623- AI for ADHD Brains at Work: New Ways to Support Executive Function

SPEAKER_1 (0:04)

Welcome to the Attention Deficit Disorder Expert Podcast Series by Attitude Magazine.

Carol Fleck (0:14)

Hi, everyone, I'm Carol Fleck. And on behalf of the Attitude team, I'm delighted to welcome you to today's very timely ADHD Experts presentation titled, AI for ADHD Brains at Work, New Ways to Support Executive Function. Leading today's presentation is Diann Wingert. You might remember Diann from a webinar she presented for Attitude on how to manage stress and emotions at work. It's podcast 579 if you'd like to check it out. Diann is a former psychotherapist, turned serial entrepreneur, turned ADHD business strategist and coach. She was diagnosed with ADHD later in life after decades of masking. She now works exclusively with entrepreneurs, creatives and small business owners with ADHD traits diagnosed or not. Today, Diann will provide a framework for using AI as an executive function support. You'll learn which cognitive tasks AI handles well, and how to set up simple routines that survive the initial burst of enthusiasm.

She will also address the questions we should be asking about privacy, accuracy and over-reliance on AI.

If you believe in the work we're doing here at ADDitude to inform, empower and support the ADHD community, please consider subscribing to ADDitude Magazine. Your support enables us to continue providing trusted resources and information to help you and your family.

Finally, the sponsor of today's webinar is Inflow. ADHD can make work feel harder than it should, especially when focus, organization and follow through don't come easily. Inflow gets it. Their science-backed program created by psychologists and ADHD experts help you better understand your ADHD traits and build practical strategies that work with your ADHD brain.

With Quinn AI included, you can get support to organize your thoughts and take the next step when things feel overwhelming. Click the link on your screen to take their free ADHD traits quiz to get started. Attitude thanks our sponsors for supporting our webinars. Sponsorship has no influence on speaker selection or webinar content. So, without further ado, I'm delighted to introduce Diann Wingert once again. Thank you for joining us and leading this important discussion.

Diann Wingert (2:53)

Thank you, Carol, and thank you, friends here at Attitude. I really love collaborating with you, and I appreciate everything that you do for the ADHD and LD community.

Before we get into the thick of today's topic, I want to remind everyone here that there are lots and lots and lots of tools to support ADHD executive functioning. You probably have quite a few of them now, and for those who are attending live or watching the replay, I'm going to name a couple of them on the slide. For those later listening to the podcast, you will recognize everything from time blocking and batching, to-do lists, task apps, body doubling, Pomodoro timers, can ban boards, noise canceling headphones, clocks, calendars, watches, notebooks, journals, planners, and of course, my good friend, Danny Donovan's anti-planner. But what's in your drawer? Now, I'm going to guess that you've got quite a few of the tools I've already mentioned. So why do we need another one? Well, it's been said that nobody abandons something that's working. But I've had ADHD all my life, even though I didn't know about it for most of my life. And I adopted many tools and abandoned them quickly, even though they seem to be working. What I've realized is that I oftentimes didn't stick with the tool well enough or long enough or really understand how to make it work for me and my executive functioning challenges. And I quickly moved on to the next one, which is why we have so many. So if you are attending live, watching later or listening on the podcast, and you haven't tried AI yet, why even bother with all of the existing tools that support ADHD executive functions? Well, I want to mention four reasons. One is FOMO. Let's be honest. When we hear everyone around us talking about AI, even if we don't know exactly what it is, we don't want to be left out. So we think, should I try this? AI comes with the promise of being something shiny and new. Let's face it, all ADHD brains are wildly attracted to novelty. So there's that.

AI offers the promise of increased productivity without increased effort. I don't know about you, but that sounds like instant gratification, and that is always going to attract my interest. Last but not least, AI is available when other forms of help are not. So for example, if you're working with an ADHD coach, or you are part of a body doubling group, that's not available to you 24-7, holidays, weekends, and other kinds of off-hours. But AI is. So it's worth considering.