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How To Be Productive With ADHD - Dr. Diana Mercado-Marmarosh, M.D.

How To Be Productive With ADHD – Dr. Diana Mercado-Marmarosh, M.D.

Are you struggling to stay productive while managing ADHD symptoms? Join Dr. Diana Mercado-Marmarosh, a leading expert in ADHD coaching for physicians, as she shares invaluable insights and practical strategies on how to thrive and maintain productivity with ADHD.

In this enlightening interview, Dr. Mercado-Marmarosh delves into the nuances of ADHD symptoms and provides actionable guidance on how to focus, work effectively, and harness your strengths while managing ADHD. Discover proven techniques for enhancing productivity and gaining a deeper understanding of what ADHD is and how it can impact daily life.

Learn from Dr. Mercado-Marmarosh’s wealth of experience as she discusses how to navigate challenges, create supportive structures, and leverage coaching to overcome obstacles associated with ADHD. Gain empowering insights on how to harness the unique qualities of ADHD to enhance your professional and personal life.

If you’re seeking practical advice on how to be more productive with ADHD and unlock your full potential, this interview is a must-watch. Don’t miss this opportunity to tap into expert knowledge and actionable tips that can transform the way you approach productivity with ADHD.

Join us for an engaging discussion that explores how to work with ADHD effectively, manage symptoms, and cultivate a more productive and fulfilling life. Watch now and learn how to turn your ADHD into an asset for success!

This episode covers topics of ADHD such as:

  1. Understanding ADHD in the Medical Field
  2. Coping Strategies for Physicians and Other Professionals Dealing with ADHD
  3. Building Supportive Routines and Systems for Success
  4. Overcoming Chronic Procrastination and Overwhelm


*Some of the links found here are affiliate links: As an Associate I earn from qualifying purchases by way of commission at no additional cost to you. See full disclaimer here:


BIO:Dr. Diana Mercado-Marmarosh, M.D

How To Be Productive With ADHD - Dr. Diana Mercado-Marmarosh, M.D.

I’m Dr. Diana Mercado-Marmarosh, a family physician who found the way to thrive with my ADHD diagnosis!

My whole life I had to work a little bit harder than anyone else. It wasn’t until medical school that I was diagnosed with ADHD. After initial relief that I finally knew what was “wrong” with me, I was shamed by my own doctor for seeking treatment for my diagnosis. I was told–you should know better–you are physician–you out grown ADHD. Years later, I’ve learned how to live and thrive with ADHD and I am now on a mission to show others how to create the life that they want. A life that allows them to live to their fullest capacity. 

https://www.adhd-lifecoach.com/about-me

Learn More About Dr. Diana Mercado-Marmarosh, M.D. & How To Be Productive With ADHD

CONTACT AND SOCIALS:

🌎 Website: https://thementalhealthtoolbox.com

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Watch The Interview

How To Be Productive With ADHD – Dr. Diana Mercado-Marmarosh, M.D.

Are you struggling to stay productive while managing ADHD symptoms? Join Dr. Diana Mercado-Marmarosh, a leading expert in ADHD coaching for physicians, as sh…

If you liked this episode, be sure to check out my full playlist of interviews here: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLnPL9gahfhWatKmy2YSyU0jt20h_jrj3H


Listen To The Interview

How To Be Productive With ADHD – Dr. Diana Mercado-Marmarosh, M.D.

Ep. 102 🎥 WATCH THE VIDEO: https://youtube.com/live/znIqu1gbu7E?feature=share   Are you struggling to stay productive while managing ADHD symptoms? Join Dr. Diana Mercado-Marmarosh, a leading expert in ADHD coaching for physicians, as she shares invaluable insights and practical strategies on how to thrive and maintain productivity with ADHD.


Gratitude Journal

Gratitude Journal, gratitude workbooks, therapy handouts.

Guided Meditations

Take Ten: Guided Meditations On Gratitude

Tips On How To Be Productive With ADHD

  1. Break tasks into smaller, manageable steps: This reduces feeling overwhelmed and makes the task seem less daunting.
  2. Utilize the Pomodoro Technique: Work in focused intervals (e.g., 25 minutes) followed by short breaks (e.g., 5 minutes).
  3. Minimize distractions: Turn off notifications, silence your phone, and work in a quiet space to avoid constant interruptions.
  4. Create a routine and stick to it: Having a consistent schedule helps with focus and reduces decision fatigue.
  5. Find your “peak productivity” hours: Schedule demanding tasks for when you’re naturally most focused, and less demanding tasks for other times.
  6. Embrace movement: Take short walks or do some stretches during breaks to help refocus and increase energy.
  7. Use visual aids: Organize tasks with to-do lists, mind maps, or visual calendars to stay on track.
  8. Reward yourself for completing tasks: This reinforces positive behavior and keeps you motivated.
  9. Seek help if needed: Don’t hesitate to talk to a therapist or coach specializing in ADHD for additional support and strategies.
  10. Remember, progress over perfection: Be kind to yourself, celebrate small wins, and focus on continuous improvement.









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Back to the MHT BLOG

Want to learn more? Check out my top picks for books on self-improvement and recovery HERE!


Welcome to The Mental Health Toolbox podcast, where our mission is to empower therapists and enlighten individuals on their mental health journey.

My name is Patrick Martin, your host, I am an LCSW, AKA psychotherapist by trade.

As a dedicated therapist, I have always believed in the power of knowledge and resources in the field of mental health. Recognizing the need for a space that bridges the gap between professionals and those seeking help, The Mental Health Toolbox was born.

Our aim is to equip other therapists with effective tools to enhance their practice and service delivery. We understand the importance of staying updated with the latest research, techniques, and trends in mental health. Therefore, we curate high-quality, evidence-based resources, ensuring you have the best tools at your disposal.

Simultaneously, we are committed to educating consumers with essential knowledge to thrive. We believe that everyone deserves access to reliable, understandable, and actionable mental health information. Our resources are designed to demystify mental health, promoting understanding, empathy, and self-care.

Through our Newsletter, Blog, Podcast, YouTube Channel, Workbooks, and Courses, we hope to create a community that fosters learning, growth, and wellness. Each edition will bring you insightful articles, tips, interviews, and advice to support your journey, whether you're a mental health professional seeking to enhance your practice or an individual striving for better mental well-being.
Join us at The Mental Health Toolbox as we work together to build a world where mental health care is effective, accessible, and understood by all. Let's learn, grow, and thrive together.

The Mental Health Toolbox Podcast on Spotify

Welcome to The Mental Health Toolbox podcast, where our mission is to empower therapists and enlighten individuals on their mental health journey.

My name is Patrick Martin, your host, I am an LCSW, AKA psychotherapist by trade.

As a dedicated therapist, I have always believed in the power of knowledge and resources in the field of mental health. Recognizing the need for a space that bridges the gap between professionals and those seeking help, The Mental Health Toolbox was born.

Our aim is to equip other therapists with effective tools to enhance their practice and service delivery. We understand the importance of staying updated with the latest research, techniques, and trends in mental health. Therefore, we curate high-quality, evidence-based resources, ensuring you have the best tools at your disposal.

Simultaneously, we are committed to educating consumers with essential knowledge to thrive. We believe that everyone deserves access to reliable, understandable, and actionable mental health information. Our resources are designed to demystify mental health, promoting understanding, empathy, and self-care.

