ADHD Weekly Podcast – Information, advice and experience to help you Thrive with ADHD. Play to your strengths!

In this episode Coach Jay Carter and Coach Robb Garrett talk about the foundations of how to have a great life with ADHD. Rob Garrett and I are both ADHD coaches in the Minneapolis St. Paul area. We often collaborate in various projects around creating awareness around ADHD, particularly in the corporate world.

I was recently interviewed on local CBS news station about ADHD in adults and about ADHD coaching as a part of the total treatment package. Here’s a link to the video of that interview. In this interview they took the 45 minutes of footage that they took with my client and myself and condensed it down to about 3 minutes.

A lot of people saw that interview, but it didn’t really give them enough information to know what the next steps are. Rob and I created a class called the basics of ADHD which was a free 90 min. class to provide a little more information. You can find a the recording of that class here.

With a 90 minute class we are able to go little more in depth into some of the different areas but we felt that a little more was needed. We are offering a five week class that will be offered each Thursday night beginning April 26th at 7 PM Central and will meet each Thursday night through May 24th. As I release this podcast, the class will be this coming Thursday. So if you’re interested, you’ll want to sign up right away. If the class is already started, you can still sign up and have access to the recordings of any classes that already happened and can join the rest of them in progress. All people who sign up for the class will have access to the records afterwards. After May 24 recordings will be available for purchase on my website.

To Register for the class go to Foundations or go straight to the registration page at Eventbrite.

In this conversation that you’re about to hear with Rob and I talk about the subjects of the different weeks of the class but do it in the context of things that we wish we had known early on in our journey with ADHD.

One of the highlights of my year is the annual ADHD Coaches Organization Conference in Atlanta, Georgia. This is my third year attending this conference and the past two years I’ve had the privilege of speaking on topics I’m really passionate about. Last year I spoke on ADHD in the Workplace and this year, I spoke on Mind Mapping for the ADHD Brain

One thing that is really interesting for us as ADHD-ers is that when we get together with a group of people like us, it really feels like coming home. And there’s camaraderie that you don’t find in a lot of groups.

I found this to be the case when I went to my first ADA Conference in 2008, where there were 300 ADHD-ers running around. It truly felt like coming home and discovering my tribe. You get that same experience in the ACO except that we’re all coaches as well. There were some truly great headline speakers and the topics were across a broad range of subjects.

I enjoyed learning about how Coach Tara McGillicuddy uses technology to create connections in coaching. Master Coach David Giwerc bought some great topics from his new book Permission to Proceed.

The session tracks at the conference were all valuable:

• Neuroscience: ADHD and Brain Function
• ADHD Communities
• Advanced Coach Training and Mentoring
• Innovative Approaches and Successful Models
• Business Building Opportunities: Coaching, Education, and Advocacy
• Technology for Group Coaching and Education
• Self Care for Clients and Coaches

The conference was a great way to learn a lot, share ideas and become rejuvenated and even more fired up to help our clients.

There are several components that go into finding the right coach for you.

One component is whether the coach has expertise and knowledge in the area that you want help. Most experienced coaches have identified fairly well defined areas in which they enjoy coaching and can be effective. You can usually find out the target area of a particular coach by viewing their website or their information or by speaking with them.

The next component is the level of knowledge that the coach has around coaching as well as around your area of need. The client’s who engage Hyperfocus Coaching Systems are looking for an experienced coach, who has training in ADHD, and who also has experience in dealing with career and personal productivity challenges. Find more information on training and certification of coaches here.

A third component that’s important to think about when looking for a coach is whether there is a good fit between the client and the coach. Coaching is a professional relationship between the coach and the client, so it’s important that there is rapport and good chemistry. There also needs to be a feeling of trust. There are several ways to assess whether there is a good fit or not in this area. First you can review information on the coaches website. If the coach has audio or video information on their website, you can listen to them speak. You can sometimes obtain references. The relationship between a coach and the client is a confidential one. So unless a client specifically gives the coach permission to offer them as a reference, this would be strictly off-limits. Finally coaches frequently give shorter “Get acquainted sessions” at low or no cost to help determine this question of fit. Coaches are also looking for a client who is a good fit because the coaching process will be much more fun and progress can be much more greater.

At Hyperfocused Coaching Systems, we produce a podcast, offer free initial consultations, and have a coaching philosophy.

Many people that have ADHD or ADHD traits are unaware of the common thread that runs through both the challenges and successes in their lives. My coaching philosophy is designed to identify and explore each client’s unique gifting and strengths, so that they can build on them. I include the word System in the name of my company because I believe it’s possible to co-develop systems that support the client in building layers of success on a daily basis.

I want my clients to achieve success in all the important areas in their lives. I believe this can be achieved by understanding our dreams and passions, our strengths and abilities, and our personality characteristics as well as understanding how our ADHD manifests itself. As a person with ADHD myself, I understand the challenges that we go through; sometimes decades of looking for that missing ingredient that lets us live our full potential.

As a professional coach, I work with creative entrepreneurs and professionals to identify their dreams and passions and to begin living out their potential.

There are several characteristics that set me apart from other coaches. First, I have over 20 years of business experience from small entrepreneurial companies to Fortune 100 corporate giants. I know what it takes to be successful in the business/career part of our lives. Second, I have studied personal productivity and success principles for over 25 years. This has helped me to develop a system for achieving success in life. Finally, having been diagnosed with ADHD, I am a walking testimony to life change through having a great coach.

It’s important when searching for coach to make sure that you find someone who is qualified. The International Coach Federation is an international body that maintains certifications and strict requirement for coaches in many disciplines.

When looking for an ADHD coach, it’s important that a coach not only have training and experience in the field of coaching, they should also have specific training in the area of ADHD. The oldest and best-known school for ADHD coaches is the ADD Coach Academy. Their courses provide many hundreds of hours in general coaching and ADHD specifics. This is where Hyperfocused-Coach Jay Carter acquired his ADHD coach training.

A fairly new organization called the Professional Association of ADHD Coaches has been formed to provide certification specifically for ADHD coaches. The organization has stringent requirements for training both in the area of coaching as well as in the more specific area of ADHD coaching. PAAC certification also requires many hours of coaching experience as well. Coach Jay is on the board of this organization.

