0:01

Money, money, money.

0:02

You wanna a podcast?

0:09

Let's do it. Let's do it. Let's stop making weird noises

0:11

and just. Joe's

0:15

Cafe,

0:16

New year, same host. same

0:19

shenanigans.

0:20

Oh this is, this is officially the

0:22

first episode back in 2024

0:25

because we recorded episode 1, in

0:27

2023.

0:28

Hello everybody!,

0:29

Hi everybody, welcome to the new year.

0:32

We're

0:34

We're taking this whole time blindness thing

0:36

to a new level.

0:40

Yeah, not only are we taking

0:42

time blindness, so let's talk you

0:44

through, dear listener, dear viewer,

0:47

what happened in the, in the minutes

0:49

leading up to this here recording sesh.

0:53

Yeah, go for it,

0:53

Uh, Matt asked

0:56

me if we were going to record today. And

0:58

I was like, nah. And

1:00

then, and then the impulse

1:03

gremlin crept up. I had

1:05

an idea and without any

1:08

fleshing out of it whatsoever, I was like, yeah,

1:10

let's, let's run with that. That feels

1:13

good. That great. And now here we are recording.

1:18

Yeah. And it was inspiring because I, I wrote

1:20

down a whole three

1:22

pages of stuff. Just, just

1:25

brainstorming.

1:26

So, I guess first and foremost, welcome

1:29

to Season Three of

1:31

ADHd20, the

1:34

wow!

1:35

that finds the intersection between ADHD

1:38

and TTRPGs.

1:42

I guess that answers that we're not coming with a new tagline

1:45

No, I guess not. Hey, why

1:48

fix it when it's

1:49

It ain't broken? It

1:51

ain't

1:52

broke. If it isn't broken.

1:54

Um, so, so here was the thought,

1:56

the darling thought that led to like, a,

1:58

yeah, let's hop on the mics and

2:00

see if we can record a podcast. Um,

2:03

I have been feeling overwhelmed. Uh.

2:06

I mean, since the day I was born, but

2:08

this like, and you and I were kind of

2:10

commiserating about that, uh,

2:12

just last week about just kind of, like, feeling

2:15

a little bit behind, like, we just haven't gotten

2:17

into the flow of 2024

2:19

yet. And then, you know, a

2:21

lot of times this podcast,

2:24

we, we share our success stories.

2:26

We share all the things that

2:28

went right for us,

2:31

which is fantastic, and can be helpful

2:33

and should be celebrated, when we get right,

2:35

yeah. But maybe it would be equally

2:38

inspiring for our dear listeners

2:40

to share the

2:42

journey of both failure

2:45

and success, wah,

2:47

wah wah wah wah wah.

2:53

Exactly.

2:54

In a sound bite. In a soundbite.

2:56

in a sound bite.

2:57

Did I, did I over explain something that could

2:59

have been a soundbite?

3:03

Would this be this podcast if we didn't? That

3:05

is exactly what we're going to talk about today is,

3:07

and it's not even about necessarily,

3:11

you know, New Year's resolutions. It's not even

3:13

about that because we're, we're way

3:16

we're way evolved past that. We are,

3:18

we don't, we don't mess with that anymore.

3:21

This is just, we started the year,

3:23

yeah! And we are just, grr,

3:26

grr, grr, grr, grr, grr,

3:28

grr, that, yeah. But

3:30

we should probably get ourselves psyched

3:33

up. By doing the

3:35

d100 table, the

3:38

d100

3:39

Does that, does that mean we're off to

3:41

a weird start? Does that mean you have it pulled up?

3:44

I do,

3:44

I don't have it pulled up.

3:46

Well then you get to roll first and I get

3:48

to tell you what you roll, girl,

3:50

girl, girl, girl, girl, girl,

3:53

girl, girl.

3:53

think that I'll roll with some Chimerical my

3:56

longest playing character, and these

3:58

dice were a gift to me right

4:00

when we started campaign from our good friend Matt

4:02

Williams. Great name,

4:04

great human. We love all of the Matthews

4:06

here. How about 90?

4:10

How about 90? Alright.

4:14

What is the most unusual

4:16

D&D object you have found,

4:18

received, bought, in

4:21

game?

4:22

Oh, man, we had some

4:24

bangers in our first, uh,

4:27

in our first campaign Jeff our DM

4:30

really kind of went out of his way

4:32

to find some fantastic

4:34

uh magic items for us. And I will

4:37

admit that, know, since then

4:39

haven't had as many magic items. That's

4:41

just not something we focus on, right?

4:43

Right. No,

4:46

Let's, let's, let's say that correctly. It's not

4:48

something that your current DM,

4:51

me focuses on that

4:53

much. And I just forget about it. I just

4:55

forget. But

4:56

yeah. Um, yeah.

