Podcasts Archive - Marla Cummins

Marla Cummins, ADHD Coach and Productivity Consultant
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Podcasts Archive - Marla Cummins

A Podcast for ADHD adults who want to learn how to adopt the right tools, strategies and skills to do what is essential to them without feeling stressed and overwhelmed.

  1. DEC 2

    Stop Wasting Time With ADHD

    DESCRIPTION: Learn strategies to stop wasting time. RESOURCES: Blog: * Using the Urgent – Important Matrix * These Are the 4 Steps ADHD Adults Need to Take to Reduce Distractions Now * How To Set Boundaries Around Time When You Have ADHD * 4 Ways to Boost Your Energy When You Have ADHD TRANSCRIPT: (00:00): Are you ready to stop wasting time? You’ve tuned into Scattered Focused Done Re-Imagining Productivity with ADHD, A podcast for ADHD adults like you who want to learn how to adopt the best strategies, tools, and skills to get your essential work done in a way that works with the way your brain is wired. I’m Marla Cummins and I’m glad you’re joining me today on this journey to re-Imagining Productivity with ADHD, so you can get what is important to you done without trying to do it like everyone else. Once you’ve decided what’s essential to you and you have a task list that reflects this, it’s time to execute. And to do this, you’ll need to use ADHD time management tactics to decide when to work on your various tasks. Because just having a list of essential tasks is not a guarantee that you’ll follow through. Especially since as it’s common for ADHD adults, you may often default to your sense of urgency to decide what to work on at any given moment. (01:06) If this is the case for you now, even with a well curated task list, you’ll likely continue to feel stressed and overwhelmed unless you break this urgency cycle. To do this, you’ll need to upgrade your skills, be with the discomfort of operating differently, and trust that slowing down will help you do more of what is important to you. Are you ready to learn how to use your time to be productive and feel more grounded? The first step to break free of over-relying on your sense of urgency for motivation is to learn which low return activities are contributing to your urgency cycle and which activities can help you escape this cycle by using the urgent important matrix. If you’re not sure how you are using your time now, rather than guessing, keep a log for three days. Once you know how you spend your time, you may choose to use it differently. (02:09) For example, you may want to learn how to minimize your distractions. You may also decide to upgrade your skills to better manage interruptions, set boundaries, and say no graciously to better manage your activities. Then you’ll have more time to incorporate the activities that will help you do more of what’s important to you. No doubt fitting these activities into your schedule will be hard, but with patience and self-compassion, you can do it. Of course, you don’t always have complete control over your schedule. There will be times when some last minute emergencies, time-driven deadlines, requests from your boss, et cetera, you can’t anticipate. So you’ll want to leave enough buffer in your schedule to account for these. But you also have some urgency in minimizing your urgency activities as some of these are the result of not doing enough activities that are important and not urgent,

    14 min

  2. OCT 18

    Self-Compassion, Productivity and ADHD

    DESCRIPTION: Because your goal is not just to get to the finish line, get stuff done. But you also want to feel less stress and overwhelm along the way, right? And, without self-compassion, your experience in getting to the finish line will likely continue to be full of stress and overwhelm. KEY TAKEAWAYS: * There is a difference between pity and self-compassion * When you try run away from emotions you likely end up magnifying them * One way to learn to live with your negative feelings so they have less of a hold over you is by learning how to use ACT * To reach your goals effectively, in addition to accepting your thoughts, it’s also important to accept yourself as you are. * When you develop self-compassion you will likely be in a better position to address your ADHD challenges. RESOURCES: Book: Self-Compassion: The Proven Power of Being Kind to Yourself TRANSCRIPT: (00:02): If you want to be productive, being self-compassion is a key step. You’ve turned into Scattered, Focused, Done, Re-imagining Productivity with ADHD, a podcast for ADHD, adults like you who want to learn how to adopt the best strategies, tools, and skills to be able to get your essential work done in a way that works with the way your brain is wired. I’m Marla Cummins, and I’m glad you decided to join me today on this journey to re-imagining productivity with ADHD, so you can get what is important to you done without trying to do it like everyone else. Maybe you found my blog because you want to learn how to be more productive as an ADHD adult. If so, then you’ll want to know that ADHD adults need self-compassion to reach their goals. Really. Because without self-compassion, it will be much, much harder to be productive. (01:01): Do what’s meaningful and important to you. Are you in? Not sure? If not, it might be because you equate compassion with pity. And if that’s the case, you might think self-compassion might mean you’ll be less productive and people will take advantage of you. To avoid this, you try not to let your guard down and continue to push yourself to prove to others you are capable. Here’s the good news. You won’t need to engage in self pity. But when you start to develop more self-compassion and lean into it as one of your go-to strategies, you will feel more grounded, confident, and have better relationships, and yes, be more productive. Curious how you can develop more compassion to achieve these results while working with your ADHD? Let’s get on with it then. And I’ll start by differentiating between pity and self-compassion. When you pity someone, you feel bad for them or sympathetic right? (02:07): However, you may also view them as less than. And if you are pitting yourself because of your ADHD challenges, you may view yourself as less perhaps than your neurotypical peers. And this may lead to a seemingly never ending shame and blame spiral. On the other hand, when you exhibit self-compassion about your ADHD, you will, and this definition comes from Dr. Christie Neff. You will have more mindful and be more mindful of your negative emotions. Once you don’t want that is you can identify and be with your emotions. But don’t waste time and energy avoiding or running away from them. You also recognize that, well, your challenges may be related to your A DHD,

