Overcoming Distractions-Thriving with ADHD, ADD

One of the phrases that bother people who have ADHD the most is when people tell you to "try harder." many of us with ADHD heard this phrase growing up, and even sort written on our report cards. But those with ADHD know better. "Trying harder" is far from a solution to improving our lives. Burnout can come from trying harder so it's important to understand how our brains operate. Laura MacNiven from the Springboard Clinic in Toronto is back on Overcoming Distractions the podcast to discuss this very topic and to offer a different viewpoint. She is the co-author of May We have Your Attention please? With Dr. Anne Bailey. People with ADHD need to try differently rather than focus on trying harder. Laura takes time to explain the core differences between trying harder and trying differently and Dave and Laura even pull the phrase apart "try harder" to understand what it actually means. Laura says that a lot can be accomplished by understanding the stories we tell ourselves. If we can reshape those stories, we have a better chance of finding different ways to accomplish the things we want. Dave and Laura also discuss what can happen if people with ADHD continue to just try harder including the effects of burnout. Laura and Dave chat about why understanding our brains as adults with ADHD and some self-awareness can go a long way and understanding how to create different ways of getting things accomplished. Laura gives some tips for understanding your ADHD brain as well as creating some personal awareness. That includes taking time to check in with yourself and to check the stories you are telling yourself. Take time to pause repeatedly to look inward. Understand what's important in life and your career and what wakes your brain up. And finally, take some time to understand when you are at your best. That can be the time of day or the part of the week where you can operate smoothly and focus on what needs to be done. Fine the Springboard Clinic here: https://www.springboardclinic.com/ Learn more about the book "May We Have Your Attention Please?" here: https://www.springboardclinic.com/the-book

In this ADHD minute edition of Overcoming Distractions, we talk about how to be a little more flexible when it comes to time management and ADHD brains. The two years of going through COVID-19 have taught us, even those of us with ADHD that we need to be a little more flexible when it comes to managing our time and our commitments. Dave takes just a few minutes to go through a few things that have worked for him and for others when it comes to trying to manage your time in an ever-changing environment. In short, doing a thorough review of your professional and personal commitments on a regular basis will help you manage time better, feel less stress and ultimately stay away from burnout. Find Dave's new book Overcoming Burnout here. https://www.amazon.com/dp/B09WQ17T22

Are you a high achiever? And are you one of those go-getters that just happens to have adult ADHD? Even professional businesspeople and entrepreneurs can experience a whole host of distractions in their professional lives. And that's what we are talking about in this podcast episode. This week we have back Casey Dixon from Dixon Life Coaching. Casey coaches high achievers with ADHD including attorneys, professors, and many more in high-profile and demanding careers. Casey talks about what she classifies as a high achiever including some specific careers as well as some specific traits when it comes to those that are driven to succeed. Casey and Dave also discuss whether those of us in high-demand careers suffer the same distractions as other people in different industries and careers. Casey suggests that many of us need to find the tasks and projects we are good at and try hard to delegate the tasks we do not like to do. She says working on things we are not good at reduces our focus. Casey offers a number of suggestions to help high achievers with ADHD reduce distractions and gain more focus. She says even making small changes can produce high payoffs in productivity. She highly recommends that those of us who are high achievers with ADHD take a step back and think about how we are working. This is where coaching can come in where you can work with a professional to pull apart the different aspects of your professional life and create solutions. Casey and Dave also talk about reducing commitments to increase productivity. Some of us call it energy management and others call it obligation management. But analyzing your commitments can have big payoffs as well. Casey also states that we are all human and we need to pay close attention to self-care. That includes proper sleep habits, exercise and taking time to be mindful. Paying attention to these will only improve our executive functions. More about Casey Dixon: Casey is intensely focused on building top-tier training, coaching, consulting, and advising experiences for high achievers with ADHD. She created Dixon Life Coaching in response to the grievous lack of understanding and quality services for an often-overlooked population… exceptionally smart, highly-educated, wickedly-talented, overstressed, overworked, overwhelmed, successful-on-the-outside adults with ADHD. https://www.dixonlifecoaching.com/ Casey's online courses: The Mysterious Paradox of Being a High Achiever with ADHD https://register.dixonlifecoaching.com/high-achiever Live Well ADHD https://register.dixonlifecoaching.com/live-well-adhd

