ADHD Meets the Budget Nerds: Give Every Dollar with a Job with Ben and Ernie

GPS is Now Open! Visit https://takecontroladhd.com/gps to learn more and take control of your planning today!Money and ADHD: two words that often stir up stress, shame, or avoidance. But what if we stopped thinking of planning as punishment and instead saw it as a path to clarity, confidence, and even peace of mind? This week, Pete and Nikki welcome Ben Barlowe and Ernie Reppe—the Budget Nerds of YNAB—to talk about why the word budgeting is going out of style and how we’re still all-in on the money mindset.They share how to build a money mindset that’s about purpose, not restriction, and why giving every dollar a job is the simple shift that makes all the difference. From impulse spending and forgotten bills to shame spirals and the fear of facing financial reality, this conversation gets real about the unique challenges ADHD brings to money management—and how to take the sting out of them.Whether you’re brand new to planning your finances or you’ve tried before and burned out, this is your invitation to make peace with your money and take back control.Links & NotesGetting Started with YNAB with Ben and ErnieYNAB for High Income EarnersGet your 34-day Trial of YNABSupport the Show on PatreonDig into the podcast Shownotes Database (00:00) - Welcome to Taking Control: The ADHD Podcast (03:08) - Become a Patron at patreon.com/theadhdpodcast (03:29) - ADHD and Money with Ben Barlow and Ernie Reppe from the Budget Nerds (13:48) - The Budgeting Mindset: Give Every Dollar a Job (24:00) - What are the big questions to help you start your money plan? 🎯 Ready to turn your planning chaos into clarity? Take a look at Guided Planning Sessions (GPS)—from getting started to mastering your weekly routines. Whether you’re just picking your tools or refining a system that finally sticks, GPS gives you the structure, support, and community you need to make it happen. Explore more and join today at TakeControlADHD.com/GPS. ★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★

GPS is Now Open! Visit https://takecontroladhd.com/gps to learn more and take control of your planning today!Side hustles can be exciting, creative, and empowering—especially when you have ADHD. But they can also be overwhelming, unsustainable, and, let’s be real, joy-draining if you’re not careful. In this kickoff to our new series on ADHD and money, we’re talking all things side gig—from handmade crafts and tutoring gigs to late-night freelance projects and full-on mini-businesses. We break down the benefits and challenges of turning your interests into income, while exploring the emotional and executive function landmines that too often get left out of the conversation.We look at the upsides: hyperfocus, creativity, independence, and the opportunity to build something meaningful on your own terms. And we also name the hard stuff: shiny object syndrome, burnout, disorganization, and the pressure to monetize every hobby. Whether you’re side hustling by choice or necessity, we’ve got practical strategies to help you stay on track—planning tools, body doubling, automation tips, and pacing ideas that won’t crush your ADHD brain.So before you burn the midnight oil trying to ship Etsy orders and do your day job, take a breath and join us for a real talk about protecting your energy, your time, and your joy. (00:00) - Welcome to Taking Control: The ADHD Podcast (03:42) - Side Hustles 🎯 Ready to turn your planning chaos into clarity? Take a look at Guided Planning Sessions (GPS)—from getting started to mastering your weekly routines. Whether you’re just picking your tools or refining a system that finally sticks, GPS gives you the structure, support, and community you need to make it happen. Explore more and join today at TakeControlADHD.com/GPS. ★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★

GPS is Now Open! Visit https://takecontroladhd.com/gps to learn more and take control of your planning today!Music isn’t just background noise—it can be a tool. This week, we’re joined by Dr. Kevin J.P. Woods, cognitive neuroscientist and Director of Science at Brain.fm, to explore the science behind audio designed to do something: improve focus, enhance rest, and support attention regulation, especially for ADHD brains.Dr. Woods breaks down the neuroscience of “functional music,” explaining how Brain.fm uses phase-locking, neural oscillations, and lab-validated protocols to guide your brain toward desired cognitive states. We dig into why ADHD brains might respond especially well to this kind of auditory support—and how students and adults alike can use it to manage study sessions, reduce overwhelm, and even fall asleep more easily.If you’ve ever tried to study to lo-fi beats, felt overwhelmed by silence, or needed a reliable way to shift your brain into focus mode, this one’s for you.Links & Notes🎧 Brain.fm – Get a special 30-day free trial to give it a real spin!🧠 Follow Dr. Kevin J.P. Woods on LinkedIn📝 Learn more about how we support students with ADHD at Take Control ADHDSupport the Show on PatreonDig into the podcast Shownotes Database (00:00) - Welcome to Taking Control: The ADHD Podcast (03:48) - Introducing Kevin Woods, Ph.D. and Brain FM (04:44) - The Cavalier Setup (11:38) - Entrainment (16:50) - Audio and the ADHD Brain (20:10) - Audio and Emotional Regulation (21:58) - Expectation Affect (24:06) - Realistic Expectations and Use (27:12) - Context Switching and Friction (30:00) - Who makes the music? (33:35) - One more thing on Context Switching (39:40) - How are people using it? (43:43) - Yet to come... (46:36) - Get Brain.FM 🎯 Ready to turn your planning chaos into clarity? Take a look at Guided Planning Sessions (GPS)—from getting started to mastering your weekly routines. Whether you’re just picking your tools or refining a system that finally sticks, GPS gives you the structure, support, and community you need to make it happen. Explore more and join today at TakeControlADHD.com/GPS. ★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★

