October 28, 2025 • 47 mins
Why you freeze when it’s time to start (and how to finally get unstuck).
Today I'm unpacking the difference between procrastination and paralysis -- and what’s really going on in your ADHD brain when you can’t make yourself begin.
I’ll take you inside a real coaching session where we:
🔥 unpacked what was really going on beneath that frozen, “I just can’t start” moment
🔥 uncovered small shifts that helped my client (and could help you) get moving again without the guilt or shame.
If you’ve ever sat down to write progress reports, opened your laptop, and just stared at the screen, frozen, this one’s for you.
What You’ll Learn
- The real difference between procrastination and paralysis and why it matters.
- How to spot when your executive functioning (task initiation, emotional regulation, response inhibition, etc) is the real culprit.
- Why “just start” is the least helpful advice for ADHD brains — and what actually helps instead.
- How I coached my client “Beth” through a documentation spiral (and how you can use the same process).
- A few small but powerful ways to pause, regulate, and move forward — even when your brain wants to bail.
If This Resonates…
If this hit home, I’d love to help you work through your own version of “I just can’t start.”
🗓 Book a free 1:1 consult — we’ll figure out what’s really keeping you stuck and how to work with your brain, not against it.
Resources & Links
📌 Book a free 1:1 consult
🎧 Related Episodes:
Ep. 45 - Conquering Procrastination: Strategies for SLPs
Ep. 62 - Overcome Procrastination With This Simple Strategy
Ep. 120 - Executive Functioning and Productivity: What Every SLP Needs to Know
Ep. 121 - Why Documentation Feels Impossible (and What to Do About It)
Ep. 122 - The ADHD Burnout Cycle (and How to Break It)
👥 Join the FB group → SLP Support Group
📝 Download the ADHD-friendly handout that goes with this episode
Keywords
ADHD paralysis, procrastination vs paralysis, overwhelmed SLP, executive dysfunction, ADHD documentation tips, time management for SLPs, ADHD productivity coaching, neurodiversity and work
Progress over perfection, always.
💥 Psst!! I'm hosting a free webinar and I want you there! Join me on Tuesday 12/16/2025 at 8 PM ET for Work-Life Balance for SLPs With ADHD. Get the details here.
To find out how I can help you improve your work-life balance, click here.
Come join the SLP Support Group on Facebook for more tips and tricks!
Learn more about Theresa Harp Coaching here.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Theresa Harp (00:28):
Hey podcast listeners.
Welcome back to the show.
I am laughing to myself, I waslaughing before I started to hit
record because I am in themiddle of recording and, um,
batch recording some episodesabout A DHD for the month of
(00:49):
October, a DHD awareness month,and I planned these episodes
out.
Um, maybe like a month or twoago and put a lot of thought
into it.
Got really excited about the,what the topics were gonna be.
And then this morning when itwas time to sit down and prep
(01:12):
for the podcast recordings, Iwas like, where the heck is my.
Schedule, like where, where ismy schedule of episodes of
episode topics and what is thetopic I'm supposed to be
recording today?
And I couldn't find it,couldn't figure out where it
was.
I didn't spend very long at alllooking for it.
I was like, I actually hadanother tab open, shocker, that
(01:35):
had a list of 50 episode topicsrelated to A DHD and SLPs and
you know, 50 solid topics thatI'd already come up with that
list.
And so I said, okay, I'll justpick from one of these and.
Was not feeling inspired aboutany of them.
(01:56):
So got on the horn with, uh,Chad, GBT, my thinking partner,
and figured out what I actuallywas motivated to talk about.
Came downstairs to hit record.
Decided to tidy up my office alittle bit 'cause it was pretty
cluttered.
And lo and behold, as I wasdecluttering and tidying, I
(02:17):
found the schedule.
I had made months ago with theoriginal A DHD topics.
So if that is not on brand, Idon't know what is.
I like, this is, ugh, this ishilarious.
And.
It would be very easy, by theway, to get stuck in imposter
(02:40):
syndrome with that.
Like, who am I?
And this is what I would, wouldhave done in the past.
Like who am I to here I amrecording podcast episodes that
are supposed to be helpful forSLPs with A DHD, and give tips
and strategies and value, and Ican't even find the GD schedule
that I created months ago.
(03:01):
So who the hell am I to bedoing this?
But I have worked through that,and that's not even.
That thought doesn't even entermy mind.
It didn't enter my mind todayanyway.
It was like, oh yeah, this isvery much confirmation that I am
talking about exactly what I ammeant to be talking about.
And I am the person who ismeant to be talking about this
(03:22):
topic because I can relate.
I can so relate.
And my diagnosis of A DHD camewhen I was an adult a few years
ago, and.
Today's podcast episode is notabout that journey, but I at
some point maybe will record anepisode just kind of sharing
(03:45):
what that was like for me andwhat I learned and some of the
challenges that I faced when Igot that diagnosis.
And because I haven't reallytalked about that on the
podcast, and I think it would beinteresting.
To hear.
I wasn't ready to talk aboutthat I think for a while because
(04:07):
it was still, I was like stillsort of in it, like processing
it and working through it, andnow I feel like I am a bit more
on the other side, like lessemotionally attached to it and a
little bit more objective.
So.
I think that will be aninteresting podcast episode for
(04:29):
the future.
But for today's episode, I'mtalking about procrastination
versus paralysis, and I don'tknow what the title is gonna be
yet.
I, I know what I wanna say andwhat I wanna talk about, but I,
I don't really know how thisepisode is gonna be titled or
described in the show notes.
I figure those things out afterI do the recording because I
(04:51):
don't.
I often go off script or likedon't follow my outline or my
plan.
And I also don't know when thisis gonna come out, but it will
be coming out sometime duringthe month of October, 2025.
And I do wanna acknowledge thatI have recorded episodes about
procrastination in the past.
I will link to those in theshow notes in case you wanna
(05:13):
hear more about this topic.
But what I wanna do today isshare a story from a client.
You know, totally anonymous.
I've changed information and,you know, obviously wanna
protect privacy and all of that.
But I wanna share a, a coachingscenario that has come up as
(05:34):
you, as you probably know, Icoach other SLPs and, and health
practitioners and providers ontime management work-life
balance, especially through aNeurodiverse lens.
And I get.
This topic so much like someflavor of this topic so often,
(05:56):
and it's funny, like it comes upso much that I, you would think
that would be indication totalk about it.
And usually it is whensomething's coming up a lot in
coaching sessions.
I usually record a podcastepisode on this, but for
whatever reason I was kind ofunder the assumption.
(06:16):
Which is always a red flag forme when I hear that word right.
I was under the assumption, themistaken assumption, misguided
assumption that procrastinationand paralysis are.
Clearly different for everyone.
Everyone understands thedifference and they know and
understand how their A DHD isshowing up, and that is such a
(06:39):
bogus, I don't know why, I don'tknow why I was thinking that,
because it's not, it comes upall the time and this is clearly
something that a lot of you arestruggling with.
This is something that I havestruggled with, so.
That is my goal for today.
I am gonna kind of tell youthis through the lens of a
client, a client story, and thenI'm gonna give you some tips of
(07:00):
how I coached her and what,what I offered.
So you kind of have an idea oflike what coaching looks like
too and how we, or how I do itfrom a, an executive functioning
standpoint.
Okay.
So let's, this is, let'simagine we have Beth, okay.
Client, she's an SLP.
(07:22):
She works in, it doesn't matterwhat setting, but I guess we'll
say for this, uh, story, she,let's say that she works in a
school setting and she is a, anongoing client of mine who was
came to the coaching sessionwith the topic of struggling to
(07:42):
write overdue progress reports.
Sound familiar?
We've all been there, right?
And in general, what I, what Ido with my coaching clients is
we start the session with aspecific topic that they have in
mind, but we're looking at howthat topic relates to or aligns
(08:04):
with their bigger goals or goalsthat we set together when we
first started working togetheras coach and client.
So Beth's.
One of Beth's overarchinglong-term goal, long-term, in
this case, six months, was thatshe wanted to feel, well, there
(08:24):
was two.
Okay.
So I'm trying to, trying tofocus as much as I can, as much
as my A DHD brain can focus andnot give you all the unnecessary
details like I'm basicallydoing right now as I'm saying
this out loud.
So she had this goal of.
I'll just say being more timelywith getting her documentation
(08:45):
done, getting reports, progressreports, and evaluation reports
completed and submitted on time.
Okay.
And we'll just leave it atthat.
So her topic was, her topic forthis session was very relevant
to her overarching goal.
By the way, we, when.