Are you burned out or feel like you're heading down the path of burnout? Dave announces his new book has just been published. Overcoming Burnout-Real life Strategies and Solutions for Burnout Recovery and Prevention. https://overcomingdistractions.com/overcomingburnout/ Dave wrote this book to shed new light on the topic of burnout and just how complicated the issue can be for people. He specifically covers career burnout. Dave talks about how many of us are the Co-founders of our burnout in that we brought a lot of this on our own. That may be a tough thing for us to hear but many of our habits have contributed to our burnout. Dave talks about understanding our capacity, setting boundaries, people-pleasing, and of course time management. Listen to Dave as he discusses why he wrote the book and what you can learn from the people he has interviewed. To purchase the book, go to Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B09WQ17T22

Research has shown that adults with ADHD are more prone to addictions than others. That includes alcohol abuse and other substances. In this podcast, we will discuss why those with ADHD are more prone to these behaviors and we will also discuss how to mitigate our reliance on alcohol and other addictive substances. We have back Lara Honos-Webb, author of Brain Hacks and Six Super Skills for Executive Functioning: Tools to Help Teens Improve Focus, Stay Organized, and Reach Their Goals as well as many other books. Dr. Lara Has been on Overcoming Distractions many times and it's a wealth of knowledge in the area of ADHD. Dr. Lara Talks about how addictions such as those with alcohol and other substances not only affect those with ADHD to a greater percentage but how they have increased during the past two years of the pandemic. Lara talks about how prevalent addiction is in the ADHD community as well as why we've seen the increases recently. She also answers the question about why those of us with ADHD have more challenges with addictive behaviors. Hint, it's our impulsivity. She also discusses that those of us with ADHD are typically addicted to other types of uses such as digital addictions, our phones as well as social media. Laura discusses how addictions can affect the executive functions of anyone but in particular adults with ADHD. She discusses how our executive functions decrease but overall if we protect our executive functions as a regular habit in our lives, we can help stave off addictions. She says we must do our best to build self-confidence and self-efficacy as we try to limit our addictive behaviors. And by doing so focus on self-love versus shame to recover. Lara says that there are all different types of support groups including those that work in moderation as well as those that demand abstinence. And she describes what she calls urge surfing which is your ability to catch yourself and understand how you may be able to delay your actions. Yes those of us with ADHD are already good at delay but there is a case for making it be used in our favor when it comes to addictions. Find Dr. Lara Honos-Webb at: www.addisagift.com

This time on the ADHD Minute version of Overcoming Distractions, Dave talks about creating values statements for your life and your career. Many of us may think we have values but when we sit right down and try to list those, we may struggle. Many of us complain about situations we are in such as a bad job, a bad boss, or unrealistic clients if you're a small business owner, and we're getting stressed out, resentful and even burned out. Dave talks about how you can turn negative aspects of your life into positive statements. You can define the type of people you want to work with, the type of workplace and culture you want to spend your time at, and the type of people you want in your life. Spend 8 minutes with Dave to learn more about how to create value statements for your life.

Now that COVID-19 is becoming much more manageable in our lives, it's time to ask ourselves what we have learned over the past two years that can help us in the future. That's what Dave talks about in this ADHD Minute addition of Overcoming Distractions. Dave talks about some of the things that he has learned that can help him manage his business and life much better. Dave talks about how he has gotten obsessive with time management including blocking off days, not responding to every notification that pops up, and getting very creative with his calendar. He talks about personal goals before professional goals and that your personal goals should drive your career goals. Dave also talks about how it's important to have routines but to always self-assess and be flexible when necessary. And most of us should have learned this by now but making sure you set time aside to clear your head Several times a week or whenever needed. Dave talks about the importance of this.

