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Hi, welcome to ADHD Friendly. My coffee cup needs to be tightened there. I am Patti. I'm an ADHD and executive function coach and I am here to welcome you to episode 250250 and just a quick overview. In this episode I'm going to be celebrating a small hack that's helping me walk on my treadmill more consistently. I'm also going to share a tip about airplane mode on your phone and how to maybe think about using it even when you're not on a plane. And then my product of the week is some PJs. You know what I'm talking about? I do. And our main topic today is the power of predictable rhythms. My I have my dogs in here. Just so excited. It is beautiful. I mean it is stinking gorgeous for middle of summer. We just had a beautiful cool front come down from Canada without any smoke. Lovely. And it's like 62 outside right now. And it's 9am as I'm recording this. I mean, come on, that, that doesn't get much better than that in the summertime. Okay, my celebration, here's my hack. I have been trying to walk more on my desk treadmill because it has been so hot here and we've had a lot of the smoke from the wildfires in Canada where even if it wasn't terribly hot, it wasn't safe to walk outside and breathe in the air. And I realized, okay, I can't just not walk. I have a treadmill, I should be using it more. And so my hack is I wrote myself a little note on a little post it that says put your shoes on the chair. Okay. So what I do is I, when I come in, my shoes are on my chair. I take the post it off and I stick it on my drink so I can't ignore it. I put my shoes on and then I go to work. And then I look for just windows of time that I can just, yeah, just walk because I have a stand or the standing. Yeah, I have a standing desk and it's adjustable so I just rise it up and I walk and I can lower it when I want to sit down. And then when I leave my office at the end of the day, I take that off and I pick my shoes up and I put them back on the chair with my little note. And it has worked. It's such a simple hack, but it has worked so well because once my sneakers are on, it makes it so easy to walk when I find little pockets of time as opposed to having to realize, oh, I have 30 minutes right now. I could walk, but I don't want to put my shoes on. And it's like right now I feel like, oh, the shoes are already on. It's like the. Just put the shoes on. So that's my little celebration that I tried it and it's working really well. Next, I have what I purchased this week. I purchased a few pairs of PJs from Sam's Club. They were. Not all of them were on clearance, but a lot of them are on clearance and I love them. They are so soft. They are so cool to sleep in. And one of them in particular, not the one I'm going to show you pictures of, but there's one that has long sleeves that I thought is like a night dress. It's just like a night shirt. Like it just comes to mid thigh. But it had long sleeves. And I thought that's probably going to be too warm. But I decided to wear it, try it out. I slept in it. It is so cool. It's crazy. I love it. But the one that I'm going to highlight for my product of the week is called the Members Mark, which is Sam's brand women's two piece notch collar pajama set. It has a 4.7 out of 5 stars with over 400 ratings. Oh, wow. And it is on sale and actually I think it's on a clearance sale. It's 11.81 for the pair. Yeah. And so it depends on what size you're buying. Like these were the, the colors available for my size, so I, I ordered black and purple. So cute. But they have a couple of floral ones if you like that. And if you are a different size, they might have the gray or the pink or I really wanted this little white with blue polka dots or I don't know if it was dark blue or black polka dots. They didn't have that. Always the first to go. I know. But I think I'm gonna go back and order the night shirt in another color. I love it. And it's long enough that I walk around the house and I'm comfortable. These. I have to say the one thing I will tell you and if you read the reviews, you'll see the shorts are a bit short. Short. But they do have pockets. The night dress does not have pockets. So these things are so stinking comfortable. So I just wanted to highlight that if you're looking for. Even if they're not on sale, they're. They were 1498. That's a good deal. Come on right. For a set too. For a set, I got four pairs of PJs for 60 bucks with tax. That's a great. That's a great. I'm pretty happy. Okay, now for my tip for this week. And this came from my 365 Day Hacks calendar, which is such a simple thing that I'm always like, how have I not thought of doing that before? And I have done it a number of times because this hack I found on June 9th and I have been using it for a little while, but that is to use airplane mode on your phone to get more