynamic ADHD/Executive Function consultant, coach, and speaker. And he runs the ADHD Essentials Podcast on this network. Brendan is also probably one of the people I quote the most when I'm doing this podcast because he just has so many great ideas about ADHD and how to approach those issues.

You may remember him from when I interviewed him a few years ago about The Wall of Awful - if you haven't heard that episode go check it out, it's a concept that's definitely worth knowing about.

In our conversation today Brendan and I talk about what makes us successful with ADHD and how we can reframe some of those ideas to fit with who we really are and how one of the biggest keys is finding that balance in our life and our work.

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To recap from last week we learned that are there are three kinds of multitasking - Classic Multitasking where we're trying to perform more than one task at the same time. Rapid task switching where we're just going from one task to another in quick succession. And interrupted task switching where we're interrupted from one task and switch what we're doing without finishing what we were doing.

We also covered how we're more likely to try and multitask with things we're familiar with but how that actually creates more of a cognitive penalty from breaking up our tasks and how we often just don't realize how much concentration we're using to complete a task - as evidenced with how dangerous texting and driving is.

This week we're going to be exploring more of the cognitive and biological costs of multitasking, then get into some specific kinds of multitasking that can really drain us and we'll finish up with some ways we can work on reducing the amount of multitasking we do.

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This Episode's Top Tips

1. Multitasking has both cognitive and biological costs that accumulate as we do more and more task switching. These costs can be especially hard on those of us with ADHD because they can serve to drain our executive functions.
2. Multimedia multitasking is one of the worst ways we can multitask because often we're essentially binge multitasking where we multitask for a sustained period and really drain our systems.
3. One of the biggest appeals to multitasking is that we don't have to prioritize what we're doing, we can just choose to do both. To help stave off multitasking work on knowing what your priorities are and create systems where you can focus on just doing those things.
4. One of our best defenses against multitasking is mindfulness - if we can be specific about what we want to do and then become aware of what we are doing throughout the day we can help ourselves focus on doing just one thing at a time.

Hey team,

I've recently been thinking about task initiation a lot, but while working on the first draft of this episode, I realized that there were a few ideas that were important to explore first.

So in this episode, we're going to be exploring some ideas of executive dysfunction, but then we're also going to be getting into stuff surrounding our mental and physical health and then how we can work on our systems that help keep everything in order.

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Find the show note at HackingYourADHD.com/145

This Episode's Top Tips

1. We need to recognize and respect our physical and mental states - it crucial that we're kind to ourselves and acknowledge that we're not always going to be at 100%. We don't always need to pushing ourselves and it's important to we're giving ourselves time to recover.
2. It's important that when we're build the systems in our lives that we look at making them simple and effective. We want them to be able to work even on our bad days and that means we need to lower the barrier to getting started on them.
3. One great way that we can implement systems with our ADHD is through checklists and creating designated places for things to go. Again our systems are there to help make our life simpler and streamline the things we need to get done.

This week we're going to be deep-diving into multitasking - this is one of those topics that I frequently mention in episodes, but I've never featured before. Not because it doesn't deserve its own episode, but because multitasking is actually a fairly complicated issue and is going to take a bit of time to dissect. So this is actually just going to be my first episode in a series on multitasking and we'll really try and dig into the nitty-gritty of it.

In today's episode, we're going to be talking a bit about what multitasking is and what it isn't - then we'll work on some ways to really drive home the time costs of multitasking and well finish up by looking at some of the ways that multitasking can actually put us in harm's way.

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This Episode's Top Tips

1. There are three kinds of multitasking - Classic Multitasking where we're trying to perform more than one task at the same time. Rapid task switching where we're just going from one task to another in quick succession. And interrupted task switching where we're interrupted from one task and switch what we're doing without finishing what we were doing.
2. When we're talking about multitasking we're primarily concerned with doing two cognitive tasks at the same time that require sustained attention. This means something like walking and listening to a podcast is fine to do because neither carries a huge cognitive load.
3. We often try to multitask with things that we're already fairly practiced at, but this means that we're going to suffer even more of a penalty as we try to combine doing them with other things.
4. Don't text and drive - or even just play with your phone while behind the wheel. When we're mentally juggling all of these different things we're dividing our attention and it takes time for us to refocus on what we need to be doing.

