Overcoming Distractions-Thriving with Adult ADHD
David A Greenwood
Overcoming Distractions: Thriving with Adult ADHD is a podcast for busy professionals, entrepreneurs, business owners, and leaders navigating the challenges of adult ADHD.
Hosted by David Greenwood, entrepreneur, former corporate executive, author, and fellow adult with ADHD, the show explores how to succeed at work, build a business, lead people, and enjoy a more fulfilling life while working with an ADHD brain.
If you're an adult with ADHD who struggles with time management, energy, executive functioning, procrastination, prioritization, focus, organization, or burnout, you'll find practical strategies and honest conversations to help you work through those challenges.
Each week, David brings together ADHD experts, successful entrepreneurs, business owners, executives, and other professionals to discuss the real-world challenges of ADHD in business and the workplace.
Topics covered on Overcoming Distractions include:
• ADHD at Work: Managing workloads, deadlines, distractions, interruptions, and competing priorities.
• ADHD Executive Functioning: Improving time management, organization, planning, task initiation, and follow-through.
• ADHD and Entrepreneurship: Building systems, managing finances, delegating, making decisions, and running a business with ADHD.
• ADHD Leadership: Leading teams, leveraging strengths, improving communication, and navigating executive responsibilities.
• ADHD and Burnout: Managing stress, emotional regulation, overcommitment, and the demands of a busy professional life.
• Thriving with Adult ADHD: Building self-awareness, confidence, better habits, and a professional and personal life that works with your brain.
David draws on decades of entrepreneurial and executive experience, along with his own experience navigating life and business with ADHD.
This isn't about becoming someone you're not or trying to force your brain to work like everyone else's. It's about understanding your ADHD, building practical systems, leveraging your strengths, and finding ways to work with less stress and more fulfillment.
Whether you're an entrepreneur, business owner, executive, manager, or busy professional with adult ADHD, Overcoming Distractions offers practical advice and real-world perspectives to help you thrive.
Hosted by David Greenwood, entrepreneur, former corporate executive, author, and fellow adult with ADHD, the show explores how to succeed at work, build a business, lead people, and enjoy a more fulfilling life while working with an ADHD brain.
If you're an adult with ADHD who struggles with time management, energy, executive functioning, procrastination, prioritization, focus, organization, or burnout, you'll find practical strategies and honest conversations to help you work through those challenges.
Each week, David brings together ADHD experts, successful entrepreneurs, business owners, executives, and other professionals to discuss the real-world challenges of ADHD in business and the workplace.
Topics covered on Overcoming Distractions include:
• ADHD at Work: Managing workloads, deadlines, distractions, interruptions, and competing priorities.
• ADHD Executive Functioning: Improving time management, organization, planning, task initiation, and follow-through.
• ADHD and Entrepreneurship: Building systems, managing finances, delegating, making decisions, and running a business with ADHD.
• ADHD Leadership: Leading teams, leveraging strengths, improving communication, and navigating executive responsibilities.
• ADHD and Burnout: Managing stress, emotional regulation, overcommitment, and the demands of a busy professional life.
• Thriving with Adult ADHD: Building self-awareness, confidence, better habits, and a professional and personal life that works with your brain.
David draws on decades of entrepreneurial and executive experience, along with his own experience navigating life and business with ADHD.
This isn't about becoming someone you're not or trying to force your brain to work like everyone else's. It's about understanding your ADHD, building practical systems, leveraging your strengths, and finding ways to work with less stress and more fulfillment.
Whether you're an entrepreneur, business owner, executive, manager, or busy professional with adult ADHD, Overcoming Distractions offers practical advice and real-world perspectives to help you thrive.
