Speaker 1: Hi everyone, and welcome back to another podcast episode. My
Speaker 1: name is Alicia Gogin, the host of the Globe Secrets podcast.
Speaker 1: Why help you expand your mind and become more self
Speaker 1: aware so that you can glow up into the best
Speaker 1: version of yourself. Hello, another day, another dollar. I feel
Speaker 1: like I used to always say that during the wintertime,
Speaker 1: so we're bringing it back. Another day, another slight, another dollar,
Speaker 1: another day to learn how to be productive. Okay, so
Speaker 1: this episode is probably gonna be long, and I've been
Speaker 1: waiting a long time to do this episode, which I
Speaker 1: think partly that has to do with the fact that
Speaker 1: I do struggle with ADHD tendencies and neurodivergency, which is
Speaker 1: perfect really because we're gonna talk about that today. We're
Speaker 1: gonna talk about how to get productive and focused, especially
Speaker 1: when you do have ADHD, dyslexia, anything under the neuro
Speaker 1: divergent umbrella. And I want to obviously make a disclaimer here.
Speaker 1: I'm not a doctor, I am not a therapist, I
Speaker 1: am none of those things. So take all of these
Speaker 1: tips as you will. I also am actually undiagnosed, but
Speaker 1: I do know one hundred percent that I do have
Speaker 1: ADHD tendencies, I like to say tendencies because I'm not
Speaker 1: really diagnosed, so that's just what I do, Okay. I
Speaker 1: also know that everything is a spectrum, so the way
Speaker 1: that I present some of my tendencies might not be
Speaker 1: the same as yours. Maybe you need to reach out
Speaker 1: for help, maybe you need to be on medication. That
Speaker 1: that is.
Speaker 2: Your own thing. I am not.
Speaker 1: I don't believe that I have a really really hard
Speaker 1: time with ADHD, mainly because I have learned how to
Speaker 1: manage it and learned ways to work around it, same
Speaker 1: with being dyslexic, which I am dyslexic. Also, I have
Speaker 1: a lot of mood issues. I would say I struggle
Speaker 1: with mild forms of PMDD right around my luteal phase,
Speaker 1: which makes it difficult for me to focused and be
Speaker 1: motivated and to be productive. All of these things do.
Speaker 1: So I'm going to talk about a lot of things.
Speaker 1: I want to kind of discuss a little bit about,
Speaker 1: like ADHD and how it kind of presents also dyslexia
Speaker 1: if you don't really know what that is. I want
Speaker 1: to talk to you about the understanding that I have
Speaker 1: of these things, at least within myself. And again, I
Speaker 1: am not a doctor. I am not a therapist. You
Speaker 1: can do your own research. I've spent a lot of
Speaker 1: time understanding myself, of course, but also diving into this.
Speaker 1: I'm also going to leave resources down below, very scientific
Speaker 1: podcast episodes if you really want to dive deep and
Speaker 1: understand from a biological level even but also just ways
Speaker 1: to educate yourself when it comes to this world of neurodivergence. Really,
Speaker 1: and of course I want to talk about all the things,
Speaker 1: or at least as much as I can, that have
Speaker 1: helped me be successful, because I'll tell you this. We'll
Speaker 1: do a little backstory. Okay, in school, I really really struggled.
Speaker 1: I had d's and f's through the entire school year
Speaker 1: of elementary and even high school until right at the
Speaker 1: end of high school. Actually, I was put into classes
Speaker 1: where you would get extra help, but in turn, a
Speaker 1: lot of the times being put in different classes where
Speaker 1: people had like learning disabilities and stuff. It actually, in
Speaker 1: my personal opinion, made it worse for me to catch
Speaker 1: up in the normal classes because I'd be pulled out
Speaker 1: so much, and I just don't feel like I had
Speaker 1: the support that I probably needed in order to really
Speaker 1: understand and learn the things that I needed to do.
Speaker 1: I'm sure people did the best job that they could,
Speaker 1: but I just really struggled in school. Thankfully, I was
Speaker 1: able to get extra time when it came to doing
Speaker 1: tests and things like that, but I still wasn't understanding
Speaker 1: a lot of things that I was being taught because
Speaker 1: of the way my brain works, especially when it comes
Speaker 1: to being dyslexic, and some of my ADHD tendencies actually
Speaker 1: are a result of not learning and moving through this
Speaker 1: world through the lens of understanding a dyslexic mind, which
Speaker 1: I want to kind of talk about that correlation. So
Speaker 1: I've had a lot of struggles when it comes to learning,
Speaker 1: retaining information, also just being productive and having focused and
Speaker 1: hitting goals and doing the things that I've been dying
Speaker 1: to do all my life. But I've also accomplished so
Speaker 1: many things, and I want to talk about these things.
Speaker 1: So you know, am I perfect? No? Have I achieved
Speaker 1: this insane amount of success? Maybe some people would think that,
Speaker 1: But like, there's so many more things that I need
Speaker 1: to accomplish or I want to accomplish, I should say,
Speaker 1: but I have accomplished a lot. I have gotten focused
Speaker 1: in my life, I have been productive, I have fixed
Speaker 1: my finances. I have changed the way that I view
Speaker 1: myself and the way that I learn. I feel like
Speaker 1: I'm a very smart person. I feel like I've learned
Speaker 1: how to speak, I've learned how to write and read.
Speaker 2: I am an author now.
Speaker 1: So there's so many like good things that can come
Speaker 1: out of being somebody who has these tendencies, these traits,
Speaker 1: and I want to share that information with you guys.
Speaker 1: So let's first talk a little bit about traits of
Speaker 1: ADHD and dyslexia. And these are really just like infographics.
Speaker 1: You can do your own research, like I already said,
Speaker 1: so let's talk about some symptoms of dyslexia. Also, some
Speaker 1: of the wording with these just don't get offended if
Speaker 1: they like I don't know. Sometimes I see like infographics
Speaker 1: where it says, uh, warning signs of dyslexia or like
Speaker 1: warning signs of ADHD, Like it doesn't need to be
Speaker 1: scary or like warning of anything.
Speaker 2: I don't know.
Speaker 1: Anyways, we're not gonna get offended. But let's read them out.
Speaker 1: Intelligent but has problems with reading, writing, or spelling, often
Speaker 1: confuses the right from the left. Intelligent but does not
Speaker 1: test well or have severe anxiety about testing seems to
Speaker 1: daydream or zone out when it in the Kay, do
Speaker 1: you see how I just messed up my words?
Speaker 2: Like that?
Speaker 1: That is a symptom of dyslexia. So when I'm reading something,
Speaker 1: I will jumble the words and then it I will
Speaker 1: mess it up, and then I'll have to say it again.
Speaker 1: Like that's just something that's always been a thing for me.
Speaker 1: If that happens to you, doesn't mean you have dyslexia.
Speaker 1: But that has definitely always been a trait of mine.
Speaker 1: So that's usually what happens, and I just reread it,
Speaker 1: so let's reread it. Seems to daydream or zone out
Speaker 1: when in a classroom or meeting scenario. Learns best by
Speaker 1: hands on training rather than verbal or written instruction. Sees
Speaker 1: movement of letters on a paper see again, like that's
Speaker 1: not what that said. Sees movement of letters on a page,
Speaker 1: whether reading or writing, reads and rereads without much comprehension.
Speaker 1: Has difficulty with spelling, has challenges putting thoughts into words.
Speaker 1: Difficulty with writing or copying. Tends to hold a pen
Speaker 1: or pencil differently and very tightly. Handwriting is hard to read.
Speaker 1: Has difficulty with large or fine motor skills. Has difficulty
Speaker 1: reading time on a traditional clock, which is so funny
Speaker 1: actually that I'm reading this now because I always had
Speaker 1: an issue with that. I could never read traditional clocks,
Speaker 1: Like I literally look at that thing and be like,
Speaker 1: what does that mean? I don't know what that means?
Speaker 1: Somebody explain, which again, doesn't mean you have dyslexia if
Speaker 1: you don't. If you can't like read time on a clock,
Speaker 1: you know what I mean. Another one is has time
Speaker 1: management problems, tends to be procrastinator, tends to be good
Speaker 1: at math calculations, but word problems are very difficult, which
Speaker 1: was really hard for me. Word problems, but math in
Speaker 1: general was really hard for me as well. Tends to
Speaker 1: be disorderly or extremely orderly.
