Taking Control: The ADHD Podcast

We've all said it. "I'll deal with it later." And somehow, later never comes. The thing just sits there — not in your calendar, but in your head. It pings you in the shower. It shows up right before you fall asleep. That's an energy leak.
This week, Ari Tuckman returns for his sixth appearance to unpack what's actually happening when we tell ourselves "later." What is the ADHD brain doing in that moment? Are we making a real decision, or just kicking the can? And how do we tell the difference?
We dig into:
The two flavors of procrastination — not feeling the future vs. avoiding the discomfort
Why "later" needs a "when," and what specificity actually changes
The difference between a task that needs doing and a decision that needs making
How to close an open loop that's been open way too long
Going toward positives vs. avoiding negatives, and why one of those is more sustainable
Time estimation, and why some things aren't knowable until you start
Ari's new book, the ADHD Productivity Manual
Guest Spotlight
Ari Tuckman, PsyD is a psychologist, author, and international presenter specializing in ADHD. He's given more than 600 presentations and podcast interviews across America and nine other countries, and is the author of four books: ADHD After Dark, Understand Your Brain, Get More Done, More Attention, Less Deficit, and Integrative Treatment for Adult ADHD. He chairs the CHADD Conference Committee. This is his sixth appearance on the show.
Links & Notes
Ari's website: https://drarituckman.com
Ari on Instagram: @AriTuckmanPsyD
Books by Ari Tuckman:ADHD After Dark
Understand Your Brain, Get More Done
More Attention, Less Deficit
Integrative Treatment for Adult ADHD
ADHD Productivity Manual

(00:00) - Welcome to Taking Control: The ADHD Podcast

(01:13) - Join us over on Patreon!

(02:13) - Introducing Ari Tuckman

(03:06) - "I'll do it later..."

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You've heard it before, probably said it yourself: time blocking doesn't work for me. Every block that slips becomes one more piece of evidence that you've failed the system — or that the system has failed you. So this week, Nikki and Pete try something different. They change the word.
Nikki walks through three terms that get thrown around in planning circles — intentional planning, time blocking, and the one she's been reaching for more and more lately: flexible scheduling. Pete pushes back (gently, mostly) on why we need a new word for something that was never supposed to be rigid in the first place. And together they unpack the real reason so many ADHDers bounce off scheduling: it's not the strategy, it's the story we tell ourselves when the strategy bends.
Along the way: the dangerous allure of hyperscheduling and why it only really works if your livelihood is measured in billable minutes; why time blindness isn't a reason to skip time blocking (and why estimation was never the point); the spoon theory and scheduling around energy instead of just hours; and Pete's brand-new metaphor — age of time — for thinking about margin, buffer, and what it feels like to live three weeks ahead of yourself instead of one day behind.
Plus, Nikki drops another download: Your ADHD Schedule Starter, a short, practical guide for building a flexible schedule step by step, with a reflection section built in so you can keep adjusting as you go. Link in the show notes.
Links & Notes
Your ADHD Schedule Starter (free download)
Unapologetically ADHD by Pete Wright and Nikki Kinzer — the book behind the framework
Four Thousand Weeks: Time Management for Mortals by Oliver Burkeman
GPS Planning Membership — Nikki's coaching community for planning, capture, and workflow
Support the show on Patreon — early ad-free episodes, livestream recordings, members-only Discord
Dig into the podcast Shownotes Database

(00:00) - Welcome to Taking Control: The ADHD Podcast

(00:46) - Patreon.com/TheADHDPodcast

(01:59) - Talking Schedules

★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★

There's a moment every ADHDer knows: you open the task manager, see the sea of red, and close it again. This week, Nikki and Pete sit with that moment — and with what it's actually telling you.
The instinct is to blame the tool. Something's wrong with the app, the planner, the notebook. Time for something new. But what if the tool is doing exactly what it's supposed to do, and the thing you're really avoiding is something else entirely?
Nikki walks through the two non-negotiables of any planning toolkit, why hybrid systems quietly fall apart in the in-between stages, and the one thing she asks every new one-on-one client to do within a week. Pete confesses to running four systems at once, lays out his tool-finding intestines on the table (his words, not ours), and makes the case for why your app isn't just an app — it's a lifeline. Plus: FOBO, task rot, the moral weight of a few simple minutes, and why the best tools are the ones that ask you to pay for them.
Stick around for Nikki's brand-new download, Your Planning Tool Finder — a short guide to the questions worth answering before you pick your next tool. Link below.
Links & Notes
Your Planning Tool Finder (free download)
Unapologetically ADHD by Pete Wright and Nikki Kinzer — the book behind the framework
GPS Planning Membership — Nikki's coaching community for planning, capture, and workflow
Support the show on Patreon — early ad-free episodes, livestream recordings, members-only Discord: 