Episodes
Mentioned books
Jan 30, 2021 • 47min
Getting your ADHD life on a positive cycle for 2021
In this episode, we talk about getting your ADHD life back on a positive cycle and identify the lessons learned from the past year. While there has been a lot of negativity in our lives the past year, we know we can find some positives to help us through the coming years as well as lessons learned. This week we have back Dr. Sarah Cheyette who has incredible knowledge in the world of ADHD. She has been on the podcast several times and offers tremendous insights into how we can thrive with ADHD. This week we discuss how many with ADHD may have let certain things in our life and business get a little out of control due to the circumstances of the pandemic. They may be subtle things but are issues we need to work on to thrive in the coming year. Sarah and Dave discuss how many of us may have lost our job, started a new job or career, had increased family obligations and how we have had to prioritize those to create a so-called normal life during these times. Dr. Sarah digs deep into why many of us have let our negative thoughts take over and how this has happened. You do not have to have ADHD to have negativity slowly fill your life because of what we are living through. Everyone is experiencing some form of negative thinking. Sarah talks about how we can look back at what we have learned in the past year and how much of this can benefit us in the future. That includes learning new skills, developing new routines, finding new ways to work as well as get things done around the house and even learning to be a home cook. How can we improve focus with these new skills? Sarah offers her advice. She also offers her professional advice on how to set goals given our current circumstances. Sarah walks us through how to get back on a positive cycle and slowly shed that negative thought process. She helps us be slightly better today than we were yesterday. If you feel like negativity has been taking over your life this past year, this is a great discussion and worth your time. Find Sarah Cheyette here: https://sarahcheyette.com/
Jan 23, 2021 • 48min
How to communicate with different brains in a remote workplace
Communicating in a remote workplace is much different than how you communicate with coworkers and others in person. We have all found this out since COVID-19 struck us. This podcast is going to go through how we can improve our communications when we have different brains, as well as communicating with other different brains. Back on the podcast is Grant Crowell the author of Grantasms- Twisted Creative Words for Cool People. Grant also serves as a trainer for various individuals and organizations and helps to train those with a neurodiverse background. Grant and Dave discussed the fact that communication has changed and suffered in this new remote world we are living and working in. Grant talks about some of the biggest struggles with online communication and specifically for those with ADHD or other different brains. Grant discusses the differences between face-to-face meetings and online meetings as well as the challenges that both have presented us this past year. Grant talks about some of his strategies for better communication and he talks about how two different brains, for example, two people with ADHD can communicate more effectively with each other. Grant offers his tips for better communication including coming to commonality with others, the power of listening, the power of follow-ups, mimicking communication styles, and making sure you do not assume anything especially when it comes to communicating online. He also discusses the power of a communication audit in an organization. Find Grant's book here: https://www.amazon.com/GRANTASMS-Creative-twisted-words-people-ebook/dp/B07ZY9JDPP
Jan 16, 2021 • 47min
What productivity really means when you have ADHD
We are continuing to learn the lessons from the year 2020 in order to have a much more productive 2021. Many of us have lost track of time, had to adjust our routines because of COVID-19 and have found out what it really means to be productive. On this episode we are going to discuss what productivity really means to an individual and will focus in on how to identify the productivity strategies that work for you. We have back Dr. Sarah Reiff-Hekking of True Focus Coaching. She is a time management and productivity guru and has been on Overcoming Distractions before with her expert advice and tips. We start by discussing some of the lessons that many of us may have learned about productivity as a result of the year 2020. And Sarah asks the question, what went well? A question we should all be asking ourselves. Focusing on the negative aspects and what we did not get done, does not help us at all. How did you move the ball forward this past year? Sarah and Dave also discuss that there is not one bullet proof productivity technique. Everyone is different and you need to experiment with different strategies to find out how you can be most productive and manage your time officially. Experimenting is the answer to finding this out for yourself. Sarah discusses other aspects of productivity such as having a good relationship with your calendar in your to do list. She discusses the importance of building tools for productivity and finding simple tools to help you get more done with the time that you have. And Dr. Sarah discusses what productivity is. When you get to do what is important to you, when you can be effective been getting things done, and how you could achieve your own goals with increased productivity. She ends by asking you one important question. What is one meaningful thing you have done this week? If you are struggling with productivity after this past year and you want to figure out how to take the lessons from what COVID-19 has forced us to do and turn those into positives for 2021, you need to listen to what Dr. Sarah has to say in this podcast. You can find Dr. Sarah Reiff-Hekking at True Focus Coaching; www.TrueFocusCoaching.com
Jan 9, 2021 • 43min
Hey you with ADHD-Have more fun this year
If you went through the year 2020 then you probably experienced a lot of ups and downs. All of us ADHD or not experienced a lot of emotions and the year was quite a rollercoaster. Because of that, many of us probably did not have as much fun as we wanted to in our lives. Dr. Kirsten Milliken is back on the podcast to discuss ways to have more fun in 2021. And boy do we need fun after the year we've had. Kirsten is a big advocate of using fun and play to manage your ADHD and to help you thrive in life and in business. Kirsten is also the co-founder of "World of ADHD." The project profiles many successful individuals that just happened to have ADHD. Anyone with ADHD can submit their art, writing, music and other creative projects to show the positive aspects of having ADHD. Kirsten gives us an update on this important project. Of course, having a discussion about fun, would not be fun without some laughs and there are plenty of laughs between Kirsten and Dave in this discussion. Kirsten discusses is why play and fun are so important to the ADHD brain. Having fun keeps us motivated in other areas and activates that all-important dopamine that we need to get through the day. She gives us examples of how we can stay motivated and how we can actually play better. Kirsten wraps up with her tips for incorporating fun into our lives and staying connected even in a pandemic like we have been experiencing. That includes incorporating fun in smaller environments in ways we can still meet new people. Have you found something new and fun this year? Maybe it was cooking, a new form of exercise or you found a new TV show to binge-watch. Whatever it is, make sure you have fun this year. Find World of ADHD here: https://www.worldofadhd.com/
Jan 6, 2021 • 15min
Adult ADHD'ers-What is your plan for 2021?