In this week's episode, I'm talking with Karen Broda, a Personal Trainer & Wellness Coach who helps ADHD-ers look & feel good naked!

Her purpose is to have you thrive in your body, both physically & mentally so you can show up with confidence every day.

The focus of her work is on uncovering & busting past the self-sabotaging beliefs that are causing you to get in your own way.

Karen is a Pro Bikini Athlete, Circus artist & instructor, & lives in a Tiny Home she built herself!

In our conversation today we discuss the importance of mindset, some of the ways we can reframe our views on exercise, and we also get into how we can set up systems that will keep us exercising even on those days when we don't want to.

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This Episode's Top Tips

1. We can think of our mindsets like a muscle and like a muscle they need to be exercised. By working on our mindset consistently we can work on overcoming some of our limiting beliefs.
2. Reframing exercise as movement and movement that we enjoy doing is a great way to get yourself introduced to doing more activity in your day.
3. A great way to find more ways to incorporate movement into your day is to break down the activities you already like doing and figuring out which parts of those you love and where you can find those same aspects in other activities. It's just about finding things that you can do to move your body consistently.
4. The three components you need for building an exercise system and getting results with it are: First is consistency - next is having it challenge you and thirdly crafting a positive mindset around your routine.
5. Make sure to first build your mindset and then your systems once you have those set you can build up your tips and tricks. Don't let yourself get bogged down in the little details before you create your foundation.

One of the ideas that I've been playing with lately is how to go about my planning in a more natural way or perhaps a better phrase would be functional, because while I love the idea of planning it doesn't always work out how I want to it to.

And to be clear, I don't mean that my plans don't work out, what I've been grappling with is that often when I do my planning I've failing to do it in a way that encompasses both my professional and personal life. I think this is an aspect of layering on my personal planning over my professional planning - but really I should be doing it the other way around. It makes more sense for me to build my planning around things like saying when my kids are in and out of school. It should be based on what's going on in my life around me.

And so it dawned on me that one of the ways I could adjust this planning was to focus that planning that was seasonal - because with each season there are definite changes in how I go about my life. And so today we're going to be exploring how we can look at planning with those seasonal changes in mind.

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Find the show note at HackingYourADHD.com/seasonalplanning

This Episode's Top Tips

1. When we're writing out our plans we're not creating some set-in-stone document that we can't vire from - our plans should be malleable. It's also important that we're checking in with our plans as often as we need to so that we can stay on track.
2. By planning with the seasons in mind we're thinking about the way our lives change with the seasons - are we going to be staying indoors or outdoors more? Are there seasonal events we want to keep in mind? What are the things you're going to be looking forward to in those seasons?
3. Once you've figured out how you want your season to go you can break it down into what you want each month to look like and then take that information to plan out your coming days and weeks.

In this week's episode we're going to be diving into a listener question about cleaning and specifically about doom boxes - and if you don't know what those are don't worry you'll find out soon enough... and I'm sure you probably already have some around that house.

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Find the show note at HackingYourADHD.com/doomboxes

This Episode's Top Tips

1. Dooms boxes are the collects of odds and ends that all end up in a single location - usually a box or a drawer. Having a doom box isn't a moral failing.
2. When tackling your doom boxes set a schedule for when you're going to go through them and enlist some accountability to make sure that you actually do it.
3. The biggest key to going through your doom box is to sort everything into where those things need to go and to not get up while going through your box. We will get distracted. We will forget what we were supposed to be doing or at least find something else that we'd rather be doing instead.

One of the ideas that I was presented with during the pandemic was that of surge capacity - this is the idea that we all have reserves of emotional energy that we can call on when we're in a crisis situation. And this was an important idea for people to grasp as the pandemic wore on because people were finding themselves depleted. Despite having been able to handle everything they eventually came to a wall where they didn't have any more to give.

This is an important concept, but not specifically what I want to talk about today because what I want to talk about is what I gleaned from this idea. That we because we have surge capacity, we also have a normal capacity. This seems like a fairly obvious point, but also one I think that a lot of us with ADHD often overlook. Despite everything I know about planning it is still far too easy for me to try and squeeze too much into one day. And this isn't just in terms of how much time I have or how much energy I have, but just how much I can reasonably take on.

