Last week I announced the launch of The Distractables, a new ADHD podcast series I’m doing with Marie Ng (creator of Llama Life, a productivity app for helping you get things done).

This week we have a new episode with Trina Haynes, where we talk about ADHD burnout and discuss strategies for both keeping that burnout away and how to get out of burnout when it hits.

It’s a really great conversation, and you can check out the episode here:

• The Distractables — ADHD Burnout with special guest Trina Haynes

Paid subscribers of Extra Focus get early access via the Unfocused podcast feed at extrafocus.com/podcast.

Trina also wrote an excellent article last year about ADHD Burnout that has been one of the most popular guest posts in the Extra Focus archive.

Defining ADHD Burnout with Trina Haynes Jesse J. Anderson and Trina Haynes · April 25, 2023 Read full story

One of the primary reasons people with ADHD run into this burnout is due to our strained perception of time. We don’t have the same internal alarm bells that most neurotypical people have to let us know when we’ve overcommitted to things.

I always think I’ll have plenty of time for future commitments, because all future time feels infinite to me! When time is understand as either “now” or “not now”, everything that is “not now” feels easy to accomplish later when I get to it.

When an opportunity comes up that I know I have the ability to do, I often say yes before I ever consider if I have the time, energy, or motivation to follow through.

ADHD Burnout hits when all of that overcommitment catches up and suddenly it’s March 31st, and I’ve accidentally scheduled 93 meetings on the same day…

Strategies

• One of the best strategies for dealing with this is leaning into the idea of starting with “no” as a default answer, so you can buy time (no pun intended) to be able to actually check your schedule before you commit.

• Another related strategy is to never say yes to something without putting it on your calendar, ideally one that is accessible on your phone and always available to check. Shared calendars for making sure you don’t commit to something that conflicts with a partner’s important even can also be a relationship saver!

What strategies have you used to help keep overcommitment at bay or to deal with ADHD Burnout?

Stay curious,
Jesse J. Anderson