Hey Team!

Welcome to a special Feed Drop episode - this week we're featuring the ADHD Skills Lab which is hosted by none other than Skye Waterson who you all know from our Research Recap series. And today I have the pleasure of hosting an episode from their show How to Stop Panic-Planning and Actually Lower Your ADHD Anxiety. So this show focuses on support for business owners or anyone who does their own thing with ADHD, which honestly is a lot of us. In this episode Skye and Robbie share why some tasks can feel impossible with ADHD and how to reduce overwhelm when doing them and I was really interested in their discussion about perfect systems versus usable systems because that's something that I always struggle with because it's so easy to fall down that rabbit hole.

So join me as we dive into this episode of ADHD Skills Lab!

Welcome to Hacking Your ADHD. I'm your host, William Curb, and I have ADHD. On this podcast, I dig into the tools, tactics, and best practices to help you work with your ADHD brain. Today, I'm joined by Skye Waterson for our research recap series. In this series, we take a look at a single research paper and dive into what the paper says, how it was conducted, and try to find any practical takeaways.

In this episode, we're going to be discussing a paper called "Evidence of Emotion Dysregulation as a Core Symptom of Adult ADHD: A Systematic Review." Just to give a bit of background here, when Skye and I were discussing topics to look into for future episodes, rejection sensitive dysphoria was one that seemed like it might be really interesting to see what's actually out there. In a way, it was interesting because there's just not a whole lot of research on the topic. So instead, we came up with this paper, which asks whether emotion dysregulation should be considered a core fourth symptom of adult ADHD alongside traditional things like inattention, impulsivity, and hyperactivity.

To get started, let's try to get a quick definition of what we're talking about with emotional dysregulation and, of course, rejection sensitive dysphoria. You want to hit that one, Skye?

If you'd life to follow along on the show notes page you can find that at HackingYourADHD.com/319

https://tinyurl.com/56rvt9fr - Unconventional Organisation Affiliate link

https://tinyurl.com/y835cnrk - YouTube

Hey Team!

This week I'm talking with the fantastic Jessica McCabe. Many of you probably know Jessica from her award-winning YouTube Channel, How to ADHD, where she has helped millions of people better understand how ADHD brains work. And Jessica is a returning guest, last time she was on we talked about her then upcoming and now New York Times bestselling book, How to ADHD: An Insider's Guide to Working with Your Brain (Not Against It) - which just came out in paperback.

And last time Jessica was on the show she was pregnant, so we dive into that a bit on this episode, discussing how having a kid really changed everything for her. And we really do dive into some of those struggles that come with parenting while ADHD and how those can compound with regular ADHD struggles as well through things like sleep, scheduling and how much pressure we put on ourselves. We also get to hear a little about the new book that Jessica is starting to work on.

How to ADHD: An Insider's Guide to Working with Your Brain (Not Against It) - Barnes & Noble

How to ADHD: An Insider's Guide to Working with Your Brain (Not Against It) - Amazon

If you'd life to follow along on the show notes page you can find that at HackingYourADHD.com/318

YouTube: https://tinyurl.com/y835cnrk

Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/HackingYourADHD

This episode's Top Tips:

1. A system can be a great fit for how your brain works and still stop fitting the life you're actually living. When something that used to work stops working, check what changed around it, be it your schedule, responsibilities, environment, or available support. Then look at what was useful about the old system and what needs to change to fit the life you have now.

2. Try putting something you actually want to do on the calendar before everything else fills the space. That might also mean scheduling more time for rest or fun than feels strictly necessary, because if we leave those things to whatever time is left over, there often isn't much left. This is something I've talked about before and am still not particularly good at myself, but making space for it deliberately gives that time a much better chance of actually happening.

3. Progress isn't about reaching a point where everything suddenly becomes easy. Part of it is adjusting what you expect from yourself, and part of it is getting better at recognizing which tools and supports you need. So when you're struggling, instead of making that struggle a verdict about yourself, ask: Why is this hard right now, and what can I do about it?

