Taking Control: The ADHD Podcast

This week on the show we’re talking with Christina Avallone, author of Thriving in a Digital World, to discuss the pitfalls many of us face when technology starts to take over. For Christina, it started at home as she navigated the massive technological shifts as a parent to her now-grown daughters. This experience led her down a path of research and exploration into technology, how a pathological use of our tech can impact the brain, and how systems presumably designed for productivity and connection can actually cause increased distraction and disconnection. Her book is driven not by a call for technological abstinence, but for understanding. For Christina, that means raising her children safe, in her faith, and aware of the tools in their pockets to do good in the world, while understanding their perils at the same time. (00:00) - Welcome to The ADHD Podcast (05:05) - Sponsor: TextExpander (08:09) - Introducing Christina Avallone (14:09) - Crossroads: Co-mingling tech and distraction (20:09) - Context Switching Challenges (23:40) - Being Present (30:19) - The FOBO-Rudeness Connundrum (33:15) - You Might have a problem with your tech if... (39:27) - Building a healthy relationship with your tech (42:14) - Learning to Learn your Technology 🎓 College Coaching for ADHD Students is Now Enrolling!Starting college with ADHD? Don’t go it alone. At Take Control ADHD, we offer two personalized coaching options to help students thrive both academically and emotionally. The Roadmap Planning Package includes two pre-semester strategy sessions to build custom calendars, break down big assignments, and create ADHD-friendly systems for success. For ongoing support, our Weekly Coaching Package offers one-on-one accountability throughout the semester to stay focused, flexible, and in control.Learn more and find the right fit at https://takecontroladhd.com/college. ★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★

Aron Croft was set up for success: Great college, high expectations from an education-centered family. Then ADHD stepped in. Aron lives with inattentive ADHD once the structures of his early education were left behind on his journey to college, the struggles set it.In fact, he struggled non-stop for 15 years before he discovered his relationship with ADHD. In spite of years of struggle, he's since built a career of his own, from finding success in major corporations to starting his own coaching practice for students with ADHD. This is a story about the conflict that exists between desire and expectation for success, and the reality of running into the brick wall of shame with a coach who has seen it from both sides. You can learn more about Aron and his work at Hidden ADHD, and make sure to check out Aron's Masterclass: "Get Sh*t Done With ADHD — Without Constant Stress and Self-Criticism (A Proven 3-Step Process)" while you're there! (00:00) - Welcome to The ADHD Podcast (05:54) - Introducing Aron Croft (13:07) - Moving to College, Losing Structure (24:25) - Diagnosis Story (36:49) - Inattentive ADHD (40:32) - Productivity (42:43) - The Three Slogans 🎓 College Coaching for ADHD Students is Now Enrolling!Starting college with ADHD? Don’t go it alone. At Take Control ADHD, we offer two personalized coaching options to help students thrive both academically and emotionally. The Roadmap Planning Package includes two pre-semester strategy sessions to build custom calendars, break down big assignments, and create ADHD-friendly systems for success. For ongoing support, our Weekly Coaching Package offers one-on-one accountability throughout the semester to stay focused, flexible, and in control.Learn more and find the right fit at https://takecontroladhd.com/college. ★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★

Here we are. Episode one of our new podcast. This week, we're talking about how we capture ideas, how we make room for new things in our lives, and how we make sure the things we really want to do have air to grow and flourish, while the things we don't are allowed to evaporate.Along the way we talk to two of my favorite brains, Doc Anderson and Brett Terpstra.We talked to Doc some months back on The ADHD Podcast about The Hero Engine. Since then, he and I realized we have a lot of nerd stuff in common and it is in fact Doc whom I credit for the term "Vampire Projects" in this show.Brett is working on a few projects in addition to his newish gig at Oracle. Bunch is his text file automation app, and Doing is his command line activity log. We'll talk about both this week.Listener Susan wrote in with a question about creating fillable PDF forms. I go into more detail in the show this week but here are direct links to what I recommend: Adobe Creative Cloud, PDF Pen Pro from Nitro.Finally, if you’re listening to this show on the website, thank you. But if you want to get it wherever you listen to your podcasts, I recorded a video to help you out.Update: We've got the transcript of the show up now. Sorry for the delay. Click here to check it out!  (00:00) - Welcome to Placeholder 🎓 College Coaching for ADHD Students is Now Enrolling!Starting college with ADHD? Don’t go it alone. At Take Control ADHD, we offer two personalized coaching options to help students thrive both academically and emotionally. The Roadmap Planning Package includes two pre-semester strategy sessions to build custom calendars, break down big assignments, and create ADHD-friendly systems for success. For ongoing support, our Weekly Coaching Package offers one-on-one accountability throughout the semester to stay focused, flexible, and in control.Learn more and find the right fit at https://takecontroladhd.com/college. ★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★

