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Do ADHD Adults Overthink or Not Think Enough?

ByMarla Cummins ADHD Planning & Prioritizing, Podcast

DESCRIPTION: Do you feel like you think too much? Could be. But, like many ADHD adults, you may also not do enough upfront thinking to be able to follow through on your goals. Ready to change that? KEY TAKEAWAYS: You may be investing too much time and energy in thinking. So that you don’t get a good return from this investment. But you may also be underinsured and not investing enough in the right kind of upfront thinking. Learn how to do the right kind and amount of upfront thinking to execute on your goals that are in alignment with your values. Resources: Future Self Exercise and Values List Greg McKeown’s website – Check out his book, Essentialism, and his podcast MindMeister – an online…

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What Doesn’t Motivate ADHD Adults to Follow Through

ByMarla Cummins ADHD Planning & Prioritizing, Blog

I know you’re curious as to what will help ADHD adults execute better. But have you ever wondered what doesn’t motivate ADHD adults? Recently I was talking to a client about adopting more helpful self-talk when faced with starting a task that was not intrinsically interesting to her. She commented that it sounded a little hokey and, besides, “I’m used to using more “forceful” self-talk,” she said. I noted that doesn’t seem to really be working. “Oh, you’re right…,” she responded.  ? You’ve often heard the phrase, “If it’s not broken don’t fix it.” And that’s important to remember, for sure. But you should also remember to stop doing what’s not working! And trying to force yourself to work tops my list of strategies that…

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Part 3 – Getting from Task List to Execution When You Have ADHD

ByMarla Cummins ADHD Planning & Prioritizing, Blog

Making decisions of any kind can be a challenge for ADHD adults. You get that. This is true of deciding how and when to do your myriad of tasks. To more easily make these types of decisions the first step is to create an effective to-do list. Because it just doesn’t work for ADHD adults to keep your to-do’s in your head. One reason, of course, is you just won’t remember them. Also, it is incredibly difficult to make decisions in your head. For these reasons, a central place to keep your tasks — a to-do list — is indispensable. Check out Part 1 and Part 2 of this series for strategies on how to create an effective task list. But, be careful, you don’t…

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3 Ways You Can Use Planning to Prevent ADHD Overwhelm

ByMarla Cummins ADHD Planning & Prioritizing, Blog

You know planning is a good thing. But, if you’re like most adults with ADHD, when you think of planning the first thing that comes to mind might be, “Yeah, I know I should do more. But I don’t. It’s too hard.” You might also think of the adage, “If you fail to plan you are planning to fail.” And I imagine the combination of these thoughts doesn’t motivate you to want to learn how to do better. So, you may be alternating between too much planning and not enough right now. Because you’re just not sure how to do it any other way. The good news is there is a way to get out of this stuck place. Because it really is possible to…

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Overwhelmed by too Many Choices? Here are the Solutions for ADHD Adults

ByMarla Cummins ADHD Planning & Prioritizing, Blog

  Adults with ADHD are often overwhelmed by decision-making. But having lots of options is a good thing, right? After all, it allows you to get exactly what you want. At least that is what our modern consumer culture leads us to believe. More is better, right? But what about when you account for the time, energy and stress involved in choosing between so many options? Is more still better? Many adults with ADHD struggle when attempting to choose among an overwhelming number of options. And you can clearly see this in the quote below of a current client (reprinted with permission). I’m really struggling to make any decisions in almost any scenario. Like, choosing between 2 things, choosing to get rid of something. I…

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The 6 Steps ADHD Adults Use to Solve Just About Any Problem

ByMarla Cummins ADHD Planning & Prioritizing, Blog

  Problem-solving is hard for ADHD adults. Not exactly rainbows and unicorns. I know. And you may be tempted to stop reading this article right now. But, if you want to become better at handling adversity, I hope you’ll hang in there with me a bit longer. I thought of writing this article while reading The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck by Mark Manson. Ordinarily, I would bypass a book with this title. Because, well, it’s probably not serious enough and worthy of my time. But, as is often true when I judge a book by its cover and jump to conclusions, I was wrong. And, as I was reading Manson’s book, I thought of the myriad of ways problem-solving is hard for…

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Discover the Secret Sauce ADHD Adults Use to Create Routines

ByMarla Cummins ADHD Planning & Prioritizing, Blog

  It feels great when you can easily start and follow through on a task or activity that is important to you, right? But contrast that with those times that it feels like you are wading through quicksand, due in part to the challenges that come with your ADHD symptoms. It can be frustrating, to say the least.  And I know you may be hard-pressed to come up solutions. While I write about many ways to make this journey easier for you, the one strategy that stands out in terms of helping to mitigate the challenges you may experience is creating habits. Borrowing liberally from Mini Habits by Stephen Guise and The Power of Habits by Charles Duhigg I’ll explore below the ins and outs…

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How to Prioritize When You Feel You Have To Do Everything Now!

ByMarla Cummins ADHD Planning & Prioritizing, Blog

One of the challenges for Adults with ADHD is deciding what to do at any given moment. And, if this is one of your challenges, you may make these decisions based on what feels important. But, when everything feels important right now, it can feel impossible to decide. Of course, while you want to pay attention to your instinct, as it may point you in the right direction, relying just on your feelings to drive your decisions in the moment is risky business for Adults with ADHD. To make it easier to make decisions in the moment: decide what is essential to you — your priorities — in advance. decide in advance what activities / tasks will help you succeed in doing what is important…

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Is Too Much Planning Getting in the Way of Managing Your ADHD?

ByMarla Cummins ADHD Planning & Prioritizing, Blog

 In my last post I introduced you to the Stages of Change Model and shared strategies for preparing to create effective change — Stage 3. If you haven’t read that post yet, take a few minutes to read it, and then come back here. Ok, ready? When you have prepared enough, which will look different for everyone, you are ready to put your plans into action — Stage 4. And this time of action can be exciting and hopeful, as well as frustrating. Frustrating because you will almost certainly encounter bumps in the road — bumps you may or may not have been able to anticipate. Seeing your journey as a series of experiments and being willing to approach these experiments as a beginner will…

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Want to Be Productive? Then It’s Time to Ditch Your To Do List!

ByMarla Cummins ADHD Planning & Prioritizing, Blog

Ok, well, don’t ditch you task list entirely. But creating a task list for ADHD adults is, well, tricky. You definitely need a way to see and manage your tasks. Because, when you are using it the right way, your list can help you do what is important to you. And, of course, that’s what you want. But, if your list isn’t optimized, it may be hindering your productivity. Ready to figure out how make a task list that will help  you be truly productive? What Does It Mean To You To Be Productive? Some people feel ok about how much they get done in a day. And others feel constantly under siege. How about you? How you feel lies in part in how you answer…