(09:05):
In terms of that goal, thatoverarching goal of being more
timely, we definitely don'twrite it that way.
Like I work that out in a, in amore specific way with my
coaching clients, and at somepoint, sooner or later we get to
the place where the goals willoften shift from for like, for
(09:30):
example, in this case,submitting documentation on time
to.
Feeling less stressed aboutsubmitting documentation on time
or being more, uh, forgivingand giving yourself more grace
with getting documentation donein a timely fashion.
(09:50):
So anyway, just wanted to throwthat out there because I don't
want anyone listening to thinkthat the way that I coach and
what I do is about how to getmore done in less time.
That's.
That might be a benefit of ourcoaching, but for me and for my
coaching clients, that is notthe driving force.
(10:11):
That's not the, that's not thegoal.
That's a bonus.
Okay.
Anyway.
She had four overdue progressreports and she kept, she told
me that she kept opening hercomputer and then she would, you
know, open up different filesand then she'd like, walk away
(10:31):
or she'd freeze.
She said sometimes she wouldknow that she had to go sit down
to the computer and startworking on it.
But then next thing you know,she's like, like I was doing
earlier today.
Clearing her desk off or, youknow, filing papers, or all of a
sudden she's doing the load ofdishes in the sink that she'd
(10:53):
been ignoring or putting off orokay with, you know, for the
past hour, you know, number ofhours.
So.
She was having troubleinitiating the tasks and getting
them done.
The tasks being the four, thefour reports, and then it leads
to this spiral, this spiral, a,a shame spiral.
(11:15):
What's wrong with me?
I, and I'm paraphrasing here,but like, what?
Why can't I do this?
I've been in SLP for forever.
Why is this so hard?
Why?
I just want to get these done.
And I don't know, like, what amI doing wrong?
Why is this so difficult?
I'm so overwhelmed, I don'teven know where to start.
(11:36):
And then it becomes this likeinternal, this internalized
self-concept of I'm a crappySLP, I'm a crappy employee, I'm
a crappy colleague.
Right?
I want to do it, but I, it's asif I literally cannot start.
(11:56):
If you're thinking that soundsvery familiar, or, oh yeah, that
sounds a lot like me.
I need you to hear this.
There's nothing wrong with you.
You are not a bad SLP.
You are not lazy.
You are not unprofessional.
(12:16):
You are not irresponsible,okay?
You're just stuck.
That is a big difference.
And I want to talk about how toget you unstuck.
Okay?
So one of the things that we dois Beth said, I, I will say,
(12:41):
okay, so this is your topic.
What do you wanna walk awaywith at the end of this hour?
So we've got an hour together.
What, like, what do you wannawalk away with?
I just leave it very open-endedand she said she wanted to walk
away with some strategies thatshe could use to help her the
(13:03):
next time she needs to or triesto get going on reports and
can't.
So that was our sort ofspecific focus.
Okay.
And in within this coachingsession, one of the things.
Dug into is what's actuallygoing on here, because if we
(13:24):
don't know what is underneaththe surface, it can be really
difficult.
To use strategies that aregoing to be effective, and it
can also be really difficult tohelp clients feel better,
because really that's what Bethwants.
It's not just that she wants toget the reports done, right?
(13:46):
Yeah, you wanna get yourreports done, but really what
you wanna do is feel better.
You wanna feel better.
You wanna feel better as aperson, you wanna feel better as
an SLP, you wanna feel betterwith having more time with your
family and being more present.
You wanna feel like you havemore freedom in your day.
You wanna feel better, okay?
(14:06):
And if you want to feel better,we have to look at how you're
feeling now and what you'rethinking now.
So those are some of the thingsthat we weaved.
We weaved into that.
We're woven into this coachingsession.
So when we explore what wasactually going on, and Beth, I
should have led with this,hopefully you knew Beth has a
DHD.
Okay.
(14:26):
So we look at what is going onhere, and one of the questions
that I'll often ask coachingclients is, what role is your A
DHD playing here?
How is your D showing up now?
Some clients come to, and theyhave a pretty good
understanding.
A DHD, how it affects them, howit shows up, what it looks like
(14:50):
for them and others are earlieron in this journey.
And they have less awareness,less understanding.
And so, you know, this is gonnalook different the way the co
the coaching questions that Iask are gonna look very
different depending upon wherethe client is in their journey.
Just like you, you know, cateryour, or customize your
(15:10):
intervention and your.
You know how, what you sharewith your clients and what
information you share and howyou share it, you cater that
according to where your clientis, right?
Or your patient, or yourstudent, however you refer to
the people that you work with asan SLP, same thing.
Okay?
So Beth has a a pretty solidunderstanding of how the
(15:35):
A-A-D-H-D affects her.
So we had the then ability toreally get very specific with
this.
So how is your A DHD showingup?
And when she thought about thatquestion, she said, well, I
know that, like she mentionedhow, um.
(15:57):
Like with a DHD, you can'tfocus on one thing.
So she focused, she opens upone thing and then she would
shift over to another thing andthen she would think of
something else and she would godo that.
And so she was just beboppingaround to different tasks.
So, okay.
Sustained attention is impactedhere.
(16:19):
Heard, but I challenged her alittle bit.
Before you can get even intoaction, right before you can
before or before you can getinto the sustained attention you
have to get into action and notjust any action, but.
(16:40):
The action around the task thatyou are setting out to
complete.
So task initiation is one ofthe executive functioning
skills, and it's one that, ofcourse is affected by A DHD.
So we looked at, okay, we'reseeing some challenges with task
(17:01):
initiation, right?
Initiating the thing thatyou're setting out to do.
So we can't just.
Jump to strategizing onsustained attention when we're
not getting our attention andshining our attention in the
direction where we want it togo.
Okay, so we're sort of backingup a few steps and you know,
(17:25):
we've identified that taskinitiation is a piece of this
puzzle that we're going to beprobably working through
together.
Another piece of this.
In terms of executivefunctioning skills is response
inhibition, inhibition.
So not only because these othese.
(17:45):
Executive functioning skills,as I'm sure you know, they
overlap, right?
We can't always separate themout very cleanly and distinctly,
and that's okay.
We don't have to.
But in this case, what I wasalso hearing was some challenges
with response inhibitionbecause Beth said that when she
sits down and she opens up thetab, she remembers something
(18:07):
else she needs to do and she'sall of a sudden going to do it.
Okay.
It's just like a re a response,a reaction.
She's off onto the thing thatshe's thought of.
Okay.
Like I said, bebopping aroundor playing whack-a-mole, I'll
often describe it as, now thisis, there's the, it's not that.
(18:27):
This is shameful.
Okay?
This is like, I wanna be super,excuse me, super clear here.
This is not about judgment.
This is not about shame.
This is not about, you're doingit wrong.
This is about, this is about,let's figure out what pieces are
at play here.
Then what we wanna do aboutthem.
Okay.
So task initiation, responseinhibition, and sustained
(18:53):
attention.
Okay.
We also looked at, uh, planningand prioritization.
Okay.
So in order for Beth to.
Work, start working on thesereports.
In her mind, she's sitting downwith the thought of, I have
(19:15):
four progress reports to write.
So now her brain is trying todecide, which 1:00 AM I starting
with?
Have you ever gotten stuck atthat point?
Like, I've got this list ofthings to do, I don't know which
one is most important.
Prioritization.
Prioritization comes up.
(19:36):
All the time.
So figuring out how toprioritize, where to start, and
then planning, because let's saywe work through the
prioritization together, andthen she's decided which report
of the four she's going to bebegin with.
If she goes to start the task,and let's say we've worked
(19:59):
through task initiation, ifshe's just jumping right in
without any.
Prep or planning the A DHDbrain is gonna get lost.
It's a, it's not setting thebrain up for success, because
(20:19):
think about it.
Where do you, what materials doyou need to write this report?
Where can you find thosematerials?
I mean, those two questionsright there are huge.
How many times have you starteda task before you've gotten
what you need in order to get itdone?
And then you go to start it andyou're like, oh, crap, I
(20:40):
needed, I forgot.
I need this.
And then you're trying to finda said item, and as you're
trying to find said item, yourresponse inhibition isn't
inhibiting.
So now you're seeing otherthings and bebopping around and
you forget where you were.
Right?
So we need to also look at theplanning.
What's going to happen?
(21:02):
What materials do you need?
Where do you find thosematerials?
And then what is it that you'regoing to do?
So sometimes we think that ourbrain, because we're skilled
clinicians who have written somany reports, we should be able
to just crank it out veryquickly, but.