Speaker 2: Okay.
Speaker 1: So another thing when it comes to dyslexic thinking is
Speaker 1: that we don't really tend to think linearly. We think
Speaker 1: very nonlinearly. I don't even know if linearly is a word.
Speaker 1: But nonlinear, okay, nonlinear thinking, which makes it sometimes difficult
Speaker 1: for you to read things in a linear way, or
Speaker 1: spell things in a linear way, or retain information in
Speaker 1: a certain way. Because your mind is very creative. Your
Speaker 1: mind is very much so I can see all aspects
Speaker 1: of things. I can see how everything connects with each other.
Speaker 1: But then sometimes it makes you feel like your mind
Speaker 1: can be very jumbled.
Speaker 2: And I want to read.
Speaker 1: This one last thing where it says does dyslexia affect
Speaker 1: logical thinking? And it says one of the more advantageous
Speaker 1: qualities and many dyslexic people is their ability to think
Speaker 1: outside the box. They come up with excellent, unorthodox ideas
Speaker 1: that are not only fresh, but lucrative as well, and
Speaker 1: also says another trait that dyslexics can possess is the
Speaker 1: ability to critically think as well. I think that has
Speaker 1: to do with being able to see kind of like
Speaker 1: all possibilities at once in a way. But regardless, I'm
Speaker 1: not going to keep explaining how my brain works, because
Speaker 1: everyone's brain kind of works differently. But having a brain
Speaker 1: like this sometimes makes it difficult for you to do
Speaker 1: a lot of traditional schooling. And also I found, especially
Speaker 1: even as I got older, though, is some of my
Speaker 1: ADHD tendon sees the behaviors which I will talk about
Speaker 1: that I was having was really a result from not
Speaker 1: having enough support and structure from my nonlinear brain. The
Speaker 1: way that I learn and think now that's not the
Speaker 1: case for everyone. When it comes to ADHD, it's a
Speaker 1: biological thing. I personally also think having developmental issues ADHD
Speaker 1: or dyslexia, these type of things, I don't personally believe
Speaker 1: it's always just always biological. I think a huge role
Speaker 1: in why a lot of people are like this, and
Speaker 1: this is my personal opinion and my experience honestly, is
Speaker 1: due to a lot of childhood trauma. You will see
Speaker 1: a big correlation with people who have these tendencies. And
Speaker 1: what I mean by childhood trauma is it could be
Speaker 1: big or small trauma, but any sort of dysregulation in
Speaker 1: your nervous system will result in you not being able
Speaker 1: to pay attention, you not being able to regulate yourself,
Speaker 1: so you might look like you're hyperactive. There's so many
Speaker 1: things that go into why you would have these tendencies.
Speaker 1: And to be honest, everyone comes from some sort of
Speaker 1: dysregulation when it comes to their nervous systems and the
Speaker 1: way that they deal with stress in their lives. I
Speaker 1: don't think most schooling systems are supportive of most people,
Speaker 1: even people who might not have dyslexio or like a
Speaker 1: lot of ADHD tendencies. I just think that in general,
Speaker 1: life is stressful. Even as you grow up as an adult,
Speaker 1: things are very stressful, which makes it difficult for you
Speaker 1: to be with yourself and slow down and be present
Speaker 1: and be focused. So I found another little list and
Speaker 1: I will put up on the screen if you're watching
Speaker 1: on YouTube of things I thought were my personality but
Speaker 1: we're actually just ADHD symptoms and again to each of
Speaker 1: their own. There's so many different ways in which you
Speaker 1: can explain this, but I think a lot of people
Speaker 1: will relate to some of these things. One is chronic
Speaker 1: lateness and time blindness, daydreaming and zoning out, poor impulse control,
Speaker 1: social butterfly but then burnout, mind wander during conversations, interrupting oversharing,
Speaker 1: mirroring other people's energy and personality, irritability, hobby hopping, which
Speaker 1: I feel like everyone can relate to that in some sense.
Speaker 1: If you have ADHD, of this like starting something and
Speaker 1: not finishing at one hundred percent because you have this
Speaker 1: hyper focus, this hyper attention on this thing and then
Speaker 1: you kind of like give up on that, which I
Speaker 1: want to talk about that because I think it's actually
Speaker 1: a positive trait of having ADHD.
Speaker 2: You struggle with focusing on a lot of things.
Speaker 1: But when you are interested in something, you can hyper
Speaker 1: focus on that thing, and I think that you can
Speaker 1: use that to your benefit a lot. And that's what
Speaker 1: I've done in my life. Executive dysfunction, which I'm pretty
Speaker 1: sure just means like analysis kind of paralysis, like not
Speaker 1: being able to make a decision. Things like that, I
Speaker 1: believe because it also says lazy, slats unmotivated, which obviously
Speaker 1: you're not really, It's just you are in freeze mode
Speaker 1: some of the times, which is a nervous system response
Speaker 1: of just being so overwhelmed and really in your head
Speaker 1: and chaotic and not being able to make a decision
Speaker 1: procrastinating memory problems that tends to be an issue with
Speaker 1: people who have ADHD, if it's like out of sight,
Speaker 1: out of minds, like you just don't even remember things
Speaker 1: if you don't have it in front of you. I
Speaker 1: believe that's called object permanence, or the opposite of that,
Speaker 1: where when you are younger, Actually, let me look this
Speaker 1: up right now so I can just talk about it quickly. Okay,
Speaker 1: So having ADHD makes it difficult for you to have
Speaker 1: object permanence. So object permanence, like I said is basically
Speaker 1: just remembering something. So there's a stage of development when
Speaker 1: you are an infant where let's say you put your
Speaker 1: child down and the child knows that the mother is
Speaker 1: outside of the room, versus does not know the mother
Speaker 1: is outside the room. Like there becomes a stage in
Speaker 1: which you kind of understand object permanence of I'm in
Speaker 1: this room and my mom's in the other room. Or
Speaker 1: you put a toy underneath a blanket, and I know
Speaker 1: that that toy underneath the blanket. But when you are
Speaker 1: really really young, like as an infant, there is a
Speaker 1: phase of course where you don't actually know that that
Speaker 1: toys under the blanket. But when you have ADHDS, sometimes
Speaker 1: when you put the toy into the blanket, you literally
Speaker 1: like forget it's there, Like you literally just like it's
Speaker 1: not that you actually don't know it's there. But if
Speaker 1: it comes to like tasks and things like that, you
Speaker 1: just aren't remembering things. More things are hyper focused, which
Speaker 1: I've kind of already talked about sleep issues, overeating or
Speaker 1: forgetting to eat, Buying planners and journals and never using them.
Speaker 1: That's funny. I used to do that all the time.
Speaker 1: But I'm pretty good at that now, because I know
Speaker 1: what works for me and what planners work and what don't,
Speaker 1: which is so key. When you have ADHD, you just
Speaker 1: have all these tendencies. It's like you got to know
Speaker 1: what you're going to use and what doesn't work for you, you know,
Speaker 1: or the ways that you are going to be able
Speaker 1: to retain information in ways that just don't work for you. Again,
Speaker 1: we're going to talk about that. Mood swings and emotional dysregulation,
Speaker 1: which I want to talk about PMDD in your mental cycle,
Speaker 1: practicing or replaying arguments in your head at length, fantasizing
Speaker 1: while engaged in sexual activity. Interesting, I didn't read that one,
Speaker 1: but I don't know. I don't think I do that
Speaker 1: making weird lists like this, I'm dead. The last one
Speaker 1: says making weird lists like this. So let's also talk
Speaker 1: about ADHD in the metro cycle as well. It says
Speaker 1: here many women have reported that there are days during
Speaker 1: the month that they feel like their ADHD medication just
Speaker 1: isn't working as well as it normally does. Now, of
Speaker 1: course I'm not on medication, but I can see throughout
Speaker 1: the periods of the month of when these tendencies are
Speaker 1: harder to manage or when my mood is just regulated more.
Speaker 1: And on top of that, like my actual ADHD habits
Speaker 1: of like just not being focused, can't get myself to focus.