You know it, you live it, you suffer through it: It’s IMPOSTER SYNDROME! This week on the show, executive function coach Mallory Band joins us to talk about the weight of the imposter on our shoulders and how we might use the lessons of executive functioning to shake free of it. We start with a walk through imposter syndrome and how it manifests in our lives. Because it's not just the imposter weighing on us, it's the compound pressure of anxiety, fear, compulsive behaviors, and more that all play a role in how we see the person we see in the mirror. Mallory wrote two pieces for ADDitude over the course of the last year on the subject. 'How my Imposter Syndrom Sapped Me of Myself,' which she followed up with, 'How the Pandemic's Uncertainty Forced Me to Become More Secure in Myself,' both available to read for free. Connect with Mallory on LinkedIn and learn more about her work at Essig Education Group. (00:00) - Welcome to The ADHD Podcast (06:33) - Introducing Mallory Band (07:56) - What is an Executive Function Coach? (11:25) - The two sides of imposter syndrome (18:15) - RSD (Rejection Sensitivity) (20:41) - How do you retrain your brain? (29:37) - The Masks we Wear (37:21) - Imposter Syndrome and Burnout 🎓 College Coaching for ADHD Students is Now Enrolling!Starting college with ADHD? Don’t go it alone. At Take Control ADHD, we offer two personalized coaching options to help students thrive both academically and emotionally. The Roadmap Planning Package includes two pre-semester strategy sessions to build custom calendars, break down big assignments, and create ADHD-friendly systems for success. For ongoing support, our Weekly Coaching Package offers one-on-one accountability throughout the semester to stay focused, flexible, and in control.Learn more and find the right fit at https://takecontroladhd.com/college. ★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★

We’ve had a busy month around here at Take Control ADHD. This week, we’re introducing a new episode in to our podcast calendar. We don’t have a great name for it yet, but rest assured a great name is inbound! For now, we’re talking all about lessons we’ve learned in March. We started with a conversation on managing tasks against a visual representation of our time. It’s not easy, but sometimes stepping back from all the things you think you have to do on a given day and starting instead with the time you have to do things is the best way to get started with smart prioritization. From there, we introduced PACT Goals (Purposeful, Actionable, Continuous, and Trackable). Patrick McGinnis, the originator of FOMO, introduced us to FOBO (Fear of Better Options) where we learned the value of asking the universe for help to get a true gut-check on our feelings. Unblocking and Tackling helped us split our attention between getting ourselves unstuck and doing hard work, and finally, Casey Dixon helped us face facts about burnout!We finished our March Madness Pledge Drive having met our goals with your help and we’re off to April with a bunch of behind-the-scenes work and the launch of Placeholder — Pete’s new tech and systems podcast starting this week!This week’s episode is brought to you by TextExpander. Keep your message consistent, save time and be more productive, and be accurate — every time — with TextExpander. Visit https://takecontroladhd.com/textexpander to sign up today and get 20% off your first year as a supporter of The ADHD Podcast Community. And if you’re looking for how you can get started, just check out our February Workshop with Vic Martinez, trainer on the TextExpander team, for a video walkthrough! (00:00) - Welcome to The ADHD Podcast (03:35) - The March Madness Pledge Drive is Over: THANK YOU (05:08) - Sponsor: TextExpander is Back! takecontroladhd.com/textexpander (09:33) - Lessons Learned 🎓 College Coaching for ADHD Students is Now Enrolling!Starting college with ADHD? Don’t go it alone. At Take Control ADHD, we offer two personalized coaching options to help students thrive both academically and emotionally. The Roadmap Planning Package includes two pre-semester strategy sessions to build custom calendars, break down big assignments, and create ADHD-friendly systems for success. For ongoing support, our Weekly Coaching Package offers one-on-one accountability throughout the semester to stay focused, flexible, and in control.Learn more and find the right fit at https://takecontroladhd.com/college. ★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★

Burnout. That word probably means something to you. But for all the feelings the term conjures for you, there are so many feelings you just might have experienced yourself completely unaware that those feelings, too, are symptoms of burnout. And identifying where burnout lives, where it stops and ADHD begins, can be a tricky business, indeed. Casey Dixon is an ADHD Coach who has worked with wide range of individuals living with ADHD over the course of her career. She’s the founder of Dixon Life Coaching, a site that is dedicated to the mindfulness approach to ADHD through simple daily practices to help you with everything from focus, to movement and settling. This week on The ADHD Podcast, Casey joins us to help us deal with the horrors and the terrors of burnout. (00:00) - Welcome to Taking Control: The ADHD Podcast (01:51) - Support the Show: March Madness on Patreon! (05:04) - Introducing Casey Dixon (05:35) - On Burnout (17:42) - Compartmentalizing (20:38) - Beating Burnout (25:08) - The Five Ds (31:20) - What if it's really... the Job? (33:57) - Is a Vacation the Answer to Burnout? (39:50) - Proper Vacation Shame 🎓 College Coaching for ADHD Students is Now Enrolling!Starting college with ADHD? Don’t go it alone. At Take Control ADHD, we offer two personalized coaching options to help students thrive both academically and emotionally. The Roadmap Planning Package includes two pre-semester strategy sessions to build custom calendars, break down big assignments, and create ADHD-friendly systems for success. For ongoing support, our Weekly Coaching Package offers one-on-one accountability throughout the semester to stay focused, flexible, and in control.Learn more and find the right fit at https://takecontroladhd.com/college. ★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★