The cognitive load, especiallyfor a neurodivergent brain is
(21:26):
intense because you've got amillion other tabs open in your
mind, and now you're asking yourbrain to execute on a task that
is pretty heavy in terms of thecognitive load, and you're just
expecting your brain to be ableto recall.
(21:49):
Where all the information isand how to write it and, and how
to get going, right?
That's, that typically onlyhappens on a unicorn day, on a
day with rainbows andbutterflies, where everything is
just going according to planand your environment just
happens to be set up for successand your meds are working and
(22:10):
kicked in if you are onmedication, like all the right
things are in place, but that'snot the reality.
So.
Why not put some supports inplace to make things easier?
Okay.
And Beth also noticed, I couldnotice actually as Beth was
(22:34):
talking, as we're talkingthrough this and coaching on it,
I can see.
The stress.
I can see the stress on herface.
I can see the body languageshift.
She's rubbing her neck and hershoulders.
She is, you know, like got herhands on her, like on her eyes
and sort of like rubbing herface.
I can see the tension that hascome over her simply by talking
(22:59):
about this.
Now, does that mean thatanything has gone wrong?
No.
But emotional regulation.
Is a big piece of the executivefunctioning framework that
plays a role here.
And we think that we can justignore so many of us and we
could just ignore the stress,ignore what's happening in our
(23:22):
mind and in our body, because wedon't have time for that.
We gotta get a report done.
So we try to bulldoze our waythrough.
But spoiler alert.
The more that we actually pauseand pay attention to what's
happening in our body physicallyand emotionally when we're in a
stressful situation or anysituation, the more that we give
(23:45):
that attention, the easier itis to move through it, because
the amygdala, which is likesending you into that fight or
flight or fawn response, is nowable to sort of quiet and
regulate itself so that you'reable.
To start to to get emotionallyregulated, self-regulated, and
(24:07):
take action.
So instead of just kind ofstepping over that, we paused
for a minute and I pointed itout and just looked at how can
we help you feel?
Calm and regulated here becauseif you, if this is what's
happening in your body rightnow, when we're talking about
doing the task, I am sure thatit's happening when you're
(24:31):
trying to do the task andprobably at a higher level, at a
stronger level.
And for the neurodivergentbrain, when the self-regulation
is not there, when we aredysregulated, it is so much
harder to use our executivefunctioning skills quickly,
(24:54):
efficiently, and effectively.
Okay, so.
That is another piece of thispuzzle for Beth.
Okay.
Now there's lots of otherelements to this and one of the
challenges as a coach and as acoach who is neurodivergent, is
getting stuck in the weeds.
'cause I'll see and hear somany things and I'll be taking
(25:16):
notes and I'll be making note ofthings of, of stuff that we
could.
Coach on.
It's kind of like when you'rein a speech session and you have
your plan, but then you noticesomething that your client is
doing that's an area of need andyou sort of wanna like, Ooh,
this is a great opportunity totarget this skill.
It wasn't in the plan.
And I wanna hit this and Iwanna go there and I wanna touch
(25:37):
on this.
Um, but.
And you can, it's notnecessarily that you can do
that, but hello squirrel brain,right?
So we have to sort of, I likepartner with my clients and
figure out, okay, which of thesethings do you feel like would
make the biggest difference?
Or which is kind of gettingyour attention the most.
(25:57):
Let's start there, right?
Because look, this is exactlylike what's happening.
In us, in for Beth when she'strying to get a task done is.
She's trying to focus on onething, but the brain is going in
a million different directions.
That's essentially what's sortof coming up in a coaching
session as well, right?
(26:18):
We're pulling out all theselittle like scarves in the box,
like I'm picturing a little boxwith like the colored
handkerchiefs that like amagician would just kind of pull
out and we're pulling out thisone and this one, and it just
keeps on coming, right?
We gotta pick which scarf orscarves are the most colorful,
the most.
Um, bold and the ones that aregonna make the biggest
(26:40):
difference and just start there.
Okay.
All right, so we've kind ofidentified some of the pieces
that are going on with thissituation with getting reports
done, so this is a greatopportunity for you to pause.
I talk with my clients all thetime.
(27:02):
About a pause, the power of thepause, the power of the pause,
even just a micro pause.
So pausing because in thatpause, that moment between the
pause and the action, thatmoment in between is where the
executive functioning skillscome.
(27:24):
They turn on, they, they comeinto play.
Like that's when the executivefunctioning skills execute.
But if we.
As neurodivergent brains if,and people, if we don't pause
long enough before takingaction, we miss that opportunity
(27:44):
for the executive functioningskills to do what they need to
do.
So we pause and I want you topause and think about what.
Are you hearing in this episodethat is landing for you?
What's resonating?
What isn't resonating?
What's striking, uh, you know,kind of evoking a response from
(28:06):
you?
That's information and that'sgonna help you to notice where
do you wanna direct yourattention?
What are the pieces within thispodcast episode that you can
take?
Not all of them, one or twothat you can take and start
digging in and working on thoseareas to get some small wins
(28:28):
because it's the small wins thatlead to the big long term
success.
Okay, so within our coachingsession, we slowed it down.
We worked on first emotionallyregulating.
Her, her body, her mind, andgetting to a place where she was
(28:53):
more regulated so that shecould access the logical part of
her brain and really get themost out of the things that we
were coaching on instead ofbeing stuck in a shame spiral.
So we did some deep breathing,taking some deep breaths.
One of my favorite strategiesfor regulation is.
(29:16):
Simple breathing in and out.
But when I breathe in and whenI breathe out, breathing in a
second or two longer andbreathing out a second or two
longer, so the inhale isextended and the exhale is
extended, and the researchsupports the benefit of this as
a strategy and being moreeffective in slowing down your
(29:38):
nervous system and reallyhelping you to regulate.
Okay, so taking some deepbreaths, pausing.
And looking at what micro stepswe can take.
Okay.
So when I was, when I kind of,we got her, we got the
(29:59):
regulation piece in play andpointing out, notice how now
that you're feeling calmer, Ican see it in your body
language.
I can see it on your face.
I can see it.
Hear it in your voice.
You can probably hear it in myvoice.
I am a little bit moreregulated now.
Right.
So now that you are regulated,where do you wanna start?
(30:23):
You had said that your coachingtopic was the thing that you
wanted to walk away with, wassome strategies that you could
use when you feel stuck.
So we've talked about some ofthe executive functioning skills
at play.
Where do you wanna go next?
She said, well, I know what myso-and-so would do.
(30:47):
They would tell me like, I knowwhat they, what people would
tell me, what my friend or myspouse or whoever would tell me.
They would say, just start.
And I said, okay.
Yes.
We hear that a lot, right?
People who are, who have a DHDwill often hear from others.
(31:08):
Just do it like what is wrong?
Like just start all the timethat you've been sitting here
talking about the task, whiningabout the task, complaining
about the task.
You could have just started it.
It's gonna have been done bynow.
Right.
Well, that's not very helpful.
If we could just start, wewould.
That is true for most.
(31:29):
In most cases for someone witha DHD, if it is not a task that
is interesting, exciting,motivating, stimulating, holds
the attention.
It is really hard to start.
That's why you'll seeinconsistencies in our focus.
You'll see some hyper-focuswhere certain things we can
(31:53):
focus.
For like days at a time, youcan just keep on going right
down that rabbit hole and stay,stay, stay.
And then other things we can'teven initiate.
It's inconsistent, right?
Well, it depends on, like welook at the patterns.
What kinds of tasks are youunable to start?
Well, one pattern is that it'sthe ones that are hard.
(32:16):
Another pattern is it's theones that aren't motivating.
They aren't exciting.
Okay.
They're not giving us thatdopamine.
So I said, okay.
I heard someone else would tellyou to just start, but what are
you gonna say?
Like, what is what?
You know your brain best, youknow you.
(32:38):
Where do you want to start interms of how to help you get
into action?
I said, what is one of thebiggest struggles, like we've
talked about all these steps.
All these executive functioningskills at play, which one feels
the heaviest for you?
(32:59):
And she said, knowing where tostart, she said, I can get
myself to the point where I'llopen up the file.
I'll open up that patient orthat student's file, but then I
don't know where to start.
(33:20):
She's like, I'll even open upan old template or I'll open up,
um, the previous report forthat client.
For that student.
But then I don't know where tostart.
So one of the things that wedid right was figure out, well,
(33:42):
let's see what.
You what are the steps tostarting?
You've already identified thatone step is to open up that
file.
Okay.
Now, you've also identifiedthat the next step isn't always
clear because sometimes you openup the previous report,
sometimes you open up thetemplate, sometimes you open up
(34:06):
a report from a similar student.