In today's episode, we're going to be exploring this idea of capacity and how it can impact our ability to get anything done. We be looking at what we can do on these days and how we can actually use them to help ourselves to recover.

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Find the show note at HackingYourADHD.com/LowCapacity

This Episode's Top Tips

1. We can hit low capacity when we've been pushing too hard for too long. Our capacity differs from our energy levels in that we can think of it as the total amount of energy we have for a day. Having a low capacity means that we're not recovering and that when we do recover we're only coming back to a low base rate of energy.
2. When we're at low capacity we need to slow down and focus on the things we can do - this means prioritizing and thinking about ways we can apply "both-and" thinking where we accept reality and how we can function within it.
3. A great way to help build back up our capacity is creating some accountability around our self-care tasks so that we actually follow through with those intentions.

Hey team, I've got a real treat for you today - as I mentioned earlier in the year I'm going to try and include a few more interviews on this podcast, and this month I'm bringing you my conversation with Dr. Tamara Rosier. I just had a blast talking with her and so this episode is a bit longer than I normally go simply because I didn't want to stop the interview.

Dr. Rosier is an ADHD coach and runs the ADHD Center of West Michigan. In this interview, we talk about her book Your Brain's Not Broken: Strategies for Navigating Your Emotions and Life with ADHD.

There is just so much good stuff in this interview we talk about emotional regulation, energy management, and a lot of the funny quirks of having ADHD.

If you like the stuff I have on this podcast your honestly going to love her book and I think you'll really enjoy this interview as well.

Be sure to check out the book Your Brain's Not Broken

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All right, I'm back from my little break and we're just heading right back into the hard stuff - or at least how we can start getting it checked off our to-do list.

Today we're going to be looking at some more ways that we can adjust our mindset around doing hard things and also looking at some of the reasons we might be choosing to do certain hard things. Then we'll finish up this series by digging into a few of the more concrete things that you can do so that you can tackle those hard things.

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Find the show note at HackingYourADHD.com/hardthingspart3

This Episode's Top Tips

1. Part of the reward of doing hard things is actually doing the hard things - this may seem glib, but when we're building up our habits and routines the only way we actually build them is by doing the hard parts. We can't skip to the end and expect to have picked up habits needed to maintain that goal.
2. We can reshape our mindset around the things that we "have to do" - we often rebel against the have to's and so changing our mindset into things that we get to do can have a profound impact on how we approach doing those tasks.
3. Two of the best ways to get through doing hard things is to know your why behind what you're doing and then having some accountability to help you follow through.

One of the questions that I frequently get is how people can actually apply what they're learning - in this podcast and from all the other things we learn. I know this is a particularly pernicious problem for ADHD because often we see things that we think would really make a difference in our lives, and yet we can't seem to get ourselves to apply these ideas.

Today we're going to explore how we can start working on getting a better understanding of what we're learning, why we might want to start limiting what we're consuming and how to solidify those learnings into our lives.

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This Episode's Top Tips

1. When writing notes from books, podcasts or videos create summaries and write them down in your own words to solidify your learnings.
2. Be discerning about the media that you're taking in so that you don't overwhelm yourself with too many topics. We can only work on a few ideas at any given time, so you've got to be choosy about what you want to work on.
3. Create a plan to follow through with what you're learning and use an accountability system to help you stay on track with your plan.

One of the reasons that many of us have trouble giving ourselves slack is because of our internalized perfectionism - it's something that controls our workflow and prevents us from ever taking a break because in our head we know we could be doing more. Even during the writing of this episode I had to fight off some of this internal perfectionism - this episode wasn't supposed to be entirely about perfectionism, but it was going to take a lot more than just one section to really tackle the topic - so now what was just going to be a two-part episode on giving yourself some slack is a series - and had I come into this knowing it was going to be a series I would have definitely approached it differently, but that's okay, it doesn't have to be perfect.

In today's episode, we're going to be exploring the idea of how perfection acts as a coping mechanism - and why that's not a great thing. We'll also be looking at some of the different types of perfectionism and then we'll be exploring some of the ways that we can start to work on conquering our own perfectionism.

