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You are listening to the Navigating Adult ADHD podcast with your ADHD coach and expert, Xena. Hello, hello, hello my friend. Welcome back to Navigating Adult adhd. How are you? I hope you are having a beautiful day wherever you are and whatever you are doing. So real quick update before we dive into these 10 hacks, which I'm very excited to share with you. I did a podcast a few weeks back now on ADHD and Perimenopause and if I can find the title, let me just look really quick. So it was six things nobody told us about ADHD and Perimenopause. So I shared with you in that episode how I had been ever since Christmas, which let me give context. Over two months, for over two months, about I'd say nine weeks. I had slowly gotten less energy, like really low, low, low energy to the point where I was like napping many, many days and just feeling really constantly exhausted. And I had a low mood. Like I just didn't really give a fuck about anything that kind of a mood. And I shared that during that episode and how I was starting to increase the estrogen a little bit, but also introduce testosterone. My testosterone results had showed I was really, really low. That was one of the things that I had said in there how that is not talk women. And I wanted to report back and let you know that I think I am about three weeks in now and most things that I've researched said four to six weeks before you notice a difference. But I'm three weeks in and noticing a significant difference to energy and mood almost back to where I was. So I just wanted to share that little update with you all in case you are also navigating that it could be something that you want to explore. All right, my friends, that's not what you clicked play on this episode for, but I love to just sprinkle in the life updates from time to time and things that might also help you and anything ADHD related because hi, we get it. So I am so excited for this episode. I'm going to Share with you 10 ADHD hacks that actually help. Simple things that actually do make a difference, that actually work. Okay, so let's just dive straight on in, my friend. Number one, body doubling. This is probably one of the most consistently praised ADHD hacks. It's one that's talked about a lot. If you are, you know, in ADHD forums online, if you're doing any research, etc. Like this one is just so simple and so effective. So all it Is is doing a task while another person is nearby, either physically, like in the room with you or virtually. So they could be online and you're doing it through Zoom or some other platform. Okay, so that's all it is. Body doubling is having another person present while you do a task, while you get some shit done. And this can be so helpful when it comes to, you know, struggling to get things done, getting started, procrastination, staying on track, you know, not getting distracted. It is weird, but it really, really, really works. Okay, so how you might use it is asking a friend or a family member to sit with you while you do some admin. I know somebody who would often have her mum come over. She's a teacher, she'd have her mum come over on the school holidays and she would just go through and do a bunch of things in the house that she needed to do while her mum drank a cup of tea and they just chatted and she said just having her there made her do all of that shit that she had been avoiding. Okay. There are some online apps, I believe Focus Mate is one that I've heard talked about a little bit. I'm not familiar with it, but you can always check that out. If you are in my, one of my programs, one of my memberships, then you will have we get a do a monthly body doubling session together on Zoom. And on there, people do all sorts of things. Like somebody will often tidy up their room or tidy up their kitchen. We had that the other day. We had somebody else working on a report that they had to do. Somebody was outlining an online seminar that they were going to deliver. So people are doing all sorts of different things. Like last time I was doing it, I had like a certain number of emails to reply to and then I was going to start drafting a podcast. So, you know, anything, literally you can be doing anything. So you could put somebody on FaceTime while you fold the washing. I have done this before. My friends know if they're FaceTiming me. I'm sure as shit doing something else at the same time. Another way that I use body doubling is I will go to one of my favorite cafes, literally just down the road and I will work in a cafe. And for some reason, like, I don't know if it's the people energy, but for me, I personally feel like all eyeballs are watching me. Most people can't even see my screen and if they can, they don't give a shit what I'm doing. Right? But I just feel like all eyes are on me. So I have to be productive. I can't just be on Facebook or Instagram. It just works. Okay, so again, that's just putting my. I don't even need to ask somebody else to body double with me. I can just put myself in that environment. And it's hugely helpful. I know some people in like corporate working environments will book out a, a meeting room or a boardroom and they will get their co workers and they'll just like do a body doubling session for a couple of hours each week. They do this as a regular thing and it just really helps them to catch up on work or do some of the tasks that, that they've been avoiding. So if you haven't yet done it, I highly recommend you give this a crack. It's awesome. Here's an example. Let's say you need to send three invoices, but your brain is acting like you've got a diffuser bomb. Okay. Sounds exactly like how my brain would act. So what you do is you jump on zoom with a friend