So we've now, we now have likethree different options for step
two.
And that can feel reallyoverwhelming for the A DHD brain
especially.
So decision fatigue here.
Prioritization is coming uphere.
Okay, so let's figure outwhat's the path of least
resistance.
(34:26):
And as we were coachingthrough, Beth ultimately came to
the realization that it's gonnabe different depending upon the
student.
Sometimes it's a new student.
She doesn't have a formerreport from that student that
she could pull up.
Sometimes it is a new tool thatshe's used, a new assessment
(34:49):
tool that she's used that shedoesn't have a template for.
Okay.
So what we started doing, asshe's talking, I'm writing down
these steps and these questionsand giving her some specific
concrete.
If then statements that she canlook at when she goes to sit
(35:11):
down to write a, a progressreport to help her figure out
which step to take next.
So I.
Is this, you know, and justthose questions that I just kind
of pointed out, or thosefactors that I just pointed out,
is this a student, do I have aformer report, a previous report
for this student?
Is this a student who issimilar to another student?
(35:33):
Like figuring out what her, howher brain tries to solve the
problem.
And that might be differentthan the way your brain solves
the problem.
Like for example, I had anotherclient who would.
Try to go and pull up a pastreport from a similar client,
(35:54):
and what we realized in coachingwas that actually became more
overwhelming for her brain.
She thought it was saving hertime because she didn't then
have blank page syndrome.
But what actually happened wasthen she had so much information
and her brain was getting lostin trying to weed out what fit
and what didn't.
And where, what she changedalready and what she hadn't
(36:16):
changed and where she left off.
So we do this veryindividualized, figuring out
what is going to be best foryour brain, the way that your
brain works, the way that yourbrain processes information.
And so we came up with a stepby step.
Like a, um, a workflow or whatwe'll say, um, what my husband
(36:37):
will say in the military SOPStandard Operating procedure.
You know, basically just whatthe heck are you going to do
step by step, outlining it.
Now, this may seem unnecessary.
This may seem.
Silly or juvenile.
This may seem like it's takingmore time than you have, right?
(37:00):
I hear these ops, theseobjections all the time.
I don't have time to sit hereand like plan out my steps.
Are you kidding?
I've got four reports to write.
I have to just write thereports.
But sometimes if you investfive, 10 minutes in the planning
piece and the prep piece, youcan save 20.
(37:21):
30 plus minutes on the backendwhen you go to actually execute
the task.
It's like investing money inthe stock market.
You invest some money andhopefully that stock hits and
you've gained interest.
Right?
Same thing here.
(37:41):
So we're investing some timenow and we're going to gain time
on the backend.
Okay.
Now, it's also easy for the ADHD brain to get stuck in this
step.
Like, okay, I'm here.
I'm with you.
Theres Theresa.
We are going to create thisstep-by-step piece, but it's
(38:04):
very easy for a neurodivergentbrain to get overwhelmed in
trying to outline those stepsbecause.
You might think, oh, there's somany, and Well, I don't know.
I'm having trouble thinking andblah, blah, blah.
That is the power of coaching,because I could hear Beth rattle
it off verbally, like she'sjust talking through what she
would do, and I am sitting herewriting it out, listening,
(38:27):
noticing patterns, listening forthings that she's saying, oh,
she's telling me as she'sdescribing what information she
goes to find.
She's telling me, oh yeah, Ilook for the file that has the
purple tag on it.
Right?
So I am noticing that andpicking up on, okay, visual
(38:49):
processing here.
She benefits from those, thatvisual input.
We're gonna work that into ourstrategies, right?
So this is the stuff that acoach listens for and observes,
and then brings to her attentionto see how we can use that.
To find a, a, a workflow, asystem, an SOP that works for
(39:11):
Beth's brain, not a system thatworks for the Pinterest picture.
Perfect brain that we see onthe highlight reels that are not
very realistic for most of usin life.
Okay, so I'm listening to her.
We outline those steps.
(39:32):
And then, um, once we had thosesteps, I share those with her.
We figure out how, like we'representing them on the paper.
Like now she has this documentthat has the step-by-step
process for how to start thereport, like what she has to do.
And we together format thedocument so that she can look at
(39:55):
it and within seconds, seeexactly what she needs to do.
I had a client once tell methat she said she thinks in.
I think she said she, like shethinks in pictures, so she'll
read something and then she willvisualize an image and then
she'll refer back to like,she'll imprint that image and
(40:15):
use that image to support herworking memory and to help her,
you know, recall thatinformation later.
I do do this myself.
I noticed when I was making agrocery list, I have a grocery
list that repeats.
That's just a.
Repeating, whatever.
I have a grocery list that justhad the words on it and my
brain would get overwhelmed.
So I started putting in theemojis of what the items were on
(40:39):
the list, and I can't tell youhow much easier it was for me to
get the grocery shopping done.
Seems so juvenile, right?
Seems so silly.
But it works, so why not useit?
Okay, so we've now formatted itin a way that works for Beth
Sprain, and then we're drawing.
Observations and, and learningfrom this like, okay, Beth, what
(41:01):
are you learning from doingthis?
What are you noticing?
What about this is getting youexcited?
What about it seems helpful?
Because that's information thatwe can utilize and put in to
future.
Obsessions future strategies.
Right now, if Beth can't noticeall of those things, or notice
(41:24):
if she's like in the weeds andnot able to, you know, tap into
the meta cognition, which by theway is an executive functioning
skill.
So those with the A DHDstruggle with that.
If she is struggling with that,that's what I'm here for.
I've been listening for allthose things so I can point them
out if she's not noticing.
I can also fill in the gaps forwhat I'm noticing and see if
(41:48):
they resonate with her.
Just because I notice itdoesn't mean it's accurate.
Doesn't mean it lands.
Okay.
But this is an example of how,of what the, that coaching
partnership will look like.
Okay.
So now she has something clear,specific and built for her
brain.
And then we circle back.
Beth, you had said at the startof this session, you wanted
(42:11):
some clear strategies to helpyou get started on your progress
reports.
Do you think we've gottenthere?
So checking in to make surethat she has what she needed,
what she wanted to walk awaywith, did we meet that outcome?
Right.
And we did.
She felt like she had a goodplace to start.
(42:32):
Did we hit every executivefunctioning skill on there?
No, I mean they're all interintertwined in there, but we
didn't explicitly coach on allof them because we don't need to
time management, right?
We are prioritizing what'sgonna make the biggest
difference.
That's what we coached on, sothat's where we started.
Now the hypothesis is thathaving that list, having that
(42:58):
SOP will help Beth initiate thetask.
That's the hypothesis.
So then what Beth agreed to dois go out and test it.
Okay, Beth, this week you'regonna go out, you're gonna test
it out, see what happens.
Let's notice what about itworked?
What about it didn't work?
(43:19):
What new observations do youhave?
What did you learn?
What do we wanna do differentlygoing forward?
Sometimes these, thesestrategies are a total flop.
It's rare, but sometimes theyare, and that's okay.
That's information.
'cause we're like, oh, okay.
Why was it a flop?
Was it the strategy or was itthe scenario and the
(43:42):
circumstances?
Was it the thinking about thestrategy?
Like let's kind of figure thatout together.
Other times it's the strategyitself that was an issue.
Right?
Other times like sometimes theyjust completely forget, like
Right.
You might just forget thatthat's what you're working on.
Well, that's information.
Because if that's happeninghere in coaching, that's gonna
(44:03):
happen other places too.
So how are we going to help youremember to remember what do we
need to do?
Okay.
Retrospective.
I'm sorry, prospective memory.
Prospective memory.
So that's another executivefunctioning skill.
So you can see hopefully howthese executive functioning
skills are woven into coaching.
Yes.
(44:24):
But also for you, even ifyou're not a coaching client or
you're not working with somebodyon these things, I want you to
hopefully walk away with adifferent perspective.
Why you might be putting offthat task, why you might be
quote unquote procrastinating.
(44:44):
It's not as simple as, I'm justchoosing not to do it, or I
should just start, I should justget it done.
It's not that simple.
If it were, everyone would begetting it done.
Okay, so.
If you want support with this,I always share a link in the
(45:08):
show notes to book a freeconsult.
I can walk you through how Ican help you.
And as always, make sure thatyou're in the SLP Support group
on Facebook.
It's a free Facebook groupwhere we just continue this
conversation.
We have Facebook Live trainingsand support, and just a
community where, and you don'thave to have A DHD by the way,
(45:29):
to be in this community, butjust a community of people,
like-minded people with alsowith different perspectives who
are really coming together withthe common goal of feeling more
in control of their time and intheir day.