GPS is Now Open! Visit https://takecontroladhd.com/gps to learn more and take control of your planning today!Memory isn’t just about recall — it’s about learning, encoding, storing, and retrieving information in ways that actually work with your brain. In this conversation, Pete Wright and Nikki Kinzer continue the ADHD in College series with returning guest Dr. Daniella Karidi, diving deep into the practical study strategies that help students and adults build lasting memory.From note-taking that actually supports learning, to strategies for sleep, nutrition, and asking for help, Daniella lays out a roadmap that makes studying less overwhelming and more effective. Whether you’re heading into a new semester, studying for certification, or just trying to remember what’s in that self-help book you just read, this episode gives you tools that can help you work with your ADHD brain — not against it.Links & NotesJoin Focus on ADHD Books | BookclubsSupport the Show on PatreonDig into the podcast Shownotes Database (00:00) - Welcome to Taking Control: The ADHD Podcast (03:04) - Daniella Karidi, Ph.D. (05:56) - Predicting Success in College (22:17) - The Classroom Experience (29:48) - Repetition and Finding Distinction in Information (41:22) - Energy (46:08) - Asking for Help 🎯 Ready to turn your planning chaos into clarity? Take a look at Guided Planning Sessions (GPS)—from getting started to mastering your weekly routines. Whether you’re just picking your tools or refining a system that finally sticks, GPS gives you the structure, support, and community you need to make it happen. Explore more and join today at TakeControlADHD.com/GPS. ★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★

GPS is Now Open! Visit https://takecontroladhd.com/gps to learn more and take control of your planning today!Welcome to Season 31 of Taking Control: The ADHD Podcast! In this episode, Pete and Nikki kick off the Back-to-School Series for college students with ADHD by tackling one of the most essential—and overwhelming—skills for academic success: planning. From understanding the logic of a syllabus to building an ADHD-friendly workflow using calendars, task managers, and learning management systems, this episode is packed with practical, real-world strategies to help students plan smarter, not harder.You’ll learn how to create your “College Workbox,” build semester-overview tools, and develop weekly and daily habits that support executive function and reduce academic stress. Pete also brings in insights from his experience as a former university faculty member to help students understand what instructors actually notice—and what they don’t. Whether you’re starting your first year or returning to campus as an adult student, this is your guide to planning a semester that works for your brain.Links & NotesSupport the Show on PatreonDig into the podcast Shownotes Database (00:00) - Welcome to Taking Control: The ADHD Podcast (02:52) - College Planning (05:35) - The College Workbox (15:01) - The Syllabus 🎯 Ready to turn your planning chaos into clarity? Take a look at Guided Planning Sessions (GPS)—from getting started to mastering your weekly routines. Whether you’re just picking your tools or refining a system that finally sticks, GPS gives you the structure, support, and community you need to make it happen. Explore more and join today at TakeControlADHD.com/GPS. ★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★