    17 min

  3. SEP 13

    How To Prioritize With ADHD

    Transcript (00:00): Find it hard to prioritize when everything seems important, but there’s only one of you and just not enough time. You’ve tuned into Scattered Focused, done Re-Imagining Productivity with ADHD, A podcast for ADHD adults like you who want to learn how to adopt the best strategies, tools, and skills to get your essential work done in a way that works with the way your brain is wired. I’m Marla Cummins and I’m glad you’re joining me today on this journey to re-Imagining Productivity with A DHD, so you can get what is important to you done without trying to do it like everyone else. So you wonder what you should be working on and also why is it so hard for you to make these decisions like other ADHD adults? You may find this hard for two common reasons. One reason is that it can feel like everything on your plate is equally important. (00:54): You may also feel as though it all needs to be done right now, if not yesterday. Obviously, this can make it hard to choose what to do each day and contributes to your feelings of overwhelm and stress. One of the ways you can turn this around is by becoming an essentialist. Becoming an essentialist will help you be more confident. You are doing what is most meaningful to you each day because you will be doing more of what is in alignment with your values and goals rather than just busy work ready to dive in and learn how to do this. First, your executive functioning skill challenges because of your ADHD can get in your way of being able to prioritize to get better. You’ll need to upgrade those that are getting in your way right now. One of these is decision-making skills. If you struggle with this, you’ll need to work on it now so you can get better at differentiating between what to work on now, what to defer or what to drop entirely. (01:57): Also, for many adults with ADHD, there is now and not now time blindness. This can contribute to your tendency to operate too much in the present at the expense of working toward your future goals. So you may end up doing what feels most urgent right now, but not necessarily what is most important. Trying to prioritize in your head is another reason. You may find it hard to make these decisions. You’re ADHD brain just isn’t equipped to hold, sort and process all this information to come to a decision. Another reason prioritizing can be so difficult for you is that there’s so much you’re interested in doing. So even though you have a lot on your plate right now, it may be hard for you to resist the next shiny penny that comes along. It’s also possible you’re finding it hard to prioritize because you’re being asked to do too much, so it feels like you are drinking from a fire hose and you can’t turn off the spigot because you’re not in control. (03:04): The last reason prioritizing may be a challenge is because you are not using your values and goals to guide you. It may be because you’re not clear on what these are, or you just don’t know how to use them as a guide, just as there are many reasons contributing to your challenges with prioritizing. There are also many reasons you might want to get on top of this. First, when you don’t have a sense of your priorities, you may never be quite confident you are spending your time in the right way. So while working on one task, you might wonder whether you should be doing something else and this contributes to your stress. You may be more stressed because you end up jumping from task to task, but you don’t close the loop and maybe not do you...