things done. So I'm going to read you the hat. Distractions. Yeah, it says, forget all those fancy productivity apps on your phone. The best way to stay productive is just to use airplane mode. Plus, it's free. True. So our phones are. I always think of them as kind of being like Las Vegas casino for our brain. Like, it's just there's so many things there that are going to fire up our brain and create interest. We just get so pulled into the rabbit hole of distraction. And even if you're just checking the time, you might see, oh, somebody texted me. I have a message. I have a calendar alert. Oh, what? Let me just check the weather. Let me see what the news is, what's happening in the news, whatever it is. And it just leads us into like 20 minutes have gone by or longer and we're like, what time? I don't even know what time it was because I never even paid attention to the time. I'm looking at all these other things where airplane mode just creates a barrier between you and incoming distractions. Just like when you're on an airplane. It's one of the things I love. My husband's always offered me is like, you can use my, my wi Fi. I'm like, no, thank you. Yeah, I'm like, I kind of like that. I'm out of pocket for a bit. Yeah, don't, don't be texting me. And I like, when I turn my airplane mode off, I get all these like, oh, people live in like, I'm like, it's like the little casino all at once. So here's my tip. When you just like my little like, disclaimer because I know a lot of us need to be in touch. Like if you have like kids at school or somebody needs to get. Somebody's trying to call you back or I don't know, something. I always think of my kids needing to reach me. Yeah. Pick maybe a short task and just Set a timer for 10 or 15 minutes. If you just know you tend to constantly get pulled away, that might be a way to begin experimenting with it. I tend to do it when. When everybody's in my house, so I don't have to worry about what if they're in an accident and they can't get a hold of me. Right. So it's just a comfort thing for me where I don't have to worry about somebody not being able to reach me. You're like, okay, they're all here. Yeah. I'm like, okay. Okay. So pick one task, just a short 10, 15 minute task. Set a timer, put it on airplane mode, do the task and just experiment. Notice. Does it help you to get that done more easily? It's just an easy little workaround that it's so simple to set up. You just airplane mode done. So I just wanted to pass that on because I have been using it a lot more than just the airplane. And I'm like, it really is kind of nice. But I do have to set a timer because then I'll forget. Mom, I was trying to call you. I'm like, sorry. So, yeah, set, set. A little reminder to turn it back off when you're done. Okay, now for my main topic today, and that is the power of predictable routines. So all of this month, which is August, inside my ADHD friendly membership, where everything we do is designed to help you use the strengths of your brain to put some scaffolding and support around the weaker areas so that you are thriving more with your brain and struggling a lot less. And what we're doing in the membership is focusing on establishing your ADHD friendly rhythm. So rhythm is just a flexible pattern that supports your brain without you having to put in a whole lot of effort. And it's going to work with your real life. So again, this is a customizable thing. It's different for Becca than it is for me. It's different for anybody else in your life. Your neighbors, your relatives. It's very personable because they're built around your individual consistent habits and anchors to those habits. So I'm going to give you some examples of what these rhythms might look like. These are ADHD friendly examples. So maybe while you're having your morning coffee, you have that anchor that you look at your planner while you're having your coffee, or you take your prescription right after you finish brushing your teeth. So your prescription is next to your toothbrush. It's part of what you do. It's your routine. You do a Quick five minute desk, tidy reset before you leave the office at the end of the day so you come into a nice clean workspace. Or you walk after lunch instead of at a specific time. So if you don't eat lunch until two, you still go for your walk instead of, I walk at one o' clock every day. Like, okay, well, the routine gives you the flexibility, but it's predictable in that it happens in a, a general frame without it being too constricting. So what makes a routine predictable and ADHD friendly? Right. So predictable could be like, I do it at this time every single day. But that rigidity can get in our way. So number one, they're going to reduce the decisions you have to make. So it might be, I wear a pair of sweats and a T shirt when I get up in the morning so I can go and