Hacking Your ADHD

Hey team, we’re back at it for another episode about slowing down, but this time we’re looking at activation energy, which is the idea we’re going to need to have a certain amount of energy available to get started on a task. When we’re getting ready to get to the next thing on our to-do list, sometimes it can feel like it’s just too much, and getting started is really going to be the hardest part. Activation energy is that minimum threshold for us to get going on that thing, and some days it just isn’t there, and so today, we’re going to be looking at ways that we make getting started a little bit easier. Support me on Patreon Feel free to ask me a question on my Contact Page Find the full show note at HackingYourADHD.com/131 This Episode's Top Tips Activation energy is what takes us from thinking about doing something to actually doing it. It’s what can keep us on the couch when we feel like we could be doing something else. When we rely on urgency being our primary mode of motivation it can make it increasingly hard to work on anything that isn’t urgent. Different tasks take different amounts of energy to activate on and we can work on lower that barrier to entry or increasing our amount of available energy. We can do this by making tasks more fun, using accountability, and breaking our tasks into smaller parts.

Hey team, this week we’re going to keep up our discussion of slowing down, but we’re going to be focusing on memory - well, kind of. With ADHD, it can be hard for us to remember all of the things that we need to do, so what comes into play is the good old to-do list. Because when we’re talking about memory, what we’re really talking about in this context is task management. How we’re going to remember the things we want to do and how we’re going to go about doing those things. Support me on Patreon Feel free to ask me a question on my Contact Page Find the full show note at HackingYourADHD.com/130 This Episode's Top Tips To-do lists serve as a way for us to externalize our memory - we don’t have to mentally keep track of all the things we write down. But if we don’t properly use and curate our lists, they stop being a trusted source of information. We can use our to-do lists to help plan our days, but if we find ourselves constantly not finishing our daily plans, that is a sign that we need to cut back on how much we’re trying to accomplish in a single day. Part of slowing down is accepting that we don’t have to do it all. To help keep our to-do lists from becoming overwhelming, it is important we’re saying no more. One of the most important people we need to say to no more, however, is ourselves.

Hey team, this week we’re going to be talking about slowing down. One of the worst parts of ADHD is that we often feel like we have to do all of the things right now. That if we don’t jump from task to task to task, we’re just not going to get anything done. We live a life where we only have two modes, doing nothing and super speed. It’s exhausting, and we often find ourselves missing important things because we can’t keep up that pace. In today’s episode, we’re going to be talking about how we can work on slowing down and trying to find a more comfortable middle ground between those two modes. If you'd life to follow along on the show notes page you can find that at HackingYourADHD.com/129 Support me on Patreon Feel free to ask me a question on my Contact Page This Episode’s Top Tips When we’re talking about slowing down, there are three areas that we need to focus on - time management, task management, and activation energy. While the simplest solution seems to just do fewer things, when we’re choosing to do less, it becomes more important for us to be selecting the right tasks. We can also feel the need to maintain momentum in our day, which can lead us to overdo it and burn ourselves out. If we can build the belief in ourselves that we will, in fact, make time for all those important but not urgent tasks, it can help us slow down and do only what we really need to do.

I’ve been thinking about the phrase, “I want to hit the ground running,” and how that’s kind of how many of us try and start the year. I know that’s how I felt - and honestly, in that first week of the year, I was doing great… but then I got covid. That really threw a snag into things. With ADHD we tend to like to go fast with things; we don’t want to wait around. But that’s usually not actually our best strategy. Going from one urgent task to the next can keep us motivated, but it can make it hard to get to anything that isn’t urgent. In today’s episode, we’re going to be exploring how we use urgency as a drive to get more done but how we also need to learn to make time for all those important but not urgent tasks. If you'd life to follow along on the show notes page you can find that at HackingYourADHD.com/ibnu Support me on Patreon Feel free to ask me a question on my Contact Page This Episode’s Top Tips Just because something feels urgent doesn’t mean that it’s actually important that we do it right that instant. We often have We often use deadlines to motivate ourselves into doing the important things, but living deadline to deadline only allows us to work on things that at urgent and let’s many things that are important but not urgent fall by the wayside. Using accountability is a great way for us to follow through with our plans to complete all of our important but not urgent tasks. We can do this either through creating artificial deadlines or through co-working.

Hey team, this week we have another listener question: Hi there. I just wanted to say thank you so much. I was riding my bike while listening to your podcast and that really helped my brain to be able to digest the information and I was audibly saying, “Yes. Right. Okay.” And it was like I was talking to you, so I just wanted to say thank you so much. I'm not even sure if I have a question, but today I did Google, “What's it like for people who don't have ADHD?” And in the three years of you having this podcast, forgive me if that's one that maybe I haven't listened to yet and completely ignore this and just take the compliment and the celebratory win of you are really affecting people's lives. I know that you've affected mine, and I know people have asked me, Hey, continue with your podcast, but because of some of the things I'm learning and managing with my own executive functioning, I haven't been as consistent with my own podcast. So it's really inspirational to know that you are out here doing it and honestly had such a wonderful structure and the music, and I'm like, wow, he really understands. He's really someone who actually understands what it's like in the brain and in the mind. So it was just such a pleasant experience to have found this podcast and I'm just so, so grateful. So I just wanted to say that. Thank you. Thank you so much for the kind words about the podcast and you know what, that isn’t an episode I’ve done - it isn’t even a question I’ve ever thought about that much, but it is an incredibly intriguing one. Often when we’re talking about ADHD we’re talking about what it’s like to have ADHD, but from my standpoint, well I already know what that’s like, so what would it be like if I didn’t have it? So that is the question we’re going to be looking at in this episode as well as looking into the terms neurotypical and neurodivergent as well as getting into a little bit about masking. Support me on Patreon Feel free to ask me a question on my Contact Page Find the show note at HackingYourADHD.com/noadhd