Alright, that is it for thisepisode.
I believe this is gonna be thelast one in this series of A DHD
(45:50):
productivity coaching topicsfor SLPs, at least for this
month, but.
These topics, A DHD relatedtopics are woven into so many of
these podcast episodes, notjust during a DHD awareness
month.
So make sure you tune back herenext week, or click the link in
the show notes to catch somepast episodes on
(46:12):
procrastination.
All right, that's it.
This is a long one.
I hope you held in with me.
Oh, and one more thing I almostforgot.
I almost forgot.
Luckily, I had a reminder.
I just had to look at thereminder.
I have created a handout thatgoes with this podcast episode.
(46:35):
I'm trying to think of waysthat I can better support those
of you who are listening with.
Taking this information,learning it, and using it,
right?
So I've created a handout thatoutlines this information in a
very neurodivergent friendlyway.
There is a link in the shownotes.
All you gotta do is click thelink, enter your email address
(46:56):
where you want me to send it.
I will send it your way so thatyou have something you can
refer back to.
Alright, that is now itwrapping this up.
Thank you so much for stayingwith me and I will see you all
next week.
Bye.
Hey podcast listeners.
Welcome back to the show.
I am laughing to myself, I waslaughing before I started to hit
record because I am in themiddle of recording and, um,
batch recording some episodesabout A DHD for the month of
(00:49):
October, a DHD awareness month,and I planned these episodes
out.
Um, maybe like a month or twoago and put a lot of thought
into it.
Got really excited about the,what the topics were gonna be.
And then this morning when itwas time to sit down and prep
(01:12):
for the podcast recordings, Iwas like, where the heck is my.
Schedule, like where, where ismy schedule of episodes of
episode topics and what is thetopic I'm supposed to be
recording today?
And I couldn't find it,couldn't figure out where it
was.
I didn't spend very long at alllooking for it.
I was like, I actually hadanother tab open, shocker, that
(01:35):
had a list of 50 episode topicsrelated to A DHD and SLPs and
you know, 50 solid topics thatI'd already come up with that
list.
And so I said, okay, I'll justpick from one of these and.
Was not feeling inspired aboutany of them.
(01:56):
So got on the horn with, uh,Chad, GBT, my thinking partner,
and figured out what I actuallywas motivated to talk about.
Came downstairs to hit record.
Decided to tidy up my office alittle bit 'cause it was pretty
cluttered.
And lo and behold, as I wasdecluttering and tidying, I
(02:17):
found the schedule.
I had made months ago with theoriginal A DHD topics.
So if that is not on brand, Idon't know what is.
I like, this is, ugh, this ishilarious.
And.
It would be very easy, by theway, to get stuck in imposter
(02:40):
syndrome with that.
Like, who am I?
And this is what I would, wouldhave done in the past.
Like who am I to here I amrecording podcast episodes that
are supposed to be helpful forSLPs with A DHD, and give tips
and strategies and value, and Ican't even find the GD schedule
that I created months ago.
(03:01):
So who the hell am I to bedoing this?
But I have worked through that,and that's not even.
That thought doesn't even entermy mind.
It didn't enter my mind todayanyway.
It was like, oh yeah, this isvery much confirmation that I am
talking about exactly what I ammeant to be talking about.
And I am the person who ismeant to be talking about this
(03:22):
topic because I can relate.
I can so relate.
And my diagnosis of A DHD camewhen I was an adult a few years
ago, and.
Today's podcast episode is notabout that journey, but I at
some point maybe will record anepisode just kind of sharing
(03:45):
what that was like for me andwhat I learned and some of the
challenges that I faced when Igot that diagnosis.
And because I haven't reallytalked about that on the
podcast, and I think it would beinteresting.
To hear.
I wasn't ready to talk aboutthat I think for a while because
(04:07):
it was still, I was like stillsort of in it, like processing
it and working through it, andnow I feel like I am a bit more
on the other side, like lessemotionally attached to it and a
little bit more objective.
So.
I think that will be aninteresting podcast episode for
(04:29):
the future.
But for today's episode, I'mtalking about procrastination
versus paralysis, and I don'tknow what the title is gonna be
yet.
I, I know what I wanna say andwhat I wanna talk about, but I,
I don't really know how thisepisode is gonna be titled or
described in the show notes.
I figure those things out afterI do the recording because I
(04:51):
don't.
I often go off script or likedon't follow my outline or my
plan.
And I also don't know when thisis gonna come out, but it will
be coming out sometime duringthe month of October, 2025.
And I do wanna acknowledge thatI have recorded episodes about
procrastination in the past.
I will link to those in theshow notes in case you wanna
(05:13):
hear more about this topic.
But what I wanna do today isshare a story from a client.
You know, totally anonymous.
I've changed information and,you know, obviously wanna
protect privacy and all of that.
But I wanna share a, a coachingscenario that has come up as
(05:34):
you, as you probably know, Icoach other SLPs and, and health
practitioners and providers ontime management work-life
balance, especially through aNeurodiverse lens.
And I get.
This topic so much like someflavor of this topic so often,
(05:56):
and it's funny, like it comes upso much that I, you would think
that would be indication totalk about it.
And usually it is whensomething's coming up a lot in
coaching sessions.
I usually record a podcastepisode on this, but for
whatever reason I was kind ofunder the assumption.
(06:16):
Which is always a red flag forme when I hear that word right.
I was under the assumption, themistaken assumption, misguided
assumption that procrastinationand paralysis are.
Clearly different for everyone.
Everyone understands thedifference and they know and
understand how their A DHD isshowing up, and that is such a
(06:39):
bogus, I don't know why, I don'tknow why I was thinking that,
because it's not, it comes upall the time and this is clearly
something that a lot of you arestruggling with.
This is something that I havestruggled with, so.
That is my goal for today.
I am gonna kind of tell youthis through the lens of a
client, a client story, and thenI'm gonna give you some tips of
(07:00):
how I coached her and what,what I offered.
So you kind of have an idea oflike what coaching looks like
too and how we, or how I do itfrom a, an executive functioning
standpoint.
Okay.
So let's, this is, let'simagine we have Beth, okay.
Client, she's an SLP.
(07:22):
She works in, it doesn't matterwhat setting, but I guess we'll
say for this, uh, story, she,let's say that she works in a
school setting and she is a, anongoing client of mine who was
came to the coaching sessionwith the topic of struggling to
(07:42):
write overdue progress reports.
Sound familiar?
We've all been there, right?
And in general, what I, what Ido with my coaching clients is
we start the session with aspecific topic that they have in
mind, but we're looking at howthat topic relates to or aligns
(08:04):
with their bigger goals or goalsthat we set together when we
first started working togetheras coach and client.
So Beth's.
One of Beth's overarchinglong-term goal, long-term, in
this case, six months, was thatshe wanted to feel, well, there
(08:24):
was two.
Okay.
So I'm trying to, trying tofocus as much as I can, as much
as my A DHD brain can focus andnot give you all the unnecessary
details like I'm basicallydoing right now as I'm saying
this out loud.
So she had this goal of.
I'll just say being more timelywith getting her documentation
(08:45):
done, getting reports, progressreports, and evaluation reports
completed and submitted on time.
Okay.
And we'll just leave it atthat.
So her topic was, her topic forthis session was very relevant
to her overarching goal.
By the way, we, when.
(09:05):
In terms of that goal, thatoverarching goal of being more
timely, we definitely don'twrite it that way.
Like I work that out in a, in amore specific way with my
coaching clients, and at somepoint, sooner or later we get to
the place where the goals willoften shift from for like, for
(09:30):
example, in this case,submitting documentation on time
to.
Feeling less stressed aboutsubmitting documentation on time
or being more, uh, forgivingand giving yourself more grace
with getting documentation donein a timely fashion.
(09:50):
So anyway, just wanted to throwthat out there because I don't
want anyone listening to thinkthat the way that I coach and
what I do is about how to getmore done in less time.
That's.
That might be a benefit of ourcoaching, but for me and for my
coaching clients, that is notthe driving force.
(10:11):
That's not the, that's not thegoal.
That's a bonus.
Okay.
Anyway.
She had four overdue progressreports and she kept, she told
me that she kept opening hercomputer and then she would, you
know, open up different filesand then she'd like, walk away
(10:31):
or she'd freeze.
She said sometimes she wouldknow that she had to go sit down
to the computer and startworking on it.
But then next thing you know,she's like, like I was doing
earlier today.
