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I'm Dave Greenwood, and this is Overcoming Distractions. If you are an adult with adhd, a busy professional, an entrepreneur, a high achiever, or just need some strategies to navigate your adult adhd, you're in the right place. Who am I? I'm an entrepreneur with ADHD and the author of two books, Overcoming Distract and Overcoming Burnout. I coach and mentor people just like you, and together we navigate the ups and downs of adult adhd, from getting out of our own way to helping people just like you thrive in the workplace. That's what I do. Want more info on working with me? Hit overcoming distractions.com ready? Let's get to today's podcast. Hey, everybody, welcome back. It's Dave, and you are listening to another episode of Overcoming Distractions. It's for you, the busy professional, the person in the demanding career, the CEO, the chief marketing officer, the entrepreneur, the small business owner. This is the podcast for you. We don't talk about kids, we don't talk about college. We don't talk about getting our schoolwork done. This is just geared exactly towards you who are trying to navigate the ups and downs of being a busy professional with a brain that's wired a little differently. So, hey, real quick, if you heard the intro, you know that I do work with people like you individually, and if you want to check that out, you think you might need a little more support than just a podcast or a book, somebody to kind of problem solve with you? Just hit the website overcoming distractions.com hit that button right at the top of the website says, book a 15 minute chat with me and let's see if, let's see if I can help you problem solve a little bit. And if you're in a good place or, you know, you're not into that individual thing, but you have found value from listening to me, to our awesome guests. You can always buy me a coffee. You can buy me one, you can buy me five. It's just buymeacoffee.com overcoming D&. And that helps support the. The weekly grind of cranking out podcasts for you guys. So, hey, let's talk about managing the noise and why you're. Why your brain feels like so loud sometimes, right? Or loud or cluttered. And, you know, the theme of this today is just stop storing everything in your ADHD brain. Because I think, you know, you probably don't need me to tell you that that really doesn't work for a lot of us. And by the way, most of you know that, you know what I talk about here is a lot of it from lived experience. It's from working with people like you. I'm not a doctor, I'm not a therapist, I'm an entrepreneur. I'm a past executive of very well known nonprofit organization and I just happen to have adhd. And I've lived it's, I've done it, I've had to manage my job and all my things. I've had to manage other people, I've had to meet payroll, I've had to hire and fire, you name it. So this is where my street smart kind of talks come from. And I keep it as simple as I possibly can get it. And I think you'll agree with that. So, so busy people with ADHD and that kind of experience, right? Of all that stuff in your head, right? You've always heard the thing, like, if you're 30 tabs open and none of them are loading, this quick little chat is for you. You know, I've tried to carry these ideas in my head, but my brain feels like one of those kitchen strainers, right? And if you're an entrepreneur, an executive, you're, you know, in that demanding career, you know that these things are a challenge if we don't put together some kind of systems and strategies and tactics to make sure that we can capture everything that's floating around in our head. So the experience of being that busy professional, a busy career with the ADHD brain, right? I mean, your brain is constantly scanning, remembering, anticipating, like reacting, right? A lot of times we're daydreaming, our working memory gets overloaded and that's the, you know, why did I walk in this room? Part of my brain, right? That's that working memory. I mean, hell, to this day, I can forget about something five seconds after I walked in a room, right? It's just the way our brain works. But these types of things, you know, day after day after week after month after year, it creates mental noise. It, it contributes to that decision fatigue. It's the stress. Stress on, you know, not dealt with is chronic stress. We forget things, we make mistakes, you know, we beat ourselves up. And I don't think that the problem that we're experiencing is even a lack of discipline or motivation. The problem we have is the system of keeping track of everything and we're trying to store everything in our head, right? I think this sounds familiar to you. I know it does because I know you guys. But one of the core principles, being that busy person with adhd. And again, that's the career that's running your business, it's managing other people, it's home life, kids, all that stuff. Right? One of the core principles that we need to follow when we are that busy person is we need to externalize everything. And this is like a, this Russell Barkley, if you know that name. If not, Google it. He's done a ridiculous amount of really good research about adhd, but he kind of coined that phrase like externalize everything. And I think another phrase that I've heard is your brain is