It’s case study day! Nikki has been working with a client struggling to get unstuck behind some big, challenging tasks. Those tasks are hiding behind other work making it tough to prioritize. After a few sessions with Coach Nikki, they settled on a pair of sessions they’re calling “Unblocking” and “Tackling” sessions. This week on the show, Nikki walks through the process with the aid of messages from the front lines in the form of client emails describing the challenges and successes that came from them!Haven’t heard our trailer for the upcoming Placeholder podcast? Stick around to the very end to check it out! (00:00) - Welcome to The ADHD Podcast (02:27) - Support the Show! Patreon.com/theadhdpodcast (06:24) - Case Study: Unblocking and Tackling (32:54) - Placeholder Trailer 🎓 College Coaching for ADHD Students is Now Enrolling!Starting college with ADHD? Don’t go it alone. At Take Control ADHD, we offer two personalized coaching options to help students thrive both academically and emotionally. The Roadmap Planning Package includes two pre-semester strategy sessions to build custom calendars, break down big assignments, and create ADHD-friendly systems for success. For ongoing support, our Weekly Coaching Package offers one-on-one accountability throughout the semester to stay focused, flexible, and in control.Learn more and find the right fit at https://takecontroladhd.com/college. ★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★

A podcast about the tech we use while we’re waiting for something better, for members of the Take Control ADHD Community. Coming April 2022. (00:00) - Welcome to Placeholder 🎓 College Coaching for ADHD Students is Now Enrolling!Starting college with ADHD? Don’t go it alone. At Take Control ADHD, we offer two personalized coaching options to help students thrive both academically and emotionally. The Roadmap Planning Package includes two pre-semester strategy sessions to build custom calendars, break down big assignments, and create ADHD-friendly systems for success. For ongoing support, our Weekly Coaching Package offers one-on-one accountability throughout the semester to stay focused, flexible, and in control.Learn more and find the right fit at https://takecontroladhd.com/college. ★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★

Patrick McGinnis, the person behind the term "FOMO", is back. This time, he introduces us to — as he calls it — the evil brother of FOMO that can ruin your life. That thing is FOBO. The Fear of Better Options. It's the fear that there is always something better for you out there that holds you back from making the most important decisions of today. It foils any effort you might make toward commitment. It keeps you looking inward, at yourself, behind a veil of selfishness disguised as investigation. It can make you a lousy friend or partner. And it can make you hate yourself. This week, Nikki and Pete dive into Analysis Paralysis. Here's your background reading from Patrick McGinnis himself. Here an entry on Michael Crichton's Wikipedia entry on Gell-Mann Amnesia, if you're interested in further reading on the subject. (00:00) - Welcome to The ADHD Podcast (05:44) - FOBO! (07:39) - FOMO v FOBO (09:10) - FOBO, Executive Functioning, and ADHD (15:26) - The McGinnis Approach (20:02) - Other Approaches (30:24) - Overcomplicating the Simple 🎓 College Coaching for ADHD Students is Now Enrolling!Starting college with ADHD? Don’t go it alone. At Take Control ADHD, we offer two personalized coaching options to help students thrive both academically and emotionally. The Roadmap Planning Package includes two pre-semester strategy sessions to build custom calendars, break down big assignments, and create ADHD-friendly systems for success. For ongoing support, our Weekly Coaching Package offers one-on-one accountability throughout the semester to stay focused, flexible, and in control.Learn more and find the right fit at https://takecontroladhd.com/college. ★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★

Never heard of PACT goals? You’re in for it today! We’re talking about a goal-setting metaphor with greater attention on outcomes than process and we think it has real legs when it comes to ADHD.PACT is a goal-setting technique and stands for Purposeful, Actionable, Continuous, and Trackable. Compared to other methods that focus on outcomes, PACT goals focus on output. What does that mean? Well, hopefully, but the time you get to work on your well-formed PACT goal, you’re doing it without all the shame that comes from feeling as if you’ve failed a process. This is a tool and a metaphor, and if it works for you, you’ll be building new habits in no time.Links & Notes‘Meet PACT: The Goal Setting Technique You’ve Never Heard Of’ by Tammy J. Salmon-StephensJoin the Pledge Drive! — Become a member in March for bonuses, live events, and help us reach our goal and launch a new podcast just for members! (00:00) - Welcome to The ADHD Podcast (02:05) - It's PLEDGE DRIVE TIME! (09:52) - PACT Goals (29:30) - How does motivation impact PACT Goals? 🎓 College Coaching for ADHD Students is Now Enrolling!Starting college with ADHD? Don’t go it alone. At Take Control ADHD, we offer two personalized coaching options to help students thrive both academically and emotionally. The Roadmap Planning Package includes two pre-semester strategy sessions to build custom calendars, break down big assignments, and create ADHD-friendly systems for success. For ongoing support, our Weekly Coaching Package offers one-on-one accountability throughout the semester to stay focused, flexible, and in control.Learn more and find the right fit at https://takecontroladhd.com/college. ★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★