Coaches have many areas of specialization. ADHD coaching is an area of specialization within coaching. And within ADHD coaches, there are many areas of specialization such as coaching children in school, coaching families or teenagers or college students. My own specialty is coaching adults with ADHD with challenges in life and in the workplace.

Resources to find a coach:

If you’re looking for an ADHD Coach in the Twin Cities area contact us for recommendations.

The ADHD Coaches Organization is a non-profit organization of coaches who share resources, learn from one another and help a lot of clients. They have an annual conference coming up at the end of March where Jay will be speaking on Mind Mapping for the ADHD Brain.

The ADD Coach Academy provides some of the best coach training in the world and is the gold standard for ADHD coaching.

ADDA, the Attention Deficit Disorder Association focuses on support for adults with ADHD and they have a professional directory

Children and Adults with ADHD or CHAAD also has a professional directory.

Therapy usually goes in depth about various issues often dealing with the past. Consulting generally takes the consultant’s information and gives the client answers.

Coaching, on the other hand, is very results-oriented and action-oriented. The agenda of the coaching sessions is driven by the goals that the client wants to reach. Coaches enable clients to determine their own answers through the work done in the coaching partnership.

Coaching is a professional relationship between a coach and the client. The client comes to the relationship with the challenge or an area that they would like to improve. The coach comes to the relationship with expertise or knowledge in the area that the client wants to work. Over a series of meetings, coach and client put a plan together and begin to move toward the client’s goals.
Coaching is very results oriented and forward-looking. Generally, the client experiences progress fairly early in the relationship.

There are many reasons to obtain a formal diagnosis of ADHD. However, it’s not always necessary.

A diagnosis of ADHD means that some of the ADHD traits that a person has are significant enough to have a negative impact on their life. It is certainly possible sometimes to get help with creating structures or finding just the right niche that allows a person with ADHD to live in the area of their strengths and not have their ADHD be a significant problem.

There are three main reasons for getting an official ADHD diagnosis. The first and probably most important is that a person just wants to know definitively what has been causing the challenges that they’ve had throughout their life in this area.

Another reason is that a person might want to try and ADHD medication as part of the treatment plan.

A third reason, is that a person, child or adult, may need an accommodation in school work to help them be as as successful as possible in their chosen endeavor.

70% – 80% of my personal clients have an official diagnosis of ADHD.

The treatment process for ADHD has five main components. For the most part, these components can happen in any order and don’t all have to be present.

One of the components of ADHD treatment is the diagnosis. The diagnosis for most medical conditions is really not a part of the treatment, it’s just a declaration of what the condition is. ADHD is a cognitive condition and particularly for those diagnosed later in life symptoms of ADHD are only part of the story. You see, when we’re diagnosed later in life we have spent a significant portion of our life living with the effects of undiagnosed ADHD. This often creates a sense of shame, a sense of struggle, and at the very least a desire to understand why our lives have been the way they have been. So for most of us diagnosed with ADHD as adults there is an immediate sense of “Oh, that explains a lot.” ADHD is not an excuse, but a reason for many of the things that have happened in our lives. When adults who have been diagnosed later in life talk about their diagnosis there’s almost an inevitable sigh when they talk about it because it was such a significant point in their lives.

The only one of the components in ADHD treatment that has a sequence connected to it is medication. In order to be prescribed ADHD medication, a diagnosis must exist. It’s always been fascinating to me, that the subject of medication is such an emotionally loaded question. None of us really want to be on medication or have our children on medication for any reason. However there is strong scientific evidence that ADHD medication is both effective and safe. I hear people talk sometimes about how many children in our school system seem to be on some sort of medication. I’m sure there are some situations out there where someone is on medication that is not correct for them or isn’t right medication or isn’t necessary. However, I think we do ourselves and our children a great disservice by just rejecting medication out of hand.

Medication for people with ADHD was described by Dr. Hollowell as being similar to putting on a pair of glasses. The medication gives us the ability to pause and think before reacting. Medication in and of itself is never the whole treatment plan for ADHD.

ADHD medication comes in two major categories. One category is non-stimulant medication an example of this category is Strattera. The other category is stimulant medication such as Adderall.

Studies tell us that about 70% of the people diagnosed with ADHD are helped by one form of medication. 70% of the remaining people are helped by another form of medication.

Ultimately, medication is a personal choice. Many of my clients take medication while many others don’t. Some people with ADHD use medication for a period of time to help them create strategies and habits that they can maintain when they are not taking medication.

Another key component of the ADHD treatment plan is education. Education about ADHD and education about a specific person’s ADHD. ADHD is a very individual condition. There are many characteristics and they can be experienced with varying levels of intensity by individuals who have ADHD. And a person needs to understand how their individual ADHD manifests itself.

Education can come from the person who does the assessment. They can also come from a doctor or therapist. It can also come from coach. As coaches, many of our clients begin to see us before they’ve been officially diagnosed with ADHD and we help them understand the diagnostic process.

Another component of the ADHD treatment plan is coaching. Coaching provides many benefits to people with ADHD. One of the most important things that a coach can do for client is to be an objective outside observer. Coaches can witness the things that a client is going through and then reflect back to them what they’re hearing, which helps the client to become more aware of their thoughts and reactions. People with ADHD often have difficulty with details which can lead to a person having difficulty with self-observation.

Coaches can also help a clients discover beliefs that they have about themselves. People with ADHD, especially those diagnosed later in life, have collected beliefs about themselves that may or may not be valid. This comes from our parents, our friends in school, and many other people that we come in contact with. Often we don’t even realize that we as adopted a particular belief. A coach can help us have the space to think about how our beliefs are serving us.

Of course the coach also helps in practical ways such as helping to identify structures and habits.

This brings us to the fifth component of ADHD treatment, structuring. One of the main ways that we manage our ADHD is we learn to create environments and structures which support us in accomplishing whatever it is that we want to accomplish. The structure might be in the form of accommodations at work or school. But very often the structuring is in creating habits or using tools that help us maximize our strengths.

Is ADHD overdiagnosed?

Sometimes we hear sensational news stories about how every kid who twitches is diagnosed with ADHD and put on medication. The truth is somewhere between 5 and 10% of the population is thought to have ADHD. There are some parts of the country where the rate of prevalence is higher than, and other regions that have a much lower prevalence.

