The ADHD Tool Kit
ADHD PART 23
Episode 021
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TRANSCRIPT
Welcome to the Plan for Wonder podcast. I'm Crystal, the Talking Head, founder and creator of myLifePlanners.ca. I'm back this week with the third in the ADHD series with Liz Tizzard. In this episode, we talk about organizational tactics and tools that trigger dopamine for those with spicy brains.
All right. I'm so excited about this episode today because we're actually going to actually start talking about creating structure for an ADHD. And I kind of mentioned before in previous episodes that yes, Liz was one of my first my life customers with ADHD, but I have had others as well. Like I've had because I do have the two tools, I have the my day and the my week, they're the core pieces.
I lean more into the myWeek, and I've actually had some ADHD years who use them. And I'm, I'm, there's a story about one person I love is she had multiple clients like me, she's self employed, she had the my week, but she had so much to do for her clients that she would literally have one week for one client. Then the next spread, the second week was for the next one.
And she was an ADHDer?
Yes. Of course she did.
And that gives a sense of joy that the tool and the structure that I've created brings joy. I would say.
Oh, absolutely. Absolutely. Yes. Absolutely. Because you're not wallowing in confusion and lostness and imperfect feelings of imperfection.
And you're also not stuck with a boring planner from staples
Or you're not trying to fit into a box that doesn't fit you.
Or like i've done for so many years go after a planning tool that had so much needs like; et's add gratitude and let's add this and I was like whoa no my brain does that anyway I just needed a place to put the structure of my day and the spontaneity of my thoughts.
Perfect.
Awesome.
So we've kind of dived into this already, but so I'd like for you to kind of dive into what it is about the myLife tools. That make it possible to work for the ADH brain.
So, kind of a little more detail on that one.
For sure. So, first off, like we kind of dabbled on the last one.
You know, when I started, I started with a MyWeek planner. And it worked for a bit until it didn't. Which is the story of an ADHDer.
But here's the thing that I want to bring up is, it didn't work until it didn't. I stopped putting in the work. I let my ADHD brain go from progress to paralysis, which is very, you know, very typical for us.
And so the reason why right now, the, my day's working so well for me. And I actually just said to Crystal before we met, I was like, I could see how I'll end up working two systems. A myWeek will sit on my kitchen counter and a myDay will come with me everywhere I go. Because now the value of being grounded in my organization has so much more benefit than running by the hip of my pants and then spending that time wallowing.
And so. What's neat is when I look back, I was very successful when I used the myWeek and I was very successful when I used the myDay.
So it's cueing in on your ability to focus.
Absolutely. And the cool thing about these planners specifically, and I love, I love tooting Crystal's horn because it is that good.
And you know, when, when you were asking for support and ideas and, and just feedback when it came to creating the my day, a lot of it was how do we make it stimulating from a page?
And so when you actually open up a snapshot of the my day, let alone the my, my life planners in general, but there is a little bit of change. The structure is still the same but actually where you write planning your day flips on every page.
The schedule.
And the cool thing about that is they bud up. So it actually teaches or shows your brain, no this is like a normal planner, see you know what's happening tomorrow, you can see what happened yesterday.
Right? And, and so it gives you that structure of like, this is how structured people do things.
But it's also like, bounding digger, here, let me take my ADHD. So, as I look down at, you know my, myDay planner right now, it's been really interesting to see how things have changed specifically in these last couple weeks.
Because I'm noticing that in the like, You got this or do not forget section. A lot of it is around wonder, which is why you created this business. Which I think is so cool. And I said that to you a couple of days ago. I was like, because back in the day it was like, don't forget this important appointment.
Whereas now like today, and I wrote this like, three hours ago to take a few breaths and enjoy.
And the reason I wrote that is because my day is chock full of things and they're amazing things but once you structure things it stops looking spontaneous.
Yes, spontaneous. Yes.
And so you got to trick the ADHD brain a lot to be like, I'm okay, you're okay, you're safe. Just keep taking those baby steps.
So let's dive in now I really love to hear the different type of tactics and tools and ideas for the ADHD brain with the tools and how to marry them together.
You did talk about pen and paper, because the tangibility is important. That's my thing Like, you know, I think iCal digital calendars are great for making appointments in advance. But when it comes for the day to day, I don't want to depend on the ding. I want to be able to know where I'm going throughout the day.
I do remember, I want to talk about a tool that I had mentioned to you. We had had coffee right before the pandemic lockdown started. It was right. It was literally like the day after we met for coffee. And at the time you were struggling with planning an organization.
You're like, Oh, I just don't like a messy page and I have to scratch stuff out. And I'm like, But, sweetie, did you know there's such a thing as a do over tool? She's like, what?
What is this?
And I'm like, it's called a pencil.
But you just explained to me that maybe pencils, ADHDers don't like pencils.
Well, ADHDers don't like the certain tip of pencils.
Okay.