Let's show the year 2020 the door in this episode and let it be known that it is not welcome back. What is your plan for 2021 and what have you learned from last year? On this podcast, Dave talks about moving forward from a rough year and how to look back at the positives so we can all make 2021 a better year. Dave talks about how all the negative energy of the past 10 months has been exhausting and stressful for many. But he also talks about how many of us have learned a lot and that 2020 taught us quite a few lessons. Those lessons include how to alter our routines and how we've had to change the way we have done things in the past based on what our family life and working conditions were like this past year. Many of us with ADHD have become more resilient, have shown our toughness, and have learned how to manage our time better even though we might not have a good relationship with time. Take checks off his To Do List for 2021 which includes consuming positive content on the Internet as well as books and setting boundaries on his time to hit better goals. Dave goes through the next several episodes of the podcast quickly with the theme of crushing it in 2021. Hopefully, this podcast will help you feel better about the year ahead and help you take what you've learned this past year and use it for good moving forward.
Jan 2, 2021 • 47min
The power of self-discipline-Part 2
Self-discipline is the foundation of achieving what we want in life and becoming the person we were meant to be. Without self-discipline, we will never know the life we could have achieved and the goals we could have accomplished. That is why this discussion is so important. This is part two of our discussion on the power of self-discipline for those with ADHD and others. You do not have to have ADHD to walk away with a ton of value from this podcast. Dave continues his discussion with Giovanni Dienstmann, A meditation and self-discipline teacher and coach. While many with a distracted brain may be challenged when it comes to self-discipline, Giovanni addresses those individuals right at the beginning about any skepticism they may have. He does so by talking about his younger years when he did not feel so peaceful or disciplined. By looking at his own upbringing, Giovanni feels confident that his advice can help just about anybody become centered and disciplined in life. Dave and Giovanni spend time on the concept of willpower. And Giovanni specifically addresses willpower for those who may have an impulsive nature. That would include those with ADHD. Giovanni talks about how optimism goes hand in hand with willpower and he offers his tips for being more optimistic about the process. He also breaks down the concept of awareness both internal and external awareness. Giovanni feels this is a big part of becoming more self-disciplined in life. He discusses meditation, journaling, and integration as parts of the awareness journey. Giovanni ends the discussion with small steps people can take to begin the journey of more self-discipline in their lives including the PAW Method, Pause, Awareness, and Willpower. If you are looking for a methodical and well-thought-out approach to getting more out of life and finding the discipline you need to achieve your goals, this is a great discussion. Find Giovanni at his website and learn more about the programs he offers. MindfulSelfDiscipline.com https://liveanddare.com/
Dec 26, 2020 • 41min
How to get out of your own way when you have ADHD
We're not going to sugarcoat anything in this podcast episode. Many with and without ADHD tend to get in their own way when it comes to progress in life and creating the life and business that you want for yourself. So the topic of this podcast is how to get out of your own way. The guest is Nancy Colier. Nancy is a psychotherapist, a past guest on Overcoming Distractions, and the author of a book by this same title. How to Get Out of Your Own Way. Many never really live the life or achieve the goals they want because of limiting beliefs, negative mindset and telling ourselves that we are not worth the goals that we're trying to achieve or a successful life. We tell ourselves some things and after time we believe it whether it is negative or positive. And that by definition is being in our own way. And Nancy is going to walk us through how to tear down that internal brick wall in front of us. Nancy and Dave discuss what it actually means to be in your own way as well as how this actually happens in our personal lives and in our business. They discussed the many things that limited beliefs and an improper mindset can prevent us from doing in our lives. Nancy talks about how negative internal thoughts, chasing perfection and self-doubt can limit our ability to live the life we want and to actually enjoy that life. The two talk about how you need to be present in the moment and how to get into the "now," they discuss how elite athletes get into the zone and how successful people block out what does not work for them. This is part one of a 2-part series on this topic so stay tuned for Nancy's next appearance here. Learn more about Nancy Colier on her website and find more books written by her; http://nancycolier.com/