Hey Team!

This week I'm talking with someone who has an impressive 12 years of podcasting and over 800 episodes, Eric Zimmer, is the host of The One You Feed podcast, taking the name from the parable of the two wolves inside you and asking which one grows, well, it's the one you feed. After struggling with heroin addiction and homelessness in his twenties, Zimmer became deeply interested in how people make lasting changes in their lives. Drawing on both behavioral science and his own experience with addiction and recovery, Zimmer's work focuses on exploring behavior change, meaning, and what helps people build better lives. Zimmer is also the author of How a Little Becomes a Lot.

In our conversation, Eric and I talk about why lasting change is usually built with the small, unglamorous days after the big moment and not in the moment itself. We explore how structure can reduce the need for willpower, how it can help separate deciding from doing, and how change becomes easier when we treat it as a skill to practice rather than a test of character. And while Eric hasn't been diagnosed with ADHD himself, we still get into topics like time blindness, using tools without shame, and why a little bit of something often beats a lot of nothing.

If you'd life to follow along on the show notes page you can find that at HackingYourADHD.com/317

YouTube: https://tinyurl.com/y835cnrk

Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/HackingYourADHD

This episode's Top Tips:

1. Change is a skill you can get better at, not a trait that is set in stone. While it can feel impossible to change at first, it is something that we can get better at, it just takes practice. This doesn't mean that the process will be easy, just that if you keep at it you can make progress.

2. When possible, make the decision about what you're going to do, before you're in the moment of having to act. By giving yourself a little structure, you're not asking yourself to make a fresh decision every minute. And while you'll still have a choice to make when the time comes, you've already made that choice at least a little easier.

3. Often our plans are built out of our best case scenarios and can break down when we hit the speed bumps of real life. So it's important that we remember that a little bit of something beats a lot of nothing. This means that we want to decide the minimum version of what we're doing instead of relying on that best case scenario.

Welcome to Hacking Your ADHD. I'm your host, William Curb, and I have ADHD. On this podcast, I dig into the tools, tactics, and best practices to help you work with your ADHD brain. Today, I'm joined by Skye Waterson for our Research Recap series. In this series, we take a look at a single research paper, dive into what it says and how it was conducted, and try to find practical takeaways.

In this episode, we're discussing a paper called "Evaluating Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD): A Review of Current Methods and Issues." This is a continuation of what we were talking about two weeks ago. This is Part 2 because the paper was so long and densely packed with information.

If you'd life to follow along on the show notes page you can find that at HackingYourADHD.com/316

https://tinyurl.com/56rvt9fr - Unconventional Organisation Affiliate link

https://tinyurl.com/y835cnrk - YouTube

Hey Team!

This week I'm talking with Dana K. White, the creator of A Slob Comes Clean and the author of Decluttering at the Speed of Life, How to Manage Your Home Without Losing Your Mind, and her newest book Procrastinators Get Stuff Done: How to Go from Overwhelmed to Finished. Her work grew out of her own struggles with clutter and home management, and she's become known for practical, reality-based strategies designed for people who feel like traditional organizing advice just doesn't work for them.

This was a real fun episode and I just gotta say that I love that title, A Slob Comes Clean - it's a pun, it tells you exactly what to expect and gives that little of hey I was there too and we both can get out. Also as a slob myself, it's very validating.

So, in our conversation today we work through her decluttering methodology, from where we should start to where something goes to how we really should be using containers. We also talk about clutter thresholds, family-buy-in, ways to reframe what a win actually looks like. She also shares some of the ways her advice has changed over the years, including things she used to recommend and now recommends against.

If you'd life to follow along on the show notes page you can find that at HackingYourADHD.com/315

YouTube: https://tinyurl.com/y835cnrk

Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/HackingYourADHD

This Episode's Top Tips

1. 1. When putting stuff away it's important to decide where you'd look for an item and put it there instead of just thinking about where it "should" go. By putting something where you'd look for it first, when it comes time to look for the thing you know exactly where to go.