GPS is Now Open! Visit https://takecontroladhd.com/gps to learn more and take control of your planning today!In this bonus drop for all listeners, Pete and Melissa peel back the curtain on their personal email habits—and how ADHD continues to complicate even the simplest message. This is the fifth installment in the ongoing email challenge (the first four were re-released to Patreon earlier this year), and it’s a rich mix of confession, coaching, and curiosity.We recap where the challenge began in 2018 and what we’ve learned since then:How triage habits evolve (and fail) over timeThe mental and emotional load of email procrastinationThe shame spiral of watching your unread count climb into oblivionThen we shift into what’s new:Melissa’s accidental inbox apocalypsePete’s haunted January shame projectTools that actually reduce friction: Gmail + Gemini, Superhuman, Spark, and a candid look at MailbirdAI’s promise in cutting through clutter without replacing your brainThe challenge of confusing your workbox with your inboxMelissa is launching a personal email rehab project and will be posting updates in Patreon for Deluxe members and above. Pete’s committing to finally clearing out that January shame stack. And together, they’re setting the stage for a December follow-up episode—because this work isn’t one-and-done, it’s ongoing.🧠 Key Takeaways:Triage isn’t the problem—action is.Email should be emotion-free (but often isn’t).AI isn’t the enemy—it might just be the assistant we’ve always needed.If you feel bad about your email habits, you’re not alone—and that doesn’t mean you’re broken.📌 Links Mentioned:SuperhumanSpark EmailMailbirdGmail + Gemini (00:00) - The Email 2025 Update! (05:24) - The Season Recap (07:36) - Where are you now? (16:01) - What did we not tackle? (28:48) - The Inbox and The Workbox 🎯 Ready to turn your planning chaos into clarity? Take a look at Guided Planning Sessions (GPS)—from getting started to mastering your weekly routines. Whether you’re just picking your tools or refining a system that finally sticks, GPS gives you the structure, support, and community you need to make it happen. Explore more and join today at TakeControlADHD.com/GPS. ★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★

GPS is Now Open! Visit https://takecontroladhd.com/gps to learn more and take control of your planning today!It’s summer rebroadcast season! Ok, let's get this out of the way: We're big fans of You Need a Budget. Like, huge fans. Massive, life-changing kind of product fans. So you can imagine that we're a bit beside ourselves this week.See, for someone who has had struggles with money in the past, discovering a tool that has the capacity to rewire your brain around budgeting and spending is a pretty big deal™. That's YNAB, a budgeting tool like no other. Even better, while the team had not intention to make a budgeting tool that can work for folks with ADHD brains, for a lot of us, they did just that.Jesse Mecham is the Founder of YNAB and personal finance expert. He hosts the You Need A Budget Podcast, the Beginning Balance Podcast and is the Wall Street Journal best-selling author of the book of the same name, You Need A Budget. The Smart Money Mama herself, Chelsea Brennan, introduced us to YNAB in 2020 and the tool quickly landed at the top of our list of favorite, life-changing services, so Jesse is here not only as a budgeting guy we think you might like to meet, but because we are legit fans.YNAB isn't a sponsor of this show, but we encourage you to visit right away and sign up for their 34-day free trial and see how it works for you. (00:36) - Welcome to The ADHD Podcast (03:29) - Support the Show: Become a Patron at Patreon.com/TheADHDPodcast (06:30) - Introducing Jesse Mecham (13:46) - The Tenses of Money (16:46) - The Four Rules (17:44) - 1. Giving Every Dollar a Job (20:48) - 2. Embrace your True Expenses (25:54) - 3. Role with the Punches (27:06) - 4. Aging Your Money (30:16) - The Elusive Emergency Fund (33:36) - What if you hate "Budgeting" (35:06) - Your Credit Card and You (39:32) - What if you're overwhelmed? (43:20) - YNAB as a Couple (46:35) - Kids 🎯 Ready to turn your planning chaos into clarity? Take a look at Guided Planning Sessions (GPS)—from getting started to mastering your weekly routines. Whether you’re just picking your tools or refining a system that finally sticks, GPS gives you the structure, support, and community you need to make it happen. Explore more and join today at TakeControlADHD.com/GPS. ★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★

GPS is Now Open! Visit https://takecontroladhd.com/gps to learn more and take control of your planning today!It’s summer rebroadcast season! We all have that one project—the thing we swore we’d get done before the end of summer. Whether it’s clearing out a garage, taming your inbox, or finally tackling that closet of doom, this episode is your nudge to pick a project and actually finish it.Nikki and Pete walk through how to choose the right project (hint: it should matter to you), how to break it into manageable steps, and how to stay intentional through the planning and execution process. They cover tools, strategies, scheduling, and the power of visualizing your “after” moment. Plus, they unpack the ADHD hurdles that can get in the way—and how to overcome them.Want to share your One Project? Post it in the Discord and we’ll check in with you! 🎯 Ready to turn your planning chaos into clarity? Take a look at Guided Planning Sessions (GPS)—from getting started to mastering your weekly routines. Whether you’re just picking your tools or refining a system that finally sticks, GPS gives you the structure, support, and community you need to make it happen. Explore more and join today at TakeControlADHD.com/GPS. ★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★