for having ideas, not holding them, right. Especially when we have adhd. I think that's the guy who did get things done. I forget his name, so. But you've probably heard that, but it's true. Our brains are for having ideas, definitely not holding them. Externalizing things when you're adult with adhd, it reduces that mental load, reduces tiredness, reduces some stress and anxiety, it reduces your forgetfulness and it really, it reduces that kind of background in your head, the humming and the stress of those unfinished things or balls dropping, dropped, or deadlines not meant. And I think for those of us who can relate to this, for our ADHD branch, it's not optional. Comes down to like a regulation strategy, right? I mean, it's tactical, right? We gotta remember to, you know, do certain things in our job and for our clients, etc. Etc. But it does come down to a regulation strategy because the, the, the more we keep in our head, I think the less regulated we're going to be. So this is why I am a big fan of the brain dump. I know you've heard about it, maybe you tried it, maybe you read a book on it. I'm sure we've discussed it before, right? But I think this is the process of just getting everything out of your head. Now, forgive me, but it does continue to amaze me how many people I have talked to over the years who just don't pump the brakes, don't hit the pause button and try to just make a list and get everything out of their head. It's actually kind of mind boggling how many people I've chatted with over the years who maybe they tried it, but they're not currently practicing it. So I know we have a difficult time slowing down and pausing, but when you get used to doing that brain dump, I think you'll wonder why you haven't done them before or why you haven't kind of tried to stick with it. And for me, it could be something as simple as just cleaning up my paper to do list on, on a Legal size pad. Because think about it, you check things off. You check things off. That's cool. Feels great, you got things done. But it does become, like a bit of a mess. Right. So it's refreshing to me and it lowers my stress. So let's break down the brain dump as simple as we can, right? What is it? It's important that we do that brain dump and we conduct it in like a judgment free scenario, right. It's just a download of everything that's in your head. And I say judgment free because sometimes we're like, oh, crap, I forgot to do this, or, oh, I forgot to call somebody back. Right? It's okay. It's all right. It's the process. But these are work tasks, right? They're the personal to do's. There maybe something you've been worrying about? Maybe it's new ideas, general reminders to call somebody back. It's other obligations, it's traffic tickets, it's birthdays, it's your wedding anniversary, guys. Right? Okay. Yep. If you have to write it down, it's okay. I think you need to set a kind of a short time, five or 10 minutes. I don't think it's going to take much longer than that. And just kind of write, write down continuously. I don't think you have to organize. I don't even think you need to prioritize. I'll leave it up to you how to actually organize that. When I had a heavy client load in my PR firm, I organized these things by client because that made a ton of sense. But if it's in your head, it's got to go on paper or a screen or an app or whatever works for you. Okay. I also think it works because I think it does immediately or very quickly lower your cognitive load. Right. I think it creates a little bit of relief, lowers your stress. Maybe your shoulders go down a little bit. Right. And I think it helps your nervous system shift out of that urgency mode. Right. I mean, you can feel the tension in certain parts of your body. Right. And when we just get everything out of our head and put it somewhere on paper, in an app, in a word, doc, whatever, a notes app, I think it just. Just kind of. It lowers the tension a little bit. I don't think this is about creating a perfect list. I think it's about just giving yourself a little bit of breathing room. Right. And as we said earlier, externalizing everything. ADHD is a lot of things, but it's kind of out of sight, out of mind. Right. I know for me to this day, if something isn't in my face, it doesn't exist. So I think the other key, and this is like literally ADHD 101 and something we probably have all done at one point in our time in our ADHD life, right, is we need basically one system to capture these things. Not five, not ten. And I think that's a common ADHD trap with us, right? We have notes in six different places. We have our tasks and emails or text messages or those seven shiny, cool notebooks you got at the store, or they're just in your head, right? Okay. You need one trusted go to place. Now, I'll throw a little bit of a wrench into that because if you're working with a team, you know, you're using, you know, workflow things such as Slack or other things, etcetera, you're going to have to kind of develop a system to not only kind of keep in touch with your team, but to get your stuff done as well, I think. But generally speaking, you can get your stuff done by having it in one place. So that one place can be your notes app on your phone, it can be a task manager, and there's. There's several dozen out there that you could