The important thing to understand, is that even though the condition of ADHD has a very concrete scientific foundation, there is no black and white test such as a blood test that provides doctors with a diagnosis for ADHD. You can read more about the diagnosis process here.

How is ADHD diagnosed?

A diagnosis of ADHD is reached after an assessment by a doctor. The doctor might be an M.D., psychiatrist, or a psychologist. Currently, when evaluating any mental health concerns, doctors use something called the Diagnostic Statistical Manual DSM-IV to help them reach a diagnosis. The traits of inattention, impulsiveness, and hyperactivity are often traits that all of us have, the difference for people with ADHD is that these symptoms are pervasive to the extent that they have a negative impact on the person’s life.

There is no such thing as adult onset of ADHD, we either had as a child or we don’t have it. For this reason one of the most important parts of the diagnostic process is gathering historical information from the patient, as well as parents, family members, and spouses. It’s important to get information from various sources is often the person with ADHD may not be as aware of the symptoms as someone who has spent significant time with them. Often old report cards and comments from teachers provide good objective evidence. In addition to the patient’s history, there are also some test of attention, and even some new brain mapping technology that can help doctors reach a conclusion.

It’s important when seeking a diagnosis, that we find a doctor who is experienced with ADHD and has a good foundation in making an ADHD diagnosis. Sometimes, it’s difficult to find doctors who have experience with ADHD in the adult population.

Don’t kids grow out of ADHD?

In the past, it was thought that ADHD was a childhood condition. The main reason for this is the same reason that more little boys than little girls are diagnosed with ADHD. That is, the hyperactivity component of ADHD is more prevalent in children than it is in adults. As adults, we tend to find ways of conforming to societal expectations on how we behave.

Often in adults, the challenges of ADHD manifests themselves in things like chronic underachievement, high levels of stress, poor decision-making, and in general having to work much harder to achieve the same degree of success as someone without ADHD.

Fortunately, once the ADHD has been identified, treated and managed, a lot of the symptoms are improved through understanding, new beliefs, and developing new habits.

Prevalence of ADHD

How prevalent is ADHD?

Conservative estimates place the probable percentage of people with ADHD in the 5 to 10% range. In America, that translates to roughly eight million adults. That translates into well over a quarter of a million adults in Minnesota.

The unfortunate thing is that only about 15% of those adults have actually been diagnosed. Undiagnosed and unmanaged ADHD can be a real tragedy.

Return to the WCCO Viewers Page

ADHD has a strong genetic component. Many parents have taken a child in for an assessment and have come out with a diagnosis of their own. This happened to me as you can read in my ADHD story or the ADDA story here. If the symptoms of ADHD seem to be present in your life, one of the best things you can do for your child is to manage your own ADHD. If you’re wondering, you can take our assessment adapted from the World Health Organization here.

What’s the difference between ADD and ADHD?

Well, besides the “H” …

Actually ADD is the abbreviation for Attention Deficit Disorder. This was what the condition was called for many years. When the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-IV) came out in 1994, the H was added to include Hyperactivity specifically in the condition name.

This is somewhat confusing, especially as many people refer to the condition as ADD and many other people refer to it as ADHD. It is currently used interchangeably, but the official diagnosis is ADHD.

Return to the WCCO Viewers Page

What is ADHD?
Technically, ADHD is a neurobiological condition that affects children and adults who consistently experience challenges with impulsivity, hyperactivity, and the ability to pay attention. You will hear experts talk about the prefrontal cortex, executive function, and the availability of the neurotransmitter dopamine.

Practically, ADHD is a condition of interest and attention. For people with ADHD, it is fairly easy to pay attention to things that are interesting, while it can be extremely difficult if not impossible to pay attention to things of little interest. We are each wired differently and the way that an individual’s ADHD might manifest itself can be very different from the way someone else’s ADHD presents.

Return to The WCCO Viewers Page

ADHD Weekly Podcast – Information, advice and experience to help you Thrive with ADHD. Play to your strengths!

In this episode, Jay interviews Dr. Steve Levinson the inventor of the Motivaider. Good habits are often hard to create because as ADHDers we often don’t think of the thing we wanted to change at the time we can change it. The Motivaider is a great tool to help us bring awareness to what has our attention.

The Motivaider is a small pager like device that can be easily programmed to provide a gentle private reminder through a vibration that only you can detect. The device is small enough to fit in a pocket and also comes with a clip for a belt.

I also mentioned that I will be talking about ADHD Coaching on WCCO Channel 4, the CBS affiliate in the Twin Cities Minnesota area. This will probably happen the week of November 7, 2011.

You know there is a lot of stigma associated with ADHD and the antidote for stigma is Awareness. There’s a new site out that is really awesome it’s call the ADHD Heroes Project. It features stories about people with ADHD who have succeeded and can be an inspiration to others. We all need more stories. Check it out!

I’d love your feedback here as a comment. You can also call the 24 hour feedback line at 650 – ASK ADHD or 275-2343. Contact us by email at feedback@adhdweekly.com to leave feedback or to request a copy of my goal setting document.

Please tell all your friends about the podcast. I also have a special request. That you would write a review on iTunes to help get this content in front of more people who can be helped by it.

Thanks For Subscribing To The ADHD Weekly Podcast:

ADHD Weekly Podcast – Information, advice and experience to help you Thrive with ADHD. Play to your strengths!

In this episode Jay talks being the best in the world based on Seth Godin’s book, The Dip

Seth Godin, who is a marketing genius who really looks at the world in a different way and encourages us to do the same. Seth Godin wrote a book called The Dip. The book has three main premises, and I’ll probably touch on all of them briefly because it’s such a fantastic book. But in the beginning of the book, he works to convince us of the importance and the rewards that come for being the best in the world. Another premise of the book has to do with the old saying quitters never win. Well, it turns out that winners quit all the time. The difference between the winners or the successful people at whatever activity they are involved in and the unsuccessful, is that the successful people quit the right things at the right time.

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Here is a link to Seth’s book on Amazon – I read it at least once a quarter.

I also mentioned in this podcast that I’m putting together a page of resources for MindManager from MindJet. You can find those resources here.

I’d love your feedback here as a comment. You can also call the 24 hour feedback line at 650 – ASK ADHD or 275-2343. Contact us by email at feedback@adhdweekly.com to leave feedback or to request a copy of my goal setting document.