Through our Newsletter, Blog, Podcast, YouTube Channel, Workbooks, and Courses, we hope to create a community that fosters learning, growth, and wellness. Each edition will bring you insightful articles, tips, interviews, and advice to support your journey, whether you're a mental health professional seeking to enhance your practice or an individual striving for better mental well-being.
Join us at The Mental Health Toolbox as we work together to build a world where mental health care is effective, accessible, and understood by all. Let's learn, grow, and thrive together.

Welcome to The Mental Health Toolbox podcast, where our mission is to empower therapists and enlighten individuals on their mental health journey.

My name is Patrick Martin, your host, I am an LCSW, AKA psychotherapist by trade.

As a dedicated therapist, I have always believed in the power of knowledge and resources in the field of mental health. Recognizing the need for a space that bridges the gap between professionals and those seeking help, The Mental Health Toolbox was born.

Our aim is to equip other therapists with effective tools to enhance their practice and service delivery. We understand the importance of staying updated with the latest research, techniques, and trends in mental health. Therefore, we curate high-quality, evidence-based resources, ensuring you have the best tools at your disposal.

Simultaneously, we are committed to educating consumers with essential knowledge to thrive. We believe that everyone deserves access to reliable, understandable, and actionable mental health information. Our resources are designed to demystify mental health, promoting understanding, empathy, and self-care.

Through our Newsletter, Blog, Podcast, YouTube Channel, Workbooks, and Courses, we hope to create a community that fosters learning, growth, and wellness. Each edition will bring you insightful articles, tips, interviews, and advice to support your journey, whether you're a mental health professional seeking to enhance your practice or an individual striving for better mental well-being.
Join us at The Mental Health Toolbox as we work together to build a world where mental health care is effective, accessible, and understood by all. Let's learn, grow, and thrive together.



It is my mission to equip you with valuable and effective coping skills and clinical interventions, to improve your mood, be more productive and improve your quality of life, so you can do more, and worry less.



NEED CRISIS HELP? If you need immediate crisis help with your depression, you can call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-8255 or text “START” to 741-741

OUTSIDE THE UNITED STATES: See International Suicide Hotlines

WHERE TO FIND MENTAL HEALTH HELP:
-NAMI Referral Helpline: 1-800-950-6264

-California’s Statewide Mental Health Helpline: 1-855-845-7415


ASK: If you have a question you’d like me to answer here on the blog (even if you think it’s a silly one!), please use the form on the CONTACT ME page, or the comment section below. I would be happy to take a poke at it and provide a long form answer when appropriate.

SHARE: Also, be sure to share it with a friend, as there is still a lot of work to be done in raising mental health awareness.

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Transcript

Patrick Martin 

All right, if you’re struggling with ADHD and productivity, you’re in the right place. Today we have our special guest, doctor Diana Mercado Marmara Josh, who is a family physician and ADHD coach. She helps other physicians navigate their way through ADHD. And use it as an asset. That and an advantage. So without further ado, let’s meet Doctor Diana. Hey, doctor, thank you so much for joining us on the MHT live show. Much appreciated. 

Dr. Diana 

I’m so excited to be here with you today. 

Patrick Martin 

I’m excited to have you such a wonderful work you are doing in the world of neurodiversity and ADHD, and I’m excited to dive in with you having personal experience and a passion in this field and to help other physicians and the general public navigate this superpower, but can also sometimes. Being out-of-the-box approach, yeah. 

Dr. Diana 

Yes, I have now shipped in my you always reframe how you see ADHD. I used to think it was probably the worst thing ever. I didn’t want anybody to know. Now I see it as a gift that one has to learn to unwrap. 

Patrick Martin 

All right. Naps. Oh, I love that absolute. How do how do we unwrap it is the question, and that’s what we’re hoping to. Get from today, right? Excellent. So I know a little bit of your background. As do. Let’s see here. Some of our guests, but just let’s go ahead and make sure that we’re. Getting everybody to the right place here. This is your site, right? Your ADHD life coach. This is your jam for any of those out there wondering where to find you. It’s ADHD lifecoach.com, yes. 

Dr. Diana 

Yes, correct. 

Patrick Martin 

All right. We’ll make sure we tie up all of that into the show notes. So let’s get started. Maybe you could bring us up to speed by letting us know where you. Coming from like where’s? Where’s your home base there. And what got you into this work with ADHD? 

Dr. Diana 

Yes. So I am in Victoria TX, so. It’s like 2. Hours South of Houston and I am a primary care physician, I practice in the clinic setting and in the hospital setting and in nursing home setting as. Well, and my journey into this coaching aspect was one of me trying to find tools for myself when the pandemic happened. I realized that whatever I was doing, which was ignoring my own ADHD, was not no longer something that I could continue to do. And I came to realize that. Last time my success was also because of my ADHD, my ability to speak up to say that’s not going to work that way. We did that 20 years ago. The person who’s doing that is no longer here. How can we adapt it to now? How can we do it? So it’s not reductant. So it came from an area. Struggle that then became an area of curiosity, wondering if there might be other people like myself who just maybe didn’t know what did he know, and therefore it’s not that they were. On purpose, trying to disappoint maybe their colleagues or their spouse or their kids or their friends. They weren’t just, quote UN quote, being naughty, but it was a neurological condition that was preventing them from showing up how they wanted. To show up. I unfortunately got told when I became an attending an attending, as somebody who had finished their medical school and their residency. I got told by. A new psychiatrist that I outgrew my ADHD that I didn’t need any medications that I should know better given that I was a primary care physician, that I was kind of wasting his time. And he walked out. Of the room so that. Led to me ignoring myself or my ADHD for 10 years until the pandemic happened. And I really walked around telling myself. Suck it up. Buttercup like you got this? You got this far. You just gotta work harder. Like I. That was my running model. But now I have come to realize that. I haven’t. I mean, of course ADHD is a neurological condition. There’s low dopamine. Different people are motivated by different things, and therefore you can’t put them all on the same thing. But my work for one might not work for the other, but if you’re not even aware that this is something that you’re not doing on purpose, that you should be able to do it, yet you don’t have the. Capacity to do it. It puts you at a. Shane Blaine cycle. Instead of curiosity, compassion. How can I work with where I’m at? To get to where I’m going, even if it looks different from somebody else? If the objective is to see the patient within a certain amount of time and have the notes closed, how can I do that for myself? Without having to do it. Like the other person is doing right next to me, even though I’m trying 1000 times. Like they’re doing. I keep telling people it’s like being. Left-handed in a right-handed world, you don’t realize that you’re doing 1000 repetitions with the right, not until somebody. Says hey, let. Me use your left hand. Let’s use a left-handed desk or left-handed pencil. You might then just figure it out your way at that point. 

Patrick Martin 

So sometimes the unlock is right under our nose. It’s just the way we’re socialized and to how we’re quote supposed to do things right. Can some sometimes cloud our judgment a little bit right? So you had just out of curiosity, so you had a prior acknowledge diagnosis of ADHD growing up? 

Dr. Diana 

I got diagnosed my first year of medical school, so I. Was 23 years of age. 