Speaker 1: I'm really in analysis proalysis. I'm really in this like
Speaker 1: freeze mode. I can't seem to like make decisions, I
Speaker 1: don't feel like I'm productive, all that kind of stuff.
Speaker 1: It happens during my luteal phase, which will basically tell
Speaker 1: you this right here. Your hormones impact your ADHD symptoms
Speaker 1: as they ebb and flow, and your symptoms will follow
Speaker 1: as your estrogen climbs. During your follicular phase, your ability
Speaker 1: to focus and be more productive will also climb. So
Speaker 1: if you don't know, quick side note, we have four
Speaker 1: phases of our cycle that we go through as women.
Speaker 1: If you are not on hormonal birth control and you're
Speaker 1: not pregnant, or you're not in premenopause or metopause, or.
Speaker 2: Don't have your period.
Speaker 1: The first phase is your mental cycle. That is when
Speaker 1: you are bleeding. And then after you're done bleeding, you
Speaker 1: probably know you start to feel little bit better, your
Speaker 1: energy is coming kind of back online more. You're into
Speaker 1: your follicular phase, and then you move into your ovulation phase,
Speaker 1: which is not only where you can get pregnant and
Speaker 1: where you can actually only get pregnant around that time,
Speaker 1: but usually you have a lot more energy, stamina, maybe
Speaker 1: you even have more libido. That's usually kind of like
Speaker 1: how it works for me. And then you kind of
Speaker 1: dip down slowly again into your luteal phase, which lasts.
Speaker 1: There's so many different days, so you can't be rearticular,
Speaker 1: but let's just average it out and say about two
Speaker 1: weeks or like fourteen days of being in your liteal phase.
Speaker 1: For me, my first week of my luteal phase doesn't
Speaker 1: really feel much different than ovulation or even like follicular.
Speaker 1: I kind of feel pretty normal, and then the week
Speaker 1: before I bleed again is where I'm feeling those PMS
Speaker 1: symptoms that obviously everyone has different symptoms, but during that
Speaker 1: time is when I do find it much harder for
Speaker 1: me to focus and to be motivated because I already
Speaker 1: struggle with doing that in the first place. And as
Speaker 1: it continues to say, may notice your ADHD symptoms worsening
Speaker 1: the week before your mental phase, or maybe you chalk
Speaker 1: it up to PMS while the increase in progesterone and
Speaker 1: decreasing dopamine will throw your executive function through the ringer,
Speaker 1: which your dopamine receptors are really low, like there's not
Speaker 1: that much dopamine that you do have if you do
Speaker 1: struggle with ADHD. And that's why sometimes when people have ADHD,
Speaker 1: they will rely on stimulants, whether that is caffeine or
Speaker 1: obviously scrolling on TikTok or scrolling on social media, or
Speaker 1: eating sugary foods. Some people will go as far as,
Speaker 1: of course, like getting into drugs and things like that.
Speaker 1: There's so many reasons, but some of those things will
Speaker 1: be raising or dopamine levels, and that's kind of like
Speaker 1: what we're always seeking. And so around the time of
Speaker 1: our PMS symptoms, of course, like dopamine is low, our
Speaker 1: motivation for life is low, and then we really struggle
Speaker 1: with also being very very productive. And this also says
Speaker 1: irritability and forgetfulness. I'm saying that like very weird. But
Speaker 1: whatever where a little dyslexic care, your emotions become more dysregulated.
Speaker 1: It's all connected to your cycle, which I do believe.
Speaker 1: I do believe that ADHD is definitely connected and gets
Speaker 1: affected depending on which phase you are in your cycle,
Speaker 1: So it's just good to understand that. So with a
Speaker 1: few of those definitions or excuss I want to talk
Speaker 1: about some of the things that I have learned on
Speaker 1: my journey to help me stay focused and just like
Speaker 1: truths about my life in the way that I am
Speaker 1: currently right now that has helped me become successful and
Speaker 1: actually get the things that I want.
Speaker 2: In my life. And to understand that.
Speaker 1: I am not somebody who can't do successful, amazing things
Speaker 1: just because I have a brain that works a little
Speaker 1: bit differently, and I have changed a lot of my
Speaker 1: tendencies as well as I've gotten older, Like I struggled
Speaker 1: a lot more with reading and writing when I was
Speaker 1: younger than I do now because of some of the
Speaker 1: things that I have trained myself to do. So I
Speaker 1: do think that, and this has been said on some
Speaker 1: of those scientific podcasts as well, like you can age
Speaker 1: out of ADHD. You can age out of some of
Speaker 1: these things. And some people might disagree, I am speaking
Speaker 1: on personal experience. I still have viously have a few
Speaker 1: of these tendencies and things like that, but not only
Speaker 1: just like learning how to manage these things, but also
Speaker 1: you can actually age out of some of these things.
Speaker 1: It depends on your environment. It depends, of course, like
Speaker 1: coming back to nervous system regulation, like if you're a
Speaker 1: highly stressed individual. When I was a child, I was
Speaker 1: highly stressed. I didn't understand that there was a lot
Speaker 1: of things happening in my home life that made it
Speaker 1: really difficult for me to even sit down and process information.
Speaker 1: But now in my life, I live a completely different
Speaker 1: life and I'm a lot more regulated, and I can
Speaker 1: sit down and be way more focused. I can speak
Speaker 1: and read out loud a lot better. Do I still
Speaker 1: sometimes mess up my words, yeah, but I am not
Speaker 1: afraid to speak and use my voice and ask questions,
Speaker 1: which means I end up learning more and I actually
Speaker 1: progress as an adult. But also I'm not afraid to
Speaker 1: mess up my words the way that I was when
Speaker 1: I was younger in the classroom, So I have more
Speaker 1: practice with being able to speak, and of course, in
Speaker 1: turn doing that, I am a better speaker. So with
Speaker 1: discover a lot about myself when it comes to dyslexia
Speaker 1: and ADHD, I have had to learn how to reframe
Speaker 1: the way that I look at myself and the way
Speaker 1: that I move in this life. And there's a chart
Speaker 1: that I want to read, and it says ADHD reframes
Speaker 1: and I think this is very helpful, and then we
Speaker 1: can get into some of the tips. So it says,
Speaker 1: instead of thinking success comes from my consistency, start thinking
Speaker 1: about how success comes from experimentation and commitment to what
Speaker 1: works for you. And I think that that has been
Speaker 1: something that I have learned without even reading this on
Speaker 1: an infographic. Is understanding that I operate and move differently,
Speaker 1: and so I need to figure out what works for me,
Speaker 1: not trying to do what works for everyone else. That's
Speaker 1: why sometimes also like linear living, like doing the same
Speaker 1: thing every single day doesn't work, and I'm not going
Speaker 1: to get mad at myself because I can't do it
Speaker 1: the way that everyone else does it. I need to
Speaker 1: understand what works for me, and I'm going to commit
Speaker 1: to that process. Another thing, instead of saying anything worth
Speaker 1: doing is worth doing well, start saying anything worth doing
Speaker 1: is worth taking messy action on and learning as you go,
Speaker 1: which is so important. Sometimes you just have to take action.
Speaker 1: Another thing, Instead of saying I have a deficit of attention,
Speaker 1: you can say I regulate attention differently and actually have
Speaker 1: a surplus that can be channeled for amazing things. The
Speaker 1: surf plus being when you are hyper focused on something
Speaker 1: which you can use your benefit. Lastly, it says instead
Speaker 1: of saying I have too many needs, you can start
Speaker 1: saying my needs are neutral and I get to design
Speaker 1: my life around them. Now, the tips that I'm going
Speaker 1: to talk about here are ones that I have learned
Speaker 1: throughout having to go to school and working in nine
Speaker 1: to five and working on someone else's time. But also
Speaker 1: they do work with my lifestyle now as an entrepreneur.
Speaker 1: So some of these things might resonate, some might not.
Speaker 1: I understand the struggle sometimes of not being able to
Speaker 1: always like work around your not neurodivergent brain because there
Speaker 1: are just systems put in place and like things you
Speaker 1: have to do that don't really support your brain.
Speaker 2: So we'll talk about both.
Speaker 1: So a few things that have made me really successful
Speaker 1: in my life is to have a vision and to
Speaker 1: have goals, because especially when you are somebody who can
Speaker 1: get very overwhelmed with a bunch of tasks and things
Speaker 1: to do and what to start, it's good to have
Speaker 1: an aim and a focus and a priority list essentially.