or maybe another coworker who works from home, you tell her the goal, tell them what you're working on, and suddenly it just feels more doable. You just start doing it. Like all of a sudden you've got this like, accountability to somebody else. I've always found that this has been true when I've started some, you know, joined a new gym or started some sort of a workout program, is doing it with somebody saying, hey, I'll meet you at the gym at 7am Then I'm so much more likely to turn up because I just don't want to cancel on them. Right? So again, body doubling. Awesome. Number two is the five minute one win. I fucking love this one, okay? Because this sneaks right past your task paralysis, that difficulty starting a task. So instead of saying, you know, I have to write this entire report, the five minute win is you're agreeing just to spend five minutes on it. Okay? So when I do this, I always Recommend Setting a 5 minute timer because then, you know, hey, I've been doing it for five minutes. Like, I can now go and do something else. I don't have to keep going. But also you want to celebrate the shit out of the fact that, hey, I've done it for five minutes. Like I've actually started, I've made a tiny bit of progress. Like, this is a good step in the right direction. You want to celebrate that when the timer goes off. That part's really important because it reinforces the habit, right? And the Use of this tool and that being a positive experience. Okay. Some people might use like egg timers, sand timers. I just use my phone and just do a five minute countdown. Okay. Really easy. But again, like, this really helps us to get started when we're stuck and to make a dent in something. Like, for me, like in our household, you know, three boys, we end up with a shit ton of washing the week that they're here. We ended up with literally mountains of this. Like we've got, I don't know what, five washing baskets, five different laundry type baskets in our house, right. That all falls and like falling over. Right. So when we pile all of that, that mountain onto the bead and we set a five minute timer, I often do this again, body doubling with my partner. It just, you know, it makes it so much easier and you'll be surprised at what you can actually achieve in the five minutes. Now if you want to keep going, fantastic, keep going. But again, just five minutes to help you get started. Okay, so another example of how you could use this. If I go back to the writing the report, instead of I've got to write this report, this whole report, like, I need to get it done, I'm gonna do five minutes, I'm gonna set the timer, I'm just gonna open the document, I'm gonna put a subject line in there and save it, and then I'm just gonna make notes for the remainder of the five minutes about what I need to include in this. That's it, right? Like that's just, you know, lowering the bar for the entry low. Lowering the barrier for entry, which really does speak to ADHD brains. Okay, number three, and this, like, is a cousin of the five minute win, is to make a task ridiculously small. Seriously. Okay. Tiny. Like absolutely tiny. Because when you make it so small, your brain has nothing left to argue with. Like, you just do it, right? Like it's just so minute and tiny. You will literally just do it. Okay. It's also recommended by many, many experts, and I definitely agree with this that we break tasks into concrete small actions. Right. Like back to that report. Like, I have to write this report. What are the steps, what are the things that you need to do in order to write that report? Like it might be five things or ten things. Okay, so again, when we're making something stupidly small, instead of like clean the kitchen, it could become, I'm going to put three things away. I'm going to put away the air fryer, I am going to put away this recycling that's been sitting on the bench for a week and then I'm going to put away the clean dishes. Right. We might just pick three. Three dishes to put away. There is no wrong way to do this. Okay, so again, it's like making it stupidly small instead of like, I've got to clean the whole kitchen and then it's like, it's a very perfectionist thing. I've got to finish it, I've got to make it perfect. I've got to spray and wipe all the benches and I've got to load the dishwasher and I've got to unload it and all of this. Do no. Right, like just put three things away. Right. And even with go to the gym, I will often encourage using the five minute win here. Like if you can do five minutes, just walk for five minutes, come, you know, come back. But if that is too much and you're resisting that, then again, it could be just put on your gym shoes. That's it. Put on your gym shoes. Right. Instead of going to the gym, just wear them around the house. And that ridiculously small task is taking a positive action, a positive step towards that, towards getting to the gym, towards getting to the, you know, out for a walk, what have you. Okay. And even, like, again, we're sticking with making it ridiculously small. Doing the taxes could just become open the email from the accountant. Okay. Ridiculously small steps, so helpful because often our brain sees this. You know what, one task, like, do the taxes and it's like, oh my God, that's so overwhelming. It requires so many different steps. It's huge. I don't even know where to start. And so we avoid it. Right? Of course, number four is to externalize your brain, my friend. This one is huge because for us, if we can't see it, it doesn't exist. Out of sight, out of mind. Again, this is one of the reasons why I love brain dumping. Because we get all the shit out of our head onto a piece of paper and we see, see what's going on up in there. So whether that be sticky