Clearing her desk off or, youknow, filing papers, or all of a
sudden she's doing the load ofdishes in the sink that she'd
(10:53):
been ignoring or putting off orokay with, you know, for the
past hour, you know, number ofhours.
So.
She was having troubleinitiating the tasks and getting
them done.
The tasks being the four, thefour reports, and then it leads
to this spiral, this spiral, a,a shame spiral.
(11:15):
What's wrong with me?
I, and I'm paraphrasing here,but like, what?
Why can't I do this?
I've been in SLP for forever.
Why is this so hard?
Why?
I just want to get these done.
And I don't know, like, what amI doing wrong?
Why is this so difficult?
I'm so overwhelmed, I don'teven know where to start.
(11:36):
And then it becomes this likeinternal, this internalized
self-concept of I'm a crappySLP, I'm a crappy employee, I'm
a crappy colleague.
Right?
I want to do it, but I, it's asif I literally cannot start.
(11:56):
If you're thinking that soundsvery familiar, or, oh yeah, that
sounds a lot like me.
I need you to hear this.
There's nothing wrong with you.
You are not a bad SLP.
You are not lazy.
You are not unprofessional.
(12:16):
You are not irresponsible,okay?
You're just stuck.
That is a big difference.
And I want to talk about how toget you unstuck.
Okay?
So one of the things that we dois Beth said, I, I will say,
(12:41):
okay, so this is your topic.
What do you wanna walk awaywith at the end of this hour?
So we've got an hour together.
What, like, what do you wannawalk away with?
I just leave it very open-endedand she said she wanted to walk
away with some strategies thatshe could use to help her the
(13:03):
next time she needs to or triesto get going on reports and
can't.
So that was our sort ofspecific focus.
Okay.
And in within this coachingsession, one of the things.
Dug into is what's actuallygoing on here, because if we
(13:24):
don't know what is underneaththe surface, it can be really
difficult.
To use strategies that aregoing to be effective, and it
can also be really difficult tohelp clients feel better,
because really that's what Bethwants.
It's not just that she wants toget the reports done, right?
(13:46):
Yeah, you wanna get yourreports done, but really what
you wanna do is feel better.
You wanna feel better.
You wanna feel better as aperson, you wanna feel better as
an SLP, you wanna feel betterwith having more time with your
family and being more present.
You wanna feel like you havemore freedom in your day.
You wanna feel better, okay?
(14:06):
And if you want to feel better,we have to look at how you're
feeling now and what you'rethinking now.
So those are some of the thingsthat we weaved.
We weaved into that.
We're woven into this coachingsession.
So when we explore what wasactually going on, and Beth, I
should have led with this,hopefully you knew Beth has a
DHD.
Okay.
(14:26):
So we look at what is going onhere, and one of the questions
that I'll often ask coachingclients is, what role is your A
DHD playing here?
How is your D showing up now?
Some clients come to, and theyhave a pretty good
understanding.
A DHD, how it affects them, howit shows up, what it looks like
(14:50):
for them and others are earlieron in this journey.
And they have less awareness,less understanding.
And so, you know, this is gonnalook different the way the co
the coaching questions that Iask are gonna look very
different depending upon wherethe client is in their journey.
Just like you, you know, cateryour, or customize your
(15:10):
intervention and your.
You know how, what you sharewith your clients and what
information you share and howyou share it, you cater that
according to where your clientis, right?
Or your patient, or yourstudent, however you refer to
the people that you work with asan SLP, same thing.
Okay?
So Beth has a a pretty solidunderstanding of how the
(15:35):
A-A-D-H-D affects her.
So we had the then ability toreally get very specific with
this.
So how is your A DHD showingup?
And when she thought about thatquestion, she said, well, I
know that, like she mentionedhow, um.
(15:57):
Like with a DHD, you can'tfocus on one thing.
So she focused, she opens upone thing and then she would
shift over to another thing andthen she would think of
something else and she would godo that.
And so she was just beboppingaround to different tasks.
So, okay.
Sustained attention is impactedhere.
(16:19):
Heard, but I challenged her alittle bit.
Before you can get even intoaction, right before you can
before or before you can getinto the sustained attention you
have to get into action and notjust any action, but.
(16:40):
The action around the task thatyou are setting out to
complete.
So task initiation is one ofthe executive functioning
skills, and it's one that, ofcourse is affected by A DHD.
So we looked at, okay, we'reseeing some challenges with task
(17:01):
initiation, right?
Initiating the thing thatyou're setting out to do.
So we can't just.
Jump to strategizing onsustained attention when we're
not getting our attention andshining our attention in the
direction where we want it togo.
Okay, so we're sort of backingup a few steps and you know,
(17:25):
we've identified that taskinitiation is a piece of this
puzzle that we're going to beprobably working through
together.
Another piece of this.
In terms of executivefunctioning skills is response
inhibition, inhibition.
So not only because these othese.
(17:45):
Executive functioning skills,as I'm sure you know, they
overlap, right?
We can't always separate themout very cleanly and distinctly,
and that's okay.
We don't have to.
But in this case, what I wasalso hearing was some challenges
with response inhibitionbecause Beth said that when she
sits down and she opens up thetab, she remembers something
(18:07):
else she needs to do and she'sall of a sudden going to do it.
Okay.
It's just like a re a response,a reaction.
She's off onto the thing thatshe's thought of.
Okay.
Like I said, bebopping aroundor playing whack-a-mole, I'll
often describe it as, now thisis, there's the, it's not that.
(18:27):
This is shameful.
Okay?
This is like, I wanna be super,excuse me, super clear here.
This is not about judgment.
This is not about shame.
This is not about, you're doingit wrong.
This is about, this is about,let's figure out what pieces are
at play here.
Then what we wanna do aboutthem.
Okay.
So task initiation, responseinhibition, and sustained
(18:53):
attention.
Okay.
We also looked at, uh, planningand prioritization.
Okay.
So in order for Beth to.
Work, start working on thesereports.
In her mind, she's sitting downwith the thought of, I have
(19:15):
four progress reports to write.
So now her brain is trying todecide, which 1:00 AM I starting
with?
Have you ever gotten stuck atthat point?
Like, I've got this list ofthings to do, I don't know which
one is most important.
Prioritization.
Prioritization comes up.
(19:36):
All the time.
So figuring out how toprioritize, where to start, and
then planning, because let's saywe work through the
prioritization together, andthen she's decided which report
of the four she's going to bebegin with.
If she goes to start the task,and let's say we've worked
(19:59):
through task initiation, ifshe's just jumping right in
without any.
Prep or planning the A DHDbrain is gonna get lost.
It's a, it's not setting thebrain up for success, because
(20:19):
think about it.
Where do you, what materials doyou need to write this report?
Where can you find thosematerials?
I mean, those two questionsright there are huge.
How many times have you starteda task before you've gotten
what you need in order to get itdone?
And then you go to start it andyou're like, oh, crap, I
(20:40):
needed, I forgot.
I need this.
And then you're trying to finda said item, and as you're
trying to find said item, yourresponse inhibition isn't
inhibiting.
So now you're seeing otherthings and bebopping around and
you forget where you were.
Right?
So we need to also look at theplanning.
What's going to happen?
(21:02):
What materials do you need?
Where do you find thosematerials?
And then what is it that you'regoing to do?
So sometimes we think that ourbrain, because we're skilled
clinicians who have written somany reports, we should be able
to just crank it out veryquickly, but.
The cognitive load, especiallyfor a neurodivergent brain is
(21:26):
intense because you've got amillion other tabs open in your
mind, and now you're asking yourbrain to execute on a task that
is pretty heavy in terms of thecognitive load, and you're just
expecting your brain to be ableto recall.
(21:49):
Where all the information isand how to write it and, and how
to get going, right?
That's, that typically onlyhappens on a unicorn day, on a
day with rainbows andbutterflies, where everything is
just going according to planand your environment just
happens to be set up for successand your meds are working and
(22:10):
kicked in if you are onmedication, like all the right
things are in place, but that'snot the reality.
So.
Why not put some supports inplace to make things easier?
Okay.
And Beth also noticed, I couldnotice actually as Beth was
(22:34):
talking, as we're talkingthrough this and coaching on it,
I can see.
The stress.
I can see the stress on herface.
I can see the body languageshift.
She's rubbing her neck and hershoulders.
She is, you know, like got herhands on her, like on her eyes
and sort of like rubbing herface.
I can see the tension that hascome over her simply by talking
(22:59):
about this.
Now, does that mean thatanything has gone wrong?
No.
But emotional regulation.
Is a big piece of the executivefunctioning framework that
plays a role here.
