Hannah Choi, Executive Function Coach for Beyond Book Smart, talks about developing a relationship with professors, the benefits of breaking down big projects, emotional regulation for accessing executive function skills, maintaining sleep, nutrition, and exercise, managing medication, and more!
Embracing self-advocacy is crucial for individuals with different thinking patterns or brains, helping them navigate college effectively and create a personalized path to success.
Hannah Choi, an executive function coach for college students, focuses on time management, cognitive flexibility, and addressing challenges like working memory and attention to support her clients.
Hannah Choi's ADHD diagnosis provided her with self-acceptance and forgiveness, highlighting the importance of understanding oneself and embracing personal growth in achieving academic success.
Deep dives
The Importance of Self-Advocacy and Thinking Differently
The speaker emphasizes the importance of self-advocacy for individuals with different thinking patterns or brains. They highlight the need to accept one's unique thinking style and find ways to make the system work for them. Self-advocacy involves acknowledging the need for different approaches and advocating for oneself to ensure success. This is particularly important in college, where students transition from being under the guidance of their parents to exploring their identity and goals. By embracing self-advocacy, individuals can navigate college more effectively and create a personalized path to success.
The Role of Executive Function Coaching for College Students
The conversation revolves around the role and experiences of Hannah Choi, an executive function coach for college and adult clients. She explains how her work in coaching college students began when she worked at a local community college and fell in love with helping students during their transformative college years. After taking a break to raise her children, she returned to coaching through Beyond Booksmart and discovered a natural gravitation towards working with college students. Hannah highlights that she focuses on time management, cognitive flexibility, and addressing challenges such as working memory and attention with her college clients.
The Journey of Being Diagnosed with ADHD in College
The podcast introduces Hannah Choi's personal experience of being recently diagnosed with ADHD while working as an executive function coach. She expresses gratitude for the diagnosis, which answered numerous questions and provided her with a path of self-forgiveness. Hannah reflects on her struggles during college, where she believed her difficulties were due to personal flaws rather than ADHD. Looking back, she realizes that she could have set herself up for greater success with a different approach. With her diagnosis, Hannah now understands herself better and the importance of self-acceptance and forgiveness.
Strategies for Academic Success in College
Hannah Choi discusses several strategies for achieving academic success in college. One essential strategy is breaking down big assignments into smaller, manageable tasks and mapping out a schedule to complete them. She shares her tool called 'Steps, Time, and Mapping' (STM) that helps students break down assignments to reduce anxiety and gain a clearer view of their workload. Another crucial aspect is emotional regulation, as managing emotions allows better access to executive function skills. She emphasizes the importance of sleep, nutrition, and exercise in regulating emotions, highlighting their impact on executive function abilities.
The Significance of Exploring Personal Interests and Seeking Help
The conversation concludes with a discussion on the importance of exploring personal interests and seeking help when needed. Hannah Choi highlights the significance of finding a balance between academics and socializing in college. She encourages students to prioritize socializing as it promotes personal growth, independence, and self-advocacy. She also emphasizes the significance of approaching professors and developing relationships with them, as it can positively impact grades and create a supportive academic environment. Additionally, she urges students to seek help from disability services offices, even if they don't currently require accommodations, to establish connections and facilitate future support if necessary.
In this episode, Hannah Choi joins Eric on the podcast! Hannah is an Executive Function Coach for Beyond Book Smart and is the host of the podcast, Focus Forward: An Executive Function Podcast. Hannah works with both college-aged clients and adult clients, and lives in Connecticut with her husband and two kids. Her executive function strengths are time management and cognitive flexibility, and her challenges are working memory and attention. Hannah also loves to read, watch Korean dramas, exercise, travel, and spend time outdoors! You’ll hear about the importance of developing a relationship with your professors, strategies and skills for self-advocacy, the benefits of breaking down big projects, and emotional regulation to access executive function skills. Then, you’ll also hear about the importance of maintaining sleep, nutrition, and exercise, managing medication, a warning about due dates, course load, schedule design, and more! Learn more about Hannah at beyondbooksmart.com Listen to Focus Forward at beyondbooksmart.com/podcast Questions/Topics: [00:01:02] Introducing Hannah [00:02:14] How did Hannah begin working with college students? [00:04:56] Hannah shares her experiences in college while questioning her abilities [00:05:44] “If I knew then what I know now….” [00:07:18] A discussion on self-advocacy while in college and getting over the fear of getting to know your professors [00:11:45] Hannah shares a tool she uses with clients [00:13:56] Breaking down Steps/Time/Mapping [00:18:076] Finding balance between college work and socializing [00:22:44] A discussion on emotional regulation and accessing executive function skills [00:30:21] Managing ADHD medication and other mental health treatments [00:32:53] What are some other important accommodations that students can ask for? [00:41:56] Eric shares an experience and a warning about (a lack of) due dates [00:44:47] How important is course load and schedule design? [00:49:14] Navigating interests in college [00:51:41] Closing Thoughts 🌟 Have you heard about our Adult Study Hall Community? Go to adultstudyhall.com to join our ADHD-friendly body-doubling community! 🌟 Interested in group coaching and want to take your ADHD management to the next level? Go to coachingrewired.com to get all the up-to-date information on the upcoming season of ADHD reWired's award-winning Coaching & Accountability groups!
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