notes, that's something that I love. Although sometimes after a while they do sort of become the wallpaper and you forget they exist. So you need to change them up. But you know, sticky notes, calendars, planners. Like, I've got a giant wall planner here down in our kitchen, we've got a giant chalkboard calendar in the kitchen. If you saw, I think it was, they showed a picture of it on the ADHD doco that I was on. But, you know, anyway, planners, calendars, sticky notes, visual cues. Okay. These are a visual reminder to our brain. So it could be that you use the notes app for brain dumps. Okay. It could be that you put reminders on mirrors or on doors or on the fridge. Right. And then change them up regularly. Could be using a whiteboard for your current priorities, for things that you want to remember, or bring your attention back to those sorts of things. Okay. So again, just making it visual insight in mind. Somebody else that I work with has said how having an online calendar just doesn't work for her. She needs to have a visual one. So she has like a big planner in the house that she, she kind of prints out and keeps everywhere so that other people can see what's happening as well. But also she'll take one with her all of the time. So she'll carry that around so that she's got that visual reminder of what needs to happen when it's happening. All of that. Because again, the online one for her brain isn't the same. Totally get that. My friends. Number five is using multiple alarms, but with labels. You can't just set an alarm and expect to remember what it's for. Ask me how I know. Yes, that's right. Been there, done that, my friend. You need to label it. Okay, so we know, as people with adhd, our working memory, we often forget things. We're more prone to forgetting things. We also know that time blindness is a thing that we are, you know, we struggle to estimate time and forget to allow time for traveling or etc. Right. We get, you know, distracted and hijacked and off into another task. So this is really, really helpful for that. Okay. It could be that you have an alarm and you can have like, shit, tons of alarms, which I love. Right. You can have all sorts of them. But you might have one that says, take your meds. Right? 7am Every morning. Take your meds. I use it sometimes when I need to leave the house. Especially I go to the gym in the middle of the day, two to three days a week. And it's often in. In the time when I'm kind of in a hyper focus mode. So I will set an alarm five minutes typically before I need to leave the house, sometimes 10 minutes. But having that, you know, leaving in 10 minutes, having that go off, it's like, oh, that's right. Like, otherwise I would have completely forgotten it and be running late. So, yeah, it could be take your meds or, you know, leave the house in 10 minutes. It could be start getting ready for bed now. Start winding down. It could be, you know, you've got that meeting in five minutes. Log into Zoom. So useful. I was literally having coffee with a friend the other day and her phone. No, it was her watch. I think she's got an Apple watch. Her Apple watch started making all sorts of funny noises. And I said, what's that? And she goes, oh, that's a timer. And I said, oh, what for? And she goes, oh, I've got an alarm set up so that every time I need to log into work, I do that. And she's got, like, this app where she needs to, like, log in that she started work for the day. And so she pulled out her phone and did that. And I was like, huh, Love it. Right, so good. So number five is using multiple alarms with the labels number six. This one. So helpful. Put things where you use them. I don't give a shit if it's logical to put my supplements in a drawer, to put them out of sight in the pantry. Heck no. Because if I put them there, I am not going to take them. Right? This is classic adhd, right? Out of sight, out of mind. We need to lower the bar for entry and put shit where we use it. Reduce the friction, remove the forgetfulness. Okay. Instead of worrying about the proper way to organize the proper places to put things. No, make it easier for you. For me, I have my supplements on a little tray sitting on the kitchen counter, and they are next to the stovetop where I make my breakfast every morning. And that way I see them and I remember to take them, because that's where I take them. I take them in the kitchen every morning. Now, if I had them anywhere else, and trust me, like, I've had them in my office before. I've had them next to my bed before. I forget. I don't use them because the kitchen is the place where I use them. So, for example, you might have your medication next to your toothbrush or next to your kettle, because that's that reminder of. Oh, yeah, I take it every morning with my morning coffee or every. Every time I brush my teeth. You know, every morning I brush my teeth, I take my meds, right? It could be charges. I have charges. Like, I've got my iPhone charger, my laptop charger, my headphones charger. I've got all these chargers here in the office where I'm recording this view. I've got all of those duplicated in the bedroom, which is another place that I, you know, next to my bed, like where my, my things might charge, but I also love to work and sit on the bed and work sometimes. So I've got duplicates, I've got charges in the car, we've got more downstairs. Like having things where you see them so that you use them. Okay, Charges in multiple rooms. But also things like we've got spray and wipe in the bathroom. Like for us, our spray and wipe cleaning product typically lives under the kitchen sink, but we've just bought multiples and we've put them in all of the bathroom, bathroom cupboards. So we've got three bathrooms in the house