Patrick Martin 

Ohh so that’s hard to be diagnosed as an adult sometimes. I know a lot of times. As a therapist I’m trying to link adult clients to treatment or testing. It’s very difficult sometimes to find. Find a way to get access to that kind of testing without paying out of pocket sometimes large amounts to get tested and and and then get it treated right cause a lot of times it’s the the primary doctors will prescribe, but they don’t diagnosis and you have to go to a neuro neuro testing site to do the diagnosis and then get someone else to build script. And it’s sometimes it’s this dance. The grey space I think about mental health. Is it behavioral? Is it mental health? And sometimes it’s like hot potato. It seems like and this. Provider world, yeah. 

Dr. Diana 

Yes. So I got tested at that point. I wasn’t sure if it was anxiety because I was a firm. Want to go to college to go to Med school? If it wasn’t anxiety of wanting to perform? And the fear of failure. Or if I was kind of depressed and couldn’t focus because my dad had just got diagnosed with cancer and he was really young, he was 46. Or whether I just had a little bit of mixture of both. The ADHD diagnosis never even crossed my mind, because in the Mexican American community, like you don’t talk about ADHD, you’re either a spoiled kid who has just not gotten yourself like motivated. You have to do whatever you need to. And they don’t really flatter, which means you’re just kind of like acting up, right. And so you’re just energy too much, too much energy. That’s what they would say. So you’re right. When you finally get the diagnosis, I think there was still a disconnect between knowing, like, information about it, like, OK, they started me on the lowest dose of the medication. Then, but I never knew you to advocate for. Like, OK, I need more than 5 milligrams of Ritalin, right? Because those beautiful 3 hours were like, OK, I can try to do as much as I can a window. Of clarity. Now you want. 

Patrick Martin 

You feel it closing the window, yeah. 

Dr. Diana 

Exactly. I didn’t want them to take away those three hours that all of a sudden I could do so much that I didn’t realize I could. And so finally, when I did speak up and again it maybe it could have been a lack of me not knowing how the medicines worked or them just assuming because I’m saying it’s those few hours are working and they’re assuming few hours, I never clarify. It could be a mixture, right? And so. Even then, I don’t think they told me. Hey, go talk to a therapist like you’re not broken you. Have to just do it a different way. Yes, they told me. Maybe talk to a tutor or. Something but. I never really disclosed that I had ADHD because there was a part of me that linked ADHD. Inability to perform for some reason, even though now I understand that the reason I studied that much was because it was my passion to be a physician. It I would imagine I would visualize like helping the patients and whatever it took. If it took taking a test that. I had to do whatever I had to do. I was gonna do all the steps because I didn’t know any better. Because being the first one to go through that, I didn’t realize people were just studying 20 hours and I was studying 100. Like, I was gonna do whatever I needed to do to get. To the end result. 

Patrick Martin 

I see so. You learned a lot of. I guess I don’t. If you want to call them tricks or hustle mentality, you know, in order to to make things happen, right. But you didn’t realize that you were. Walking around with a 50 lbs of rocks and your backpack. You know, and everybody else taking a stroll, right? OK so. When you got what led you to being diagnosed? At 23, like what was the what was the? Modeling factor there. 

Dr. Diana 

Yeah. So I was taking my. Test but it. Was the first time in my life where in my mind. The amount of effort I was putting in was not reflecting the grades that I was spitting out, and I would run out of time. So like if you would just see my test, I maybe got a 60, but you would see that I had completed like 2/3 of the test and then the rest of the test CC all the way down. And so again, I wasn’t sure if I was overthinking somethings because ohh it seems too easy. It shouldn’t be that easy because I had studied so much, so I would second guess myself or. Ohh and yeah or I would change an answer because again I would be like no it’s not. That I mean. You would always or you would not read it correctly like you would not catch. That it was. An except question or different things because you kind of got to like quickly trying to get through this stuff. So it was actually one of my roommates saying. Jenna, I think you’re studying like way more. I think you’re like you even explain it to me. And I understood. And I took the test and I got better and I didn’t study that much. Like what is going on like? Maybe you should just go get tested just to make sure. And again, I went because of likely she saw something in me that I didn’t see. I just thought, well, this is the way it’s always been. I’ve always. Have worked hard because I just thought that that’s what needed to happen and. Again, failure was not an option because I wasn’t going to walk away with $200,000 loan that I needed to complete my schooling and whatever it took, I was gonna do. And so I think it was. Somebody else pointing out I think there’s too much effort that you’re exerting for what you’re acquiring. Could there be something else and maybe you are anxious because of this test? Like maybe you’re just panicking about the test so you can’t like slow yourself long enough to read the test correctly, right? And so she said. Just just go. And that’s what led to that Neuro Psych test, which was like an 8 hour test. And you know, they said I was performing 2 great levels below. Where should I should have been given college. But I wasn’t worried about that. I was worried about the ADHD diagnosis. And I was. 

Patrick Martin 

Right, of course. Right. 

Dr. Diana 

Like I don’t care about that. I still got here. It doesn’t matter where I’m performing. I’m still here and so. 

Speaker 

Right. 

Dr. Diana 

It’s funny how. Your brain like focuses on certain things and then. Those thoughts lead you forward. Or can prevent you from going forward. 

Patrick Martin 

Absolutely. Yeah. So that was kind of the start of figuring out. How to resolve? Maybe the way you had been doing things, but then what about the? Next, you know umpteen years of medical school, the stigma, the. Managing because it’s not just the studies, right? It’s managing the clinical, it’s managing even after obviously medical school residency, working with colleagues like I imagine that was just kind of step one pulling back the curtain so. 

Dr. Diana 

As people know, with ADHD, you hyper focus on what you find. Passionate for me again it was my patient so I would hyper focus during that patient encounter like I could just remember everything and anything that they would tell me right. But I also had that timeline. So I didn’t realize I had spent an hour talking to them. To me it felt like 5 minutes, right? And so when I would go and give a presentation, you could imagine my brain couldn’t decipher what was. Really important to give the details to the attending at the medical student Neuro resident. I was like glowing with information because I was so excited about having talked to this patient. But in their. Eyes. I was all over. You know, and their eyes, they were like, OK, yeah. First you have to give me that. Like, what is going on then? What is like, there’s a specific pattern, right. But then your mind will connect something to something else. And they will be like. 

Patrick Martin 

And size. 

Dr. Diana 

Wait, wait. You’re all over. Did you not like? Talk to your patient and you’re like I. Did but like Ding, Ding, Ding, all these other things with and sometimes you would discover. Diagnosis that they hadn’t even thought about because again, your brain. What link things that you just intuitively knew to ask and you couldn’t explain how you got to that place and therefore it looked like you were just random, like, oh, she just got lucky that she figured that out cuz three other medical students talked to that person and nobody could even listen that type of information she just got. And so. My test ended up being I would do we not to pass the test and the written part of it. But then like my clinical would always be like either all over the place or amazing bedside manner that could compensate for being all over the place. And so with time. I learned that. The testing style, it didn’t matter like in my mind I got the Model C still equals MB. If I just get a C my patient’s not gonna care what my grade level was, although I had never got into C in my life, I was always a straight. A student, so I. Had to realize that my see was my age and that me taking a test and me figuring out. To spit out. Information for you for one minute was not going to dictate the hours or the months or the time that I would have with this. Person to try to figure out what was going on with them. Really. If I could just listen to them. 