Speaker 1: And if you don't have goals for yourself and you
Speaker 1: don't have a vision of what you want your future
Speaker 1: to be, you will get overwhelmed because there's a lot
Speaker 1: of things that you could do in this life. And
Speaker 1: no matter who you are, the most successful people do
Speaker 1: have a vision and a few goals for themselves, and
Speaker 1: they also use a planner and they use a calendar,
Speaker 1: which I think is a great starting point for me
Speaker 1: and maybe for you, is to have something that you
Speaker 1: can reference to, meaning you know.
Speaker 2: Year legals or quarter legals.
Speaker 1: You tend to get a lot more done when you
Speaker 1: have that vision and you have that calendar and a
Speaker 1: planner to actually write down the things that you are
Speaker 1: trying to do and accomplish in your life. With that
Speaker 1: being said, sometimes it's not as easy as following a
Speaker 1: routine or whatever you write down in your calendar. I'm
Speaker 1: pretty sure you guys all know this, or everyone will
Speaker 1: be very productive. And the first thing that I really
Speaker 1: understood about myself is that I am a cyclical being,
Speaker 1: meaning my mood, my nervous system, my attention is not
Speaker 1: always going to be the same every day. And so
Speaker 1: instead of forcing myself to do the same thing every day,
Speaker 1: like I've said, I want to learn how to understand
Speaker 1: how I can support myself on the days where I
Speaker 1: wake up where my mood is not in the best state,
Speaker 1: or when I'm not that motivated, or on the flip side,
Speaker 1: when I am really motivated, how can I continue to
Speaker 1: capitalize on that energy because I know that I'm not
Speaker 1: always going to have that energy, and sometimes I do
Speaker 1: do more work on the days where I'm really motivated
Speaker 1: to do it. Like when it comes to podcasting, there
Speaker 1: are weeks where I am filming back to back to
Speaker 1: back instead of doing like only Mondays, I'm recording every
Speaker 1: single Monday, I'm recording. It doesn't work for me because
Speaker 1: some Mondays just don't work for me. Now, the nature
Speaker 1: of my job, it requires me to have some brain power,
Speaker 1: it requires me to have some motivation. So maybe it
Speaker 1: depends on what you are doing in your life, but
Speaker 1: for me, I have found that there are just better
Speaker 1: ways to utilize my time depending on how my mood
Speaker 1: is and how my attention is. And I think cycle
Speaker 1: sinking really helped me be able to understand that I'm
Speaker 1: a cyclical person and to see how I can still
Speaker 1: be productive by not being somebody who shows up the
Speaker 1: same way every single day, because there are gonna be
Speaker 1: times in my week or my month. Sorry, I should
Speaker 1: say that I'm more motivated than not, and I end
Speaker 1: up getting a lot of work done in that area
Speaker 1: or that time frame, and then the other weeks maybe
Speaker 1: i'm you know, I'm getting by or I'm doing smaller tasks.
Speaker 1: But if you look at it from like a monthly view,
Speaker 1: I've really been productive and I've gotten all the things
Speaker 1: that I need to get done.
Speaker 2: But don't worry.
Speaker 1: I will give you tips on the times where you
Speaker 1: still have to do the things that you don't want
Speaker 1: to do or when you're not passionate about doing it.
Speaker 1: And I think that this is more particular to people
Speaker 1: who still have to go to school or work and
Speaker 1: they don't work for themselves. But another thing that I
Speaker 1: got really clear on was the way in which I
Speaker 1: focus and learn to capitalize on that and to just
Speaker 1: you know, up level my learning. So I'll give you
Speaker 1: a quick example.
Speaker 2: Not only am I.
Speaker 1: Not motivated really always to read a book, but I
Speaker 1: retain information a little bit slower when I lay down
Speaker 1: and I read a self development book, let's say. But
Speaker 1: I do always want to be learning things, So instead
Speaker 1: of reading a book, I have books I read them,
Speaker 1: and I've read them a lot, and I will talk
Speaker 1: about why it's helpful to read books when it comes
Speaker 1: to being dyslexic. But I find that I retain more
Speaker 1: information when I am watching something visually, so like a
Speaker 1: podcast like this, where I am not only watching the
Speaker 1: person speak, but I'm listening to them auditorily, and I
Speaker 1: sometimes if they have like pop ups and things like that.
Speaker 1: Sometimes it can be helpful for people who also who
Speaker 1: have dyslexia. I don't really have any imagery and things
Speaker 1: like that, but I try my best to get all
Speaker 1: my senses really going when it comes to learning. And
Speaker 1: maybe you could find in your own life when you
Speaker 1: tend to have the most attention or when you retain
Speaker 1: the most information. Sometimes it has to do with the
Speaker 1: learning style, but of course it has to do with
Speaker 1: your interest, right. If I'm interested in a topic, I
Speaker 1: could even read about it and be super involved in
Speaker 1: a book. But I do find in order to help
Speaker 1: me learn the best way that I can, I usually
Speaker 1: tend to pick a podcast or watch a YouTube video
Speaker 1: versus doing the book thing. Because if I tell myself, oh,
Speaker 1: just get a book and like that's how you'll learn information,
Speaker 1: I tend to put it off because I feel the
Speaker 1: resistance to that because it's not an easy learning process
Speaker 1: for me. Okay, So a big thing that is important
Speaker 1: with people who have any sort of anything is to
Speaker 1: prioritize action over analyzing. We sometimes get in our heads
Speaker 1: a lot about all the things that we need to
Speaker 1: do and which one should we accomplish first, and this that,
Speaker 1: and I think that in order to know which one
Speaker 1: you should do first, I think has to be tied
Speaker 1: to some sort of goal or some sort of like
Speaker 1: future like vision that you have, or something that's just
Speaker 1: a priority that you know like needs to get done first.
Speaker 1: Like if something is due tomorrow, are you going to
Speaker 1: read your book that you really want to read because
Speaker 1: you want to learn new information, or are you going
Speaker 1: to finish your essay? Which one are you going to
Speaker 1: do first? It's going to be the essay because it
Speaker 1: needs to be done tomorrow. So you want to kind
Speaker 1: of have that priority list. But at the end of
Speaker 1: the day, if you find that you are like over
Speaker 1: analyzing in your in your head, try your best yourself
Speaker 1: that any action is better than no action, even if
Speaker 1: that action is not what you planned that you should
Speaker 1: be doing that day. And there's been a lot of
Speaker 1: times where I have planned to record a podcast episode,
Speaker 1: or I plan to do this workout, or I plan
Speaker 1: to sit down and have this study session, but I
Speaker 1: wake up and my brain is just it's not the
Speaker 1: way that I need it to be. And sometimes I
Speaker 1: have to push past that. And you know, we can
Speaker 1: talk about that. But if I get in those modes
Speaker 1: where I'm really resisting, what I'll end up doing is
Speaker 1: just self sabotaging. I'll just literally keep pushing things off
Speaker 1: and procrastinating. So I try and tell myself in the
Speaker 1: moments where I feel like it's so much resistance, that
Speaker 1: you know what, you have to let go of the
Speaker 1: idea of being perfect today. It's clearly not going to
Speaker 1: be a podcast day. What can you do to get
Speaker 1: yourself up and moving instead of being in this stuck
Speaker 1: freeze energy? And if that means you got to go
Speaker 1: on a walk when that wasn't planned, you need to
Speaker 1: go on a walk. Because you going on that walk,
Speaker 1: We'll get you out of this nervous system state of
Speaker 1: freeze mode and you be more productive by you doing
Speaker 1: something off of your list. Then you trying to force
Speaker 1: yourself to do the thing that you clearly, for whatever reason,
Speaker 1: can't get yourself to do, and then you don't end
Speaker 1: up doing it all day, and instead you just procrastinate.
Speaker 1: Like you can skip all of the self sabotaging behaviors
Speaker 1: by simply just deciding to go do the thing that
Speaker 1: feels a little bit less resistance. But it's hard for
Speaker 1: us sometimes because then our head are we're like, oh,
Speaker 1: we have to follow the schedule, or oh we have da.
Speaker 2: Da da da.