Please tell all your friends about the podcast. I also have a special request. That you would write a review on iTunes to help get this content in front of more people who can be helped by it.

Thanks For Subscribing To The ADHD Weekly Podcast:

Susanne Ballard

I began a quest several years ago to build a life with purpose and to create a lifestyle-business based on my passions and our family life. What I quickly discovered was how important time management and focus is to creating a life on purpose. I struggled with juggling my roles as wife, mother, full-time pharmacist and budding entrepreneur, plus many other smaller roles we all have. I purchased various types of day planners and read numerous books on organizing and time management, all in the hope that some nugget of information I found would click and I would suddenly have all the time I needed. Well, that plan didn’t work out so well.

I realized I would greatly benefit from having a one-on-one coaching experience with someone who is an expert at helping calm the chaos, manage time and create specific systems that will help set me up for success as I build my business and create a new lifestyle for my family. People who have ADHD often struggle with these same issues, so I decided to go to the experts- ADHD coaches.

Jay Carter, of Hyperfocused Coaching Systems, stood out to me because he combines his ADHD coaching with career coaching. What I found, while working with Jay, was a way to break down the overwhelm, identify it and deal with it in a productive manner.

One thing I especially loved that he did was to provide me with an overview of each of our phone consultations. This provided a lot of clarity for me because I was able to have a visual of our talk together, which always revealed some insight into my situation that I would have missed had I relied strictly on my memory of the conversation. It also reinforced what I learned with him and allowed me to clearly hear his guidance on how to tweak my game plan and keep me motivated.

As a result of working with Jay I completely changed the way I file papers, I keep clearly defined goals and lists, and I get more done in less time. He taught me a really useful tool, called mind mapping, which makes it so easy to break down anything I do into a much clearer, organized and detailed process. The skills and habits I learned while working with Jay have provided me with a lifetime value that literally is benefiting my entire family, as well as, the people I love to serve through my business. Developing habits that have a ripple effect on everyone around me, makes my investment with Jay one of the most beneficial decisions I’ve made.

While Jay certainly did not “do the work for me”, he did really take the load off my shoulders and allow me to more strategically work towards my goals. In short, if you desire to live your life at a higher level and need more time in your day and a more focused, organized approach to your life and business, whether you have ADHD or not, then I highly suggest you invest in yourself and let Jay Carter help structure your goals and build habits that work for you.

Susanne Ballard,RPh
President & CEO of Bella Life Endeavors, Inc.
Creator of the PharMomAssist

Why Hyperfocused Coaching? Why Jay Carter?

At 50, I am excited and happy to announce … I know what I want to be when I grow up!

Many of you will know what i mean by this statement … for those of you who may not, let me explain. All of my life I’ve been a wanderer and an explorer. I have wandered all over the country and explored countless careers, areas of study, and relationships. In my adult life, I have lived in six different states, 16 separate cities, and over 40 homes or apartments.

Teachers and employers loved me because I always met the deadline and could juggle superhuman workloads. Little did they know the procrastination, obsessing, and nervous breakdowns that happen behind the scenes. It would not be unusual to find me up until three or four in the morning the night before project was due pulling the proverbial rabbit out of a hat.

My record in relationships is very similar, jumping spontaneously without thinking things through into unhealthy, dysfunctional situations, doomed to failure from the start.

I am the absolute embodiment of the phrase, “Jack (or rather Jill) of All Trades, Master of None”!

From morning to night, each and every day, my head is filled with ideas. Ideas that I rarely follow through on. I often get completely obsessed with the activity or idea allowing it to consume every waking moment for months… then abandon it.

For most of my life I have a pervading sense that I have greater potential but lacked the confidence to meet it.

I stumbled onto the Hyperfocused Coaching website and found it intriguing. I never heard of an ADHD coach and hadn’t seriously consider myself an ADHD (despite seemingly overwhelming evidence to the contrary). but as I read about Jay and his experience that sounded eerily familiar. I thought it wouldn’t hurt to take advantage of the free consultation.

For our first conversation I felt at ease with Jay. He was genuinely interested in helping me and showed incredible patience every time I ran off on a tangent, carefully bringing me back on track.

Through our sessions, I began to identify and acknowledge my strengths… like WOW I have STRENGTHS?!I began to be more aware of my self-defeating patterns as well as those around me. Jay helped me learn where I want to go in my life and what I wanted to, not by telling me what HE thought but by asking good questions and helping ME learn about ME.

I began learning how to become the architect of my life instead of viewing it from the sidelines. Changes are happening from within. I am beginning to build confidence and focus. I cannot wait to discover what is around the next corner, thinks, in no small part, to Jay and Hyperfocused Coaching!

Laska G.
Washington

Jay,

A few months back we had a very beneficial coaching session where you helped to define and clarify steps to take in achieving my personal and business goals. After making significant strides I had reached a point where I could benefit from additional professional advice to further refine and expand on my recent achievements.

I found you exceeded my expectations in our latest brainstorming session by not only helping to identify new areas to explore which were an excellent fit for my business’s capabilities and vision, but additionally offering crucial personal contacts which could prove extremely useful in successfully developing and expanding into these new areas.

Thanks again,

Jonathan Shank
Owner, Transonic Acoustics

ADHD Weekly Podcast – Information, advice and experience to help you Thrive with ADHD. Play to your strengths!

In this episode Jay talks about a different perspective on setting goals based on David Allen’s Getting Things Done methodology.
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I’d love your feedback here as a comment. You can also call the 24 hour feedback line at 650 – ASK ADHD or 275-2343. Contact us by email at feedback@adhdweekly.com to leave feedback or to request a copy of my goal setting document.

Please tell all your friends about the podcast. I also have a special request. That you would write a review on iTunes to help get this content in front of more people who can be helped by it.

Thanks For Subscribing To The ADHD Weekly Podcast:

ADHD Weekly Podcast – Information, advice and experience to help you Thrive with ADHD. Play to your strengths!

In this episode Jay interviews ADD Coach Academy owner David Giwerc about how he uses mind mapping.
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Here’s a link to David’s ADD Coach Academy (ADDCA). If you are interested in hiring a coach for ADHD, you want to make sure they graduated from ADDCA. If you’re interested in becoming a coach, there’s no better place to explore your interest – here’s a link for more informtion for coaches.