Patrick Martin 

Absolutely well said. I think nobody asks. You know, a medical professional. You know what their GPA was? They care if you can help them. And it’s not. There’s not a direct correlation. Like you said, that you know, that’s why I refer to ADHD as a superpower. And you would know better than me. It’s the ability to deep dive. Right to think outside the box to have that extra layer of interest and ambition right into what we’re doing and that that translates in all kinds of ways, right. And so. Standardized tests you know are not the best measure of aptitude, for sure. Absolutely. 

Dr. Diana 

Yeah, I have to learn that there had to be a standard, right. There has to be a standard nationally to say that, you know, enough to be able to completely treat a person. But I also realize that. You still have to earn their trust you still. Had to have that relationship with them and. The area of interest that I went into, which is family medicine, I mean, I see one day old all the way to like 105 is the oldest I’ve seen at a nursing home. So you have that spectrum of being able to understand not just the person, but sometimes when you treat their grandma or their uncle, their aunt like you get. Other views that you wouldn’t have other perspectives that you wouldn’t have put together had you not understood the dynamics or how to approach something. It maybe again they don’t. Like mental health, maybe I had. I can say, hey, do you know you just have like low hormone? It’s like low serotonin. And they’re like, ohh, what do you do about that? So that’s a lot different. And reading people and and and I maybe because I was a high school teacher prior to becoming. A physician that also taught me to think and teach other people and connect with different people. Some people like visual stuff. Some people like reading my lips. Some people like reading or looking at pictures or some people like listening. So I have to learn how can I use different perspectives. Of how I taught others to teach myself to be able to grasp whatever I need to. In order to get to what I needed to and. So I ended up. Instead of going to the class, I would go around rice the the, the university and and run and walk and hear the audio version because I knew I went to the class I would be talking to my classmates instead. Of listening, so I just. Have to find a way to. Still ingesting information, but in a way that and I didn’t know at that point that by exercising I was increasing my dopamine and I was increasing my ability to pay attention. I was priming my brain. I didn’t realize that. And by seeking a tutor, I didn’t realize that because I didn’t want to look like a dummy. I would study everything I could without realizing what was the key points, but then they would tell me what the key points were because they had taken the test and they understood and so it would help me again to chunk down. OK, this is the topic I need to know. This is a topic I need to instead of me trying. To memorize the. Whole book, so say. 

Patrick Martin 

Oh, that’s very savvy, right? We know there’s different. We all learn different ways and we’re kinetics. Some are audio, some are visual. Right. I’m definitely an audio and visual guy. You know, I’m kind of like I. Want to see? It you know and then I I digest most of my books by audio audiobooks. I’m a podcast addict. I always. We have an air pot in my ear, you know, and that’s just my jam. And yeah, it’s convenient when you’re doing laundry or mowing the lawn, but more so like I I I absorb information differently by audio. Maybe that’s because of, you know, that’s my trade, you know, and counseling. You know, I’ve I’ve worked that muscle a lot. But you give me a book, I’m probably gonna fall. 

Dr. Diana 

So I learned to use books in a way to prime myself by looking at the pictures first. So I would ask myself, well, I wonder what this is trying to explain, like what muscle works where? Like I would ask myself the questions before I would try to read this stuff or I would try to listen to this stuff so I would make it a game. To try to understand or piece together stuff and then. I would try to draw. Stuff in A1 single page so that. If they were on this side of the of the page, then I knew these all were alike. If they were on this side of the page, they were different, so we’re always taking them multiple test question. I would know. OK. They were on this side of the bridge. So all these are negative. So this might be number down to two instead of five, right. So I learned to take tests. I if I didn’t trust my if it came too quickly, I learned to figure out, OK, how can I still write to the information in one way or the other based on how I studied it and? You will get out of the test and then two minutes later everything comes. You’re like, give me that back. 

Patrick Martin 

Of course, right. 

Dr. Diana 

Right. But you’re in the moment where you’re. 

Patrick Martin 

And there, yeah. 

Dr. Diana 

Just like ah, you know. 

Patrick Martin 

Yeah, trying to trying to connect that thread absolutely. And so these are skills that you continue to practice. You probably used prior to medical school up to that point. These were some of the tricks of the trade, right? And learning how to work. You know, with the curtains opposed to swimming against it, right, with your your, the what your thought process, the way you learn and maybe you didn’t classify it as ADHD prior to that you still found ways to to make it work right and. Obviously, the medication will probably. You do that better, right with the concentration. So you’re going through medical school? Using these tricks that you’ve learned, you start the medication. Did things get easier after you started the medication? 

Dr. Diana 

Yes, the medication definitely helped a lot. But again, now looking back I can see why it also helped because I was running when you know when the period when I wasn’t running, it wasn’t helping us much. It when I would start to run or do some type of exercise, it would enhance the medication. In in probably in high school and in college, I didn’t get diagnosed because I was always running like in high school. I was in a cross country team and I sometimes I would run up to 10 miles a day. So that was my medication and. And so I I’m very conscious of that now because, you know, many times when patients come to me, it’s sometimes when they are trying to quit smoking. Or or alcohol. Or maybe you know they just had a surgery because of something and they not exercising their memory, you know, starts to to fade or they just got diagnosed with diabetes. They might not be aware of that. They’re using sugar as a way to try to cope and and so. Now, now they’re mindful of that when they come. If they’re coming for anxiety or depression, I screen them for anxiety, depression and ADHD, or they’re coming for concentration. I still screen them for all three, you know, whatever they’re coming for. And even if they’re postmenopausal, because sometimes females don’t get diagnosed until they’re menopause. Umm, yeah, so I think my own personal struggles and what I see in my patients has allowed me to. It’s like they say it’s not that you can’t concentrate. Sometimes we concentrate on too much at once and then you have to figure out, OK. Let me not be listening to the other. Conversation in the other room let me focus on this conversation, or if I am going to use music, can I use it without words so that I don’t get distracted in the words, and so you just learn to figure out things for yourself to get you. 

Patrick Martin 

That’s a really great analogy. I haven’t heard it put quite that way before, but I get it like when you’re trying to chase 10 rabbits, you know you end up catching none. But the way you said it, like focus on the conversation in this room as opposed to trying to eavesdrop on everything else in terms of where your thoughts are going, right? Which are all. Productive things like you said, but it’s the ability to maybe hone in on one thing. Without becoming preoccupied or anxious about the things that maybe you’re going to forget or not attend, to which we see with all forms of anxiety, and I think this is of particular importance for people who are trying to get diagnosed. I know when I’ve. Had clients who are trying to get it diagnosed as adults who have a Co occurring or pre-existing anxiety disorder, sometimes they say well, we can’t really do the testing because if your anxiety is at such and such level, it wouldn’t be really a clear indication and so that the water is a little muddy. But it sounds like even with ADHD, it’s kind of part of the part of the. Bag too, right? Is is is organizing your thoughts focus. 

Dr. Diana 

Yeah, and. And the thing with ADHD, the way I see it is. Maybe it could also be to your benefit, because again, if you’re used to juggling so many things at once that I feel like we play guacamole all day and because you’re used to playing guacamole all day. 

Speaker 

Right. 