Speaker 1: Understand that you're a cyclical being. Understand that there's going
Speaker 1: to be days where you're just not going to be perfect,
Speaker 1: and you have to allow room for those days. That's
Speaker 1: a big thing that I have learned in my life.
Speaker 1: And it's hard sometimes because you just you want to
Speaker 1: be productive and you want to be linear. But I
Speaker 1: promise you, like from personal experience, I have still been
Speaker 1: very very successful and very productive from taking that action,
Speaker 1: because just any action is better than no action in
Speaker 1: my personal opinion.
Speaker 2: Now, when it does come.
Speaker 1: To tasks that you need to do, especially if it's
Speaker 1: like a daily or a weekly thing and you're just
Speaker 1: not really motivated, the biggest thing that you can do
Speaker 1: for yourself is to make it as easy as possible,
Speaker 1: which means breaking things down into smaller tasks, which can
Speaker 1: be difficult for people who have ADHD and even a
Speaker 1: brain like mine, because not only do we think about
Speaker 1: how overwhelming it could be, but at least for my brain,
Speaker 1: I'm thinking about all the ways in which I can
Speaker 1: come at it from different angles, and like, I just
Speaker 1: cant get very overwhelmed with it, And I understand that
Speaker 1: taking action is just the most important thing, and one
Speaker 1: foot in front of the other and one thing at
Speaker 1: a time is going to get the job done. And
Speaker 1: the way you do that is breaking up this huge
Speaker 1: task that you really want to accomplish into smaller tasks
Speaker 1: and also of course that allows you to not feel
Speaker 1: like it's super super daunting. Another tendency with ADHD is
Speaker 1: that we do a lot of rushing behaviors. So let's
Speaker 1: say you are in the kitchen and you're making a
Speaker 1: meal for yourself. Sometimes, like in your brain, you'll be
Speaker 1: thinking about how you have to put coconut oil on
Speaker 1: the pan, and you have to put your toast in
Speaker 1: the toaster, and then you have to get your avocado
Speaker 1: to put on your toast, and you have to get
Speaker 1: your egg, and you have to crack it and d
Speaker 1: d da da da, Like you're thinking about all those things,
Speaker 1: but what you actually need to just do first is
Speaker 1: put the coconut oil on the pan. Put the coconut
Speaker 1: oil on the pan. Okay, that is done. What is
Speaker 1: the next thing. I'm gonna put the egg on the pan.
Speaker 1: I'm not gonna think about the toast, and I'm not
Speaker 1: gonna think about the avocado. I understand that that's there.
Speaker 1: I understand that I need to do that. I understand
Speaker 1: that that will be a step that I have to take.
Speaker 1: But is that the step I need to take right now? No,
Speaker 1: it's not. What is the next step? So sometimes you
Speaker 1: have to stop yourself and see how you are rushing
Speaker 1: and getting into your mind and doing all of these
Speaker 1: tasks that are not even needed at this point. What
Speaker 1: is needed is one task at one time. And I
Speaker 1: can give you another example. When I was writing my book,
Speaker 1: I had to basically almost every single day touch my
Speaker 1: book until it was done, because if no one's ever written.
Speaker 2: A book before.
Speaker 1: But honestly, you can think about this when it comes
Speaker 1: to like a big essay in school or something, or
Speaker 1: like a project, it is way easier to get something
Speaker 1: as as a book or an essay finished by you
Speaker 1: like touching it basically every day, or writing a little
Speaker 1: bit every day, than it is for you to write
Speaker 1: some stuff and then leave it for two weeks and
Speaker 1: then you have to go back into the flow, like
Speaker 1: the creative flow of things. This is not always the case,
Speaker 1: but especially with a book, it can be actually way
Speaker 1: more difficult for you to get back into the flow
Speaker 1: of things because you're not motivated and you have to
Speaker 1: reread all of your work again because you forget because
Speaker 1: you really suck with remembering things. But of course sometimes
Speaker 1: this task like a book, feels very daunting. So what
Speaker 1: I would do is every day I would be setting
Speaker 1: a small amount of time to write my book, and
Speaker 1: of course I would always end up writing a lot
Speaker 1: more because I got into the flow estate. But I
Speaker 1: had to at least give myself at least like twenty
Speaker 1: minutes out of the day to even touch that. But
Speaker 1: I still had to make sure that the task itself
Speaker 1: was attainable for me to actually touch every single day,
Speaker 1: or I would just find myself pushing it off, because
Speaker 1: you to push things off that you feel are way
Speaker 1: too big for yourself. Now it has been shown and
Speaker 1: this might not be for everyone, but it has been
Speaker 1: shown that deadlines and even like time blocking and setting
Speaker 1: like specific times to do things can be helpful. Now
Speaker 1: this is more for things that you might want to
Speaker 1: do on your own time versus like schooling stuff, because
Speaker 1: with school there's always deadlines, and what you usually tend
Speaker 1: to do is just leave everything to the last minute
Speaker 1: and then you like, we'll finish all of it right then.
Speaker 1: And it's not to say that you can't do that.
Speaker 1: Sometimes it depends on what you're working on. But I
Speaker 1: do find the reason why I used to do that
Speaker 1: a lot in school was because I was looking at
Speaker 1: the task itself as very big and no, I would
Speaker 1: just try and get myself to do that, and that
Speaker 1: never works. So you want to be very like small
Speaker 1: and attainable.
Speaker 2: With your goals.
Speaker 1: But we do have a lot of things that we
Speaker 1: don't necessarily need to do, but we want to do.
Speaker 1: And with those things, I find that having dedicated times
Speaker 1: and deadlines can be helpful, and deadlines could just be goals.
Speaker 1: And I could give you an example of having a
Speaker 1: YouTube channel. A lot of people will be like, oh,
Speaker 1: I want to start a YouTube channel. I want to
Speaker 1: start a YouTube channel, but they don't really like do it.
Speaker 1: And there's many reasons why you don't start a YouTube channel.
Speaker 1: Maybe it's because you're like afraid of being seen or
Speaker 1: you don't want to talk about this that, but a
Speaker 1: lot of people just don't have like a solid plan
Speaker 1: of when you want to see certain success within your
Speaker 1: YouTube channel. And now, obviously you can't necessarily like get
Speaker 1: too caught up on deadlines, especially when you're doing things
Speaker 1: outside of like schooling or work, because you never really know,
Speaker 1: especially with something like.
Speaker 2: Being a YouTuber.
Speaker 1: But I remember when I wanted to start my YouTube channel,
Speaker 1: not only did I identify as somebody who was a YouTuber,
Speaker 1: and I wasn't just like sitting here being like, oh, yeah,
Speaker 1: I'll start it one day, but I made a reasonable
Speaker 1: timeline for myself, meaning I was like, I know, myself,
Speaker 1: I can get one video up a week, because there's
Speaker 1: going to be weeks where I'm motivated to record and
Speaker 1: I can pre record and then I can like stagger
Speaker 1: them that way, I'm consistent. And I did that until
Speaker 1: I grew And also in my head, I had a
Speaker 1: projected timeline of being like hopefully in the spring of
Speaker 1: twenty twenty three, that's when I can leave my job.
Speaker 1: And that allowed me to kind of like strive towards
Speaker 1: something and to feel as if there was a deadline,
Speaker 1: if there was like something that I had to accomplish.
Speaker 1: And what ended up happening was my YouTube channel ended
Speaker 1: up blowing up, and like I think it was like
Speaker 1: October beginning of October, so it was like actually way
Speaker 1: quicker than I even thought. But if you have things
Speaker 1: that you need to get done, it is helpful for
Speaker 1: you on a daily or like a weekly basis to
Speaker 1: have those days where you're saying, at twelve o'clock, I
Speaker 1: am doing studying for one hour, or at one pm
Speaker 1: when it's lunchtime, I'm going to stop what I'm doing
Speaker 1: and I'm going to eat. Or on Saturday, from twelve
Speaker 1: to three pm, I'm going to go to the coffee
Speaker 1: shop and I'm going to work on three of my
Speaker 1: goals that I want to have for my side business.