There is a lot of great ADHD information on the site if you’re just interested in learning more about ADHD. This particular link below is to a program ADDCA offers that applies to everyone, not just coaches.

David has also created some amazing videos that help us understand ADHD better. You can find them on ADDCA’s facebook page here

What Tools are Available?
We mentioned some mind mapping tools on the show:

ADHD Weekly
Information, advice and experience to help you Thrive with ADHD. Play to your strengths!

In this episode Jay talks about Mind Maps as a powerful tool for those with ADHD.
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What’s a Mind Map
Mind mapping starts out with a central idea or image. This could be a topic you’re researching or the day of the week that you’re creating a to-do list for. You will then create associations related to that central idea or image and then associations related to that second layer. If you picture a piece of paper with a circle in the middle and then spokes drawn from that center with other circles, you have the basic idea of how a mind map starts. The center circle is the main starting idea and the “spokes” of the wheel are the sub-topics that you will use to build upon the main idea. Color or other images used with this structure can really add further organization to a developing mind map.

Let’s Get Practical
Why should YOU be interested in mind mapping? Tony Buzan, who invented Mind Mapping, has taught the concepts to thousands of people around the world. Using mind mapping has been shown to increase productivity as much as 25% (or even more if you find yourself really stuck!) Mind Mapping also enables faster learning and improves memory because it allows you to think more clearly and logically to give your ideas a visually organized layout.

What Tools are Available?
We mentioned four mind mapping tools on the show:

Tony Buzan’s iMindMap

Mind Meister – the online tool

MindManager from Mind Jet and FreeMind

Class Info:
If you are interested in learning more about mind mapping, Jay has created an online class for you to learn more about the ins and outs of mind mapping including a step-by-step process and a walk-through of several different mind mapping software applications. The 60-minute course will be followed by a 30 minute Q&A session.

The class is being held Thursday, October 14th at 8:30 pm EST. To register for the class simply visit http://learnmindmapping.com. The class cost is $97 but if you register by October 7th, you will receive a 30% discount. If perhaps you are listening to the podcast after the class has already taken place, you will be able to purchase a recording (audio & video) recording of the class at http://learnmindmapping.com or http://hyperfocusedcoaching.com.

I’d love your feedback here as a comment. You can also call the 24 hour feedback line at 650 – ASK ADHD or 275-2343. Contact us by email at feedback@adhdweekly.com to leave feedback or to request a copy of my goal setting document.

Please tell all your friends about the podcast. I also have a special request. That you would write a review on iTunes to help get this content in front of more people who can be helped by it.

Thanks For Subscribing To The ADHD Weekly Podcast:

ADHD Weekly
Information, advice and experience to help you Thrive with ADHD. Play to your strengths!

In this episode Jay talks about the important connection between ADHD and our Strengths.
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Show Notes:

Why should you care about strengths:
Understanding your strengths with a diagnosis of ADHD helps you to focus on a path and find a specific direction. ADHD is a condition that centers around interest and attention so a focus on strengths is just one powerful way to engage your brain.

Let’s Get Practical:
Identifying your strengths can sometimes by the difficult part, so incorporating a book like Now, Discover Your Strengths and tests like StrengthsFinder 2.0 can help you find and maximize your strength so you are functioning at your highest potential.

Here are 5 components to reference when talking about strengths:
1. Super-fast learning
2. Sense of Satisfaction
3. Consistency and Confidence
4. Excellence
5. A Yearning to do whatever it is that the strength has you doing.

Identifying Strengths:
Here are some options for identifying strengths:
1. Review areas in your life where you have been able to hyperfocus on a particular activity and identify actions that you can take to recreate into you current daily activity that will encourage this same level of focus.
2. Take the online StrengthsFinder 2.0 to identify your areas of talent
3. Work with Jay one-on-one in a 90 minute session that uses personalized coaching and the StrengthsFinder 2.0 to unpack your strengths, brainstorm applications of your strengths and build an action plan. To find out more about this product visit: http://www.hyperfocusedcoaching.com/products/hyperfocused-strengths-builder/.

A Word About Weaknesses:
Dr. Ratey and Dr. Hallowell, who wrote Driven To Distraction and Delivered from Distraction have always stressed a strengths based approach to ADHD but it’s also important to identify weaknesses so that we create an environment to avoid these areas of weakness.

Show Resources:
StrengthsFinder 2.0
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I’d love your feedback here as a comment. You can also call the 24 hour feedback line at 650 – ASK ADHD or 275-2343. Contact us by email at feedback@adhdweekly.com to leave feedback or to request a copy of my goal setting document.

Please tell all your friends about the podcast. I also have a special request. That you would write a review on iTunes to help get this content in front of more people who can be helped by it.

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ADHD Weekly
Information, advice and experience to help you Thrive with ADHD. Play to your strengths!

In this episode Jay introduces 2 ADHD friendly technology tools.

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Show Notes:

Calendar Applications:

An important consideration in thinking about calendaring is what type of calendar you use at work. It’s much more productive to have a single calendar that has all of your events in one place.

I use Google Calendar as my primary calendar. My corporation uses Lotus Notes. I use CompanionLink to sync my Lotus Notes one way to my Google Calendar.

Task Lists
ThinkingRock I’ve used this tool for several years.

• Cost – $40 for the first year $10 for Subsequent years
• Pros – Very closely follows the David Allen GTD methodology.
• Cons – Not web based
• Can get unwieldy if you have too many tasks

Toodledo

• Cost

• Free
• $14.99
• $29.95

• Free
• Web-based
• Smart phone apps

• The presentation of tasks can be a little overwhelming

Remember the Milk

• Cost

• Free
• $25

• Free
• Web-based
• Smart phone apps
• Nice tabbed interface

• None really

GQueues
The thing I like about GQueues is that you can create a targeted list by assigning dates to the important tasks you want to get done today. Then you can use the smart view for Today’s tasks and see only those items. This is the application that I’m using currently.

• Cost

• Free
• $25

• Free
• Web-based
• Smart phone apps
• Fully integrated with Google

• None really

I’d love your feedback here as a comment. You can also call the 24 hour feedback line at 650 – ASK ADHD or 275-2343. Contact us by email at feedback@adhdweekly.com to leave feedback or to request a copy of my goal setting document.

Please tell all your friends about the podcast. I also have a special request. That you would write a review on iTunes to help get this content in front of more people who can be helped by it.

