I was recently thinking about kids being picky eaters and how there is a movement where we’re not supposed to say picky anymore; we’re supposed to say they’re selective eaters.

And you know what, I get that. I grew up as a picky kid, and… let’s be honest, I’m a fairly picky adult as well. Scratch that, selective adult.

And I know it’s semantics, but I often find semantics are important. Because if we’re reframing this idea of being picky into being selective, it loses a lot of that negative connotation, and it gives a lot more power to the idea that what we’re doing is we’re making choices. In this case, making choices about food, but I think this is something we should keep in mind as we’re moving into the new year because a lot of us are going to find that we’re going to need to be more selective with our goals, especially in regard to New Year’s Resolutions. 

And this is the idea that we’re going to be exploring in this episode - what are the things that we really want to focus on doing - what are the things that we want to commit ourselves to, and then what are the things that we should be letting go of.

I know a lot of you are working on making plans for the year, so we’re going to be starting this year with Chris Wang, CEO and co-founder of Shimmer, an ADHD coaching platform designed to meet people where they are. I had a lot of fun in this conversation, where we covered a bunch of stuff about goal setting and how to make sure you’re doing the important stuff in your life. Along the way, we discuss the power of community, process-oriented goal setting, and what it means to live in alignment with your values.

This week we’ve got Skye Waterson of Unconventional Organization back on the show to talk about the book she’s working on, Focused, Balanced Days with ADHD. Skye is an academic and ADHD coach with over seven years of experience in adult education. She has studied various fields, including Psychology, Sociology, and Public Health, and is currently a Doctoral Candidate in Population Health. Skye also hosts "The ADHD Skills Lab" podcast, where she discusses research-backed tips and advice to help individuals navigate life with ADHD.

Feels like it’s been a while for me but hopefully I was able to prepare enough material ahead of time so that you didn’t have to notice. And the reason it’s been a bit for me is because of the 2024 International Conference on ADHD which is a collaborative event put on my CHADD (Children and Adults with Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder), ADDA (Attention Deficit Disorder Association), and ACO (ADHD Coaches Organization). always been.

This week I’m joined by Madeline O’Reilly and Jonathan Hassall to talk about their new online program called Decoding Doing that is based on a book they wrote with the same title. And that’s fair, Decoding Doing is a great title when we’re talking about procrastination.

We’ve got another exciting guest teed up for this week. I’m talking with Sean Brock, a neurofeedback expert and the owner of Neuro Colorado. Now I’ll be honest that I had a lot to learn in this interview because I wasn’t terribly well versed on the science behind neurofeedback. In the interview, Sean shares the fascinating history behind neurofeedback and how it’s evolved from training cats to helping humans regulate their brain waves. We get into how neurofeedback works and its longer-term benefits.

One of the focal points in this conversation is the ADHD Evidence Project, which Dr. Faraone started to help fight misinformation about ADHD and give free access to the information we have about ADHD. On the site - which can be found at ADHDevidence.org - you can find the International Consensus Statement, which provides 208 statements strongly supported by ADHD research. In the episode we get more into what went into the process of making the statement and the standards of research.

In the episode, we also discuss evidence-based treatments, debunk common myths, and discuss what really works when managing ADHD.

This week we’re following up our last episode on misinformation—and this is going to be our last episode in the research saga that I’ve been working on for the last… couple of months? Yeah, I think I’m ready for something new as well although as a preview for next week, I had an amazing researcher as a guest and we do cover a lot of similar topics, but don’t worry, it’s a fantastic episode, great capstone to the series.

This week we’re celebrating a milestone for Hacking Your ADHD - 200 episodes… also 5 years of running the podcast. I honestly don’t know exactly what to say about how far this podcast has come. It’s been an incredible run so far and I have a lot of plans for the future as well, which, honestly is a little scary, but also exciting that even with ADHD I’m sticking with it.

This week we’re talking misinformation which is an interesting topic because it feels like it should be something where its easy to define and identify. We’ve all seen stuff online where we looked at it and felt, “how the heck does anyone fall for this kind of stuff?”

We’re diving right back into the world of ADHD research, continuing on from what we were talking about a few episodes back. In this episode, we’re going to be more focused on what goes into making ADHD research reliable. I go in-depth into what you can expect to find when reading a study and then also into what thing to look out for when trying to determine what’s really going on in those studies.

This week, I’m talking with Dr. Judy Ho, a clinical and forensic neuropsychologist with a PhD in clinical psychology. She focuses on mental health, ADHD, and various psychological disorders. She is triple board-certified and is a tenured associate professor at Pepperdine University, where she teaches graduate-level psychology.

If I were to ask you how any of these things work I expect most people would say they could. But let’s take the toilet example—I know personally, I’d probably start with something about the flush adding water and maybe creating a difference in pressure and… okay maybe I don’t know how a toilet works. And that’s the point here: with the illusion of explanatory depth, we have some understanding of what’s going on, but when pressed for details, we often find those gaps in our knowledge.

In our conversation, we explore how their personal experiences and professional expertise in managing ADHD shine through in their work, providing both structure and understanding. Whether it’s tackling procrastination, enhancing organizational skills, or simply learning to partner with your ADHD, this episode is packed with practical advice and real-life strategies.

In this episode, we’re going to explore why our ADHD brains find rest so uncomfortable and how we can use pacing to finally make it part of our day. We're going to explore why our brains resist rest and how we can try and work in those much-needed breaks without feeling guilty.

In this episode, we’ll be exploring the idea of the dichotomy of ADHD. How it can feel like even our symptoms are inconsistent. We’ll be looking at how our ADHD brains can take us from hyperfocus to total distraction, from being impulsive to utterly paralyzed, and why sometimes we thrive in chaos but crumble over minor setbacks.

While AI has become a buzzword that has lost much meaning, there are still many use cases that can help with our ADHD. One of the places that I have been enjoying exploring is how I can outsource some of my executive functions to these applications so that I can save my brain for the important stuff.

In this episode, we’re going to explore what life on easy mode might look like and discuss actionable strategies to shift the dynamic of living with ADHD so that it doesn’t always feel like an uphill battle. How we can take steps to shift our ADHD from making life a struggle to something more manageable. From simplifying routines to harnessing the power of small changes there are a lot of ways that we can work on dialing down that difficulty.

The idea behind dopamine fasting is to reduce or eliminate activities that provide instant gratification and a quick release of dopamine. So, someone going through a dopamine fast might give up using their phone, watching TV, video games, junk food, and alcohol, plus anything else they see as their go-to dopamine activities for, say a 24-hour period.

Listener Question: “Hi, William. I'm Emily, and I live in Chicago, Illinois. I'm a lifelong gardener and love growing flowers, veggies, houseplants, and more. As someone with ADHD, plant care is something I either hyperfixate on or procrastinate and ignore because of all the things that my plants need to thrive. For some reason, creating routines around plant care has been really challenging for me.”