ADHD Open Space Podcast

This wasn't supposed to be an episode. I've been trying to find more ways to overcome my strange block to creating content here, and one suggestion I got from another content creator was " just put on a mic or a camera and just talk. No expectation of creating something worth publishing -- just getting used to being recorded." On the afternoon of Friday, May 1st, I had to drive out to the VA to (h...

A lot of maxims, truisms, corollaries, and such got left on the metaphorical cutting room floor. In the interest of completeness and inclusion, here are some of the related phenomena that have epitomized my experience of ADHD:

Originally published as an article on Medium.com . For the last few months I've been writing down things that help me function with ADHD. These were short phrases, kind of like mantras: hurrying is kryptonite. Nothing is on the way to anything else. Choice is friction. I started calling this my "Rules of ADHD", and planned to write them up — but when I got to number sixteen, I realized that would...

originally written for Medium • Photo by Jackson Simmer  on  Unsplash If you know, you know. And that changes pretty much everything. " Suddenly, so much of my life made so much more sense." That's the most common refrain I hear from people like me who were late-diagnosed with ADHD. In my case, it was an ongoing, bitter, semi-serious joke, because while I excelled at tests, writing, and learning o...

originally written for Medium.com • Photo by  Keagan Henman  on  Unsplash The Deeper Long-Term Effects of Late-Diagnosis ADHD I was interviewed recently by the hosts of a decluttering podcast (link to come later, it's not online yet!). I've been writing about organization systems and techniques for decades. I have always enjoyed trying out new systems, finding out the advantages and limitations an...

originally published on Medium.com I learned the hard way, so maybe you won't have to. I write a lot about productivity tools and methods. I've written about time management and project planning and habit formation and self reflection. I've reviewed the things that make these possible, apps and notebooks and timers and even wrote a book about my favorite form of meditation. I left something very i...

Raise your hand if any of these phrases sound familiar: " Oh, %$#@, it started five minutes ago! " " Wait — that was today? " " This is taking forever. How can it not be over yet? " " Guess I'm just gonna be late…again. " " What was it I'm supposed to be doing now? " If your hand is still down, this article is not for you; go back to reading " How to enjoy your perfectly manageable schedule " or "...

drawing by the author using Adobe Fresco  #byHumansForHumans #noAI Raise your hand if you've ever found yourself rummaging through drawers, wandering through room after room in your house, checking backpacks and briefcases and pockets repeatedly, all while muttering " I know I saw that somewhere… " " That ", of course, is a thing that you did not need when you saw it last. It registered as a blip...

Transcript: Welcome to the ADHD Open Space Podcast.  My name is Gray Miller, and I will be your host and facilitator as we explore ideas, workarounds, accommodations, and other aspects of being a professional adult with ADHD.  Most of this will come from my perspective as a cis white male in his mid-fifties living in the Midwest who found out a year ago that I've been living with ADHD my entire li...

Let me tell you about the winter when the Idea Monster came and sat in his brain and almost kept the last five NaPodPoMo podcasts from happening. And also…about the fun game about ADHD that I'm creating. "Squirrel card, like…Someone sent a thumbs up emoji and you're distracted, lose, you're distracted, so you lose a certain number of emotional regulation tokens. Or you moved houses three months ag...

This was a hard one to post, because my partner is loving and honest and so there are parts of this interview that my brain tells me will make you hate me. But authenticity is important, as is trust, and I trust both her and you, my listeners. So here it is in unedited glory.

After my diagnosis, even my dreams make more sense. Sort of.   Note: all people mentioned in this article are fictitious constructs of my subconscious brain. Even the one who is real. Since my relatively recent diagnosis, I've been immersing myself in research, anecdotes, podcasts, videos, and social media related to adult ADHD. It's been quite the revelatory experience, as my perspective of the l...

Made for Open Space. But tempting for the world... Here's the thing about Open Space: aside from providing people with the oppor- tunity to share the things they're passionate about, it also provides them with an op- portunity to be responsible. That one law I mentioned? It's known as "The Law of Mobility", and it is pretty simply expressed: If you are not benefiting from or contributing to whatev...

Whoever. Whatever. Whenever. It's Over. That's what makes it all work. My elevator pitch on Open Space goes something like this: "You know how regular conventions give you a program that tells you who's going to talk, what they're going to talk about, and exactly how long they're going to let you think about it before they'll stop talking? Open space is the opposite of that. People show up, and we...

Including some thoughts on overcoming impostor syndrome as a professional. I actually wrote an entire article about this on October 25th, 2023, and posted it both to my Medium account and to the ADHD OpenSpace newsletter.  What was funny to me is that a few days later on October 29th the threads account of simple. mindful.adhd (who I have enjoyed following).  (And by the way, I am, I'm quoting the...

Please stop telling me my brain has a "Special Superpower."   "I'm a fish in a forest." I'm pretty sure at some point I'm going to make t-shirts with this statement. It's my reaction to the oft-repeated "superpower" trope about ADHD. Here's a bit of a rant…but I suspect it will resonate. TRANSCRIPT OF MAIN BODY There are two kinds of people when it comes to ADHD. On the one side, there are people...

The many ways professionals with ADHD find to externalize their executive function and get %$#@ done. TRANSCRIPT OF PODCAST "Hang on a minute," my coworker said through the zoom. "I need to take care of this now, or it won't get done." I nodded and sat back in my office chair. "I get it. Let me know when you're done." The task was small, tedious, and crucial to the success of our upcoming fundrais...

Welcome to my somewhat unconventional journey through adulthood, peppered with the kind of ADHD moments that make you go, "Aha!" So, grab your favorite beverage (I would recommend coffee, the adulting juice, but you'd never sleep, so maybe try water?), and let's dive into the delightful chaos that has been my life. Every ADHD moment you spot is a reminder to take a drink — and that life is never d...

Hello, I'm Gray Miller, and today, I want to share a personal reflection on being a professional adult who was late-diagnosed with ADHD. I'm a cis white male in my mid-fifties from the Midwest, and it was only a year ago (February of 2023) that I had it confirmed that I have been living with ADHD all my life. Rather than have an exact transcript of the podcast episode, this is a summary for the TL...

You know how ADHD can cause you to do impulsive things? Many years ago, but for several years in a row, I decided to try the National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo) challenge. You try to write a 50,000 word piece (novel, whatever) in a month. I did it. It felt great. But in succeeding years it got easier, and eventually (surprise!) I got bored with it. But some friends of mine from Creative Work...