Improving communication in the workplace is something everyone should strive for but for those of us with adult ADHD, it needs to be an ongoing process of identifying what can be effective. Some of us receive communications differently, some of us put out communications in the workplace that can be misunderstood, and the bottom line is not every communication style is a match. This week we have back Grant Crowell, Author of Grantasms Creative twisted words for cool people! and a self-professed social wordsmith. Grant and Dave discuss how to improve strategic communications in the workplace as well as being an entrepreneur with ADHD. As you'll find Grant's book also injects a little fun and humor into the process. What exactly is strategic communications and why do we need to practice it? How do we have fun and reduce stress while improving communication styles? How do we find the right patterns of communication as well as capture the attention of our coworkers and others? How can we connect appropriately as well as implement some humor in meetings and other settings? How can we be mindful of the social context of things we say as well as read the room. Why do we ADHD'ers need to focus on being strategic in our communications? Why is clarity in communication so important for those of us with ADHD? Grant and Dave discuss the topic of co-workers or clients not giving clarity on projects or assignments. Vague directions, etc…which leads many with ADHD to procrastinate. They also talk about how some co-workers, a boss, or clients can abuse our people-pleasing nature. Many of those with ADHD are people pleasers and it leads to exhaustion, frustration, overwork, and burnout. How do we communicate properly and train others on how to treat us? And Grant gives a fast lesson and roadmap to being more strategic in our communications. Find Grant's book here: https://www.amazon.com/GRANTASMS-Creative-twisted-words-people-ebook/dp/B07ZY9JDPP Connect with him on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/GrantCrowell

In this short episode of Overcoming Distractions Dave talks about the concept of burning the boats. If you're ready for a new job or career change, Dave has a little bit of advice for how to hit the reset button. Some of the things Dave brings up that may trigger your need for a new career are being bored, tired, feeling disconnected, stressed out, exhausted or all of the above which equals burnout. Dave offers some quick tips from his personal experiences over the years managing his careers as well as his entrepreneurial journeys. If you're stressed out and need a change, spend the next 10 minutes getting some quick advice from Dave about hitting the reset button on your life and career.

Planning seems to be another challenge that many with adult ADHD must deal with. While the topic of planning could be a much larger conversation, on this podcast episode, we discuss what it takes to plan out tasks and projects in our professional lives. If you need to get better at planning your professional or personal life out, this is a great discussion with a ton of valuable tips. Nikki Kinzer and Pete Wright from Taking Control…The ADHD Podcast joins Dave to discuss ways those of us with ADHD can get better at planning as well as executing on those plans. First, Nikki, Pete, and Dave discuss why people with ADHD have challenges with planning at many levels. They discuss how certain executive functions can get in the way of planning projects and tasks as well as more extensive items such as an entire workweek. But they also make it clear that those with ADHD are not the only ones who have challenges with planning. People without ADHD also could use a lesson in planning as well as entire companies Nikki, Pete, and Dave discuss how just planning your day the night before can be a game-changer. We hear this all the time but many of us do not practice it and end up sitting at our desk the next day with no plan. The discussion evolves into planning on a much greater scale including how being meticulous with your weekly calendar can help you plan projects, execute much better as well as manage your time and distractions. When you have a system in place for managing your entire week with proper planning, it is much easier to make progress. Something as simple as color-coding your calendar can make a huge difference in your professional life. They also discuss how a lack of planning creates a domino effect in an organization, affecting others around you. Nikki, Dave, and Pete discuss whether planning hinders the creative process or can it help the creative process blossom? Some people feel that too much planning gets in the way of creativity and idea generation. What are some of the ways we can plan and be organized as an entrepreneur or business professional and have plenty of time for creativity? The gang talks about ways to be a planner and be creative. And as always, the guests leave us with great tips we can implement in our own lives. Check out Nikki and Pete's ADHD podcast here: https://takecontroladhd.com/the-adhd-podcast