GPS is Now Open! Visit https://takecontroladhd.com/gps to learn more and take control of your planning today!It's Summer Rebroadcast Season! If you’re a well-practiced student, you probably have your own system and set of practices for doing that job. Taking notes, studying, preparing projects, taking exams ... you know what works for you, right?It turns out, it’s pretty easy to develop a false sense of security in our own systems to the point that they might not actually be helping you do the real work of being a student. This week on the show, we offer the timeline for effective study habits — originated at the University of Arkansas — a simple, straight-forward process to help you learn to study effectively and deliver the results you want.Links & NotesTimeline for Effective Study Habits (PDF)Anki FlashcardsQuizletNotetakingI know, these are both iPad Pro focused, but I encourage you to watch them for process, not technology, if you’re thinking about how to engage in material.🎥 Samuel Suresh: “How I Take Notes with My iPad Pro in Lectures”🎥 Ali Abdaal: “How I take notes on my iPad Pro in medical school”ZettlecastenIf you’re not on the market for a new note-taking system, do not click on these links. There be monsters! If you’re embarking on any sort of research — and you have fun with this kind of stuff — you might just find Zettlekasten and some of the software tools that enable it really exciting.🎥 Shu Omi: “Zettlekasten Note-taking Method: Simply Explained”🎥 Shu Omi: “How to take Smart Notes in Roam Research”🎥 Curtis McHale: “Getting Started with a Zettlecasten System”🎥 Curtis McHale: “What Makes a Good Zettlekasten Note”👨‍💻 Roam Research👨‍💻 Obsidian (00:00) - Welcome to The ADHD Podcast (02:02) - Support the Show: Become a Patron! (03:48) - The Timeline for Effective Study Habits (05:41) - Before Class (09:05) - During Class (11:37) - One Note-taking Strategy: Zettlekasten (16:23) - During Class... some more (20:11) - After Class (23:11) - The Exam 🎯 Ready to turn your planning chaos into clarity? Take a look at Guided Planning Sessions (GPS)—from getting started to mastering your weekly routines. Whether you’re just picking your tools or refining a system that finally sticks, GPS gives you the structure, support, and community you need to make it happen. Explore more and join today at TakeControlADHD.com/GPS. ★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★

GPS is Now Open! Visit https://takecontroladhd.com/gps to learn more and take control of your planning today!Join Pete and Nikki this week as they dive into the world of planning tools, focusing on the concepts of "inboxing" and "workboxing” from their new book, Unapologetically ADHD. They explore the challenges of managing the constant influx of information and tasks that come with ADHD, emphasizing the importance of a systematic approach.Nikki and Pete discuss the common struggle of finding the "perfect" tool, acknowledging the allure of shiny new apps and planners. They encourage listeners to shift their focus from finding a magical solution to developing a personalized system that works for them. This involves viewing tools as part of a cohesive whole rather than isolated entities.The conversation takes a turn as they explore the role of impulsivity in planning. They introduce the concept of strategically introducing "friction" to combat impulsive decision-making, particularly when it comes to adopting new tools or systems. This involves setting up personal commitments and boundaries to prevent ADHD tax-inducing purchases.Tune in to discover practical strategies for managing inboxes, optimizing work time, and navigating the world of planning with ADHD. Pete and Nikki offer valuable insights and actionable advice to help listeners find a system that brings calm and control to busy lives.Links & NotesAvailable Now: Unapologetically ADHD by Nikki Kinzer and Pete WrightDig into the podcast Shownotes Database (00:39) - Welcome to Taking Control: The ADHD Podcast (03:30) - The Workbox (07:56) - Inboxing (12:18) - Members: This is the part where Pete hurt his ankle. (13:44) - Key Principles of Inboxing (15:46) - Workboxing (26:16) - Managing Impulsivity (31:28) - Breaking Down Myths 🎯 Ready to turn your planning chaos into clarity? Take a look at Guided Planning Sessions (GPS)—from getting started to mastering your weekly routines. Whether you’re just picking your tools or refining a system that finally sticks, GPS gives you the structure, support, and community you need to make it happen. Explore more and join today at TakeControlADHD.com/GPS. ★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★