Hacking Your ADHD

Is it possible to take ADHD off "Hard Mode"?
We often hear that living with ADHD is like playing a video game where the difficulty slider is permanently stuck on "Hard." But while the challenges of executive dysfunction are very real, we sometimes make things even more difficult for ourselves by insisting on doing things the "right" (read: hardest) way.
In this classic monologue episode, William Curb explores the concept of Easy Mode. What would it look like if your morning routine felt effortless? What if your workspace didn't feel like a barrier to your productivity?
By utilizing the "Focusing Question" from Gary Keller's The One Thing, William breaks down how to find the lead domino that makes every other task easier—or completely unnecessary.
In this episode, we discuss:
The "Easy Mode" Vision: Defining what a low-friction life actually looks like (and why a perfect life might actually be a bit boring).

The Focusing Question: Learning to ask, "What's the one thing I can do such that by doing it, everything else will be easier or unnecessary?"

The Domino Effect: Why focusing on small, strategic tasks creates the momentum needed to tackle the big ones.

Environment Design: Using the three parts of a task (Setup, Doing, and Cleanup) to reduce the cognitive load of starting.

Progress over Perfection: Shifting the goal from "fixing" your ADHD to simply sliding that difficulty scale down a few notches.

Mentioned in this episode:
The One Thing by Gary Keller and Jay Papasan

The "Walls of Awful" concept (shoutout to Brendan Mahan)

Checklists & Automation: Tools to make remembering "unnecessary."

"Sometimes life is hard because our ADHD is making it harder, and sometimes it's because we're choosing to do things in the hardest way possible."
Find the full show notes and transcript at: hackingyouradhd.com/191
Support the show on Patreon: patreon.com/hackingyouradhd

Hey Team!
We often talk about the "internal" struggles of ADHD, the messy desks and the forgotten appointments, but we don't always talk about how the outside world reacts to those traits. I'm joined by Brooke Schnittman, an ADHD coach and the best-selling author of Activate Your ADHD Potential. Brooke has worked with thousands of individuals to help them develop sustainable systems for focus and emotional regulation, but today, she's here to talk about a global study she conducted on the link between ADHD and bullying.
So in today's episode, we're talking about how this study was conducted and what we can garner from that data. We also discuss the "invisible disability" penalty, where our symptoms are misinterpreted as character flaws, and how "masking" can actually prevent us from progressing because we're too busy being chameleons. And we also cover some practical ways to identify safe people and build a "reciprocal" support system that helps buffer against the impact of chronic criticism.
If you'd life to follow along on the show notes page you can find that at HackingYourADHD.com/283
YouTube: https://tinyurl.com/y835cnrk
Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/HackingYourADHD
This Episode's Top Tips
When faced with a threat or bullying, the ADHD brain often experiences a physiological "freeze" where the parasympathetic nervous system takes over. It's important for us to understand that we're not always in control of this shift, and not to be self-critical about how we react in the moment and give ourselves grace to do better in the future.
To effectively manage a bullying situation, we have to understand the framework: repetition, power imbalance, and harm. Recognizing that a power imbalance can be "social status" or "neurotypical norms" rather than just a boss-employee hierarchy allows us to identify why a situation feels "off".
Many ADHDers stay in bullying situations because the executive function required to leave (interviewing, onboarding, starting over) feels more overwhelming than the bullying itself. Shifting the perspective to "body data"—how your nervous system feels around that person—can be a more reliable indicator than your internal pro/con list.
Since bullying often triggers a survival response that shuts down your executive functions, you can't rely on logic in the moment. To combat this, Brooke suggests focusing on nervous system regulation tools (like EMDR or grounding) to help your body feel safe again. You have to train your brain before the situation occurs so that "doing X when Y happens" becomes a more automatic habit.

Welcome to Hacking Your ADHD. I'm your host, William Curb, and I have ADHD. On this podcast, I dig into the tools, tactics, and best practices to help you work with your ADHD brain. Today I'm joined by Skye Waterson for our research recap series. In this series, we take a look at a single research paper, dive into what it says, how it was conducted, and try to find any practical takeaways.
In this episode, we're going to be discussing a paper called "Improvement of Anxiety and ADHD following goal-focused cognitive remediation: a randomized controlled trial." This study investigates goal-focused interventions and looks at whether they can improve executive function and emotional well-being for adults with ADHD. There's not too much to the intro, so let's get into it.
If you'd life to follow along on the show notes page you can find that at https://HackingYourADHD.com/282
https://tinyurl.com/56rvt9fr - Unconventional Organisation Affiliate link
https://tinyurl.com/y835cnrk - YouTube
https://www.patreon.com/HackingYourADHD - Patreon

If you only listen to one episode this year to ground your understanding of ADHD, make it this one. We are dipping back into the archives to bring you a masterclass from Dr. Stephen Faraone, a world-renowned expert ranked in the top 0.01% of scientists globally.
In a world of 60-second TikTok "diagnoses" and viral misinformation, Dr. Faraone joins William to discuss the ADHD Evidence Project. They strip away the noise to look at what 208 internationally supported research statements actually tell us about the ADHD brain.
If you'd life to follow along on the show notes page you can find that at HackingYourADHD.com/202
What's Inside This Encore:
The "Pyramid of Evidence": Why a charismatic story on social media isn't the same as a peer-reviewed meta-analysis.

Debunking the "Modern Invention" Myth: Did you know ADHD was described in medical texts as far back as the 1700s?

The Truth About Environment: From "Screen Time" to "Bad Parenting" and what actually causes ADHD (and what definitely doesn't).

The Medication Gap: A look at the real-world costs of not treating ADHD, including the staggering statistics within prison populations.

The "Default Mode Network": A fascinating look at why the ADHD brain struggles to flip the switch between daydreaming and "Executive Mode."

Why We're Re-Sharing This: This episode serves as a vital "BS detector" for anyone navigating ADHD. Dr. Faraone reminds us that while ADHD is a significant part of our lives, it doesn't define our entire identity: it's just the operating system we're working with.

In today's special rebroadcast, we're revisiting a deeply personal and essential conversation from the Hacking Your ADHD archives. When the world feels heavy and focus feels like a luxury we can't afford, how do we keep moving forward?
Will opens up about the "surreal" experience of navigating life's mundane demands: laundry, dishes, and school runs all while grappling with the sudden loss of his mother. It's a raw look at the cognitive dissonance of surviving a personal tragedy while the rest of the world refuses to hit the pause button.
If you'd life to follow along on the show notes page you can find that at HackingYourADHD.com/212
What You'll Re-Learn:
Numbing vs. Resting: How to tell if you're actually recharging or just hiding from your feelings.

The "Go Big or Go Home" Trap: Why your ADHD brain loves a fantasy plan, and why "going home" is usually the result.

The Power of the Bucket: Shifting from the despair of being alone to the strength of community.

Self-Grace: A much-needed reminder that being hard on yourself is never the productivity hack you think it is.

Whether you're hearing this for the first time or the fifth, William's insights on "resisting despair" are as timely today as they were when this episode first dropped