Speaker 1: And now this takes practice because you need to start
Speaker 1: watching yourself and seeing how many goals or tasks do
Speaker 1: you actually accomplish throughout a week when you are setting
Speaker 1: yourself up for the week, and readjust if you need
Speaker 1: to like, if you're setting a bunch of tasks to
Speaker 1: do and you only get one done the next week,
Speaker 1: you should really only be setting yourself up for like
Speaker 1: three of those tasks, and so that way, at least
Speaker 1: you know you're gonna get one done and maybe you
Speaker 1: will get the next two. But like, why are you
Speaker 1: giving yourself ten things to do when consistently, every single
Speaker 1: year you've only been able to do like one thing.
Speaker 1: The same thing goes with a gym. It's like, why
Speaker 1: are you setting yourself up by saying that you're gonna
Speaker 1: start the gym on Monday and you're gonna go seven
Speaker 1: days a week or five days a week when you
Speaker 1: literally haven't even been consistent with one day a week
Speaker 1: for the entire year. If you can't be consistent at
Speaker 1: going at the gym one day a week, please reconsider
Speaker 1: the way that you set goals. You're going a little
Speaker 1: bit too much. It doesn't mean that you can't get there,
Speaker 1: but the way you're gonna get there is not from
Speaker 1: setting yourself up for failure. Now, when it comes to
Speaker 1: actually getting in the zone and doing the task at hand.
Speaker 1: For me, definitely, the way my brain works, I I
Speaker 1: need a few things set up in my environment for
Speaker 1: me to really be able to focus. And I listened
Speaker 1: to a podcast the other day from doctor Huberman. He's
Speaker 1: talking about how to learn and study. I would suggest
Speaker 1: listening to it. It is a very long episode, as
Speaker 1: are all of his, and he was talking about how
Speaker 1: it's really important when you want to retain information, that
Speaker 1: you have a clear focus and to eliminate distractions. It
Speaker 1: is very hard for you to focus, even as a child,
Speaker 1: right It's very hard for you to focus in a
Speaker 1: classroom when everyone else is yelling and screaming. Or for me,
Speaker 1: it was really hard for me to retain information when
Speaker 1: the teacher would ask a question and I'm trying to
Speaker 1: think about the answer, and because I need a little
Speaker 1: bit more time, I need to think about this answer,
Speaker 1: but everyone else's hands are going up, and then I
Speaker 1: feel rushed, and then there you go. I can't even think.
Speaker 1: And now I'm thinking that I could never get the
Speaker 1: answer and that I'm dumb. But I'm not actually dumb,
Speaker 1: and it's not that I can't get the answer. I
Speaker 1: needed a second to think. And so you have to
Speaker 1: know yourself. You need to understand where the best places
Speaker 1: are going to be for you and your focus. Now,
Speaker 1: for me, I need a clean environment first and foremost.
Speaker 1: My environment needs to be clean, whether I'm working at
Speaker 1: home or if I'm working at a coffee shop. If
Speaker 1: I am working at a coffee shop, it can't be
Speaker 1: too busy or I will not focus. I can't listen
Speaker 1: to music with lyrics in it because it will distract me.
Speaker 1: I can't have my phone off of D and D
Speaker 1: mode because then when as soon as I get a notification,
Speaker 1: my mind will go to the phone and then I'll
Speaker 1: just you know, sometimes I'll pick up my phone and
Speaker 1: I'll be scrolling in this that like, you need dedicated
Speaker 1: time and dedicated D and D mode truthfully to really
Speaker 1: focus and hone in. There's a study method called the
Speaker 1: Pomadero method which can be very helpful for those who
Speaker 1: struggle with focus, where it's like a timer. I can
Speaker 1: leave a few like examples down below, and you have
Speaker 1: some background music sometimes, but basically it's a timer. It
Speaker 1: gives you like twenty minutes on and maybe like five
Speaker 1: minutes as a break, which can be helpful if you
Speaker 1: get overwhelmed with sitting for long periods of time. I
Speaker 1: find that as long as my environment is clean, and
Speaker 1: I am actually interested in what I'm trying to learn,
Speaker 1: and I have a clear focus. I can work for
Speaker 1: long periods of time, but I do think it is
Speaker 1: important that you still at least have a timeline set
Speaker 1: for yourself so that you know you're at least hitting
Speaker 1: the goal that you want to be hitting. Another thing
Speaker 1: that Andrew Huberman was saying was when you're about to
Speaker 1: study or you're about to try to learn information, it's
Speaker 1: important to sometimes remind yourself, like say it out loud
Speaker 1: or even think about it in your head, of this
Speaker 1: information that I'm going to be taking in right now
Speaker 1: is important. Like you want to like remind yourself that
Speaker 1: whatever I'm about to do right now is important. You
Speaker 1: want to set an intention. Okay, so you're not just
Speaker 1: like off the whim, like, okay, let's just like start studying.
Speaker 1: I mean, obviously you can do that if you want,
Speaker 1: but like setting attentions before you do things with anything,
Speaker 1: whether it's you going out socially, you going on a
Speaker 1: first date, you even like smoking weeds sometimes can be
Speaker 1: helpful for you to set an intention of what you
Speaker 1: a you want to be doing. Like anything, sometimes it's
Speaker 1: really important to do that, and I like to when
Speaker 1: I'm going on my walk. Sometimes before I leave my house,
Speaker 1: I think about what do I want this walk to
Speaker 1: be for me? Do I want it to be this
Speaker 1: imaginary like experience where I'm like thinking about things that
Speaker 1: I want to manifest and I want to listen to music,
Speaker 1: or do I want to take in the peace and
Speaker 1: quiet and not listen to anything, or do I want
Speaker 1: to go into study mode? And I do this a lot.
Speaker 1: I go on walks and I make sure that where
Speaker 1: I'm going on a walk is not super populated. I
Speaker 1: live in Toronto, and I pick one of my podcast
Speaker 1: episodes that I find I don't have a lot of
Speaker 1: attention span to be sitting at home and listening to
Speaker 1: for a long period of time, And I go for
Speaker 1: a very long walk and I am very intentional with
Speaker 1: I'm listening to this podcast episode, like this is what
Speaker 1: this walk is for, is for me to study. So
Speaker 1: you have to know yourself, you have to know your environments,
Speaker 1: and you have to know your tendencies. I feel like
Speaker 1: I wasn't that self aware sometimes when I was in
Speaker 1: high school or even in college, of realizing like, okay,
Speaker 1: I'm actually getting nothing done by meeting my friends at
Speaker 1: the library and having so many distractions, And maybe that
Speaker 1: works for some people, but it didn't really work for me. Also,
Speaker 1: he said in one of the podcast episodes that very
Speaker 1: highly and successful people who do really well with studying
Speaker 1: and retaining information. One of the things that he found
Speaker 1: with all of these people, like they did studies, is
Speaker 1: that a lot of these students would study alone and
Speaker 1: they would do roughly around three to four hours of
Speaker 1: studying or like focused work, but they would split up
Speaker 1: that time, so it wasn't like sitting down for four
Speaker 1: hours straight like they would kind of like break it up.
Speaker 1: But the overarching theme was they would actually limit distractions,
Speaker 1: and they would have goals, and they would have a
Speaker 1: plan of action, and they would sit down and do
Speaker 1: what they needed to do. And all of these people
Speaker 1: also had whatever they were studying or focusing on intentionally
Speaker 1: focusing on these things all correlated to a bigger picture,
Speaker 1: so their future, their future goals, a lot of these
Speaker 1: things tied to their family outcomes or like the way
Speaker 1: that that was going to provide for the family.
Speaker 2: Things like that.
Speaker 1: And the reason why I'm saying that is I think
Speaker 1: that it's important for you to also limit the things
Speaker 1: that just do not matter. With ADHD, I think, but
Speaker 1: in general, with this day and age, we're bombarded by
Speaker 1: so many things. There's new hobbies that you can pick up,
Speaker 1: there's new things you can learn this that, and you're
Speaker 1: gonna really need to say no to a lot of
Speaker 1: things that do not matter and get clear on what
Speaker 1: you want to focus on until that thing becomes second
Speaker 1: nature to you or until you accomplish that thing, and
Speaker 1: then you can kind of go on to the next thing.