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ADHD Weekly
Information, advice and experience to help you Thrive with ADHD. Play to your strengths!

In this episode Jay interviews Karen Quammen, a disability expert, and they talk about ADHD and the D-word – Disability. Do you think ADHD is a disability? Karen and I serve on the board of directors of the Minnesota Business Leadership Network, a non-profit that exists to help companies and providers come together to promote the employment of people with disabilities. The Minnesota Business Leadership Network I think you’ll find this interview enlightening as in introduction to the world of disability in the workplace.

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Show Notes:

Karen is the state coordinator for Disability Mentoring Day. This link will take you to information on the 2009 Disability Mentoring national launch in Duluth, Minnesota.

I’d like your feedback around this issue. Do you think ADHD is a disability? Have you disclosed your ADHD to your employer? Have you received any accommodations at work?

I’d love your feedback here as a comment. You can also call the 24 hour feedback line at 650 – ASK ADHD or 275-2343. Contact us by email at feedback@adhdweekly.com to leave feedback or to request a copy of my goal setting document.

Please tell all your friends about the podcast. I also have a special request. That you would write a review on iTunes to help get this content in front of more people who can be helped by it.

Thanks For Subscribing To The ADHD Weekly Podcast:

ADHD Weekly
Information, advice and experience to help you Thrive with ADHD. Play to your strengths!

In this episode, we’re going to be talking about using the “Body Double” concept as an effective strategy to deal with several ADHD traits.

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Show Notes:

I mentioned my friend Cliff Ravenscraft. He has a great podcast about virtual assistants at virtualassistantpodcast.com. If you listen to the beginning of episode 7, you’ll hear the discussion that Cliff and I had on the topic of virtual assistants and the body double concept.

Some Articles on using the Body Double concept for People with ADHD:

• The Body Double by Linda Anderson
• When You Need a Body Double by Pat Quinn in ADDitude Magazine

If you have any ideas on different ways to use a Body Double – please comment here on the post.

I’d love your feedback here as a comment. You can also call the 24 hour feedback line at 650 – ASK ADHD or 275-2343. Contact us by email at feedback@adhdweekly.com to leave feedback or to request a copy of my goal setting document.

Please tell all your friends about the podcast. I also have a special request. That you would write a review on iTunes to help get this content in front of more people who can be helped by it.

Thanks For Subscribing To The ADHD Weekly Podcast:

ADHD Weekly
Information, advice and experience to help you Thrive with ADHD. Play to your strengths!

I have a special treat lined up for episode 11. I recently attended the ADHD Coaches Organization’s national conference in Chicago. After the conference, I got a few of my buddies around a table and recorded a conversation around ADHD Coaching.

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Show Notes:
I’m a professional member of The ADHD Coaches Organization. This organization exists as a resource for ADHD Coaches and to promote excellence in ADHD Coaching. They are doing great work for the ADHD community.

One thing we mentioned early on is that the coaches on this particular call went through a very intense year-long training course at the ADD Coach Academy. The ADD Coach Academy or ADDCA as we call it is the gold standard that other ADHD coaching schools are measured by. If you don’t click with any of the coaches on this call, you can go to ADD Coach Academy and search for a coach.

If you’re interested in becoming an ADHD Coach, I’d be happy to talk with you. You can get information on coach training from ADDCA by clicking on the logo below:

Coaches on today’s show:

• Steve Gundy – Has a real heart for helping Christian business men
• http://www.stevegundy.com
• 574-855-1800

• Judith Champion – Has a huge passion for kids and families with ADHD
• http://www.addassociates.com
• Judith@JudithChampion.com

• Genya Masri – Targets college students making that important transition to independence.
• 416-241-1605

• Kathleen Marikar – works with children and families with ADHD
• http://www.add-vantage.com
• kathleen@add-vantagecoaching.com

• Jay Carter – Hyperfocused Coaching Systems, LLC
• I focus exclusively on adults. A large percentage of my clients are dealing with career or business issues.
• http://www.Hyperfocusedcoaching.com
• jaycarter@hyperfocusedcoaching.com

I’d love your feedback here as a comment. You can also call the 24 hour feedback line at 650 – ASK ADHD or 275-2343. Contact us by email at feedback@adhdweekly.com to leave feedback or to request a copy of my goal setting document.

Please tell all your friends about the podcast. I also have a special request. That you would write a review on iTunes to help get this content in front of more people who can be helped by it.

Thanks For Subscribing To The ADHD Weekly Podcast:

ADHD Weekly
Information, advice and experience to help you Thrive with ADHD. Play to your strengths!

In Episode 10 we continue our discussion of motivation. We’ll present 10 ways to rock your motivation to the next level and ask for feedback on ways that you’ve helped your motivation in the past.

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Show Notes:

Thanks for joining me for episode ten of the ADHD Weekly Podcast.

In this episode we conclude our discussion of ADHD and motivation

I lay out my top 10 Keys for Maximizing Your Motivation:

1. Have a Dream
2. Set up your Environment for sucess
3. Take advantage of Novelty
4. Create Routines
5. Create a strong Feeback Loop
6. Use a coach or a friend as a “body double”
7. Passion is important
8. Know yourself
9. Create Energy by using the proper fuel
10. Rinse and Repeat – Use the Plan – Do – Check – Act (PDCA) Cycle

Resources mentioned on today’s show:

I enjoy reading books by Daniel Pink. I highly recommend this one on motivation.

Seth Godin’s new book on being a Linchpin.

I’d love your feedback here as a comment. You can also call the 24 hour feedback line at 650 – ASK ADHD or 275-2343. Contact us by email at feedback@adhdweekly.com to leave feedback or to request a copy of my goal setting document.

We’re brand new, so please tell all your friends about the podcast. I also have a special request. That you would write a review on iTunes to help get this content in front of more people who can be helped by it.

Thanks For Subscribing To The ADHD Weekly Podcast:

ADHD Weekly
Information, advice and experience to help you Thrive with ADHD. Play to your strengths!

In Episode 9 we talk about motivation using the new book Drive by Daniel Pink. This podcast lays the framework for next week when we talk about two types of motivation and 10 ways to jazz up your motivation.

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Show Notes:

Thanks for joining me for episode nine of the ADHD Weekly Podcast.

