Jaye Lin, an ADHD podcaster and community builder who co-founded the ADHD-Women@Google group, shares insights on navigating the optimization trap. She explains how excessive planning can lead to burnout and hinder task completion. Jaye uses relatable anecdotes, likening indecision in projects to the chaos of cooking chicken parmesan. They discuss the importance of starting small and being authentic in creative endeavors while prioritizing genuine intentions over perfection. Their conversation also touches on balancing passion with financial stability and the pressures of holiday planning.
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Chicken Parm Optimization Trap
Jaye Lin shares the "optimization trap" where ADHDers over-plan and burn out before starting tasks.
She illustrates with a chicken parm recipe story where excessive planning led to exhaustion and dissatisfaction.
insights INSIGHT
Optimization vs Perfectionism
Optimization differs from perfectionism because there's no measurable perfect solution.
Different people have different optimal outcomes, making optimization harder to define universally.
insights INSIGHT
Define What To Optimize
Often we optimize without clearly defining what we want, causing conflict and inefficiency.
Understanding what exactly you're optimizing for enables better alignment and outcomes.
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This week I’m talking with Jaye Lin — ADHD podcaster and community builder — who brings a uniquely grounded perspective on what it actually takes to work with our brains instead of constantly trying to outsmart them. I got to know Jaye at the 2024 ADHD Conference in Anaheim, where we met at a party hosted by the Attention Different crew (that’s an upcoming podcast with them as well). It was great because I had already been introduced to Jaye through her excellent podcast on Understood.orgTips From an ADHD Coach on the MissUnderstood: ADHD in Women channel. And it turns out she’s been a long-time listener of this show, so some great serendipity with us running into each other.
Jaye is a former Google Administrative Business Partner, where she co-founded the ADHD-Women@Google employee resource group and became their first ADHD-trained peer coach. She has recently returned to corporate life but is still coaching, advocating and podcasting on the side.
In our conversation, Jaye walks us through the concept of the Optimization Trap — a sneaky little loop that many ADHDers fall into where we spend so much time planning and perfecting an idea that we burn out before we ever start. We get into why finishing often matters more than perfecting, the cognitive cost of creative over-planning. We also talk about how optimization shows up in everyday life: at work, in relationships, when packing for a trip, or even when choosing a podcast mic.
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If you'd life to follow along on the show notes page you can find that at HackingYourADHD.com/219
Optimize for completion, not perfection. Focus on what will get the task done, not the flashiest or most complex version of it.
Try setting a timer for the planning phase. If you are having trouble with optimization, try giving yourself a set amount of time, maybe an hour, so you don’t get stuck endlessly researching or brainstorming.
Be sure to schedule regular reevaluations of your planning. We don’t want to get stuck with an outdated plan that we’re not really using. Make time by putting it in your calendar to reassess whether your current path is still the one you want to be on.
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