    12 min

  4. JUL 3

    Making Changes With ADHD

    DESCRIPTION: The first step is acknowledging what stage of change you are in as this clarity will help you decide what you need to do, or in some cases, what you don’t need to do. Carlo DiClemente and J. O. Prochaska, six stages of change model is the perfect tool to gain clarity on your readiness to make a change. KEY TAKEAWAYS: * Precontemplation: You’re not ready to change, as you deny that you even have ADHD. * Contemplation: You consider your ADHD symptoms are a problem and you need to change. * Determination: You make a commitment to change and start making plans to manage your ADHD. * Action: You implement your plans. * Maintenance: You are building new habits and managing any relapses to old habits. * Termination: You have reached the change you want and no longer have to put any effort into making a change. TRANSCRIPT: (00:01): How do you know when you’re ready to make changes? You’ve tuned into Scattered Focused, Done Re-imagining Productivity with ADHD, a podcast for ADHD, adults like you who want to learn how to adopt the best strategies, tools, and skills to get your essential work done in a way that works with the way your brain is wired. I’m Marla Cummins, and I’m glad you’re joining me today on this journey to reimagining productivity with ADHD. So you can get what is important to you done without trying to do it like everyone else can. ADHD adults effectively maintain changes. Recently in an online mastermind group, one of our members mentioned one of the strategies she uses to get started on a task she doesn’t know how to do is to tell herself, I don’t know how to do this yet. And by using this phrase, she can remember not knowing how to do something is not permanent. (00:57): That is, she can learn how to do it. She goes on to say, this feels like a less fatalistic approach. I think this is a great way to approach learning how to manage your ADHD because there is a lot you don’t know yet. You really want to know how to better manage your ADHD symptoms. But if you get overwhelmed by not being able to make the changes you envision easily or quickly, you may shut down and avoid even trying. I know that’s not what you want. So let’s see how you can adopt a more helpful perspective about change, specifically when it comes to managing your ADHD. Because you already know some mindsets are helpful and others hold you back from doing what you want. The first step is acknowledging what stage of change you are in as this clarity will help you decide what you need to do, or in some cases, what you don’t need to do. (01:55): Carlo De Clemente and Jo Prochaska, six stages of change model is the perfect tool to gain clarity on your readiness to make a change. And I’ll describe this model in terms of what it may look like for someone with A DHD. First pre-contemplation, you’re not ready to change as you deny that your ADHD symptoms are problematic or maybe that you even have ADHD. Likely not the case for you if you’re listening to this. The second stage contemplation, you are willing to consider your A DHD symptoms are problematic and change may be necessary. Third stage determination. You are committed to change and start making plans to understand and manage your ADHD. Fourth stage you implement your plans. And then the fifth stage maintenance, you are building new habits and addressing any relapses to old habits.

    13 min

  5. JUN 5

    Self-Esteem and ADHD

    DESCRIPTION: Self-esteem is key to succeeding with ADHD. Follow these steps to improve your self esteem and self-confidence. KEY TAKEAWAYS: * self confidence and self esteem are different * your ADHD experience can impact both * you can improve both RESOURCES: Blog: ADHD and Time, 4 Steps to Getting Places on Time Books: * Feeling Good by Dr. Burns * Mine Over Mood by Dennis Greenberg and Christine Padesky TRANSCRIPT: (00:01): Self-esteem is key to succeeding with ADHD. You’ve tuned into scattered focused, done re-Imagining Productivity with ADHD, A podcast for ADHD adults like you who want to learn how to adopt the best strategies, tools, and skills to get your essential work done in a way that works with the way your brain is wired. I’m Marla Cummins and I’m glad you’re joining me today on this journey to reimagining productivity with ADHD. So you can get what is important to you done without trying to do it like everyone else do. Adults with ADHD need more self-confidence and self-esteem or self-compassion. In a previous podcast, I claimed that ADHD adults need more self-compassion. I still stand by that, but having a good sense of self is also important to be able to feel good as well as do good. And I know from the questions I’ve received such as how can I self-esteem by leveraging personal strengths, both related and non-related to ADD, and what are methods of confidence boosting and self-image improvement? (01:12): You might be interested in strategies for improving your sense of self too. These are definitely important questions to answer because as Dr. David Burns author of Feeling Good noted, a poor self-image is the magnifying glass that can transform a trivial mistake or imperfection into an overwhelming symbol of personal defeat. Let’s start by defining the terms. Because while these terms self-confidence and self-esteem are often used interchangeably, there are different concepts and may necessitate different strategies to make improvements in either of these areas ready to explore. You can think of self-esteem in terms of how much you appreciate or like yourself. That is, it describes your overall sense of self-worth. And one way you can determine this is to answer the question, how happy am I with who I see when I look in the mirror? If you’re like most people,

