Latest / ADHD with Confidence | Overcome Anxiety & Self-Doubt, Christian ADHD Coach, ADHD in Women / 134 // Daily ADHD Planning Mistakes to Avoid

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134 // Daily ADHD Planning Mistakes to Avoid · ADHD with Confidence | Overcome Anxiety & Self-Doubt, Christian ADHD Coach, ADHD in Women

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  Being planned ahead can make for a better day, a better evening,
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  the day before, a better week.
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  Just feeling better prepared makes you feel better overall.
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  But there are some common mistakes in our daily ADHD planning that I want to help you to avoid.
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  Are you tired of feeling like you don't fit in? Like you're not good enough the way you are?
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  In this podcast, I will give you the strategies to build God-centered confidence
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  so you can know in your heart that you do belong.
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  You are enough and you are made on purpose and with a purpose.
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  Hey, I'm Kelsey Spronk, fellow ADHD mom and entrepreneur.
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  Join me in building confidence so you can experience success with ADHD in all areas of your life.
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  So go grab yesterday's coffee from the microwave and let's get started.
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  Hey friends, welcome to the ADHD with Confidence podcast. I'm your host, Kelsey.
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  Today we're going to talk about common mistakes that are made when using a daily ADHD planner.
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  Now, before I move on with the episode, I want to let you know that that ADHD
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  planner will be linked below.
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  This is just a free one that I've made that you can use. I recommend printing
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  out a full week's worth at a time so that you don't have to go and print it every single day.
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  You can also purchase one online. There are lots of different options out there,
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  but this is just one that I find works well.
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  All right, going into, first of all, why is it that we want to plan?
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  So there can be various reasons for this.
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  Some that come to mind, most importantly for me, is I like to plan ahead so
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  that I can live intentionally.
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  Now, even when I hear myself saying
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  that, it might sound like I do this perfectly and I do it all the time.
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  That is definitely not true. I definitely do not do this perfectly,
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  nor do I do it all the time.
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  But when I do plan ahead, when I fill out my daily planner the night before
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  or even the morning of, I find it sets an intention for the day.
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  It helps me to feel more focused.
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  I have more clarity on what it is I'm trying to accomplish, and it kind of prevents
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  me from getting as overwhelmed most of the time from all of the spiraling,
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  spinning thoughts that are everywhere in my mind.
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  So it helps me to live intentionally. It helps me to forget less often,
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  and then it decreases the mental load of trying to just remember,
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  which I don't think is realistic for anybody with how many things most of us
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  have on the go at all times.
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  So these are some reasons why it's important to plan.
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  And then in today's episode, I want to go through some of the common mistakes
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  that we make when we are planning.
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  So the first one would be, when you are planning out your day,
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  a mistake is adding everything.
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  When you add every teeny tiny little thing or you add your entire to-do list
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  that's, you know, 10 pages long, it's going to be overwhelming to look at.
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  And it's also going to be unrealistic to accomplish.
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  So I encourage you to boil it down. What's nice about this free planner that
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  I have linked below is it will ask you, what are your top three priorities today?
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  And there's only space for three. And it really helps you. I mean,
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  I've talked with clients before who were, you know, searching for a job.
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  And they felt like they had to be working on that every single day.
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  And when we talked about the idea of, you know, what would it look like if you
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  took breaks and you did a job search on Monday, Wednesday and Friday,
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  and then you gave yourself Tuesday and Thursday to focus on something else.
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  And they found that it gave them a lot more balance and that they didn't need
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  to do everything every day.
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  Number two, when you are planning, a mistake to avoid is expecting it to be perfect.
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  And that can mean a lot of different things. That can mean expecting yourself
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  to plan every single day, to not miss any days, to follow exactly what you wrote out,
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  you know, the tasks that you put down but then also the time frames that you
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  put down and that's just not realistic perfect.
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  Perfectionism is not going to help us when we are planning we need to be able
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  to give ourselves grace and flexibility and reflect at the end of the day or
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  the end of the week or the month whenever it is hey what went well about that
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  what didn't go well what do i feel encouraged about what might i want to change for next time,
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  Number three, mistakes to avoid. Not adding in, scheduling in rest or breaks.
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  If you are someone who thrives on getting a lot done and focusing on productivity
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  and efficiency and things like that,
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  it's important to add in those rest times and those breaks to make sure that they actually happen.
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  And I would even include that actually, and this is number four,
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  is not accounting for meals.
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  So make sure that you add in meals. If you need to, you can even within that,
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  it can be, you know, a water break where you go for a walk and eat a snack or
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  have your lunch or whatever it is.
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  Because otherwise, sometimes we can go through the whole day,
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  we can follow our kind of plan for the day.
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  But if it doesn't account for things like nutrition and hydration and rest,
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  it's likely that we are going to burn ourselves out.
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  Number five in mistakes to avoid when planning is not putting your planner somewhere
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  where you're going to remember to look at it.