Dr. Diana 

OK, if you don’t. Begin your day with the intention. OK? What is my intention today is my intention to be on time. Is my intention to close my notes and my intention to get out so I can see my kids soccer game. Like what? Is my intention today. And can somebody help me to get there? So with me I had to set up timers. Outside of the. Room so that somebody would come and knock and say, hey, Doctor Mehta, do you need anything? That was my queue to be like. Oh yes, I need a tetanus vaccine or I need this medication sample or whatever. So instead of. Them coming and saying, hey, the earth calling, which sometimes they did or this or that to try to Get Me Out. The I used it as a cue to be able to help me. OK, I should have been ordering labs or I should have been doing my physical exam at this point or whatever. And and it was a way instead of shaming myself for not being on time, it was a way of saying. OK, I should be on time like everybody says, but I just don’t have that awareness so. Shooting myself. Can I just acknowledge that I don’t have that awareness? How can I help myself? How can somebody help me to be able to now obtain that awareness and for some people, maybe. Maybe that’s distracting to come and knock on the door, so maybe they want to set up a watch that like Dings. And so you know. Or maybe they want to have a visual timer where they can visually see when it’s going to 5 minutes because you can’t tell what 10 minutes looks like and so it really has to become a personal thing. But if you don’t pay attention. Again, to yourself, what is your perspective like? If we wait to be motivated, we’re never going to feel motivated sometimes, right? But if you find a way to. Reward yourself. So I learned to start printing out like, how many? Like the thing of the patients I was going to see. And every time I close my note, I would scratch it out. So it was a quick dopamine hit. OK, I’m done. I’m done. I’m. Done and so. It it was a way for me to visually see where I was and how was moving through the room and how or through the day and how it maybe I should speed up or slow down or how many people were double booked. And I I took that away. I was like I don’t. Need to be double. Booked because there’s no way possible I could be. Two places at once, as much as I want to believe I can, I cannot. And if a person needed me to be on time, they either had to be my first patient of the day, or my first patient in the afternoon. And if that’s all they cared about, like I wasn’t going to be their patient, I wasn’t going to be their doctor. My, the, the eye or. The person who’s going to hear you. And I’m gonna figure out what’s wrong, and that might take one minute that may take 45 minutes. I have no idea. Of course I’m going to. Be mindful because. I know that if you’re the one waiting for me, you’re gonna be like where? Is she but. I had to learn that the timer was my best friend. That if I. And even doing this for three years now, if the Dave set my timer, it’s not like, oh, OK, she has a muscle that she can just train. No, I will not be on time because I am relying on that timer. 

Patrick Martin 

Wonderful strategies. So when it comes to managing ADHD in the professional environment, as a physician, you’ve learned some of these parameters. Cues boundaries with yourself, but it also sounds like they’re value based. Like you said, you want to be able to give your undivided attention. With your patients and make sure that you’re not double dipping on your time, not double booking, which I know you know is a big ask in the medical field. I mean doctors are the busiest people on the planet and trying to trying to manage your calendar. That way I’m sure it wasn’t easy setting those things up and was it like a trial and error process? 

Dr. Diana 

Yeah, it was a trial and error process because of course most people and I’m generalizing most people with ADHD do not want to say no to things. Anytime you ask us, will we say yes, of course. I’ll take care of it. I’ll. Do it. And so it was learning that I literally had to tell myself. I am the most important patient in the room, if, if I’m not taking care of me, if I’m not doing this for me, I am only going to show. Up 20%. For this person, even though I pretend I’m giving them 120. I’m not because I am not optimizing my way of doing things, so I it really had to be a shift of me missing my own two ADHD private sessions that I paid for. When I realized that. I kept thinking they’re not respecting my time, but my husband was like, they’re not respecting your time or you’re not respecting. And I was like, what do you mean they’re like, did somebody put a gun to your head? To walk into that. Patient’s room. And I was. Like well, no, it’s. My duty, and he’s like whose? Duty is it first to yourself or to the patient. And I was like, go to the patient. They’re like my husband’s like. Really, it’s so it really had to be that conversation and understanding that. Yes, of course. It’s my duty to my patient, but again, if I don’t help myself first, if I’m not showing up in my gifts and my strength and my passion. I’m gonna show up. Like burned out. I’m gonna show up frustrated that I haven’t eaten anything or or that you know. And then then my my nurses would have been like, is she mad or she happy? Can I put a one or can? I not like. They’re trying to read when if you just make the decision ahead of time. Then you don’t. Have to worry. You just change your. Schedule to have some acute slots somewhere. 

Speaker 4 

OK. 

Dr. Diana 

Where then you can put those patients in there because you purposely have told them. I do want to take care of them. It’s just that I work best in the morning. So put all my chronic in the top and I am kind of burned out at the evening. Let’s put some acute in the bottom. And so again it’s it’s shifting it for each person, right and. And I created a 12 week physician coaching group and healthcare provider group that is actually per CME, so they can get continuing medical education. You would think that most decisions or healthcare people that are having ADHD or just ER docs, but we’re everywhere we are pathologists, surgeons, pediatricians, psychiatrists, radiologists, OBGYN’s like you name it. We’re everywhere. Because again, if you’re aligned by your passion, you’re gonna follow it regardless and. At the end of the day, it’s always the mondaine stuff, the administrative stuff that get team to get us into trouble. So if you find a way to set it to your tendencies, if you’re somebody who is better in the afternoon. They put your shift to be 10:00 AM to 7:00 or whatever, right? Like so that you can go exercise in the morning or you can go take your kids to school or you can work part time. Like, stop trying to see what your colleague is doing and focus on what you want to be doing. Right. Because again, if you show up happy with what you’re doing. Then it’s a win win for the patients and then and for your family, because then you still have, you’re still doing it from a point of passion instead of from just a a job perspective, I think. 

Patrick Martin 

You just touched on something that I was curious about because. It’s one thing to know how to manage your. Agenda your to be productive in the workplace in general. I mean you put ADHD as an extra layer on top of that. It even complicates things more. But then there’s the self-care aspect which you just touched on, right. So it sounds to me like what you’re saying is not only is it important to know when we’re at our best. To know ourselves right, have that insight and then plan our anticipated workload around that and and work smarter that way, not harder. But also to make sure that we’re. We’re factoring in that self-care, like you said, to show up as our best self to have our cup full so that we can serve others. And so it sounds like that might even mean like, OK, you still have to choose where your energy goes, because if you’re at your best in the afternoon, that doesn’t necessarily mean you go to the gym in the afternoon. Sometimes that means choosing. Do I want to be my? Best do I wanna feel my best at the gym or do? I wanna feel my best at work, right? The conflict. 