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Find the show note at HackingYourADHD.com/perfectlyimperfect

This Episode's Top Tips

1. Many of us with ADHD have picked up perfectionism as a coping mechanism to try and deal with the mistakes that have come from us having ADHD - however, perfectionism is a maladaptive coping mechanism that often leads to more problems than it solves
2. There are three types of perfectionism - self-oriented perfectionism, other-oriented perfectionism and socially-prescribed perfectionism.
3. The first step in dealing with our perfectionism is understanding that our perfectionist expectations of ourselves are unrealistic and that having those unrealistic expectations is unhealthy - if we can relax those standards we will often save time, effort, and stress.
4. Practice Imperfection by choosing small tasks that you can be imperfect at, such as using multiple colors of pens (without a pattern), not correcting typos in texts to friends or even something like wearing mismatched socks (I mean as long as they're the same kind - I just mean two socks with different colors or patterns not like wool socks and cotton socks, I'm not a monster).
5. Look for feedback before you're 100% done with a project - try out asking for feedback at 30% and 90% and be sure to be specific about the type of feedback you're looking for at each point.

Last week we began this series on how to do hard things and looked specifically at how we define hard things and ways that we can work through some of our problems so that they can become more manageable.

This week we're going to be continuing that conversation but with a lens that focuses on why it can be so hard for us to even attempt to do hard things. We'll be looking at some of the misconceptions we have about doing hard things as well looking at how acknowledging the hard things we've done in the past can help us do more hard things in the present.

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This Episode's Top Tips

1. We often discount our ability to do hard things from a mistaken belief that we've never been able to accomplish anything hard.
2. When we mistake failing at simple things for failing at doing hard things it can reinforce the idea that we can't do hard things. Remember, just because something is simple doesn't mean it isn't hard.
3. Don't assume the logic in your head is always actually logical. It is easy for us to make logical leaps that don't hold up to reality - slow down and examine those beliefs. You don't have to believe everything you think.

This week I'm talking with Star Hansen, a Certified Professional Organizer (CPO©) and Clutter Whisperer on a mission to help you banish your personal Clutter Monster. Her methodology focuses on helping you take control of your stuff and create a life you're truly proud of. Star looks at the deeper meaning of your stuff to help you figure out why you feel overwhelmed by your clutter in the first place. Star's best-selling book, "Why the F*#@ Am I Still Not Organized?", has inspired countless individuals to tackle their clutter head-on and find lasting solutions.

In our conversation, we discuss the significance of having clutter-free spaces and the impact it has on mental and emotional well-being - how clutter can create stress, affect decision-making, and hinder productivity. We also delve into the emotional attachment people often have to their belongings, how clutter can impact relationships, and how clutter can highlight personal values and emotional struggles.

Check out Star's Freebies (including a copy of her book)

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Find the full show note at HackingYourADHD.com/148

This Episode's Top Tips

1. Fresh starts can help us let go of our past performance and embrace our new self.
2. We can effectively create motivation with financial incentives, but often that isn't enough for us to follow through on some of the things that we really do want to do. We also need to create reminders and a plan on how we want to accomplish our goals.
3. Don't try and do all the new things at once - pace yourself and create a plan on what you want to do first. Try and focus on doing the things that by doing them will make everything else easier.
4. We need to be flexible with our plans because we are going to hit speed bumps - while we can't plan for everything we can work on ways to help us get back up when we get knocked down.

One of my favorite sayings from Brendan Mahan of the ADHD Essentials podcast is that ADHD is life on Hard Mode.

The executive dysfunction that comes with ADHD makes everything just a little bit more difficult. From doing the dishes to filling out tax returns we find ourselves needing to put in more effort than our neurotypical peers.

But what's important for us to remember is that while these things can absolutely be harder for us to do, it doesn't mean it's impossible.

Today we're going to be exploring this idea of doing hard things - what makes something difficult and how we can work on moving ourselves through that process.

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This Episode's Top Tips

1. It is important for us to define what we find being hard because when we choose to believe something should be easy we tend not to give it the attention that it deserves.
2. Our problems can't be solved until we acknowledge them as problems - but also can't solve those problems unless we put forward the effort of defining them and acknowledging the underlying issues.
3. Define what done looks like for a task and be sure to be mindful of how that can be functional in your life.

