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ADHD Adults Who Want to Be Productive and Not Stressed Use These Calendar Tips

ByMarla Cummins ADHD Tools & Strategies, Blog

Transcript (00:01): Are you spending your time in ways that allow you to do what is important to you? When you use a calendar effectively, it can help you remember to follow through on your time and date sensitive commitments, do what is important to you, as well as provide a record of how you are using your time, so then you can have a better sense of whether you are using it in alignment with your values and goals. However, right now, you may not be using your calendar as effectively as you could to help you do this. Rather, it might look like this. That is you put task on there like calling, emailing people or maybe things you need to do after…

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Tired of Working so Hard to Fix Your ADHD?

ByMarla Cummins ADHD Tools & Strategies, Blog

You are probably reading this article because, yes, you would like to fix your adult ADHD. While managing your ADHD is a lifelong journey, creating the changes to make this possible can be easier. Maybe you’d like to be more productive, have better relationships, improve your finances. What kind of changes are you trying to make right now? Whatever change you are trying to make, I bet you have tried many different strategies. I’m also guessing your efforts have been met with varying degrees of success. Yet, while you know creating change is difficult, you may still get exceedingly frustrated when it doesn’t come easily. And, because of this frustration, maybe you give up easily on a strategy before giving it enough of a chance….

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Stop Being Overwhelmed by Your To-Do List. Use These 6 Tips

ByMarla Cummins ADHD Tools & Strategies, Blog

 The wrong kind of task list can overwhelm adults with ADHD, rather than helping them. How about you? Do you have a task list? Is it helping you follow through? As is true for many of my clients when I first start working with them, you may have several lists — a sticky over here, a piece of paper over there, notes from your last meeting, etc. In the moment, you think writing it down somewhere — anywhere — will help you remember to do it, right? But are your lists helping you execute? If you are not following through on many of your tasks, your list(s) might be partly to blame. And you might have so many open loops it is making your head…

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How ADHD Adults Fix Their Love-Hate Relationship with Routines

ByMarla Cummins ADHD Tools & Strategies, Blog

  You’ve probably heard time and time again that adding structure to your life can help you manage your ADHD and keep you from floundering — doing whatever catches your attention in the moment. It’s true. Yet, if you are like many adults with ADHD, when you think of adding structure to your life you probably think, “I definitely need to do that! And I’ve tried… It just always seems to fall part.” So, you resist doing so because, well, it is just too hard and never seems to work. And you continue to waver between wanting structure and resisting it. Makes sense. Read on below to learn more about structure and how you can successfully add just enough to help you work with your…

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Have ADHD and Want To Create Lasting Change? Do This First

ByMarla Cummins ADHD Tools & Strategies, Blog

 Do you often wonder, how ADHD adults can make lasting changes stick?“ Maybe you question whether your life is always going to be “this” way because of your ADHD? The simple answer is, “Yes, you can.” The more complicated and honest answer is, “Well, it really depends on whether you think you currently have the bandwidth to put in the necessary time and energy.” Read on to see what steps you could take to start taking charge of your ADHD. Then you can decide whether you are ready to make the changes you envision. Understanding How Change Happens Can Help You Persist You already know that change is not easy. Yet, when a strategy does not work for you right away, do you sometimes get…

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Not Sure What Kind of Help You Need to Manage Your ADHD?

ByMarla Cummins ADHD Tools & Strategies, Blog

 When you have ADHD and deciding what to change is a challenge, you might get stuck in analysis paralysis. You know you need to make some sort of change to make things better, but you just don’t know where to start. Everything seems hard. And you want it all to be better. Now! But, since you can’t do it all now, you may give up. Because you think it is impossible to decide what to do. But you’re here, reading this. So, even if you’ve given up in the past, you really want to figure this out. Below is one way to zero in on where you want to start making changes. Because, even though it would be nice to make everything better now, you…

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How Play Helps ADHD Adults Be More Effective At Everything!

ByMarla Cummins ADHD Tools & Strategies, Blog

 As you know, if you have followed my writing, I write a lot about productivity for adults with ADHD — how to get your important stuff done. And, judging from the responses I’ve received over the years, I know you really want and need this information. But ADHD adults also need to have fun! Sure, we all need to be productive, check tasks off our list. However, it shouldn’t be an end in itself. After all, I’d like to think you are using the information I provide to create the life you want — a life that reflects all your values. If I asked you to list your values quickly, right now, play may not show up on your list. But I’m also guessing that,…

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6 Ways To Reduce Overwhelm By Adding Buffer Time To Your Day

ByMarla Cummins ADHD Tools & Strategies, Blog

For Adults with ADHD it can feel like many days consist of putting out one fire after the next. If this is true for you, maybe you have been operating this way for a long time. So, you don’t know there is another way. But there is a way to reduce your ADHD stress. A key strategy is implementing more buffers in your day — time you need to slow down, think, center yourself and just be. I know you may initially respond to this idea with, “How do I do this when I don’t have enough time now to do what I need to do?” While it may sound counter intuitive at first, once you try it, you’ll find creating more buffers will help…

ADHD and How to Use the Right Tools for a Super Human Memory
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ADHD and How to Use the Right Tools for a Super Human Memory

ByMarla Cummins ADHD Tools & Strategies, Blog

 As an adult with ADHD you likely experience some sort of short and long term memory challenges. So, you may find yourself at times saying: Your brain is great for thinking and creating. But it is not what you want to rely on for remembering anything you need to recall at a specific time and place. The great news is that with the right combination of tools you can rely much less on your memory. Remembering the Hard Landscape of Your Life Yes, I know. You have been using a calendar for a long time. But you still may be making some common mistakes that get in the way of using it as efficiently as possible. You need to be able to trust that your…

Adult ADHD and Money – Personal Finance Part 4
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Adult ADHD and Money – Personal Finance Part 4

ByMarla Cummins ADHD Tools & Strategies, Blog

  In the previous posts in this series covering “Adult ADHD and Money – Personal Finance” I explored the topics of emotions, values and structures to manage your money. This last topic, spending, will likely garner the most interest because it is such a pervasive and insidious problem for many adults with ADHD. If you don’t have challenges with your spending, no need to read further. But, if you do, read on to explore some of the reasons your spending challenges may be related to your ADHD and the possible workarounds for those challenges. Get Organized “Out of sight out of mind” may be a familiar refrain for you, and may apply to your spending, as well as other aspects of your life. If you…