Dr. Diana 

Yeah. And again, that’s where and I honestly I didn’t even know what self-care meant. That sounds silly, but. To me, self-care maybe meant like getting your nails done or whatever and I never had time for that. So I was. Like whatever. But I realized that self. Care meant eating. Men going to the bathroom. Men sleeping. Meant showing up for your kids if you wanted to show up for their teacher parent conference. Like I realized that self-care meant the basic things that are so common to everybody else that maybe doesn’t have ADHD because their brain just kind of tells them, yeah, you should sleep about 7 hours. Yeah, maybe you should have a little bit more protein instead of all. Sugar and so. I realized that if I wasn’t on purpose practicing self-care, which was setting the intention for the day, what three things am I grateful? Meditating if I didn’t come from that perspective. And judge myself for the entire and da. Da da da da. Then I was in South neglect and self neglect did not help anybody around and and again like I realized that OK, why do I give everything to my work family? And then I’m completed. I have 0 executive function for my. Real family at home. I say everything I’m doing is for them, but I don’t have enough energy to give them because I’m just depleted because. I stayed too much in my passion at work and did not have that reserve and so. Not until. COVID then I I found live coaching and then I found ADHD coaching and I. Was glad that. The physician coach was was honest enough to be like, yeah, now you’re still all over the place. You might still want to consider medications they might work, or they might not. You’re running. You’re doing this, you’re doing that. But I don’t still think you’re optimized and and in my. Maybe you are and. So why don’t you give yourself a chance to seek a therapist or seek a counselor or seek a psychiatrist? Like, what would you tell your patient if they came to you and I was like, well, of course I would refer them. And they’re like, well, why can’t you? Refer them to who you would trust to refer them to. Why can’t you refer yourself to somebody you would trust? And and I’m glad that again, somebody gave me the permission that we don’t give. Ourselves, which is. To seek a second, third, fourth, fifth opinion. If something is not working like. Just ask. Maybe it is ideal and that’s perfect. Great. They all confirm that this is your Max, right? 

Speaker 

Right. 

Dr. Diana 

But if it’s not, why allow a stranger who gave me less than two minutes of their time when I became an attendee to tell me that I should outgrow this like he doesn’t know what I’ve been through? Oh, and of course, if I could go back now, I would tell him that. But maybe I have to go through all this to be able to, to advocate for myself and for those around us. And again to realize that I wasn’t trying to be lazy. Anything. Most people with ADHD are way overworking themselves. They’re the opposite of lazy. But they’re so spent that then you just see them when they’re burned out. 

Patrick Martin 

Right. 

Dr. Diana 

You then label them as lady because you don’t know how much it. Took to get to that. 

Patrick Martin 

Wow. Absolutely. And so you took something that could? Have been. Like you know, taking you off of off course, right, that kind of negative feedback. Scars sounds pretty like it sounds like a permanent thing, like, oh, you should just forget about this. And this is somebody that you went to seek help from and you could have just left it there. But instead you said, oh, no, I’m gonna get some some other opinions. And that’s very smart. And I’m glad to hear you advocating for that as a physician for people to to shot, you know, get other opinions, drop around, get a consensus right, because we’re all human. Everybody has their implicit bias. Everybody has their. They’re uh. Niche and mental blocks and nobody’s an expert in everything, so it’s important that we we try and look for the aggregate of information and that knowledge and then make informed decisions. And I’m so glad that you did. And you’re such an advocate for others because of it, right? 

Dr. Diana 

Right. 

Patrick Martin 

And because you received coaching because you invested in yourself, now you understand the power. Right. To provide that that space for others. 

Dr. Diana 

Yeah. Yeah. And I think that’s a. You realize that sometimes again this our self talk is so crucial and we don’t realize that we’re. Not all our. Thoughts. We’re not all our emotions and that there’s some good in. There that you need to really like. Write down. Look at every day and there’s some that just like at home. You have to take out the trash, like sometimes you have to take out. The trash. Whatever. Your brain is offering you need to put them down and keep going and. But asking for help is the first key because many of us have been. Told or maybe grew up thinking, oh, I. Can just do. It myself I should be. Able to do it myself and. It’s silly for us to think that. We’re supposed to be like. The lawyers for kids, the nurse for kids, the doctor for kids, the accountant for kids, the teacher for the like, everything for your kids, right. And Disney for your kids. Right. You’re supposed to provide all kinds of entertainment too, right? And. 

Patrick Martin 

Right. Yes, yes. 

Dr. Diana 

I think you have to realize that back in the day like it was because of communities that people did so well, like they could go to church or they could go have like, you know, go to their auntie or uncle or whoever to. Try to figure. Out what piece that person needed in order to further fulfill themselves. Right. So maybe maybe that’s not happy. Well, it’s not that he’s not happy. He’s tired. He’s working two or three jobs. Right. And so instead of? Who else can help me or how else can I reframe this? So that you use all the tools, the therapist. The counselor that ADHD coach. And maybe sometimes investing in couples therapy if you have somebody who has ADHD, it’s the single best investment you can do because sometimes what brings you together is what tears you apart because you’re like, oh, you used to be so like creative and innovative and but now then. You continue doing that and they’re like, you’re childish. You haven’t done that, that, that, that. And so you don’t realize that sometimes. How we show up in one aspect we show up in all the aspects you know, maybe we’re trying to people please because we don’t want to let anybody down and we say yes to commitments that we shouldn’t be. Saying yes to or. And then sometimes that could be money commitments or that could be time commitments or and we don’t realize that. The thing you say yes to means you’re saying no to something else that you. Might have really. Wanted to do and and it could be that no right now it might be that in two or three years you decide. Yes, later if. That’s still valid. 

Patrick Martin 

I’m so glad you bring that up because we talk so much about this in counseling. As a therapist, you know this idea of. Learning how to communicate your boundaries and protecting time for yourself is not selfish, right? When we fill our cup, I think so many people struggle with being people pleasers. Having trouble with no, and learning just that language, right? Like you said, maybe not right. An hour if somebody asks for your help, saying like, you know, I would love to do that for you. I’m not in a position, but here are some resources. Other ways to communicate. Ways you can help or not know right now in order to protect that time for yourself and fill your cup because and that’s something I wasn’t even aware of, is that people with ADHD tend to have trouble with that, that that like to say yes to everything. What do, where do you think that comes from? 

Dr. Diana 

Well, if you can think back like again. People were living in tribes, right? And if you were not pulling your weight, then you might have been kicked out of that tribe and being kicked out of that tribe, man. You might die like you don’t have anybody who is having your back to survive. Right and so. We have something called rejection sensitivity display. Yeah. Which means that if if you tell me no for some reason and it might be an insignificant little thing, but we take it to mean like 10 times like what it is like we we feel like you really rejected us like we feel. 

Speaker 

Like you left us. 

Dr. Diana 

Like I don’t know. I’m on the road and people are like. You know, pointing fingers and laughing at us, that doesn’t really. It’s not true, but in your brain. Because of that innate wiring of wanting to fit in, wanting that love and acceptance. If we are saying no to something, we automatically think you’re going to reject me. And if you’re rejecting me. You’re rejecting my. Whole family and that’s it like. 

Patrick Martin 

Right, right. It’s bigger than life, yeah. 

Dr. Diana 

And so again. And that’s why sometimes when we do become overwhelmed with trying to do too many things at once, again, it’s not that you have a problem. It’s just you’re trying to do too many things at once, like, slow down, breathe again. What is my intention here? What am I trying to do? What? Why am I nervous? Like, what is happening right now? Right now, am I really like in danger? No, I’m not. I just think I am. But I’m not really in danger. Right. And so it’s not like you said, ability to. You look at yourself and feel those vibrations in your body that they’re just vibrations, but we sometimes have not been taught to label them. Anger that Ness frustration and resentment because in our mind, we should not be feeling that mess or anger or whatever, we should just. Do it because. That’s what a mom would, or that’s what a. Husband would do or that’s what. Uh, you know, a doctor would do, or that’s what the boss would do or whatever, right. So we should should, should, should again. And and. And it’s all this expectations that are unmet that leads to that feeling that if I tell you no, you’re gonna reject me and therefore I’m gonna feel horrible. And I mean it got to the point where I had to realize that. Sometimes I was lying again because I didn’t want to say no. I cannot come. To your party. I’m so tired. I would say, oh, I’m on call and then of course they would ask me, how was the call. And then I forgot I had told them I was on call. I was like, no, I wasn’t on call. I was asleep. I was tired all week and so then then they would be like, well, you told me. 