 In this episode I'm talking with the CEO and founder of the company Shelpful, Sharon Pope - we've all had times when we needed a little help getting ourselves to follow a routine and sometimes we don't have the accountability in our lives to make that happen. Shelpful is all about solving that problem of getting that daily accountability. The program works through text messaging but you know what, I'm getting ahead of myself - this is all in the interview.

Be sure to go checkout Shelpful at Shelpful.com

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Find the show note at HackingYourADHD.com/shelpful

As I'm getting ready to head into the holidays I thought I'd deliver you something a bit different in your podcast player - a story.

I don't want to give anything away so get snuggled in and prepare yourself for The Dog and The Dragon by Brandon Sanderson.

Be sure to go check out all of Sanderson's work at BrandonSanderson.com

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Find the show note at HackingYourADHD.com/dragon

Trimethylxanthine is the world's most popular psychoactive drug - for many caffeine is such a ubiquitous substance that calling it a drug seems like a misnomer. How could something so widely used that has so few regulations around it be a drug? But a drug is simply a chemical substance that affects our nervous system function and can result in changes to our perception, mood, cognition, and behavior. I feel like caffeine ticks the box pretty well on all those accounts.

In today's episode, we'll be exploring how caffeine works - some of its benefits and negatives and then we'll be looking at what we know about how caffeine and ADHD mix.

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Find the show note at HackingYourADHD.com/caffeine

This Episode's Top Tips

1. Caffeine is a psychoactive drug whose primary mechanism is binding to adenosine receptors in the brain. The buildup of adenosine in our system is what makes us sleepy, so by binding to these receptors caffeine is able to keep us awake.
2. Caffeine has a host of benefits but having too much caffeine near bedtime can affect our slow-wave sleep and reduce our total amount of sleep.
3. There is still a lot of research that needs to be done on the interaction between caffeine and ADHD but it is clear that many people with ADHD attempt to self-medicate with caffeine.

Hey team, today's episode is coming in a bit more seriously than some of my others so I just wanted to give you all a head's up.

In today's episode, we have listener questions dealing with depression so we're going to be talking about comorbidity in ADHD and specifically, we're going to be talking about how ADHD interacts with depression.

comorbidity - this is a term that comes up with ADHD frequently enough and really what we're talking about here is two or more disorders or illnesses occurring in the same person at the same time or successively as in one condition that occurs right after the other. often when we're using the term comorbidity there is also the implication that the interaction between the two conditions creates worse outcomes for both. And the worsening outcomes make complete sense - regardless of what you're dealing with, having to manage two conditions is going to be harder than just dealing with one.

Today we'll be looking at which comorbidities can affect ADHD, take a closer look at depression, and then talk about ways that they can interact and we can work on treating them.

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Find the show note at HackingYourADHD.com/depression

This Episode's Top Tips

1. ADHD had a plethora of comorbid conditions and it's important to see know how they interact to properly treat your mental health issues.
2. Depression has one of the most common comorbidities with ADHD and it's estimated that 70% of adults with ADHD will at some point be treated for depression.
3. When figuring out how we want to approach treating comorbid conditions it's important to figure out who's driving the bus. Symptoms from each condition can exacerbate other symptoms and by figuring out whose driving the bus you can work treating the root cause of your issue.

The ADHD brain has a strange relationship with thinking. One of my biggest gripes is that it often feels like I can't ever turn my brain off. No matter what I'm doing, I'm thinking about something. I could be washing dishes, but I'm thinking about what else I need to do before I go to bed. I could be walking to get the mail, and instead of wondering what's in the mailbox, I'm thinking about a conversation I had three years ago. Even when I'm trying to meditate, I'll often find myself thinking about what it means to be meditating. I'm not really sure that thinking about meditating while meditating is actually meditating - but hey, I'm still putting in the effort, it's called a practice for a reason.

But just because our brains are whirring away doesn't mean that we're producing quality thoughts. Today we're going to take a dive into how we can better direct our brains. We'll be looking at why we should stop multitasking. The value of critical thinking and then explore ways that we can improve that thinking.