In this episode we talk about ADHD and motivation

Resources mentioned on today’s show:

I enjoy reading books by Daniel Pink. I highly recommend this one on motivation.

Dan’s talk about motivation at the TED conference.

I’d love your feedback here as a comment. You can also call the 24 hour feedback line at 650 – ASK ADHD or 275-2343. Contact us by email at feedback@adhdweekly.com to leave feedback or to request a copy of my goal setting document.

We’re brand new, so please tell all your friends about the podcast. I also have a special request. That you would write a review on iTunes to help get this content in front of more people who can be helped by it.

Thanks For Subscribing To The ADHD Weekly Podcast:

ADHD Weekly
Information, advice and experience to help you Thrive with ADHD. Play to your strengths!

In Episode 8 we talk about how the words we choose can affect our ability to win in our game of life.

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Show Notes:

Thanks for joining me for episode eight of the ADHD Weekly Podcast.

In this episode we talk about ADHD and the words we choose.

Resources mentioned on today’s show:

I’d love your feedback here as a comment. You can also call the 24 hour feedback line at 650 – ASK ADHD or 275-2343. Contact us by email at feedback@adhdweekly.com to leave feedback or to request a copy of my goal setting document.

We’re brand new, so please tell all your friends about the podcast. I also have a special request. That you would write a review on iTunes to help get this content in front of more people who can be helped by it.

Thanks For Subscribing To The ADHD Weekly Podcast:

ADHD Weekly
Information, advice and experience to help you Thrive with ADHD. Play to your strengths!

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Show Notes:

Thanks for joining me for episode seven of the ADHD Weekly Podcast.

In this episode we continue our discussion about ADHD and Success. Success is a really elusive goal for many ADHDers. A good understanding of how successful we are with objective evidence can be life changing. I know it was for me. Leave a comment – how do YOU define success?

Resources mentioned on today’s show:

I’d love your feedback here as a comment. You can also call the 24 hour feedback line at 650 – ASK ADHD or 275-2343. Contact us by email at feedback@adhdweekly.com to leave feedback or to request a copy of my goal setting document.

We’re brand new, so please tell all your friends about the podcast. I also have a special request. That you would write a review on iTunes to help get this content in front of more people who can be helped by it.

Thanks For Subscribing To The ADHD Weekly Podcast:

ADHD Weekly
Information, advice and experience to help you Thrive with ADHD. Play to your strengths!

Click Play Below or Right-Click Here To Download

Show Notes:

Thanks for joining me for episode six of the ADHD Weekly Podcast.

In this episode we talk about Success. Success is a really elusive goal for many ADHDers. A good understanding of how successful we are with objective evidence can be life changing. I know it was for me. Leave a comment – how do YOU define success?

I’d love your feedback here as a comment. You can also call the 24 hour feedback line at 650 – ASK ADHD or 275-2343. Contact us by email at feedback@adhdweekly.com to leave feedback or to request a copy of my goal setting document.

We’re brand new, so please tell all your friends about the podcast. I also have a special request. That you would write a review on iTunes to help get this content in front of more people who can be helped by it.

Thanks For Subscribing To The ADHD Weekly Podcast:

ADHD Weekly
Information, advice and experience to help you Thrive with ADHD. Play to your strengths!

Click Play Below or Right-Click Here To Download

Show Notes:

Thanks for joining me for episode five of the ADHD Weekly Podcast.

In this episode we talk about one of the fundamental components of living a productive life – Sleep.

I have recognized in my own life, the tremendous impact that sleep can have on my productivity and the severity of my ADHD symptoms.

I leaned heavily on a book from John Medina for some of the material I talked about.

Here’s a link to it on Amazon.

I also mentioned Dr. Hallowell’s book. Here’s my link to it on Amazon:

These links are my affiliate links, but feel free to run down and grab the book from your local bookstore or get the audio versions from iTunes or Audible.

I also mentioned this article by Richard Ferri

I’d love your feedback here as a comment. You can also call the 24 hour feedback line at 650 – ASK ADHD or 275-2343. Contact us by email at feedback@adhdweekly.com to leave feedback or to request a copy of my goal setting document.

We’re brand new, so please tell all your friends about the podcast. I also have a special request. That you would write a review on iTunes to help get this content in front of more people who can be helped by it.

Thanks For Subscribing To The ADHD Weekly Podcast:

ADHD Weekly
Information, advice and experience to help you Thrive with ADHD. Play to your strengths!

Click Play Below or Right-Click Here To Download

Show Notes:

Thanks for joining me for episode four of the ADHD Weekly Podcast.

In this episode we talk about ADHD and Your Work.

As a professional coach, I work with many people with ADHD or ADHD traits to help them win in their careers and their businesses. This podcast is an overview of how ADHD has an impact.

I’d love your feedback here as a comment. You can also call the 24 hour feedback line at 650 – ASK ADHD or 275-2343. Contact us by email at feedback@adhdweekly.com to leave feedback or to request a copy of my goal setting document.

We’re brand new, so please tell all your friends about the podcast. I also have a special request. That you would write a review on iTunes to help get this content in front of more people who can be helped by it.

Thanks For Subscribing To The ADHD Weekly Podcast:

ADHD Weekly
Information, advice and experience to help you Thrive with ADHD. Play to your strengths!

Click Play Below or Right-Click Here To Download

Show Notes:

Thanks for joining me for episode three of the ADHD Weekly Podcast.

In this episode we talk about Cereal Lies or Multi-tasking – Friend or Foe The answer may surprise you.

In this podcast, I mention the book Brain Rules by John Medina. I’m just getting started with it, but so far it is offering very interesting insights about the brain. One of our good ADHD friends, Dr. John Ratey who recently wrote the book, Spark: The Revolutionary New Science of Exercise and the Brain, is one of the endorsers on the back of the book.

Here’s the Amazon link to the book.

I’d love your feedback here as a comment. You can also call the 24 hour feedback line at 650 – ASK ADHD or 275-2343. Contact us by email at feedback@adhdweekly.com to leave feedback or to request a copy of my goal setting document.

We’re brand new, so please tell all your friends about the podcast.

Thanks For Subscribing To The ADHD Weekly Podcast:

ADHD Weekly
Information, advice and experience to help you Thrive with ADHD. Play to your strengths!

Click Play Below or Right-Click Here To Download

Show Notes:

Thanks for coming back for episode two of the ADHD Weekly Podcast.