    13 min

  6. MAY 3

    8 Strategies For Better Execution With ADHD

    DESCRIPTION: Starting and executing is hard for ADHD Adults. Here are 8 strategies to make it easier. KEY TAKEAWAYS: Answers to these question can help you execute better: * What is the value — reward — for doing this task? * Is there a task I need to do before this one that would make it easier for me to execute on this one? * Do I have everything I need to get started? * What can I do to minimize the distractions and interruptions I can anticipate? * Is there is other work I’m worrying about completing? Do I know when I can tackle it? * What will help me to withstand discomfort with tasks I might avoid? * Am I using a warm-up routine consistently? * Am I using self-talk that is helping me to execute? RESOURCES: Blog Posts * Are You Allowing Interruptions to Run Your Day? * ADHD & 5 Ways You Can Use Self-talk to Stop Procrastinating TRANSCRIPT: (00:01): Executing can be easier even when you have ADHD. You’ve tuned into Scattered, Focused, Done – Reimagining Productivity with ADHD, a podcast for ADHD, adults like you who want to learn how to adopt the best strategies, tools, and skills to get your essential work done in a way that works with the way your brain is wired. I’m Marla Cummins, and I’m glad you’re joining me today on this journey to reimagining productivity with ADHD. So you can get what is important to you done without trying to do it like everyone else. (00:36): Some well-known productivity methods, such as David Allen’s Getting Things Done, assume you know how to plan and get started. But of course, with your executive function challenges, that’s just not true for adults with ADHD. As a result of these assumptions, you may have encountered the same frustration as many other ADHD adults who try to use GTD, for example, right out of the box. And it’s not that GTD or any other system is bad. It’s just that you have to improve some of your foundational skills before you can implement them effectively. (01:12): So if you try a system without much success, consider whether you have the necessary foundational skills to use it. And if not, then you can think about how to develop them. One of these skills is knowing your why for doing a task. Sometimes even when accomplishing a task is important to you, you still may have a hard time getting started because it’s just not intrinsically interesting. (01:38): So in the moment when you are deciding whether to do the task or not, you may say to yourself, I don’t want to. And of course, when you give into this feeling, you don’t start. One of the keys to not going down the slippery slope is to know your why or reward. For example, one of my clients wanted to be better at following through on his administrative task. His reason or reward for this was he wanted his colleagues to see him as a professional. (02:08): Of course, it’s not enough to know your why. You also need to be able to remember it in the critical moment of choice, not easy for ADHD adults who have working memory challenges,

    13 min

  7. APR 2

    How To Manange Rumination With ADHD

    DESCRIPTION: Rumination can take a lot of time and energy unless you know how to counter it. Here are some strategies to help you manage it. KEY TAKEAWAYS: * There are many reasons for rumination. * Your ADHD can impact your rumination.  * In some instances there may be a problem you need to solve. * In other instances it may be a matter of accepting what is.  * There are many ways to manage your rumination. RESOURCES: Book: Writing to Heal by James Pennebaker TRANSCRIPT: (00:07): You’ve tuned into Scattered Focused, Done Re-Imagining Productivity with ADHD, a podcast for ADHD, adults like you who want to learn how to adopt the best strategies, tools, and skills to get your essential work done in a way that works with the way your brain is wired. I’m Marla Cummins, and I’m glad you’re joining me today on this journey to re-Imagining Productivity with ADHD, so you can get what is important to you done without trying to do it like everyone else. (00:39): Rumination goes by several names, including racing thoughts, worrying, perseverating, and stuck thinking. They all refer to the inability to move on from thoughts that are causing you a lot of distress and getting in the way of doing what’s productive. This might happen when you blurt out something unintentionally at a meeting with your boss that you later regret. Then afterwards, you replay the scenario again and again thinking about what may happen because of it. Like will this affect your chances of getting promoted or working on future projects? Yet you may not be doing anything proactive about the situation because while you’re just thinking about it, you may even be having a hard time focusing and attending to your other work because your energy is taken over by these thoughts. Does this sound familiar? There are probably reasons you can think of you would want to stop ruminating. (01:32): The most obvious one is to reduce your anxiety so you can feel more grounded. As rumination takes away your time and energy. Also, it crowds out your ability to think creatively and these runaway thoughts can take away from your ability to address whatever it is that is prompting the rumination. What are the reasons you want to stop when you’re ruminating whether the payoff is something you want or something you want to avoid, understanding the causes of rumination can help you create the most helpful workarounds. (02:05): Let’s first look at how your ADHD may impact your rumination. The first place to start is to remember that your ADHD working memory challenges means that your brain has limited capacity to hold and process information in the moment. Because of this, according to Dr. Charles Parker, you may engage in counterproductive excessive thinking ie rumination. Because you’re not able to hold and consider multiple ideas at once. (02:34): Also, while you may want to transition and focus on something else, you can’t seem to turn off your thoughts, and it can happen at the most inconvenient times. As Dr. Parker notes, your prefrontal cortex becomes relatively frozen in time, and you have what he calls unmanageable cognitive abundance. There are three ways this ADHD stuck thinking presents itself according to Dr. Parker.