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Find the show note at HackingYourADHD.com/criticalthinking

This Episode's Top Tips

1. Stop trying to multitask. Multitasking reduces the efficiency that we can perform any task and prevents us from really thinking through our problems.
2. Critical thinking is valuable because it helps us make hard decisions and it makes us harder to manipulate.
3. Ask yourself more questions to improve your critical thinking skills. Always challenge your assumptions.
4. Find ways to help facilitate your thinking time such mind mapping or taking a walk.

In a lot of my episodes, I have touted the virtue of asking questions - this is something that is embedded deeply in my philosophy. When we engage ourselves and others with curiosity we are able to solve problems more quickly and with better answers.

One idea that I see pop up frequently is that questions are more valuable than answers - to some extent I agree with that idea, but I think it's a bit too hyperbolic. It feels like it stems from the counter-intuitive branch of self-help whereby saying the opposite of what people think you can get them to engage more. It gets clicks, but it doesn't always produce the best advice. Nonetheless, to get great answers you often need great questions.

Your answer isn't going to matter if you're asking the wrong question, so it's important that we take the time to figure out if we're asking the right question. With ADHD we often want to just jump into the action and start doing - but this means that we need to be even more vigilant that we're asking these questions so that we know we're going in the right direction.

But how do we ask great questions or even good questions? What even makes one question better than the other?

In today's episode, we're going to explore that question as well as looking at the how and when of question-asking.

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Find the show note at HackingYourADHD.com/questions

Hey team this week I'm jumping on some listener questions - if you'd like to leave your own question for me to answer on the air just head over to HackingYourADHD.com/contact and leave me a message

In today's episode, I'll be answering a question about procrastination and how we can work on getting past issues of low confidence, and then we're going to be dive into some ways we can take breaks when our mobility is a limiting factor.

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Often when I think about productivity I envision something like a well-oiled machine - everything fits together, everything has its place and when it is running smoothly it produces amazing results. But the part that my imagination doesn't usually pick up is a few important words - well-oiled machine... what does it mean to be well oiled - well, for one thing, it means that there is someone maintaining the system. It means, that left to its own devices that the machine would break down - and for a machine like this, it means it's either running at peak capacity or not at all.

As you can imagine this isn't exactly the route we want to be going - we're going to have setbacks in life and we're going to have times where we have to do less - we're not machines.

In today's episode, we're going to be exploring this idea of capacity, as well as how we sometimes go above and beyond, and then also how we can work on building some slack into our systems.

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Find the show note at HackingYourADHD.com/buildingslack

This Episode's Top Tips

1. Always doing more isn't always our best option - it is easy for us to overreach our capacity and find ourselves doing more than we're able to handle. Once we get past capacity we're more like to drop the ball on everything we're doing. Giving ourselves breathing room isn't being lazy, it's a way for us to focus on what's most important.
2. When we're in times of crisis many people with ADHD can thrive by using their surge capacity - however, our surge capacity is limited and we can only access it for so long before we start burning out.
3. We can add more capacity to our schedules by adding more slack to our calendars - that is buffer time that allows us to "pick up the slack" when we're running overtime on something unexpected or just need more time to finish something than we thought we would.

We all know that one of the biggest hurdles from ADHD is starting, but paradoxically one of our other hurdles is stopping. Sometimes it feels like we're better off if we just power through until we're done, but if we really want to get the most out of our workdays, we need to have some breaks.

In today's episode, we're going to be looking at the benefits of taking breaks, some different ways that we can take breaks, and also exploring going beyond breaks and actually taking some time off.

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For show notes go to HackingYourADHD.com/breaks

This Episode's Top Tips

1. Taking breaks allows us to separate our work into more manageable chunks. They let us refresh and come to our tasks with more energy.
2. We should be scheduling our breaks so that we don't forget to take them. To help out our future selves we should also be planning what we want to be doing on those breaks as well.
3. As important as knowing what we are doing on our breaks, we should also know what we shouldn't be doing on our breaks. Avoid things like phone games and social media that are going to be hard to tear yourself away from at the end of your break.
4. It's also important to take time off entirely from work to recharge your batteries. While it might be hard to take a traditional vacation right now, we can still work on thinking about other ways that we can take time off, like working on fun projects at home or just taking a few days to catch up on Netflix.

Hey Team!