Personal productivity and the feeling that I’m reaching my potential and living out my purpose have always been important to me.

In this episode we explore how to make sure that we are selective about the activities that we choose to engage in and be comfortable with saying no to the one’s that we don’t choose to pursue.

We also talk about a great productivity tool called “Your Calendar”. Using our calendars, we can make sure we have time to work on the important things by blocking time in the future. Future time isn’t nearly as painful to schedule as “Now” time.

I mentioned the free calendar from Google that is connected with a Gmail account – you can find it here.

I also use a free service called Tungle to allow other people to see my calendar and schedule appointments with me. You can view my calendar and even schedule a 30 minute consultation by going to tungle.me/jaycarter

Finally – we also answered the question, “What’s the difference between ADD and ADHD?”. In recent years the medical term for the condition was changed from Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD) to Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD). There are three basic types of ADD/ADHD – Inattentive, Hyperactive/Impulsive, and a combination of both.

I’d love your feedback here as a comment. You can also call the 24 hour feedback line at 650 – ASK ADHD or 275-2343. Contact us by email at feedback@adhdweekly.com to leave feedback or to request a copy of my goal setting document.

We’re brand new, so please tell all your friends about the podcast.

Thanks For Subscribing To The ADHD Weekly Podcast:

ADHD Weekly
Information, advice and experience to help you Thrive with ADHD. Play to your strengths!

Click Play Below or Right-Click Here To Download

Show Notes:

The first episode is finally up.

I took some time in this episode to introduce myself and talk a little about the format for the podcast.

I also talked about ADHD Goals and what’s different for ADHDers. We talked about setting goals in seven different areas of life:

• Spiritual
• Physical
• Family
• Personal Development
• Social
• Financial
• Career

I also talked about TM goals, goals that are time-based and measurable.

I’d love your feedback here as a comment. You can also call the 24 hour feedback line at 650 – ASK ADHD or 275-2343. Contact us by email at feedback@adhdweekly.com to leave feedback or to request a copy of my goal setting document.

We’re brand new, so please tell all your friends about the podcast.

Thanks For Subscribing To The ADHD Weekly Podcast:

Everybody has their favorite candy. Mine is a old fashion mixture of chocolate, raisins, and peanuts called Chunky. It is still sold by Nestle. I can remember going hunting as a 12-year old lad and eating a Chunky for energy. You can still find them various places including Old Time Candy.

So what does that have to do with being productive and successful in life. Well it turns out that Chunky is also a great idea for ADHDers and anyone having difficulty getting started with with a task. Sometimes the enormity of the entire task can be overwhelming for us. I know for me that certain tasks seem hard to get started with.

I was exploring this phenomenon earlier with one of my ADHD coaches and we talked about the way I use MindMapping to break a task down. She used the word “Chunking” to describe the way I break many of my tasks down into smaller chunks. A light bulb went off when she described it that way and especially when she said, “Hey Einstein, why don’t you apply that to the problem we’re working on!”

Chunking can be applied to any task that you’re having trouble getting started.

Here’s how it works:

1. Think about some logical divisions for your task.
2. Write down or type the divisions in a list leaving room to add more detail below.
3. Consider whether you need to further subdivide the task. You should have as many divisions as it takes to get going, but no more.
4. Begin working on the first division and move to the next one when you’re done.

This concept is a primary one used by project managers and I know it works great for me too. I’d love to hear your feedback. Post it here or call me me at (651)252-4ADD (233)

I spent this last weekend at a high-end business retreat for entrepreneurs. It’s interesting that there is a much higher incidence rate of ADHD among entrepreneurs than there is among the general population. There’s a higher incidence in prison as well but that’s a different story.

There are great paradoxes in many all aspects of ADHD. A lot of ADHDers have a wealth of ideas that boggles the mind. This creativity is really a powerful weapon for ADHD entrepreneurs. It’s also a gift and a strength. As ADHDers we think that anything we are good at, everybody else is good at. And the things we are bad at, everybody else is good at that too. I heard some incredible ideas that people were building businesses around this weekend. So what’s the paradox – well a ton of ideas can also be paralyzing. Quite of few of those same ADHD creative types have a great deal of trouble making decisions and making choices among many things. It’s a paradox! It’s important as ADHDers that we recognize how our ADHD affects us. If this is a way your ADHD manifests itself, it’s important to develop a system or process to work through prioritizing ideas and focusing on what’s most important.

For the past three or four years I have followed a system for reviewing my life and my progress towards meeting my full potential and walking boldly in faith in the path that God has placed before me.

This system is comprised of an annual review of my personal mission statement, a review of last year’s goals, and setting specific MT goals for next year. People talk about SMART goals or SMARTA goals, but for me the Measurable and the Time-based abbreviations are enough. SMART stands for Specific, Measurable, Attainable,Realistic , and Time-based. The extra A get’s you Alignment with your mission.

I’ve seen a lot of SMART goals over the years that really weren’t that smart.The reason seems to be that even though organizations and individuals profess to be using SMART goals, they are really weak on the metrics and measurements that will determine success or failure. They also often allow the due date slide as well.

Now having said that, I’ve also seen some dynamite SMART/A goals as well. My point is that we need to be cognizant of the fact that choosing the right measurement is important.

Michael Gerber in e-Myth tells us that businesses need to measure everything!

Jay Levinson in Guerilla Marketing tells us that if we don’t measure our marketing results, we’re throwing money away.

So take the time to set goals for next year and review them on a regular basis. Share them with some colleagues or friends that will hold you accountable. You’ll be surprised how much you can get done. I set goals in each area of the life wheel – Career/Education, Relationships, Financial, Spiritual, Physical, Personal Improvement/Learning, and Social.

Each of these are important if YOU want to reach your Potential

We all have so much to be thankful for!

My wife got a call last Thursday that her father would be undergoing quintuple heart bypass surgery. We loaded up the crew and headed for Mississippi. He came home today in good spirits and as healthy as you can be after that type of surgery. We are thankful for the doctors and nurses who cared for him and we’re thankful for the successful surgery.

We all have many things to be thankful for even in this time of economic challenge. A grateful heart is a key prerequisite for success in life and in business.

Put a system in place today to ensure your mind remembers to tell your heart to be thankful for the many ways in which you’ve been blessed.