Speaker 

Right. 

Dr. Diana 

And then so then all of a sudden you look like a liar. When I mean, you can’t even remember who you’re telling what to. But instead of just saying no, thank you for the invite. But this week I’m really spent. I’m really tired. I’m just gonna rest. Ohh you you have to say why you can just say no. I’m not available and that’s it, right? But then you get yourself in trouble when you do over explain and then maybe it was again. You’re trying to hurt their feelings and you end up looking like a dummy when they find out. 

Patrick Martin 

Right. It kind of goes back what you’re talking about with the whole like case presentations and things, it’s sometimes TMI. And going off on like. Side journeys with your discussion as opposed to focusing on just the necessary information and so that that can not only create angst in the workplace that can create angst in your relationships too, and it’s kind of like this negative feedback loop right then you have that self fulfilling prophecy somewhat. 

Dr. Diana 

Yeah. So I have to learn that. I literally had to write a one page of what happened today. Not one chapter, not one book of what happened to you. Like I have to tell myself. No, this is like just today, like what happened today. We discussed this medication, this medication, this medication. I don’t need to go back to 20 years worth of stuff that is not relevant. 

Patrick Martin 

Yeah. OK. Right. 

Dr. Diana 

To right now and be. Happy enough that if I needed that information, I would know where to go. Hunt for. So that. I wouldn’t be again carrying extra. Memory stuff that I was keeping in the front of my of my brain that that was not important. And so one of the key things I did was I told myself, I’m going to give myself, I’m going to gift myself 3 minutes before I walk out of the room to write my assessment and plan. I already did the hard part. I already know what we’re doing. I’m going to know. The best thing I can right now, I’m not going to know it at the end of the day when I’m seeing 20 dot fields or 20 Smith, I’m not gonna write it. I’m not meant to have a long my short term memory is always going to be 1000 times better than my long term memory, and so it might take me 3 minutes now. It might take me 15 minutes at the end of the day, it might take me two hours trying to. 

Patrick Martin 

Right. 

Dr. Diana 

They piece it together. In two weeks from now, when I didn’t know what had. Yeah. And so I had to learn that my messy first draft was gonna be actually amazing because people could know what happened and I wasn’t overthinking it. I just said exactly what happened. If it was control, not control. If I changed or didn’t change because patient was not even taking the meds. So where we’re starting the meds and and so I. 

Patrick Martin 

Right. 

Dr. Diana 

Have to learn to be. Get to the point so that when I would read my own note. It would take. Me less than 20 seconds to read my assessment plan because let’s be real. 90% of the notes never get opened again by anybody. 

Patrick Martin 

Isn’t that the truth? 

Dr. Diana 

And I’ve been really gonna sit. 

Patrick Martin 

Even in counseling, I had to learn. 

Dr. Diana 

There for 40 minutes trying to read no. 

Patrick Martin 

That I was like, OK. Just in progress, note to the therapist I was like, yeah. When I remember when I first started out, it was like a book, you know, for a progress note and like, now, you know, Fast forward 12 years, it’s like. 

Speaker 4 

You’re just having. 

Patrick Martin 

A few bullet points like. OK, this is what we. Address. So when I look back, I know it’s. Important, right? 

Dr. Diana 

Yeah, exactly. And knowing the key things like you can say house burned down, right? Like you don’t have to go into the. How many people were in the house? What time was it in the day? Was it in the spring? Was it in the like? 

Patrick Martin 

No, that’s so true. I’m sure we all appreciate that validation. I know I do. For sure. So, uh, so much wonderful information. Doctor. Diana, before we land the plane. I’m wonder if we could do a few rapid fire questions. Things that I think would be appropriate for anyone watching the replay on this. So one of the things. I hear the most complaints about with people with ADHD is productivity, right? How do how does one stay productive on a task, whether that’s studying for an exam or getting through their To Do List? How do you how do you? Prioritize tasks and manage time effectively in light of ADHD symptoms, which or what advice as a coach would you say is is crucial? 

Dr. Diana 

So I would say if it’s something that you are trying to set up, the systems that you do all the time. 1st just get curious time yourself. Tell you. Ask yourself how much? How much time do you think this takes? Then you time yourself like without modifying, changing anything. Gather awareness, right? And then ask yourself what went well during that thing? Like where was the areas where I felt in flow? And then what were the distract? Like what got in the way? Like for me when I was trying to do the charting or when I was trying to finish my encounter, I realized that I have to stop disruption. Nurses would come and knock on the door and be like, hey, could you sign this orders have nothing to do with the patient I was seeing. Hey, the ER’s calling. Of course I can call them two minutes. After I walked out like so, I had to set get very clear with what was. Oh, I was continually running out. So why don’t I have a binder with the common things that I always give my patients? This is this is the blood pressure, this is. For this, why do I have to keep printing it over and over and over again and running out to go get it? And then come back. 

Patrick Martin 

Right. Smart. 

Dr. Diana 

In for them to then tell you five other questions that you thought you had finished in common. So productivity. Be what you’re already doing because everything has a system. We live and die by our habits and even the bad habits or inefficient habits are there for a purpose because they are still accomplishing something. If you’re somebody like me who two or three was gonna go get the cookie because I needed some fuel to get me through the rest of the day, then realize, OK, at two or three, let me do like a 3 minute meditation instead of the cookie. Or let me put in a gum to get some oxygen to my brain to think more. So, like, again. To be efficient or effective, you have to really. That you already have some habits. And why are they going well and maybe set up the environment? So for me I have to set up a candle. I always have candles. 

Patrick Martin 

Ah, love it. 

Dr. Diana 

Boy, they smell nice. They help me be in flow. It’s like I was rewarding myself for doing a task that I didn’t want to do. I love my patients. I felt like I already did the work in the room. Why do I have to write this note? But if I set up a candle that relax me, that grounded me and I started with the intention, the intention is for me to get these notes done as quickly as possible with. My short term. Right. That was my intention. My intention was not to sit here with this note for eight hours, although there was a period of my time where I did do that that I didn’t realize that working fast. Not necessarily working for accuracy, but fast. Didn’t equate to working slow and taking 20 hours like I could always go back and modify stuff, but if I got my. Points out it was so much easier to modify than to sit there and create a perfect draft that never got done right. So I think. When we’re talking about productivity. Make it a game. Make it playful. Beat the timer if you don’t like timers, beat the song. Put your favorite two or three songs that you like and you can say I can do anything to this two or three songs. And even if you cannot quote UN quote complete the task, sometimes we are know initiation task initiation. That’s an executive function. That’s different from task switching and task completion, so do not try to lump all three tasks into one. They’re different, so don’t blame yourself for look at me. I start at 10 task and I can’t complete. Well, you’re very good talking initiation. That’s awesome. OK, so. When can you restart that task? When you put it later on in the day? Can you do it tomorrow? Can. Sometimes you just have to put it on your calendar. And the more bite size they are, the. Easier it is for. You to accomplish what you want, and then sometimes. 