and that in all of the cupboards along with like some paper towels or something like that, you know, like some, some wipes. That way if we need it, it's just there and we're not going to like leave it for later. It's just so much easier to do it now because it's like right here. I've made it easier. Right again. Lowering the bar for entry. I'm on a roll today. All right, number seven, pair boring tasks with dopamine. Yes. Hell yes, I am all for this. As we know, if something is dull and boring, like, you know, folding the washing or cleaning the, we are more likely to avoid it because it doesn't produce that dopamine for us. Right? Well, there's multiple reasons, but that's one of them. Right. So often our brain is treating these tasks like beige wallpaper. Like, no. So the way that we can pair it with some dopamine is if we put on some music, if we listen to a podcast, if we have Netflix on in the background while we're folding the washing, while we're washing the dishes. Sometimes I might, you know, FaceTime a friend, things like that that make doing it feel like less of a chore because we're getting something enjoyable at the same time, which is that dopamine. Okay, so it could be that you make yourself a fancy drink or like if you love coffee, I love coffee. Make a nice coffee while you do the emails. Right. It could be that you play your favourite playlist whilst you clean the bathroom. Right. Those sorts of things. Pair a boring task with a dopamine. And again, like, if you're really struggling, I'd just limit it, drop it back to a five minute thing, have that timer there as well. Okay, number eight, using novelty on purpose. On purpose. I'm not sure what I was going to say there. Use novelty on purpose. So we know the ADHD brain is motivated by the nicu. So that stands for the Novelty, interest, challenge and urgency. Our brain loves that shit because it produces dopamine in our brain, okay? So again, we can help our brains to get on board with tasks when we add an element of novelty. So I also recommend that you rotate through these if you can. Instead of just doing the one thing. I mean, you can do the one thing to death, all or nothing if you want, but then don't. It's not fair to say that thing doesn't work anymore. We've just kind of sucked all the dopamine out of it. That's why I recommend rotating through some things. It's like why I say have a dopamine menu, right? Because you can sort of pick different things depending on your mood as well. So some ideas of how you can make something novel or interesting is in the morning, when you get up in the morning, when the alarm goes off. Let's just say you're somebody who doesn't like getting out of bed when the alarm goes off is change the song up that plays or change the sound up that plays every morning. Because when you do that. I did this literally the other. Other day. I did it by accident. I went in to test the alarm for the morning. I think I was getting up at like 5am and I went to test it and make sure it was loud enough, and, boy, it was definitely loud enough. But then I couldn't find the same tune. And so I went through and I played all these different alarm tunes that I could have. And it was a real novel thing. And so when it went off in the morning, I'd clicked on one and hadn't listened to it. So I didn't actually know what it was going to play when it went off. So that created this instant little bit of novelty and interest for my brain when the alarm went off, which kind of distracts me from the getting up. Trust me, it's great. It could also be like novelty on purpose. Might be working in a different location. Whether that be you, you know, you work in an office building and you book out the meeting room, or you go and say to your boss, hey, do you mind if I go and work from the cafe downstairs for a couple of hours? Or do you mind if I, you know, go and work on this from the park for half an hour in the shade, whatever, doing the same sort of thing but in a different location. Another way you could use that same sort of a thing is if you go for a walk. I walk every single day. Walk a different route, walk somewhere different, like go back the front Take a different loop. Go down a street you haven't been down before. I find that one really fascinating. I love going down some random street and seeing, you know, what cars in the driveway and you know, how have they painted their house, what's in their garden, all of that sort of a thing. So again, just little bursts of novelty like that can really help to motivate the ADHD brain and also help to sort of distract us from some of the things that might derail us. All right, number nine, this one. This actually is a tip that I got years ago in some ADHD forum that I was reading and have found, like, I adopted it straight away and have found it so useful. And that is keeping duplicates of the essentials. Okay, so this is one that's talked about a lot in forums. So whether it be, you know, you have, especially if you've got a split level house, like you have a toothbrush in your ensuite bathroom upstairs, but you also have a toothbrush downstairs in the kitchen. Because sometimes you're about to leave for the day, you realize you haven't brushed your teeth, but the idea of going upstairs into your bathtub bathroom is just too much. And so if you have that duplicate somewhere else, really, really helpful. It charges. Is another one having charges in multiple places. Have one in the car, have one by your bed, have one in your living room, wherever it is that you spend a lot of time. Lip balms, ADHD medications. Like, I have kept mine in a couple of different places. I keep one in my handbag in case I realize, you know, partway somewhere I've forgotten to take it for the day. And one