Dec 19, 2020 • 49min
ADHD and radical self-acceptance Part 2
This is part two of our discussion about radical self-acceptance with ADHD coach Diann Wingert. Diann and Dave continue their discussion about why it is so important to get comfortable with yourself and accept your strengths and weaknesses. Doing so is a very powerful way to thrive in life and in business. Diann talks about the negative biases of the brain and how that affects accepting who we are. She also talks about knowing what your triggers are so that you can minimize limiting beliefs and mindsets. She also talks about how to embrace ourselves, moving towards a positive attitude, and how our emotions can control our behaviors. Diann gives her road map to getting on that path of radical self-acceptance. She talks about how to begin the process of creating a positive mindset. Diann also talks about the fact that there are people in our lives that are going to like us and not and that is all right. She said it is OK to stand out and be different and to share our gifts with others. Diann also talks about how important it is to do things we are good at in our personal lives and in our careers. She discusses how we must laugh at ourselves to begin to accept ourselves, we need to release resentment and self-pity and we need to forgive ourselves often. Find Diann Wingert on her website: https://www.diannwingertcoaching.com/
Dec 12, 2020 • 50min
A Journey of Self Discipline Part 1
This podcast is dedicated to the journey of self-discipline. At times to be clear, it may be a tough discussion, we get in your face a little bit, and we show you what's possible when you can implement some self-discipline into your life. We have back Giovanni Deinstmann, a mindfulness and discipline coach based in Sydney Australia. Giovanni works with all types of people including those of us with a distracted mind. We have a frank discussion about how to implement self-discipline strategies into our daily lives. We talk about how long-term goals should take precedence over our short-term urges and instant gratification. We recognize that this is one of the biggest battles for many with adult ADHD and in fact we also recognize that it can be an hourly battle to reduce our short-term urges. We discuss why the distracted mind is challenged with self discipline and some of the strategies to slowly get on the path of disciplining your life so you can thrive. We address how many with ADHD can run out of steam or energy during the day and how we can factor that into practicing self discipline for the long term. Giovanni also discusses what some may think is a radical approach to hitting the reset button with his monk week. He describes it as a dopamine detox, staying away from bad dopamine such as social media in other instant cravings. This is part one of a two-part podcast series with Giovanni on self discipline. Learn more about how to work with Giovanni here: https://liveanddare.com/
Nov 28, 2020 • 55min
Radical Self-Acceptance with Adult ADHD Part 1
We begin a two-part series on the subject of ADHD and self-acceptance. In fact, we bring it to another level on this podcast by calling it radical self-acceptance. Adults with ADHD can truly thrive in life and in business with the proper mindset. And this podcast episode hits adult ADHD head-on and hard to uncover why some of us cannot get out of our own way. Dave has a very frank and open discussion with ADHD coach Diann Wingert. Diann is a former psychotherapist turned ADHD coach for busy women and executives. While she does work with women; her advice will help anyone as you will see in this podcast. Diane talks about what thriving with adult ADHD really means. Dave and Diane discussed negative talk that inside comparison with ourselves and they touch on how to love and respect ourselves. They discuss at length how adults with ADHD are not broken and how we can reduce the stigma within ourselves about our adult ADHD. Diann defines radical self-acceptance and what that means for us as we try and thrive in life and business. This is a very upfront discussion about the truths and realities of thriving with adult ADHD. Diann prides herself on taking a no BS approach to living an enriched life with ADHD. But let's make it clear, we both know many struggle as adults and children when it comes to ADHD. We recognize that and we hope that a blunt discussion about how many people have thrived with ADHD can bring about greater awareness and help people accept themselves including their strengths and their weaknesses. This is part one of a two-part series with ADHD coach Diann Wingert. Find out more about Diann here: https://www.diannwingertcoaching.com/