    14 min

  8. FEB 27

    How To Use Self-Talk To Reach Your Goals

    DESCRIPTION: The self-talk you use affects your thoughts and feelings and can guide your actions. The question is, is it positive or negative? KEY TAKEAWAYS: * Adults with ADHD have an underdeveloped ability to use positive self-talk to guide their actions. * You can change this with practice. * Self-talk can help you reach your goals. * You can prepare to use self-talk in different situations. * You can use self-talk to defuse negative thoughts and feelings * You can use self-talk to develop more self compassion TRANSCRIPT: (00:01): The self-talk you use affects your thoughts and feelings and can guide your actions. The question is, is it positive or negative? You’ve turned into Scattered, Focused, Done – Re-imagining Productivity with ADHD, a podcast for ADHD, adults like you who want to learn how to adopt the best strategies, tools, and skills to be able to get your essential work done in a way that works with the way your brain is wired. I’m Marla Cummins and I’m glad you decided to join me today on this journey to reimagining productivity with ADHD. So you can get what is important to you done without trying to do it like everyone else, (00:43): ADHD adults commonly have an underdeveloped sense of self-talk. I know as you heard that you might’ve said to yourself, I talk to myself all the time. What are you talking about, Marla? Yes, I know you talk to yourself all the time and it probably sounds something like, I should be doing that report. It’s going to be late again. Everybody else can get their stuff done. As you’re listening to this, you might also convince yourself that one more podcast isn’t going to make a difference. What I mean though, when I say that ADHD adults have an underdeveloped sense of self-talk is that they have an underdeveloped ability to engage in helpful and positive self-talk. You know the kind that helps guide your behavior and actions to reach your goals. This is the kind I want to focus on in this podcast so you can catch yourself when your self-talk doesn’t serve you, and instead use more helpful self-talk. (01:40): Internalized self-talk is one of the executive functions that help ADHD adults self-regulate. When you can self-regulate, you are better able to reach your goals. Let’s say for example, you want to cut down on candy, but you still want to support the local chocolate shop and decide that you’ll go there to buy gifts for people. To resist buying chocolate when you go there for yourself, you would need to follow these steps according to Dr. Barkley. First, you need to be aware that there’s a problem, that chocolate is a temptation for you when you walk into the chocolate shop. You then need to resist the urge to buy and eat the chocolate yourself. Of course, you’ll need to redirect your attention to only ordering chocolate as gifts, and to do this, you might use self-talk such as, I want to have less sugar so I can have a healthier diet. (02:32): The chocolate is just not worth it. There are other foods I enjoy besides chocolate. You might also visualize your goal of having a healthier diet. Maybe it’s a picture of feeling healthier because you are not eating chocolate. Maybe you think of ways to deal with a temptation by problem solving, such as putting a note in your wallet that says, no chocolate for me. I know that’s a lot to do.

    10 min
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A Podcast for ADHD adults who want to learn how to adopt the right tools, strategies and skills to do what is essential to them without feeling stressed and overwhelmed.

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