4:59

So I will, I will, my most

5:01

memorable magic item, uh, from

5:03

that campaign to the Yeah, I will, I will, my most memorable magic item from that campaign I I want to play

5:05

with it more. It was

5:07

called The Ring of the Grammarian, and

5:10

it allowed me to change

5:12

a spell's by one

5:14

letter, either taking away or adding

5:17

a letter, and and

5:19

therefore having the spell

5:21

do something different. For instance,

5:24

I I think one time there's cantrip of

5:26

Frost, And instead

5:28

I I cast of Frose, uh,

5:30

and just blasted

5:33

my opponent with an icy stream of

5:36

of frozen rose. Um,

5:39

just, I love, I love a shenanigan,

5:41

uh, if that's not completely apparent,

5:44

so I loved the, the chaos of me just

5:46

rearranging

5:48

letters. Yeah, That was, that was particularly

5:51

fun. Now we should give credit to

5:53

the Adventure Zone gentlemen.

5:56

That, uh, you know, came up with that idea,

5:59

but it was, it was really, really fun.

6:01

I like that one too. Maybe it

6:03

That was a favorite. What about you?

6:06

Ah, let's see. Yeah, I

6:08

guess, I guess we're very lucky because we had

6:10

Jeff as a, as

6:12

a DM back in the day and,

6:14

and he really loved the Adventure

6:17

Zone and, and ran

6:19

us through this so there were just too

6:21

many great things but I remember

6:23

there was a, I want to say it was like a little

6:26

ornery doll.

6:28

The gnome that would spring to life

6:30

Yes. and unlock doors and also

6:32

tell what we did wrong in

6:34

the the most recent encounter.

6:36

He could, he could, he could cast the Knock

6:38

spell, would open most

6:41

doors, but while he was doing it, yes,

6:43

he had to, he had to tell us

6:45

everything that we were doing wrong. That was

6:47

Which I I think was just Jeff's device.

6:50

Maybe it was.

6:51

To beat up on us.

6:52

on Well, yes, that's, I

6:54

mean, it was chosen for

6:57

that reason, for sure. Yeah. Anyway,

7:00

it was really fun, and I remember I just,

7:02

Jeff's really good at that kind of

7:04

wacky stuff. He's really good at that stuff.

7:07

I I do, I I, as

7:09

a as a game master myself, I do

7:11

not have that level of

7:14

like wackiness on top

7:16

of a

7:17

Mm

7:17

general Mm-Hmm. thing. I could learn

7:20

a lesson or two there. Mm

7:21

It's interesting because I was actually just

7:24

thinking last night, I I remember when

7:26

we Tey on in season one as a guest

7:28

and Tey dropped that juicy

7:30

bit of knowledge of it's a GM's

7:33

job to just be the like

7:35

we process what the party gives us.

7:38

Um, and he had had used it, uh, we

7:40

were talking at that time about my familiar, and

7:42

in a, that was a party in where a lot

7:45

of people had familiars or some

7:47

of sidekick, and I I just never really used

7:49

mine, and, and, and Tey, like, in

7:51

the, it was not a call very polite,

7:54

but it it was important to know that, like, as

7:56

a GM, and I think, I think when

7:58

he told us this, I hadn't GM'd that much,

8:00

so I didn't appreciate it as much, as

8:02

now that that I have GMed, like,

8:05

you, have so many things

8:07

going on. And especially

8:09

of us us who are neuro spicy, like,

8:12

how can you manage all that? Matt, how can

8:14

you you be expected to manage the wacky

8:17

magic items and just everything

8:19

in game that we throw your way,

8:22

and the story, and like, and the lore,

8:25

and those of you who who

8:27

can do it, man, teach us how, but no

8:29

shame and. the the learning

8:31

Yeah, I think, I think, um,

8:35

I think the answer is just to do

8:37

it over and over and over and over until it's easier.

8:40

Mm hmm.

8:41

Yeah.

8:41

Mm hmm.

8:42

Mm-Hmm. like riding a bike and chewing gum and

8:45

doing your taxes all

8:48

at the same time.

8:50

So,

8:50

Not that you would want to do any of those

8:52

About to say two of of those three things. Uh,

8:54

I know for a fact you hate, so. Lemme

8:56

come up

8:57

with some better It's like riding

8:59

a bike, which is kind of fun, and

9:02

Eating a a popsicle.

9:04

a popsicle, especially like the chocolate

9:07

ones, like those weird gooey

9:10

chocolatey ones.

9:11

Fruity, man!