And we think that we can justignore so many of us and we
could just ignore the stress,ignore what's happening in our
(23:22):
mind and in our body, because wedon't have time for that.
We gotta get a report done.
So we try to bulldoze our waythrough.
But spoiler alert.
The more that we actually pauseand pay attention to what's
happening in our body physicallyand emotionally when we're in a
stressful situation or anysituation, the more that we give
(23:45):
that attention, the easier itis to move through it, because
the amygdala, which is likesending you into that fight or
flight or fawn response, is nowable to sort of quiet and
regulate itself so that you'reable.
To start to to get emotionallyregulated, self-regulated, and
(24:07):
take action.
So instead of just kind ofstepping over that, we paused
for a minute and I pointed itout and just looked at how can
we help you feel?
Calm and regulated here becauseif you, if this is what's
happening in your body rightnow, when we're talking about
doing the task, I am sure thatit's happening when you're
(24:31):
trying to do the task andprobably at a higher level, at a
stronger level.
And for the neurodivergentbrain, when the self-regulation
is not there, when we aredysregulated, it is so much
harder to use our executivefunctioning skills quickly,
(24:54):
efficiently, and effectively.
Okay, so.
That is another piece of thispuzzle for Beth.
Okay.
Now there's lots of otherelements to this and one of the
challenges as a coach and as acoach who is neurodivergent, is
getting stuck in the weeds.
'cause I'll see and hear somany things and I'll be taking
(25:16):
notes and I'll be making note ofthings of, of stuff that we
could.
Coach on.
It's kind of like when you'rein a speech session and you have
your plan, but then you noticesomething that your client is
doing that's an area of need andyou sort of wanna like, Ooh,
this is a great opportunity totarget this skill.
It wasn't in the plan.
And I wanna hit this and Iwanna go there and I wanna touch
(25:37):
on this.
Um, but.
And you can, it's notnecessarily that you can do
that, but hello squirrel brain,right?
So we have to sort of, I likepartner with my clients and
figure out, okay, which of thesethings do you feel like would
make the biggest difference?
Or which is kind of gettingyour attention the most.
(25:57):
Let's start there, right?
Because look, this is exactlylike what's happening.
In us, in for Beth when she'strying to get a task done is.
She's trying to focus on onething, but the brain is going in
a million different directions.
That's essentially what's sortof coming up in a coaching
session as well, right?
(26:18):
We're pulling out all theselittle like scarves in the box,
like I'm picturing a little boxwith like the colored
handkerchiefs that like amagician would just kind of pull
out and we're pulling out thisone and this one, and it just
keeps on coming, right?
We gotta pick which scarf orscarves are the most colorful,
the most.
Um, bold and the ones that aregonna make the biggest
(26:40):
difference and just start there.
Okay.
All right, so we've kind ofidentified some of the pieces
that are going on with thissituation with getting reports
done, so this is a greatopportunity for you to pause.
I talk with my clients all thetime.
(27:02):
About a pause, the power of thepause, the power of the pause,
even just a micro pause.
So pausing because in thatpause, that moment between the
pause and the action, thatmoment in between is where the
executive functioning skillscome.
(27:24):
They turn on, they, they comeinto play.
Like that's when the executivefunctioning skills execute.
But if we.
As neurodivergent brains if,and people, if we don't pause
long enough before takingaction, we miss that opportunity
(27:44):
for the executive functioningskills to do what they need to
do.
So we pause and I want you topause and think about what.
Are you hearing in this episodethat is landing for you?
What's resonating?
What isn't resonating?
What's striking, uh, you know,kind of evoking a response from
(28:06):
you?
That's information and that'sgonna help you to notice where
do you wanna direct yourattention?
What are the pieces within thispodcast episode that you can
take?
Not all of them, one or twothat you can take and start
digging in and working on thoseareas to get some small wins
(28:28):
because it's the small wins thatlead to the big long term
success.
Okay, so within our coachingsession, we slowed it down.
We worked on first emotionallyregulating.
Her, her body, her mind, andgetting to a place where she was
(28:53):
more regulated so that shecould access the logical part of
her brain and really get themost out of the things that we
were coaching on instead ofbeing stuck in a shame spiral.
So we did some deep breathing,taking some deep breaths.
One of my favorite strategiesfor regulation is.
(29:16):
Simple breathing in and out.
But when I breathe in and whenI breathe out, breathing in a
second or two longer andbreathing out a second or two
longer, so the inhale isextended and the exhale is
extended, and the researchsupports the benefit of this as
a strategy and being moreeffective in slowing down your
(29:38):
nervous system and reallyhelping you to regulate.
Okay, so taking some deepbreaths, pausing.
And looking at what micro stepswe can take.
Okay.
So when I was, when I kind of,we got her, we got the
(29:59):
regulation piece in play andpointing out, notice how now
that you're feeling calmer, Ican see it in your body
language.
I can see it on your face.
I can see it.
Hear it in your voice.
You can probably hear it in myvoice.
I am a little bit moreregulated now.
Right.
So now that you are regulated,where do you wanna start?
(30:23):
You had said that your coachingtopic was the thing that you
wanted to walk away with, wassome strategies that you could
use when you feel stuck.
So we've talked about some ofthe executive functioning skills
at play.
Where do you wanna go next?
She said, well, I know what myso-and-so would do.
(30:47):
They would tell me like, I knowwhat they, what people would
tell me, what my friend or myspouse or whoever would tell me.
They would say, just start.
And I said, okay.
Yes.
We hear that a lot, right?
People who are, who have a DHDwill often hear from others.
(31:08):
Just do it like what is wrong?
Like just start all the timethat you've been sitting here
talking about the task, whiningabout the task, complaining
about the task.
You could have just started it.
It's gonna have been done bynow.
Right.
Well, that's not very helpful.
If we could just start, wewould.
That is true for most.
(31:29):
In most cases for someone witha DHD, if it is not a task that
is interesting, exciting,motivating, stimulating, holds
the attention.
It is really hard to start.
That's why you'll seeinconsistencies in our focus.
You'll see some hyper-focuswhere certain things we can
(31:53):
focus.
For like days at a time, youcan just keep on going right
down that rabbit hole and stay,stay, stay.
And then other things we can'teven initiate.
It's inconsistent, right?
Well, it depends on, like welook at the patterns.
What kinds of tasks are youunable to start?
Well, one pattern is that it'sthe ones that are hard.
(32:16):
Another pattern is it's theones that aren't motivating.
They aren't exciting.
Okay.
They're not giving us thatdopamine.
So I said, okay.
I heard someone else would tellyou to just start, but what are
you gonna say?
Like, what is what?
You know your brain best, youknow you.
(32:38):
Where do you want to start interms of how to help you get
into action?
I said, what is one of thebiggest struggles, like we've
talked about all these steps.
All these executive functioningskills at play, which one feels
the heaviest for you?
(32:59):
And she said, knowing where tostart, she said, I can get
myself to the point where I'llopen up the file.
I'll open up that patient orthat student's file, but then I
don't know where to start.
(33:20):
She's like, I'll even open upan old template or I'll open up,
um, the previous report forthat client.
For that student.
But then I don't know where tostart.
So one of the things that wedid right was figure out, well,
(33:42):
let's see what.
You what are the steps tostarting?
You've already identified thatone step is to open up that
file.
Okay.
Now, you've also identifiedthat the next step isn't always
clear because sometimes you openup the previous report,
sometimes you open up thetemplate, sometimes you open up
(34:06):
a report from a similar student.
So we've now, we now have likethree different options for step
two.
And that can feel reallyoverwhelming for the A DHD brain
especially.
So decision fatigue here.
Prioritization is coming uphere.
Okay, so let's figure outwhat's the path of least
resistance.
(34:26):
And as we were coachingthrough, Beth ultimately came to
the realization that it's gonnabe different depending upon the
student.
Sometimes it's a new student.
She doesn't have a formerreport from that student that
she could pull up.
Sometimes it is a new tool thatshe's used, a new assessment
(34:49):
tool that she's used that shedoesn't have a template for.
Okay.
So what we started doing, asshe's talking, I'm writing down
these steps and these questionsand giving her some specific
concrete.
If then statements that she canlook at when she goes to sit
(35:11):
down to write a, a progressreport to help her figure out
which step to take next.
So I.
Is this, you know, and justthose questions that I just kind
of pointed out, or thosefactors that I just pointed out,
is this a student, do I have aformer report, a previous report
for this student?
Is this a student who issimilar to another student?
(35:33):
Like figuring out what her, howher brain tries to solve the
problem.
And that might be differentthan the way your brain solves
the problem.
Like for example, I had anotherclient who would.