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  It's really helpful to have reminders in place. If you are somebody,
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  a visual processor like I am, you're going to want to put it somewhere visible in your home.
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  So I have two different types of planning that I do.
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  I have a kind of paper planner and then I have, you know, my calendar and my
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  schedule and stuff online.
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  And so I try to just have those two options more than that.
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  And I think, you know, there's a good likelihood that you're going to forget
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  one of them and then something's going to get missed.
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  But I find that having it on a paper planner, I can, you know, kind of color code it.
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  And I'm just looking at that one day at a time.
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  Whereas when I look online, I can see on my calendar, there's
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  a bigger picture of you know what's coming
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  up so putting it somewhere where you remember to actually
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  look at it because if we plan out our day but then
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  we don't look back at it it's not going to be as helpful number
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  six is not accounting for time and you're planning for between activities so
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  let's just say for example for me I need to go pick up my son at the end of
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  the day and if I don't account for the time it's going to take me to get ready
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  and then drive to pick him up.
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  It's going to cause issues with my planning and I'm going to be late to get
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  him and then it's just going to, you know, be a cascade of issues from there.
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  This also takes practice though and I think part of it is recognizing that there
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  are more things that go into something like that than we realize.
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  So for example, you know, when I'm going to go get my son,
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  oh right, I should probably put my work stuff away so that's one task oh right
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  i should probably run to the washroom before i leave okay that's another task
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  oh no my my vehicle is out of fuel i should probably stop and pick that up on
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  my way so things like that where it can take some time but.
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  Trying to pay attention to recognize that
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  those transitions are an activity in
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  and of themselves and that we need
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  to account some time for them all right some other tips i have here things that
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  you can take or leave depending on what helps you i find that color coding can
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  help for me just to give me visually i have it and i talked about i'll link
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  it below a different episode where i talk about specifically how to plan out your day,
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  but talking about kind of the morning routine.
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  Maybe you keep that the same every day. Maybe you have a weekday one and a weekend
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  one, but I have one color for that.
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  And then I have the AM block, a PM block, and then an evening block.
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  Routine i also added in there a rest block and
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  a work block and those can kind of move around depending on
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  what my day looks like some other tips remember that
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  it's not going to be perfect and try as best
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  as you can to focus on the steps that you do take
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  i know it can be really frustrating if you have a planner that is dated and
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  you look at it and say hey i missed the last three weeks of planning i feel
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  like i've failed what's the point in starting now and it can get it can be really
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  easy to get caught in that all or nothing perfectionistic mentality.
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  But I encourage you to, you know, recognize what you're feeling.
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  Say, you know what, this is not going to be perfect. It's better that I put
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  in some intention now, as opposed
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  to staying stuck in the past regretting something that I didn't do before.
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  Another thing I would say is don't try to do everything at once.
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  So as I said earlier, you know, if you are working towards
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  something you're writing you're doing
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  an assignment or you're applying for jobs or whatever it
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  is don't pressure yourself to do everything
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  all at the same time and that's where the beauty of time
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  blocking and having different days and having it planned
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  out is even if you planned your entire week at
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  once you could say hey this is something really important and I'm
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  going to put it in first and I'm going to do it
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  on you know Tuesday Thursday and
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  Saturday or whatever it is and you know that it's planned in there
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  which can also give you the freedom and the space on
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  those other days and those other time blocks to do other
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  things like something that's life-giving right
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  it's important for us to incorporate as i said earlier that you know nutrition
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  hydration rest but also things that are life-giving for you that's something
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  i've really recognized lately and i'll talk about probably in the next episode
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  what's kind of been happening in my life lately it's kind of been a little bit chaotic,
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  but I've really realized the importance of,
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  Having life-giving things, which for me are things like creativity.
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  You know, working on the podcast, working on creating that course for you guys,
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  reading, things like that that are really, coaching has been really life-giving for me.
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  And so it's important with our planning.
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  I want you to remember that you need those things that are going to fill your
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  cup because you can't pour from an empty cup.
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  And I can be a bit of a hypocrite on this sometimes, but it is so incredibly
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  important that we find ways to fill our cups so that we can still pour out, so that we can still,
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  first of all, be well, our own well-being, and then we can also pour into the
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  other people and areas of our lives that we want to. too. A couple of other tips here.
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  Don't beat yourself up, as I kind of just mentioned there, too.
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  Make sure you take care of yourself.
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  And then take the time to celebrate each win.
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  If you planned a day, celebrate it. Celebrate the fact that you planned and
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  look at it curiously and say, hey, you know what? How did that help me?
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  Was it effective? Was there something that didn't work about it?
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  Did I forget to even look at it?
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  How can I try a different approach next time.
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  All right, two things. Don't forget to scroll down and click that follow button.
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  And then the second thing, don't forget to download your free ADHD planner.
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  And I hope this episode has helped you. Thank you so much for joining me today.
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  I look forward to the next one. Until then, God bless.