(00:00) - Welcome to Taking Control: The ADHD Podcast

(01:44) - Patreon.com/TheADHDPodcast

(02:34) - Talking Tools

★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★

Most productivity advice was built for brains that start on demand, stay consistent, and prioritize logically. That's not us.
This week, Brooke Schnittman returns for her third visit to the show to dig into one of the most frustrating disconnects in ADHD life: the gap between what we think we can do in a day and what our actual capacity will allow. Pete and Nikki walk through the familiar trap — fifteen red-line tasks, two hours of actual focus time, and the stubborn belief that somehow we'll get it all done anyway. Brooke names it for what it is: magical thinking backed by people-pleasing, propped up by shame.
Together they explore why ADHD brains need to plan to plan, what "sampling the no" actually looks like in practice, and how masking shows up in our task lists in ways we rarely notice. Brooke introduces her STOP framework for sorting the week — Stressful, Time-consuming, Ordinary, Passionate — and makes a case for the kind of white space most of us have been taught to see as failure.
There's also a frank conversation about burnout: what it looks like for neurodivergent people, why it lasts longer than we expect, and the 1% action that can keep momentum alive when everything else has stopped. And a reminder that if you're showing up at 40% battery, then 40% is your 100% for the day — and that's enough.
GUEST SPOTLIGHT
Brooke Schnittman, MA, PCC, BCC is a nationally recognized ADHD coach and the founder of Coaching With Brooke. She's the author of Activate Your ADHD Potential, a roadmap for high-achieving ADHDers who are tired of running fast and getting nowhere. Brooke trains ADHD coaches through her 3C Activation System and is passionate about bringing ADHD coaching into universities to support students directly. This is her third appearance on the show.
LINKS & NOTES
Coaching With Brooke
Activate Your ADHD Potential by Brooke Schnittman
Support the Show on Patreon
Dig into the podcast Shownotes Database

(00:00) - Welcome to Taking Control: The ADHD Podcast

(02:51) - Intentions Versus Expectations

(09:20) - Productivity and People Pleasing

(20:03) - The Complicated Question of Capacity

(31:16) - Burnout

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This week kicks off a three-part series on planning, and it starts where every planning conversation should: with honesty about why plans fall apart in the first place. Pete opens with his own cascading construction disaster at home, where raccoon damage set off a chain reaction of disruptions that has bled directly into his work life. Nikki’s diagnosis is both simple and profound: when you make a plan, you’re trying to predict the future with the information you have right now. When that future doesn’t cooperate, the real problem isn’t the plan failing. It’s that we treat plan failure like a personal failure.
From there, Nikki walks through the full spectrum of executive function challenges that make ADHD planning uniquely hard: time blindness that operates at every scale from individual task to entire month, working memory that drops the ball the moment you turn around, prioritization paralysis where everything feels equally urgent, the cognitive inflexibility that turns one bad morning into a ruined day, emotional regulation struggles and the sharp edge of RSD when disappointing someone is unavoidable, and sustained attention that evaporates the moment your environment gets interesting. At the center of it all is what Pete calls “fantasy Pete,” the imaginary version of himself who wields time like a saber and never lets anyone down, and whom nobody would actually like at a party.
The antidote isn’t a better system. It’s moving from shame to curiosity. Nikki’s framework: instead of asking what’s wrong with you, ask what your brain actually needs. Find the friction. Learn your own flavor of ADHD. Build in margin so that when things go sideways, you have something left in the tank for recovery. The episode closes on Pete’s central paradox, the one he returns to with clients again and again: it’s not your fault, but it is yours. You didn’t design this brain. But you’re the one who has to work with it, and building that muscle, one honest conversation at a time, is exactly what this trilogy is for.
If this episode hit close to home, we made something to help it land a little deeper. Your Planning Reflection is a free companion guide—just four honest questions to help you connect what you heard to what's actually happening in your own life. No productivity exercise. No grade at the end. Just a quiet moment to start paying attention. 

Links & Notes
Lattice by Pete D. Wright — Pete’s new science fiction novella, now available on Amazon
Unapologetically ADHD by Pete Wright and Nikki Kinzer — the planning book behind this trilogy
Your Planning Reflection worksheet — Nikki’s four-question companion to this episode, available now!
GPS Guided Planning Sessions — Nikki’s membership planning program
The ADHD Podcast on Patreon — early access, Discord, and live stream recordings
The Spanish Prisoner (1997, dir. David Mamet) — Pete’s most underrated film, home of the worry quote
Ricky Jay — magician, actor, and unwitting aphorist: “Worry is interest paid in advance on a debt that never comes due”
Support the Show on Patreon
Dig into the podcast Shownotes Database

(00:00) - Welcome to Taking Control: The ADHD Podcast

(00:41) - Introducing Pete D. Wright... Struggling Author of Fiction

(03:31) - Patreon.com/TheADHDPodcast

(04:34) - Why do your plans fall apart?

(09:37) - Were you taught how to plan?

(31:17) - Today's Reflection Worksheet

★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★