So the pencil that I'm holding in front of me is awful. It's neon green, it's stimulating. But the way that the lead hits the paper is not stimulating. Whereas, and like, I'm going to put a plug because I've been using these pens for as long as I can remember. The Pentel, sorry I'm reading it, Energel, 0. 7mm in black.
Oh my god, specific! My daughter actually gave me, she has that on her list of pens, I had to put it on my wish list on Staples for her.
Is it not crazy? That is so crazy that you say that, and to the point where I got wooed. By the black and gold version, not knowing it was 0.
5 millimeters. And I can't handle it. That's what she said. She can't handle it. Oh, it's awful. It's too thin. But upon research.
It's actually the, the the gel, what is it, gel point, I guess they would be called. But the liquid in a pen is actually proven to be more stimulating for an ADHD brain. Therefore, we will actually use it more
And on that note, I'm going to plug my build of the paper. I choose a really heavy stock for it.
Oh, it's, it's, it's what dreams are made of. Like satisfying, nourishing, satiating, like because I am a big, big paper person. I do not like thin paper. I won't write on it. So I'm always, ADHDers also tend to have a lot of notebooks in their house because they think they're quotation getting organized.
I have so many notebooks in my house. And if you feel the weight, all the paper weight is thick. But this is smooth and silky, but not silky. It's very stimulating. We'll just leave it there.
Yeah, it does. It gives it enough of a kickback on the texture to feel like you're kind of writing.
That's right. Yeah.
If you listen to the podcast, I have a little intro sound of a pencil.
Yeah, I did. Yeah. I noticed it.
A little pencil scratch sound.
So yeah, so let's talk about a few more tools. So going back to that centralized spot for ideas, if I could just take that idea of post-it notes and Crystal's going to link them because they're not your traditional post-it notes.
They're actually ones that you recommended for the my week at the very beginning. I just use the full sheet. I use my post-it notes and whatever day I'm not working on in my, my day. A gigantic post it note typically goes on the opposite page for brain dumping. Leads back to that perfection and only wine to write on the perfection. And it's easy to move it over. It's a great tool.
That's a great tip.
And then embracing the messy, you know, between the do over tool, like the pencil or you know, not liquid whiteout, that like pull whiteout that's helped a lot. A big, big, big thing for me is highlighters. So I think markers would work great. I have highlighters in my house, but multiple colors for multiple things.
So when I look down today, the things that are appointments, are orange the things that are appointmentish but for me and more slotted on a personal level would be in pink, and then because I have multiple jobs if I'm managing a day with my online business or I also work at a reggio pre k supporting three year olds with mindfulness it brings me lots of joy a couple days a week that will tend to be a different color as well once again, my brain can look down. And it will quickly retract the information.
That is not just an ADHD. It's not because I literally, if I were to show you mine, you don't see anything to do with my design business. Crystal Ink. It's yellow. Anything to do personal is pink.
Really cool.
And myLife eEspecially I have blue. I'm a part of Women Belong networking. So there's special events there. Those are purple.
It cues your brain to recognize, like we talked about the digital calendars. My kids, my family has. We share calendars and they have their own color. So I think it's not just an ADHD brain thing.
It's a brain thing.
Yeah, it is a brain thing.
And you know, the other thing that I would say as well, that was a big thing that I had to add into these, is I had to overestimate time.
So if you are, ADHD ers are notorious for being late we have time blindness.
So this is the other thing, ADHD also is the most annoying traits a human being can have. And I say that kindly.
I am someone who is always on time. Always on time. If not early.
And as are all of my best friends. That's the crazy thing. And just to put it into context, all of my closest relationships, which you guys probably wouldn't believe this for somebody who is such an advocate for community building. All my closest long-term relationships are one.
It's that pendulum swing, right? Yeah. I need to be around a lot of people boisterous, but then it's one-on-one conversations with really amazing and epic humans.
But, I actually in my planner, have to prove to myself that I don't have as much time as I think because driving to my doctor's office today, because it's in Walding, is gonna take a half an hour. So I actually have to make the appointment if the appointment's at 1:00. I have to pretend the appointment's at 12:30.
Yeah, because my brain will remember whatever quotation time it is, which includes time. I need to leave.
That's in my car. Well, sir, I share a car with my husband. I changed the clock. So it's five minutes. Cause he's always late.
Yeah. Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely. That is, that is an amazing thing.
So there, you have a whole list and I am on mylifeplanners.ca/liztizzard. I have a special page just for Liz.
Yeah! Our ADHD toolkit!
That's right. She's going to have her own ADHD toolkit that she can check out. The link is also in the show notes. And yeah, so this is the third of all the episodes and then we have our final one.
And we just want to talk about, you know, what it feels to have every day is a win. So we will see you then.
So, if you're interested in checking out the MyLife tools, as well as Liz's ADHD toolkit, visit mylifeplanners.ca/liztizzard. And also learn more about a special affiliate promotion we have.
So, thank you so much for listening to Plan for Wonder. Remember, the space you take up in the world matters to me, but even more importantly, you matter the most in your own life.