find. It could be a small notebook, right? Could be voice notes, some people on the run or on the move. And I've talked to many of you who just are like on the road all day. Voice apps are really good. Hey, a napkin at the restaurant, right? All right, I'm joking about that one, but you get the point, right? I think a rule of thumb here is that if something pops up, it kind of immediately needs to go in that capture system because it could be gone in 10 seconds. There can be no friction between what you need to write down and the actual act of writing down. No deciding, no organizing, whatever. Okay. I used to actually, when I used to capture things, I would actually keep one of those small little notebooks they have at the grocery store in my back pocket and a pen. This was before, you know, technology and mobile phones and everything. But when you capture these things and you get them in the right place, I think it just stops that. That way of living of I'll forget later if I don't write it down. Now we know that that's the case, right? So having that system that's going to work for you is going to minimize that. So the weekly review, I think this is super important. I mean, I get it. Some of you are in running businesses, maybe sometimes it's just not as simple as it sounds, to actually do that daily type of thing. But you got to at least kind of clean things up, at least on a weekly interval. I think that's the bare minimum. And I think that's where you, you start, you, you regain your clarity, right? It's that chance to clean things up. It's a short, consistent, weekly kind of check in with yourself. It's not a productivity overhaul or redo, it's just kind of maintenance, right? Clean up your list, decide what needs action, what can wait, what can be deleted or delegated, what can be strategically delayed. Something that's due in three weeks and you're sitting there at your desk having a little bit of decision fatigue when it actually doesn't need to be done. Right this minute, I think is hopefully a decision that becomes easier for you. I mean, what are you looking ahead at? You're looking at upcoming meetings and commitments, personal professional commitments, energy, heavy weeks. You know, maybe there's a lot of meetings, maybe there's a presentation, maybe there's a company meeting, right? Crazy weeks that, that I think I know throw me off. Such as like doctor's appointments or other commitments, so to speak, caregiving, those types of things. And I think this is powerful for those of us who fall into that category of somebody with, you know, a leadership role with ADH or demanding career, etc. Entrepreneurs. It does minimize that overwhelm from building to a boiling point. It reduces that last minute scrambling. I believe if we just continually check in with ourselves, it, let's just say it kind of creates a sense of control and agency over your week. A little, you know, more intention, less reaction and I think it minimizes the surprises. We all get these surprises in our business or our job or our work or even at home, right? But I think just, just keeping tabs on things and continuing to refresh those lists, it's going to minimize that. So again, keep your Weekly check into 10, 20 minutes. Keep at the same time every week if it's at all possible. Actually, if you just get it done, I don't care. It's easier if you schedule it, right? Everything's easier if you schedule it. You know, pair it with something that you're going to enjoy. It's either, you know, some people love a quiet room, some people put on cool music, some people need a cup of coffee next to them. Hey, if it's at night and you're chilling out and you want to grab a beer or a pint, I'm not judging anybody. So some of the resistance I think I've heard is like, it feels like more work, but I think it's less work than carrying all that shit around in your head all week. Right. I won't keep up with it. I get it, but it doesn't need to be perfect, just needs to be consistent. Okay. And I tried something like this already. Okay. That's a poor excuse as far as I'm concerned. Sorry. You get the real thing here. I think systems when it comes to adhd, as far as I'm concerned, because we talk a lot about this here, is they fail when they're too complex and I'm as simple it gets pen and paper. So keep it simple, keep it street smart. Okay, let's, let's, let's wrap this up, okay? You don't need to do more. You need to hold less in your head. You need to externalize all that buzz going on in your head. Because I think it's one of the fastest and more effective ways to lower your stress, improve your focus, prioritize, and feel more in control of work and things at home. Right? So when you manage the noise that's outside of your head, your ADHD brain, I think your ADHD brain finally has room to do what it does best because we all have our positives, right? We all know we're good at something or a handful of things. Okay. It's just all this kind of management stuff that we need to kind of figure out, so. All right, gang. Hey, if you do want to chat with me and you think you might need some one on one time, let's connect overcoming distractions dot com, hit that 15 minute chat button, get something on the schedule and let's, let's have a quick conversation. All right? Right. Hey, we'll catch you next time.