Hey team, Happy New Year! I’m excited to get going into 2023, but I also don’t want to just be doing everything by the seat of my pants, so it’s time to do a little planning and think about how we want this year to go. In this episode, I will be talking about rest and planning and getting into some of the things I specifically want to do with the podcast in 2023. Support me on Patreon Feel free to ask me a question on my Contact Page Find the show note at HackingYourADHD.com/2023

One of the things I never quite got a grasp on is seasons... I mean I grew up in Hawaii and we basically had hot and not quite as hot. But this comes up for me because technically we're still in Spring right now so I guess this could still be a Spring Cleaning episode - officially Summer starts on the Solstice in June on the 20th... so I made in by like a week if you're listening to this when it comes out. Regardless of if this is Spring Cleaning or not, cleaning can be a great way to signal the start of something new. We all get used to the mess in our space and freshening things up can not only signal the start of something new but also shift our mindset. Today I'll be exploring the benefits of cleaning, how we can update our space, some tips on accountability, and then get into a few of the specific things that you can do. Support me on Patreon Ask me a question on my Contact Page Find the full show note at HackingYourADHD.com/freshstartcleaning This Episode's Top Tips You can help spur your fresh start by rearranging your space - this doesn't have to be a big move, but sprucing up your environment can help it feel new and like you are starting fresh. Getting rid of our old stuff can help lift mental burdens and take care of old open loops. Our accumulated stuff often carries more mental weight than we really know. To help keep on track during cleaning make sure you create some accountability. It can be a great way to help you follow through with your planning and also in the moment through body doubling. Leave yourself notes as to where you left off in your cleaning so when you come back you can pick it back up without having to try and figure out what you were trying to do. While it may seem like we wouldn't forget, it's easy to lose track of where we were at in our plans.

Hey team, this week we’ve got a listener question: "My name is Mike and I have a question about wrapping things up. I have a really difficult time on the last lap of projects, or sometimes there is like a secret lap after what I thought was the last lap, which, you know, sometimes depending on the project includes like sending thank you notes or thank you emails or a bunch of stuff where I sort of feel like I already spent all of the dopamine and executive function of the rewards of a project. And then once I sort of feel like I reached that finish line, I realized there are a bunch of little loose ends that need tidying and I have a really hard time getting to them cuz it feels like it's over. Okay. Thank you very much." Hey, Mike, thanks for the question; I’m sure this is something that a lot of people deal with, I know I certainly do. It can feel incredibly disheartening to finish a task and then find out that, oh wait, there’s just a little bit more to do. In today’s episode, we’ll be looking at how we can clean up some of these loose ends and also how we can avoid getting into some of these situations. If you'd life to follow along on the show notes page you can find that at HackingYourADHD.com/125 Support me on Patreon Feel free to ask me a question on my Contact Page

Hey team, this week I’m talking with Aleta Storch of Wise Heart Nutrition, a small nutrition practice made up of 3 neurodivergent-affirming dietitians. She is a Registered Dietitian, Licensed Therapist, and a Body Trust Provider. Many of us with ADHD face many issues around eating and feeding ourselves - from things that can arise from choosing what to eat, when to eat, or just not having the executive function to get ourselves to eat. In our conversation today, Aleta and I talk about some of these issues surrounding ADHD and eating, such as interoception, meal planning, and issues surrounding executive function. We also discuss intuitive eating and how we can modify those ideas to fit in with our ADHD. If you're interested, be sure to sign up for the ADHD reWired Coaching and Accountability Groups at coachingrewired.com Support me on Patreon Feel free to ask me a question on my Contact Page Find the show note at HackingYourADHD.com/wiseheart Be sure to checkout Wise Heart Nutrition on their website: wiseheartnutrition.com or on Instagram

Hey team, as we begin to get ready to roll into the new year, we’re going to be seeing a lot more about New Year’s Resolutions and goal setting - but we’re also going to be getting a lot of pushback articles as well. Articles telling us how setting goals is only setting us up for failure and what we need to do instead. And the question is, who do we believe? In this episode, we’re going to be examining some of the arguments against setting goals and also looking at what we might want to be doing instead and how we can combine that all into one overall theory. Support me on Patreon Feel free to ask me a question on my Contact Page This Episode’s Top Tips Regardless if you want to call something a goal or not, breaking down a goal into its component parts and focusing on the process that’s going to get you there is a better way to approach goal setting. We don’t want to be striving for arbitrary numbers goal setting needs to have a why behind it to have any meaningful impact. We don’t need to always hit our goals to be successful with them. Goals are often just targets we’re aiming for, and we can always learn from our failures.