   2. While a container's first job is to hold things, it also serves as a way to set limits on how much of something can go in there. When the container is full, that's it, that's the limit and that decision is made for you.

   3. If we can change our goals from "done" to "better" we can shift our entire mentality around cleaning, organizing and decluttering. Instead of needing to set aside a whole weekend to completely upend your house, you can do five minutes and that progress still counts as a win.

Hey Team!

This week I'm talking with Dr. Jolene Brighten, a naturopathic doctor, women's health educator, and author whose work focuses on hormones, reproductive health, and the ways hormonal changes can affect women across their lifespan. She's the author of Beyond the Pill and Is This Normal?, and her newest work, ADHD and Women, coming out October 6th, explores the intersection of hormones and ADHD in women.

I know hormones and ADHD is a topic we've explored before, but Dr. Brighten was a delight to have on the show, and this conversation went in all kinds of directions. So yes, we talked about how hormonal shifts across your life affect ADHD symptoms, why medication can sometimes feel less effective at different points, and some of the ways those changes may show up differently for women with ADHD.

But we also got into the much more practical question of what you actually do when you know your brain isn't going to perform exactly the same way every day, like externalizing executive function instead of trying to remember harder, building small pleasures into the day, and recognizing that sometimes the best intervention isn't the full protocol, it's finding the smallest lever you can actually pull.

Dr. Brighten's Book ADHD & Women: https://drbrighten.com/adhd-and-women/

Dr. Brighten's Website: https://drbrighten.com

Dr. Brighten's Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/drjolenebrighten

Dr. Brighten's Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@DrJoleneBrighten

Dr. Brighten's Tiktok: https://www.tiktok.com/@drjolenebrighten

Dr. Brighten's Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/drbrighten/

If you'd life to follow along on the show notes page you can find that at HackingYourADHD.com/314

YouTube: https://tinyurl.com/y835cnrk

Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/HackingYourADHD

This Episode's Top Tips

1. 1. With ADHD it's often said that we know what to do, but have trouble executing on those ideas. For something like exercise, the best idea is then to work towards making it accessible. Instead of focusing on getting the biggest result, we can look toward what we actually enjoy doing and can sustain, even if for just a little bit, we're going to see far more consistent results.
   2. It's important to remember that everything has a cost, even if we're not noticing it at the moment. These costs can compound when we're not paying attention and lead us to wonder why doing just one simple task can leave us exhausted. This doesn't mean that we necessarily need to be doing less, but it does mean we need to pay extra attention to what something is actually going to cost us.
   3. Our brains are not meant to be at peak productivity all month, and that applies doubly if you experience a cycle. As Dr. Brighten says, "that is [just] how you are physiologically designed." This means that it's important that we're giving ourselves grace and letting ourselves block out time on the calendar for when we're not going to be at our peak (and again, we do not need to be at our peak all the time, or even most of the time; it's called the peak for a reason).

Welcome to Hacking Your ADHD. I'm your host, William Curb, and I have ADHD. On this podcast, I dig into the tools, tactics, and best practices to help you work with your ADHD brain. Today, I'm joined by Skye Waterson for our Research Recap series. In this series, we take a look at a single research paper and dive into what the paper says, how it was conducted, and try and find any practical takeaways.

In this episode, we're going to be discussing a paper called Evaluating Attention Deficit and Hyperactivity Disorder, ADHD: A Review of Current Methods and Issues. And this paper is a narrative review that surveys the current landscape of ADHD diagnosis, where the DSM criteria came from, how they've evolved, and any known problem areas that are in there.

If you'd life to follow along on the show notes page you can find that at HackingYourADHD.com/313

https://tinyurl.com/56rvt9fr - Unconventional Organisation Affiliate link

https://tinyurl.com/y835cnrk - YouTube

https://www.patreon.com/HackingYourADHD - Patreon