next to my bed. Right. So again, duplicates of the essentials. If you've got an upstairs and a downstairs, what are the things that you know would be really helpful to have in both parts of the house? So helpful. So again, charges is a really big one. A lot of people having charges upstairs and downstairs. Toothbrush, even having one at home and one in your bag. I always do that when I'm traveling. I always keep one in my bag when I'm traveling. Deodorant, keep one in the car. My partner does that. He's got a deodorant in the car, literally, because half the time he forgets. So helpful. Water bottles, Keep them everywhere. Okay? Keep them everywhere. So again, just having duplicates of the essentials. We're just making it easier to access these things, to use these things. Right? Lowering the bar for entries. You guys seeing the theme? All right, and the last one, this is one of my favorites. Number 10 is creating good enough systems, not perfect ones. So very often people with adhd, we can be very all or nothing, and we can get very stuck in sort of perfectionist tendencies. If it's not, you know, done right, then it's not worth doing these sorts of things. But we do really well with systems that are simple, that lower the bar, as I have been saying over and over and over again, you know, rather than being, you know, requiring 20 different steps. Like a morning routine that's got 20 different steps. Oh, my God, hell no. Right? Like this perfect morning routine where I have to get up at this time and I have to do yoga and I have to do breath work and I have to do journaling, and I have to do all of these things, right? And then I have to cook a, you know, a healthy breakfast. I have to do all of these things. That is not it. We want to create a really low bar, good enough system. So, for example, here's what I mean by this, because I think this sounds quite vague. One of the things, actually that I got from my friend Carrie, she's been on the podcast a couple of times now, so she does home organization for people with adhd. She said, have a basket by the door with. With your socks in it. And I adapted that because, yes, that's great. We end up with socks strewn all over our house and still do. So we might need to do a sock basket. But I adapted that because right now we've got all of our summer shoes everywhere. So, you know, I've got multiple pairs of sports shoes, and then I've got sandals and jandals and all sorts of things. And then you've got kids and then we've got the partners. So we got just a really big bin and put it next to our front door. We've got one outside the door and one inside the door. And we throw all of the jandals, all of the flats, all of those sorts, shoes in this bin. And doing that makes it just way tidier. Instead of having them strewn all over the house or having them throw in at the shoe rack, we still got a shoe rack by the door. Having them throw in on that or towards that, it just makes it so much easier. So it's not a perfect system. It's not a. What's that fancy word? Aesthetically pleasing. I don't know. You know, it's not good on the eye, whatever. I just don't care. It works really, really well. That's what I mean. By, like, good enough systems. Okay. Having hooks to hang things on, a whole bunch of hooks in your wardrobe rather than, you know, hangers can be helpful. I know. Another thing I've adopted is to have, like, bins. Somebody, actually a client I work with in America, got apple crates. They like these wooden apple crate things. They look really, really good, but you put those in your. In your wardrobe and then throw all of your jumpers in one, all of your jeans in one. And it just means instead of having to fold them and put them or hang them up, you're just making it so much easier. So the system is way more user friendly and functional for you. See what I mean? So also like having a messy but functional drop zone by the door. So it might be that you, next to your front door, you've got this drop zone where you drop all of your keys, you drop your sunglasses, your handbag, all of those sorts of things. And yeah, it might be messy, but it's super functional. The system works really, really well for you. Okay. All right, my friends, I got really into this. This one really excited me. So I'm just gonna wrap it there. That is 10 ADHD hacks that for sure help. I'll just quickly recap them. Number one, body doubling. Number two, the five minute win. Number three, making the task ridiculously small. Again, breaking it into steps. We need to do that, especially if something is overwhelming for our brain. So helpful. Number four, externalizing it if we're, you know, out of sight, out of mind. So again, it could be sticky notes, it could be, you know, wall calendars, planners, all of those sorts of things, but making it visual insight in mind. Number five, using alarms with labels. Number six, putting things where you use them, not where might be logical to somebody else or aesthetically pleasing. Look at me using that fancy word twice. Number seven, pair boring tasks with dopamine. Add the dopamine in deliberately. Number eight is using novelty on purpose. And number nine, keeping duplicates of your essential items, of the things that you use a lot. And number 10 is just creating systems that work for you, that are good enough and not necessarily visually appealing or what have you, but things that really work for you. And I gave you some ideas of those. All right, my friend, that's it. That's a wrap. Have a beautiful week. I can't wait to speak to you soon. Hey, friend, if you want some more help navigating and thriving with ADHD and some help applying everything that you're learning here on the podcast, then head over to our website, navigating adultadhd.com.