Speaker 1: And I think that this is something that I had
Speaker 1: to be real with myself about, was to stop telling
Speaker 1: myself that I had to do all of this shit
Speaker 1: that wasn't really necessary for my growth and that I
Speaker 1: didn't need. And I'll give you an example as somebody
Speaker 1: who works in social media as a content creator, there's
Speaker 1: many different platforms in which you can put your content
Speaker 1: out and all of these pts have different uses and
Speaker 1: it can be helpful to grow your audience, but there's
Speaker 1: just gonna be things you're going to have to prioritize.
Speaker 1: And for me, I prioritize my long form content because
Speaker 1: it's the way that I'm able to express myself, the
Speaker 1: way that I want to. So it works for me
Speaker 1: when it comes to just the way that my brain
Speaker 1: works and the way that I want to convey a message,
Speaker 1: it just works that way. I also retain a lot
Speaker 1: of information through podcasts, so it just it makes the
Speaker 1: most sense. There's less resistance, but also it pays off
Speaker 1: more to do long form than to do short form,
Speaker 1: and so I have to always prioritize doing my podcast
Speaker 1: in my YouTube versus short form content like reels, because
Speaker 1: you know, in the social media space, everyone says, oh,
Speaker 1: do reels or do tiktoks, Like doing tiktoks can help
Speaker 1: grow your audience, and da, da da. It's not to
Speaker 1: say that it can't. And I do have short form
Speaker 1: clips of let's say, my podcast, but I can't put
Speaker 1: that on my priority list because what I will do
Speaker 1: is I'll burn myself out and or I'll just continue
Speaker 1: to like kind of push things off and I'll just
Speaker 1: feel resistance for no reason. There's gonna be things that
Speaker 1: you have to just tell yourself that are not as
Speaker 1: important as others. And when you prioritize things in your life,
Speaker 1: you will find really good results from those things because
Speaker 1: you're dialed in more now actually coming back to retaining information,
Speaker 1: something that has really helped me as being somebody who's dyslexic,
Speaker 1: and I wish I learned this earlier, but I was
Speaker 1: also really afraid and had no confidence in school, so
Speaker 1: I'm not sure if this would have even really worked
Speaker 1: for me. But it's helpful to relay information when you
Speaker 1: have learned it. And this is like general generic information
Speaker 1: of course, right, But I think you understand the importance
Speaker 1: sometimes of when you learn information, whether that's in school
Speaker 1: or something online, and then you go and tell somebody
Speaker 1: about it, you are actually retaining that information more by
Speaker 1: you teaching somebody what you just learned, or like relaying
Speaker 1: the information or speaking those things out loud. And some
Speaker 1: of the things that I was doing, especially on COVID
Speaker 1: when I didn't have much else to do because I
Speaker 1: was struggling with hand pain, was I would spend a
Speaker 1: lot of time listening to podcasts and listening to lectures
Speaker 1: and also reading books, and then I would retain the
Speaker 1: information and then I would tell my mom about it,
Speaker 1: because my mom was living with me for a while,
Speaker 1: so I would just always be telling her all this stuff,
Speaker 1: which also made me want to have a podcast as well. Partly,
Speaker 1: not just because I retain information and I learned things
Speaker 1: and I want to share it with people, but because
Speaker 1: I've obviously I've gone through my own things, but that
Speaker 1: as well too. And I realized the more I was
Speaker 1: telling her about things, the more that I was like
Speaker 1: remembering it as well, which is really helpful for working memory.
Speaker 1: But also when I would read books, I would read
Speaker 1: out loud, which is really really helpful if you do
Speaker 1: have dyslexia, because you're able to sound out words more.
Speaker 1: And if you don't understand a word, what I would
Speaker 1: do is I would go on to Google and I
Speaker 1: would type it in. I would listen to how it sounded,
Speaker 1: and then I would say it back out to myself.
Speaker 1: And that's how I learned how to speak a little
Speaker 1: bit more articulate, and I was able to also write
Speaker 1: recognize words more. And of course just reading in general
Speaker 1: will make you a smarter person, but reading out loud
Speaker 1: and slowing things down and really taking my time to
Speaker 1: digest the information that I just learned is really really helpful.
Speaker 1: Instead of going through a whole entire book and then
Speaker 1: throwing it away and then like going on with my day,
Speaker 1: you're not going to really remember things. So sometimes it's
Speaker 1: good to quiz yourself. Sometimes it's good to take things
Speaker 1: slow when it comes to reading books, especially if it's
Speaker 1: like self development things. Sometimes it's good to take breaks
Speaker 1: as well when it comes to studying and give yourself
Speaker 1: time to retain that information however it looks for you.
Speaker 1: That's why you need breaks. That's why you need breaks
Speaker 1: with anything. That's why I need breaks from the podcast
Speaker 1: as well. It's not that I'm like, when I'm doing
Speaker 1: a podcast episode, I'm necessarily learning something new. But what
Speaker 1: I do is in my own life, I am experiencing life,
Speaker 1: and there's things that I'm picking up and things that
Speaker 1: I'm obviously learning that I want to bring to the podcast,
Speaker 1: but I need some time to live it out. I
Speaker 1: need some time to like analyze what's happening in my
Speaker 1: life and then I bring it to the podcast. So
Speaker 1: with anything in life, you're gonna need to just give
Speaker 1: yourself a break and give yourself time to digest and
Speaker 1: think about the information that you have been learning, or
Speaker 1: just see life for what it is.
Speaker 2: Another thing I like to do is.
Speaker 1: Allow myself to do a lot of brain dumps, because
Speaker 1: your mind gets very cluttered sometimes when you have ADHD
Speaker 1: and especially when you want to do a lot of things,
Speaker 1: and so instead of acting on one hundred million different
Speaker 1: things in different projects and different hobbies, sometimes what I
Speaker 1: like to do is when I find myself in this
Speaker 1: energy is I like to open up notion and I
Speaker 1: like to write out all the ideas that I have
Speaker 1: for my podcast episodes and for my YouTube channel and
Speaker 1: da da da da, all the things that I want
Speaker 1: to do, and then I will let it sit. Like
Speaker 1: I won't really take action on any of these things,
Speaker 1: because I understan myself and I understand that not all
Speaker 1: these things need to even be translated into real life,
Speaker 1: and sometimes it just needs to be let out. But
Speaker 1: I allow myself room to just like have a brain dump.
Speaker 1: But also if I am working on a project or
Speaker 1: I'm working on something, I let myself have the brain
Speaker 1: dump and like just allow myself to write almost as
Speaker 1: a rough draft, because that also allows me to not
Speaker 1: be getting paralyzed in this perfectionist mindset of like thinking
Speaker 1: that whenever I start the project or whenever I start
Speaker 1: the thing, it has to be perfect. I give myself
Speaker 1: room to be a little bit messy and to come
Speaker 1: up with a bunch of different ideas and remind myself
Speaker 1: that this is just a rough draft and like I
Speaker 1: will actually come and sit down and do the final
Speaker 1: draft when I think about this a little bit more.
Speaker 1: And you will find sometimes you have to, like I
Speaker 1: just said, give yourself time to think and process information.
Speaker 1: And so sometimes it's good to just not always act
Speaker 1: on every single idea that you have. And I find
Speaker 1: that sometimes you can do that with ADHD. It's like,
Speaker 1: oh my god, I'm obsessed with this new thing, and
Speaker 1: i want to start this hobby. Let me start it
Speaker 1: right now, and me buy everything. Let me get all
Speaker 1: the material and let me get all the things, and
Speaker 1: I'm going.
Speaker 2: To start this now. Or you can think about that.
