Pt1-ADHD And Overcoming The Overwhelm Of Our 'To Do's

We often try to keep everything in our head. We have so many important things we are trying to remember, and it can easily spiral us into feeling overwhelmed. That overwhelm can translate into paralysis. I would like to teach you a methodology that gives you permission to forget! Grab a pen and paper, and let's do this together in part 1 of 4.

Transcript

Quick disclaimer up top, This is not medical advice and I don't even play a doctor on TV, So I wouldn't even know where to begin. However, This is how I handle this stuff and it's tryable. You can try this quote unquote stuff and see for yourself. Keep what works for yourself and then just file away the rest. Here is the stuff. Sometimes we get overwhelmed because we have all kinds of ideas in our head, Tasks and errands and chores swirling in our head and everything is urgent or everything has a large quote quote should attach to it. Like I should really email Troy or I should go to the gym or I should text my friend back. It all takes up real estate in our skull spaghetti and it can be paralyzing. There's so much to do so we just can't do any of it. Maybe we'll play a video game or indulge a hobby or dig into one of our less healthy distractions until something sparks or you could play with me right now. ADHD it's a team sport. I'm happy to be on your team right now. These things are always easier to do when we are with somebody. Someone else. It's the body doubling aspect. And while we aren't officially body doubling, I am in your ear and I will guide you through this process. It might make it easier. So do you have a pen and paper ready? Pause this if you don't and set yourself up with your one notebook. So this is going to be a living, Breathing document, Not a one and done situation. Often we ADHDers, We get overwhelmed and so then we purge it all out onto paper. We do like a brain dump and then that's the end of it. We got it out so it feels better. But this is something that needs to be interacted with. ADHD doesn't go away after the brain dump. It doesn't magically do your laundry for you. There's more to be done here. So grab the notebook that you're going to be interacting with. In the future as well, And your favorite pen that you use for that notebook, Because if you're like me, I mean, I have to use a very particular writing instrument based on the type of paper. It's a thing, No biggie. Pause it and then come back. Okay, I'm assuming that you have the pen and the paper. Let's play. For the next two minutes, Write down as a list everything that is swirling in your head. Get groceries, Clean bathroom, Email Troy, Get a new job, And even the thoughts that have no to-do attached to them. Write those down. Get them out. This exercise is dumb. I can feel my teeth right now. Put it all on paper like it's a to-do list. Even those random thoughts. It's just enough to create a line item. We're not writing paragraphs about big ideas. List of thoughts and to-dos. And I'm going to let you go for a couple minutes, But I might chime in. We're trying to purge our brain, And that's why they call it a brain dump. I'll check in soon. And if you're done sooner, Then sit in the tension and that restlessness and see if something else pops up. All right, Off you go. How's the list coming? Keep it going if you have more. And we're gonna start cleaning out the corners of the brain now with some prompts. Is there anything that you can think of to do with your house maybe or your apartment? Any cleaning things? Put those, Write those down. Anything to be done with work that you haven't already written down. What about health stuff? Does anything need to be done there? How about friends and family? Any tasks related to that? Any plans that you keep meaning to make? Okay, All told this particular process, It only takes a few minutes. With ADHD, Time is really interesting, Isn't it? And that something like this might feel overwhelming. So I encourage you to either use this talk as your body doubling when you want to do a brain dump session or do it with a friend or in a community and continue it on with the same notebook. And when you have a task or to do that pops up in your head randomly throughout the day, Put it down in your notebook on that list. This gives you permission to forget. Because ideally you'll be referencing it. And then we'll talk about what to do next in the next session. The new overwhelm that starts to appear here, If some of you might be feeling it right now, By looking at a bunch of to-dos, The millions of to-dos that you just purged out of your head that you don't want to do, That feels like it's a never-ending list. So that's normal. So let's work through that together on part two. For now, Congrats on purging your brain. You did it.