In today's episode, we're taking a deep dive into the transformative power of automation with Chris Cameron, a workflow efficiency consultant specializing in helping neurodivergent individuals harness the benefits of AI and automated tools. Chris shares his personal journey with ADHD and how technology has played a pivotal role in managing daily challenges.

From practical learning to creating inclusive support systems, Chris discusses how specialized automation can alleviate everyday pressures. We also get into a number of topics about AI and how we can integrate some of the services to help alleviate some of the woes of executive dysfunction.

Whether you're a business owner, content creator, or someone looking for practical solutions, this conversation is packed with actionable insights that promise to simplify and enhance your life.

Check out Chris Cameron at learnwith.cc
or connect with him on Twitter

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Find the full show notes at HackingYourADHD.com/187

This Episode's Top Tips 

1. Start small with automation, using simple tools and gradually integrating more complex systems as comfort with technology grows. It can be easy to be overwhelmed if we try to start out with too much.
2. Easy places to start with automation include using email filters to automatically help reduce inbox clutter and tools like Google Calendar or Calendly to automate scheduling and preventing double bookings.
3. Regularly update and maintain automation tools to ensure they continue to serve your needs effectively, much like gardening.
4. Use AI tools to break down large tasks into manageable steps, helping overcome task initiation barriers.

One of the most important aspects of planning is knowing where you've been and this typically comes from some kind of review process. The reason for the review is so that we can plan an accurate course based on where we are now. But that review is also a lot easier said than done. I've sat down for many a review sessions and realized that I don't have a great way to look back. I'll skim through my calendar and wonder what exactly happened over the last few weeks or months and kind of shrug and go... stuff?

And what that means is that we want to look at how we measure our success - so today we're going to be talking about how we set our goals, how we can work on measuring their outcomes and also questioning what actually makes a good measurement.

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Find the show note at HackingYourADHD.com/indicators

This Episode's Top Tips

1. When we're setting goals we should focus on the small changes we can make that we can keep up for the long term.
2. When we're thinking about goals we need to see if we're measuring them lagging or leading measures. Lagging measures are the outcomes based on what's happening with our leading measures. The best goals have a mix of the two measurements.
3. What we choose to measure matters and influences our future actions. Make sure that what you're measuring is incentivizing the outcomes you actually want.

This week I am talking with Dr. Norrine Russell of Russell Coaching - Dr. Russell has a Pd.D. from Bowling Green State University with a focus on psychology and education and began her ADHD coaching practice in 2009. In our conversation today, we talk about what you can expect to get out of coaching, how we can work on working with our brains, and ways we can help our kids with ADHD.

Today's episode is focused more on children with ADHD, but I've always found that these are lessons that we can translate to our own experience.

Get more information about Russell Coaching at RussellCoaching.com

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Find the show note at HackingYourADHD.com/russellcoaching

This Episode's Top Tips

1. Learn about your ADHD - if you don't understand it, then they can't work it. Work on learning how your brain works so that you can best work with it.
2. Give yourself permission to see what works. Often we get caught up in the idea that if we try something then we are going to have to do it forever - instead, we should be thinking about how we can make progress through trial and error.
3. Work with others to Hack your ADHD, because while it's great to see what we can come up with on our own there are tons of resources out there that can also help you.

One of the easiest ways for procrastination to creep into our lives is through the thought that we just need to wait to do something until we feel like doing it. I totally get this. I feel this way all the time - it's super easy to put something off because we don't feel like doing it right then.

But that's not always our best strategy - in fact, for a lot of things we're never really going to feel like doing them and so waiting for that inspiration to come means that we're never going to get to it.

Today we're going to be looking at this idea of inspiration and some of the ways that we can try and get started anyway.

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Find the show note at HackingYourADHD.com/inspiration

This Episode's Top Tips

1. Before you can come up with a solution to your problem you need to know what your problem actually is. Some problems are just symptoms of other problems and if you can solve those root issues it makes everything else easier or unnecessary to fix.
2. While gamifying boring tasks might seem like a great way to make your work more interesting it can also backfire and reduce motivation in the long run. It's better to just add in some small aspects of fun like listening to music or doing the task with a friend.
3. Creating a warm-up routine can make it easier to get into your workflow, just make sure to make the warmup easy so you don't put it off as well.