Speaker 1: You can think about doing this like art project or
Speaker 1: you want to start a new side business, or you
Speaker 1: want to whatever. But give yourself a second, Okay, So
Speaker 1: make a list of all the things that you need
Speaker 1: to buy, or with all the things that you want
Speaker 1: to buy, you can come up with a plan that
Speaker 1: you want to do, but like, you don't have to
Speaker 1: act on that right now. And this also can kind
Speaker 1: of come into like impulse spending as well. Right when
Speaker 1: we impulse spend it's like I need this, I need
Speaker 1: it now, this dope mein kick da da da. But
Speaker 1: sometimes you just need to make a list of things
Speaker 1: that you want to buy, but don't actually buy these things,
Speaker 1: give yourself a few weeks, and then you tend to
Speaker 1: look back on this list and you're like, I don't
Speaker 1: want these things, or I don't want to actually do
Speaker 1: this hobby. Maybe I want to do something that's adjacent
Speaker 1: to this hobby, or maybe I want to learn about
Speaker 1: this topic, but I don't want to like invest all
Speaker 1: of my time in years of school into this thing
Speaker 1: because I have an interest, like you want to really
Speaker 1: give yourself some time, because I have found I have
Speaker 1: been obsessed with certain topics sometimes and I'm like, oh
Speaker 1: my god, I want to rebrand my entire life and
Speaker 1: I want, like my entire channel to be like this,
Speaker 1: or I want my schooling to be like this. I
Speaker 1: want to go back to school for this. And I
Speaker 1: have learned with age to give myself a lot of
Speaker 1: time to digest and to discover what I'm actually interested
Speaker 1: in in a way that is balanced, meaning I'm not
Speaker 1: wasting all my money, i am not dropping all of
Speaker 1: my responsibilities for this thing. I'm giving myself to sit
Speaker 1: on it. And it doesn't mean you can't explore your
Speaker 1: passions or your interests, but you want to do it
Speaker 1: in a way where you're not literally giving up your
Speaker 1: daily non negotiables in life for this thing that might
Speaker 1: not actually be anything other than just a hyper fixation
Speaker 1: on that week, you know what I mean. Now, I
Speaker 1: tend to do pretty well with a reward system. Kind
Speaker 1: of it sounds like when you're like trying to train
Speaker 1: a dog when I'm saying reward system, but for me,
Speaker 1: and I don't really set an intention of like, oh,
Speaker 1: if I study for like one hour today, or if
Speaker 1: I like, if I do my work day, then I
Speaker 1: will have a sweet treat. Like I don't do that
Speaker 1: like every day, and I'm not even that intentional with it.
Speaker 1: But the way that I move in my life is
Speaker 1: kind of like, let me prioritize the important things that
Speaker 1: I need to first, and then I will do the
Speaker 1: things that feel more like a reward. So I will
Speaker 1: prioritize doing my podcast episode before I go lay on
Speaker 1: my bed and scroll on TikTok, or if I want
Speaker 1: to go with my friends on the weekend, I will
Speaker 1: make sure that I do X amount of work this
Speaker 1: week before I do that, or I will work around
Speaker 1: my work schedule to have that social life or to
Speaker 1: have these things because I have goals. Or let's say
Speaker 1: I want to go to a coffee shop and I
Speaker 1: want to work and I really want a nice like
Speaker 1: little icemocha. Okay, I'm going to go and do that,
Speaker 1: but I'm going to go and work on some thing
Speaker 1: as I'm doing that. And does every single thing need
Speaker 1: to be this like reward system. No, you can treat
Speaker 1: yourself just because. But I do find when you have
Speaker 1: ADHD and you have this issue also with this lack
Speaker 1: of dopamine, sometimes you're usually always seeking it out right,
Speaker 1: so like the sweet treat becomes every hour sweet treat,
Speaker 1: or every single day you need the dopamine kick, or
Speaker 1: every single day you're gonna allow yourself to do the
Speaker 1: scrolling or do the whatever.
Speaker 2: Right, So I.
Speaker 1: Find myself having to always kind of not really always
Speaker 1: battle that, and I actually talk about it a lot
Speaker 1: in my book when it comes to like no longer
Speaker 1: having this addiction towards candy, because I used to like
Speaker 1: emotionally regulate myself a lot with candy. So if you're interested,
Speaker 1: you can go check out my book. I'll have it
Speaker 1: linked down below. But I do still find sometimes when
Speaker 1: I'm wanting these rewards, I realize, oh, Okay, my dopamine
Speaker 1: levels are kind of at a low right now, and
Speaker 1: engaging in this reward like always getting the coffee and
Speaker 1: always get the thing, might not be the best thing
Speaker 1: that I need right now. But if I want that,
Speaker 1: I am going to first do at least one task
Speaker 1: or one thing before I go and engage in this behavior,
Speaker 1: which is not a bad thing. I feel like I
Speaker 1: have lowered the behaviors that I do that kind of
Speaker 1: kick up the dopamine. But I do think it feels
Speaker 1: a lot better as well when you do a task
Speaker 1: or you do the thing that you said that.
Speaker 2: You were going to do and then you have a reward.
Speaker 1: Now, this episode is getting really long, and there are
Speaker 1: definitely like daily habits when it comes to routines, whether
Speaker 1: that's like things that I'm eating or movement, like different
Speaker 1: breaks and stuff that I'll take throughout my days that
Speaker 1: can be really beneficial for me to kind of stay
Speaker 1: on track. And so maybe I'll do another episode on that,
Speaker 1: So please let me know in the comments. What you
Speaker 1: want me to expand on or if you have any
Speaker 1: other questions for me in regards to this. But my
Speaker 1: main takeaway for you guys, honestly is to try to
Speaker 1: do more things that you have less resistance too and
Speaker 1: things that actually work for you. And when it comes
Speaker 1: to creating your dream life, at least for me. I
Speaker 1: started to realize the things that I was passionate about
Speaker 1: and the ways in which I work and the type
Speaker 1: of work that works for me, and I went into
Speaker 1: that direction. I started to realize having a podcast is
Speaker 1: beautiful for somebody like me. I started to realize that
Speaker 1: mental health is the field that I want to go into,
Speaker 1: and I had a nine to five. I had to
Speaker 1: bust my ass and work as a bartender and do
Speaker 1: things that I didn't want to do. But I realized, Okay,
Speaker 1: I'm obsessed with psychology, I'm obsessed with online platforms. The
Speaker 1: way that I learn is through these certain ways. So
Speaker 1: I'm going to go in that direction. I'm going to
Speaker 1: put as much attention in time and work towards these
Speaker 1: things so this can be more of my reality than
Speaker 1: the current reality that I have right now. And was
Speaker 1: it hard to kind of navigate yes, and do it,
Speaker 1: and I have to push myself a lot. Yes, But
Speaker 1: now I live a life where I work for myself
Speaker 1: and I can do more of this cyclical living. I
Speaker 1: have a job where I'm able to really hone in
Speaker 1: on my talents and my wisdom and my skills and
Speaker 1: bring it to the world, which then, of course allows
Speaker 1: me to be even more expansive and I'm helping people.
Speaker 1: So try your best to follow those directions, follow those inspirations,
Speaker 1: even if you can't do it right now in your life.
Speaker 1: Don't forget about those things. There's going to be things
Speaker 1: that you are very interested in and you keep coming
Speaker 1: back to, and you could talk about all day, and
Speaker 1: you could obsess over and you can listen to people
Speaker 1: like talk about it, and you could even do it
Speaker 1: for free if you never got paid a day in
Speaker 1: your life. Go in that direction and build your life
Speaker 1: closer to that. I promise you you will do yourself
Speaker 1: a very big service by going in that direction.
Speaker 2: Anyways.
Speaker 1: Positives of ADHD strong sense of what is fair, always
Speaker 1: willing to help others, Able to see the big picture,
Speaker 1: makes people feel heard, not afraid to take risks, extremely passionate,
Speaker 1: thinks big and dreams big, very creative and detailed, oriented,
Speaker 1: can motivate others, very persistent, ability to hyper focus, and
Speaker 1: high energy and fun to be around. And I think
Speaker 1: that those are all very positive traits that you can
Speaker 1: use to your benefit if you look at it like that.
Speaker 1: I have lived a life of being very frustrated with
Speaker 1: not being able to live in a very structured way
Speaker 1: until I understood that's just not how I work in
Speaker 1: my life, and there's things that I'm going to need
Speaker 1: to support myself with in different ways in different days.
Speaker 1: I also understand that my brain is different and it
Speaker 1: thinks differently, but I would rather that than any other way, honestly,
Speaker 1: And how do I create a life where it is
Speaker 1: more supportive of the way that I think? And one
Speaker 1: example is having a podcast like this. So I hope
Speaker 1: some of my tips helped you and maybe made you
Speaker 1: think a little bit differently. Again, I could go into
Speaker 1: so many different tips and daily habits, but really, at
Speaker 1: the end of the day, it's a journey and it's
Speaker 1: not going to be linear. That's basically all I will say.
Speaker 1: So I hope you guys enjoyed and I'll see you
Speaker 1: in the next one.
Speaker 2: Bye.