exercise. Or I always wear a polo shirt and khakis or whatever. You know, you've got this, like when I'm working, this is my work uniform. Or I eat, like for me, I eat oatmeal with walnuts and pecans every morning. I don't have to think what's for breakfast? I have my oatmeal. So you're reducing the number of decisions you have to make. They also lighten the cognitive load because you're not having to exert all that effort from your brain. You know, what you do when, because it's part of the routine that you follow. And then of course, they use external cues to make it easier to remember what comes next. So just like the pill bottle next to the toothbrush, I use like a nasal cort, like flonase for my nose because I have seasonal allergies. And I move it at night because I have to do it in the morning and at night. So when I use it at night, it goes from a shelf to down to next to my sink. And then in the morning it's next to my sink. Which reminds me, I haven't done it yet this morning. And so when I do it in the morning, I put it back up on top. So just that little back and forth movement lets me know if I've already done it. Smart. So it's just a visual cue. External visual. So I have an example here where my husband came into the kitchen on Monday and asked me if I was excited to, to see that he had emptied the dishwasher the night before because we had run it and it was full when I went to bed. And I did see that it was full. Yeah. And that it was done running and that I would have to empty it in the morning. And he was like, so like, oh, did you see? I emptied it before I came up to bed. Were you excited? I was like, no, I haven't even looked at the dishwasher yet because it wasn't part of my routine. My routine was at the point that I was at, I was still like readying my coffee and I had fed the dogs, but I didn't get to dishes yet. And I was like, I would have gotten there, but that's not where I am in my routine. Yeah. And so again, those don't happen at specific times. They just happen in a specific order so they support each other. So I would have gotten to it and I would have noticed it, but I wasn't. And I realized that when he said it, I'm like, yeah, that's not the part of my routine yet. So to support your brain with predictable routines, the priority is to make them realistic so that you can do them right. We want to plan to make them flexible so that your kind of low energy self can show up and still do it. So sustainable. So we want them to be flexible, realistic and sustainable. So I always say plan for your low energy day so that even when you're like dragging, you can still do the thing where if you plan for your high energy, high energy day, you might be frustrated. If you, you're like, I'm gonna do this for 30 minutes. And you're like, I don't think so. I can't do it for fun. Exactly. So it's like, no, I can do it because I made it flexible and I can go down to my low energy day routine. So if you'd like more support this month around finding how to make your routines more flexible and sustainable, check out ADHD Friendly. You can get a seven day free trial to learn more. ADH Friendly.com is my website. Okay. Book of the week. All right. I finally finished it. I was reading the the Arc of the sky scythe. I always say it wrong, which is the third in a series by Neil Schusterman. It's called the Toll and again the series is called Arc of the Site. This is a third and final. There is an additional one just called Gleanings, which I'm not going to read. I think it's just like taking excerpts like, like stories of different sides and they're. It's not like a continuation of the story itself. At least I don't think it is. But in this one Scythe Goddard, who is the main evil villain in the series is at the height of his power. And whether or not he can be stopped lies in the answer, lies in the tone, the toll and the thunder, which if you read any of these, they are all very specific components of this world. So I had to push through this one. It was a little more sci fi, just like, okay, okay. But I did like the ending, so I was glad. And I was already in it for two books so I was like, I've got to find out how this ends. And I really did like the ending. So I gave it three and a half out of five because they tied the bow at the end in a nice way. It was very satisfying. So I was like, okay. So that's my book of the week. And my quote comes from this book. It's from the Toll and it says, a successful lie is not fueled by a liar. It is fueled by the willingness of the listener to believe the lie. And with that and my dogs who is just so excited that the window is open and you can see outside because it or the, you know, it's just so beautiful outside. But that's it for this episode. 250-we- hit the 250 mark. Crazy. I hope you have a wonderful ADHD friendly day and week. Until next time, tell you how.