Try to go and pull up a pastreport from a similar client,
(35:54):
and what we realized in coachingwas that actually became more
overwhelming for her brain.
She thought it was saving hertime because she didn't then
have blank page syndrome.
But what actually happened wasthen she had so much information
and her brain was getting lostin trying to weed out what fit
and what didn't.
And where, what she changedalready and what she hadn't
(36:16):
changed and where she left off.
So we do this veryindividualized, figuring out
what is going to be best foryour brain, the way that your
brain works, the way that yourbrain processes information.
And so we came up with a stepby step.
Like a, um, a workflow or whatwe'll say, um, what my husband
(36:37):
will say in the military SOPStandard Operating procedure.
You know, basically just whatthe heck are you going to do
step by step, outlining it.
Now, this may seem unnecessary.
This may seem.
Silly or juvenile.
This may seem like it's takingmore time than you have, right?
(37:00):
I hear these ops, theseobjections all the time.
I don't have time to sit hereand like plan out my steps.
Are you kidding?
I've got four reports to write.
I have to just write thereports.
But sometimes if you investfive, 10 minutes in the planning
piece and the prep piece, youcan save 20.
(37:21):
30 plus minutes on the backendwhen you go to actually execute
the task.
It's like investing money inthe stock market.
You invest some money andhopefully that stock hits and
you've gained interest.
Right?
Same thing here.
(37:41):
So we're investing some timenow and we're going to gain time
on the backend.
Okay.
Now, it's also easy for the ADHD brain to get stuck in this
step.
Like, okay, I'm here.
I'm with you.
Theres Theresa.
We are going to create thisstep-by-step piece, but it's
(38:04):
very easy for a neurodivergentbrain to get overwhelmed in
trying to outline those stepsbecause.
You might think, oh, there's somany, and Well, I don't know.
I'm having trouble thinking andblah, blah, blah.
That is the power of coaching,because I could hear Beth rattle
it off verbally, like she'sjust talking through what she
would do, and I am sitting herewriting it out, listening,
(38:27):
noticing patterns, listening forthings that she's saying, oh,
she's telling me as she'sdescribing what information she
goes to find.
She's telling me, oh yeah, Ilook for the file that has the
purple tag on it.
Right?
So I am noticing that andpicking up on, okay, visual
(38:49):
processing here.
She benefits from those, thatvisual input.
We're gonna work that into ourstrategies, right?
So this is the stuff that acoach listens for and observes,
and then brings to her attentionto see how we can use that.
To find a, a, a workflow, asystem, an SOP that works for
(39:11):
Beth's brain, not a system thatworks for the Pinterest picture.
Perfect brain that we see onthe highlight reels that are not
very realistic for most of usin life.
Okay, so I'm listening to her.
We outline those steps.
(39:32):
And then, um, once we had thosesteps, I share those with her.
We figure out how, like we'representing them on the paper.
Like now she has this documentthat has the step-by-step
process for how to start thereport, like what she has to do.
And we together format thedocument so that she can look at
(39:55):
it and within seconds, seeexactly what she needs to do.
I had a client once tell methat she said she thinks in.
I think she said she, like shethinks in pictures, so she'll
read something and then she willvisualize an image and then
she'll refer back to like,she'll imprint that image and
(40:15):
use that image to support herworking memory and to help her,
you know, recall thatinformation later.
I do do this myself.
I noticed when I was making agrocery list, I have a grocery
list that repeats.
That's just a.
Repeating, whatever.
I have a grocery list that justhad the words on it and my
brain would get overwhelmed.
So I started putting in theemojis of what the items were on
(40:39):
the list, and I can't tell youhow much easier it was for me to
get the grocery shopping done.
Seems so juvenile, right?
Seems so silly.
But it works, so why not useit?
Okay, so we've now formatted itin a way that works for Beth
Sprain, and then we're drawing.
Observations and, and learningfrom this like, okay, Beth, what
(41:01):
are you learning from doingthis?
What are you noticing?
What about this is getting youexcited?
What about it seems helpful?
Because that's information thatwe can utilize and put in to
future.
Obsessions future strategies.
Right now, if Beth can't noticeall of those things, or notice
(41:24):
if she's like in the weeds andnot able to, you know, tap into
the meta cognition, which by theway is an executive functioning
skill.
So those with the A DHDstruggle with that.
If she is struggling with that,that's what I'm here for.
I've been listening for allthose things so I can point them
out if she's not noticing.
I can also fill in the gaps forwhat I'm noticing and see if
(41:48):
they resonate with her.
Just because I notice itdoesn't mean it's accurate.
Doesn't mean it lands.
Okay.
But this is an example of how,of what the, that coaching
partnership will look like.
Okay.
So now she has something clear,specific and built for her
brain.
And then we circle back.
Beth, you had said at the startof this session, you wanted
(42:11):
some clear strategies to helpyou get started on your progress
reports.
Do you think we've gottenthere?
So checking in to make surethat she has what she needed,
what she wanted to walk awaywith, did we meet that outcome?
Right.
And we did.
She felt like she had a goodplace to start.
(42:32):
Did we hit every executivefunctioning skill on there?
No, I mean they're all interintertwined in there, but we
didn't explicitly coach on allof them because we don't need to
time management, right?
We are prioritizing what'sgonna make the biggest
difference.
That's what we coached on, sothat's where we started.
Now the hypothesis is thathaving that list, having that
(42:58):
SOP will help Beth initiate thetask.
That's the hypothesis.
So then what Beth agreed to dois go out and test it.
Okay, Beth, this week you'regonna go out, you're gonna test
it out, see what happens.
Let's notice what about itworked?
What about it didn't work?
(43:19):
What new observations do youhave?
What did you learn?
What do we wanna do differentlygoing forward?
Sometimes these, thesestrategies are a total flop.
It's rare, but sometimes theyare, and that's okay.
That's information.
'cause we're like, oh, okay.
Why was it a flop?
Was it the strategy or was itthe scenario and the
(43:42):
circumstances?
Was it the thinking about thestrategy?
Like let's kind of figure thatout together.
Other times it's the strategyitself that was an issue.
Right?
Other times like sometimes theyjust completely forget, like
Right.
You might just forget thatthat's what you're working on.
Well, that's information.
Because if that's happeninghere in coaching, that's gonna
(44:03):
happen other places too.
So how are we going to help youremember to remember what do we
need to do?
Okay.
Retrospective.
I'm sorry, prospective memory.
Prospective memory.
So that's another executivefunctioning skill.
So you can see hopefully howthese executive functioning
skills are woven into coaching.
Yes.
(44:24):
But also for you, even ifyou're not a coaching client or
you're not working with somebodyon these things, I want you to
hopefully walk away with adifferent perspective.
Why you might be putting offthat task, why you might be
quote unquote procrastinating.
(44:44):
It's not as simple as, I'm justchoosing not to do it, or I
should just start, I should justget it done.
It's not that simple.
If it were, everyone would begetting it done.
Okay, so.
If you want support with this,I always share a link in the
(45:08):
show notes to book a freeconsult.
I can walk you through how Ican help you.
And as always, make sure thatyou're in the SLP Support group
on Facebook.
It's a free Facebook groupwhere we just continue this
conversation.
We have Facebook Live trainingsand support, and just a
community where, and you don'thave to have A DHD by the way,
(45:29):
to be in this community, butjust a community of people,
like-minded people with alsowith different perspectives who
are really coming together withthe common goal of feeling more
in control of their time and intheir day.
Alright, that is it for thisepisode.
I believe this is gonna be thelast one in this series of A DHD
(45:50):
productivity coaching topicsfor SLPs, at least for this
month, but.
These topics, A DHD relatedtopics are woven into so many of
these podcast episodes, notjust during a DHD awareness
month.
So make sure you tune back herenext week, or click the link in
the show notes to catch somepast episodes on
(46:12):
procrastination.
All right, that's it.
This is a long one.
I hope you held in with me.
Oh, and one more thing I almostforgot.
I almost forgot.
Luckily, I had a reminder.
I just had to look at thereminder.
I have created a handout thatgoes with this podcast episode.
(46:35):
I'm trying to think of waysthat I can better support those
of you who are listening with.
Taking this information,learning it, and using it,
right?
So I've created a handout thatoutlines this information in a
very neurodivergent friendlyway.
There is a link in the shownotes.
All you gotta do is click thelink, enter your email address
(46:56):
where you want me to send it.
I will send it your way so thatyou have something you can
refer back to.
Alright, that is now itwrapping this up.
Thank you so much for stayingwith me and I will see you all
next week.
Bye.
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