Patrick Martin 

Isn’t that the truth? 

Dr. Diana 

You have to. Be real. You’re never going to do it, even if it’s. 

Patrick Martin 

Like that. 

Dr. Diana 

In your account, who can? 

Patrick Martin 

Right, yeah. 

Dr. Diana 

You delegate that task to. Do you have a best friend that this is like their jam and they will take him 2 minutes. Maybe right. Why not use the village? Do the body double like they might be doing their own thing? You’re doing your own thing, but it’s that accountability that I have told you out loud. What my objective is for today, my objective is to do yoga. My objective is to do these dishes, OK? Can I put on a podcast like you said, can I hear Shakira? Because I’m gonna do something fun with something. Not so. And if it takes me doing the dishes three times in the dishwasher because that’s how. Much energy I. Have it is what it is. Don’t. Judge yourself. That’s what you. Got that’s what you do. 

Patrick Martin 

I love that approach you just hit on so many hot topics that are really. Really. Salient across personal development and this idea of time management is so closely tied to our our idea of the self, our ego, our self esteem, our sense of. Capability right. Adequacy in the world so much right to ourselves to others, our value, right, how we how we perceive value, how we feel like we’re valued. It’s just such a huge topic and you just hit some of the most crucial aspects right time auditing how how often do we take time to audit where our time is going. So we can better manage it, right? So we can improve our system. So important, like you said with the binder, right? I’ve been telling myself that for the last couple of weeks as we got back from the pandemic prior to the pandemic, I used to print out a lot of my handouts for clients and worksheets of stuff out use repetitively, right? The homework assignments and stuff. And I’ll keep them in folders in My Portfolio and I’ll hand them out. But since the pandemic, I had stopped doing that. As we were all virtual for so long and. Now I’m seeing people impersonating. I’m like, oh, yeah, that’s that’s why I did that. I forgot I should do that again because I find myself free, doing like, all of those many steps in the adds up. And it it breaks up the flow for sure. So improving the systems, doing time audits, finding out where the time sucks are the distractions as well as. Improving the moment, right, we talked about that a lot. There’s an unpleasant task. How? Do we make? It more pleasurable, I know what I do is I’ll. If I need to focus during my my charting, whatever I’ll put on a lofi girl Apple music, it’s like lofi beats. Great, works great for me and that’s my go to. If I press play on my keyboard right now it will start. Playing it’s always. In the. Background things like that, right? It puts us in the in the zone, like you said, with the with the candle, right? That aromatherapy, right? That’s improving the moment. And you said start simple with drafts and gamify it. I love games. I think that’s one of the most powerful tools across the board with personal development, even in marketing and pretty much everything we’re talking about human behavior, psychology of behavior. If we can gamify. Then we’re more engaged, right? Less like work. 

Dr. Diana 

It and use it to your strength if you know that you’ve been putting off. Stuff because you have a. Cluttered stuff there. Go to the. Starbucks go to like the library, go some if you need to go and check into a hotel the week before you take. A big test go. Do that like do whatever it takes for you to have your sanity for it to feel like a gift to yourself instead of like a. Ohh I should have really put all those papers away like it’s in the background, right? It’s like you’re shaming yourself instead of being in this thing that I said my intention was it’s in the background. So. It is distracting you out of sight. Like put it in the other room, put it in the closet, lock it, whatever, like you just gotta decide. What is the most important thing right now. And I I always tell myself right here, right now, right here, right now I’m talking to you right here, right now. I am shopping right here right now. And we happy with my kid that is having a meltdown and I am breathing. Through this so that I don’t. React back. So like you have to like realize right here right now. Like you can only do one thing at a time, even though we all try to pretend that we can do 10,000 things we can’t. So if you just go back to what am I doing right here right now? And why? Why? If somebody told me or because this is what I want to? Do or because. I need to get paid for. This chart has to be closed, right? Like why? Why? Why? Because the why is what’s gonna drive us to complete the. Task that we’re trying to do. 

Patrick Martin 

Wow man, those are all excellent on point, I mean. Fire tips 100% and this is again just the the work of personal development and being, like I said, mindful being present, right, being committed to where we are and sometimes that that actually sometimes that always requires that we get good at catching. Our thoughts or catching our behavior when we find ourselves being distracted. And that’s not. That’s easier said than done. Sometimes it’s a exercise. 

Dr. Diana 

Knowing that again the the the the rule here is not perfection, we’re talking about progress, right? Because do I still jump sometimes at what my husband says, and then I’m like, and then I have to call him back and be like I am sorry that came out really wrong. I think I attacked you. I. Didn’t even hear your. And and again being willing to reflect that just because we’ve been doing sometimes some patterns on automatic, it doesn’t mean that you can’t still. Like save Grace, right, and have compassionate for yourself. If your friend called you and said this is what just happened, what would you tell her? Him, right? Being, you know strong enough to be like, I’m sorry I didn’t show up how I wanted to. This is what I was thinking. And maybe that’s not where you were going with that, but that’s where my brain went. 

Patrick Martin 

MMM wow, insight. So many, so many Nuggets of wisdom here. Doctor Diana. I really appreciate you being on the show. I’d love to have you back on to share more about this topic. It’s it’s deep and wide. Yeah, and you know. 

Dr. Diana 

Yeah, yeah, for sure. 

Patrick Martin 

It is 100% and I really appreciate your input. I think we lost our Instagram stream, but that’s OK. Anybody who wants to catch this replay, just head over to the YouTube channel. Or the Facebook page. It’s up there, it will be live as soon as we have the broadcast here. OK. And as far as where everyone can find you, we know about ADHD. Lifecoach.com. Is that hyphenated? 

Dr. Diana 

Yes, it’s hyphenated adhd-livecoach.com. There’s an area there where it says connect. You can just send me a message through there. I I also have a podcast that is called beyond ADHD, a physicians perspective and. 

Patrick Martin 

Ohh fantasy. 

Dr. Diana 

I will have you there as a guest soon. 

Patrick Martin 

Oh, I would love. Yeah, I’m. Looking forward to it, that would be great, yeah. 

Dr. Diana 

See and that’s the beauty. The beautiful thing about that name for that podcast. Because it could be my perspective on anything and everything. Yes, it could be ADHD related. But at the end of the day, we’re all just trying to do the best that we can with the tools that we. Currently have available right? 

Patrick Martin 

Ohh isn’t that the truth? We’re just doing the best we can with what we have with where we are and staying scrappy and not shooting ourselves or shaming ourselves along the way, right? Just trying to keep an open mind and and work with the systems, improve systems, right so much appreciated. Doctor Diana as always. You’re appreciated and you’re welcome back on to share more Nuggets of wisdom at your leisure. So thank you. All right. You take care. 

Dr. Diana 

Thank you so much. 

Patrick Martin 

Hey, if you’re getting value from this content and you haven’t done so already, be sure to like and subscribe to the YouTube channel and podcast and be sure to subscribe to the MHT newsletter. That way you don’t miss out on any new content as it’s released links in the description. 

Speaker 3 

Thanks for listening to the mental Health Toolbox Podcast. Learn more at www.thementalhealthtoolbox.com. 

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The Mental Health Toolbox-LLC, is on a mission to raise awareness of effective strategies for increasing quality of life through personal development.
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