Coaching clients frequently ask for recommendations of ADHD tools, apps, worksheets, planners, and products that they can use to improve productivity, time management, memory, focus, and other executive function skills. I generally balk at telling clients to use specific products because everyone is different and no one thing works for every person. The products that […]
Emotions happen. We don’t control them. We experience them. Emotions provide us with information about our internal state and our interpretation of our external environment, but they are not data. In certain circumstances, it makes sense to act in response to an emotion. For example, if you’re walking alone in a dark alley and you […]
Melanie came to coaching with her brain brimming with tasks, projects, appointments, ideas, and commitments. She also came to coaching shouldering an abundance of shame for how she had not followed through with these things or accomplished them in the way she believed she should. The slump of her shoulders signaled defeat. She felt it […]
As we explored the ADHD symptom of hyperfocus in one of our recent coaching sessions, Angel lamented that for her hyperfocus on a task doesn’t consistently result in productivity. She often experiences hyperfocus without the effect of moving forward. She says “It feels like I’m getting stuck just looking and thinking but not doing. I’m […]
Part 1 of The ADHD Brain and Systems addresses how the ADHD brain reacts to the systems we implement to bring order and control to our lives. It also provides three strategies you can use to make a system more effective. If you have not read part 1 yet, pause here and read it before […]
Carla arrived at coaching so frustrated with herself. She had determined a routine for her day in the previous session, but reported that she had “failed” at sticking with it. When I asked what she thought was getting in her way, she said, “It wasn’t a good plan. It doesn’t work. I just want a […]
The headline for a news story on my weather app read, “Coast to Coast Feeling Arctic Blast;Will it End?” I laughed. It struck me as humorous and, at the same time, existentially philosophical in its phrasing: this negative event is happening to us humans who fear daring to hope that the event is finite and […]
Creating Change Samantha and I spent the last couple of sessions analyzing her pattern of self talk and developing strategies to improve her internal conversation with herself. She says things to herself like, “I always make such stupid mistakes. I never pay attention to what I’m doing. Everybody knows I’m no good at this job.” […]
Stella, a high-achieving entrepreneur in the event planning sector, came to her recent coaching session wanting to figure out how to create “breathing room” between the completion of one major project and the launch of another so that she doesn’t repeat the pattern of cascading from one chaotic situation to the next. Her past pattern […]