9:12

Yeah, not for me, I haven't had

9:15

one in decades, but that weird,

9:17

gummy, chalky,

9:20

chocolate ones on

9:22

a hot day. And,

9:25

Calling your mom?

9:26

Calling your mom. There that's third

9:28

and calling your mom the same time.

9:33

Perfect.

9:34

Yeah, it is. lot. Maybe

9:36

this, that be year's journey. You

9:39

we don't do resolutions, but

9:41

We don't do resolutions.

9:42

But we, we choose words that

9:44

are meaningful to us, and we we set intentions

9:47

on this here podcast. So

9:49

maybe, That can be be an intention

9:51

that you both you and I set as Game Masters,

9:54

is more

9:56

attention to synthesizing

9:59

our players' experiences

10:03

through everything that they show us and

10:05

even more imagination on our parts.

10:08

Yes, I love it. I really do.

10:11

I love it a lot. And, you

10:14

know, that's a good segue, I believe,

10:16

into our topic today because

10:20

the strange thing about this

10:22

year is unlike

10:25

last year, where we came in,

10:27

and I came in, and

10:29

I said, I want this and this and this

10:32

to be my theme, I want, I want

10:35

more community, I want more

10:37

playing games, I want this, and

10:39

I want to, you know, know, yeah. and and

10:42

all of those things just click, click, clicked

10:44

last year. And so all I wanted

10:46

the beginning of this year is

10:48

the same, but more. I

10:51

just want more of the more, right, because

10:54

I, I was gifted so kindly

10:57

last year of all of those

10:59

things. And so

11:02

yeah, it is how, how

11:05

frustrating it is. So the way that

11:07

I likened it, uh,

11:10

personally, and I'd love, love to hear your take

11:12

on how you, you comparatively

11:15

try to, you know, shoehorn it into

11:17

the concept of a TTRPG. Is

11:20

that you're a spellcaster, particularly,

11:24

uh, in 5e

11:26

rules. I guess it would be

11:28

a cleric and a druid because you, you

11:31

can, at every long rest,

11:33

you can change up your spells, right?

11:36

The idea of needing

11:38

to prepare your spells for a given

11:41

day, week, jaunt,

11:43

encounter, etc.

11:45

hmm. Interesting.

11:46

And you think, okay,

11:49

I've got this and this and this and this. I'm all ready

11:51

to go. I've got like all the fire

11:53

spells because we're in a tundra,

11:56

right? We're in a tundra and we're going cave

11:59

diving in, in a snowy

12:02

cave. I'm gonna load up on all

12:04

the fire spells I've got. I

12:07

know what I'm doing, right? I've got this.

12:10

In the bag, get into the cave,

12:12

keep going down, down, down, well,

12:14

it gets warmer and warmer because the cave is

12:17

extremely long and it's

12:19

just, it just goes down and down

12:21

and down. Warmer, warmer, you know, you're getting

12:23

all hot and bothered

12:26

and you run into like a full

12:28

on pit demon from

12:30

hell who is immune

12:32

to every single one of

12:34

your fire of your fire spells.

12:36

Mm

12:36

Like, fire damage does not, is

12:39

zero.

12:40

Mm

12:40

Full immunity

12:43

to fire damage, and you just kind

12:45

of feel what Yep.

12:48

It's just like what?

12:51

What? And

12:56

What?

12:59

This is a problem that I have sometimes with

13:01

5e, but that

13:03

feeling that you get when you fail

13:06

in a constitution save

13:09

or an intelligence save or you

13:11

fail an insight check

13:13

or a survival check and it doesn't even

13:15

matter that you have this incredible

13:18

uh, sword that dances

13:20

and sings show tunes and,

13:22

you

13:22

My kind of sword!

13:23

Yes, luck

13:26

be a lady tonight! Tra

13:29

la la la la be a la you know, uh,

13:31

it doesn't matter that you have these things, you

13:33

still kind of feel I feel like that's

13:35

where we are right now, does that does that sum it up or,

13:37

or,

13:38

I love that. It,

13:40

so, I mean, I, I see no reason

13:42

to try and improve upon what was already

13:45

just a really great always mix

13:47

is it a simile, an analogy, a metaphor,

13:49

you you know? Um metaphor,

13:52

Metaphor. No,

13:54

Analogy. Analogy. Let's go

13:56

it was an I think I like analogy. Um,

13:59

you know, know, and you nailed it as far

14:01

as like the daily choice of spells

14:04

and like, this is this is what we're packing.

14:06

The only only other thing I can and this

14:08

is interesting because you're thinking coming

14:10

up with an analogy as a Campaign DM.

14:13

Hmm. Yeah,

14:14

So I will come come up with an analogy

14:16

for you as a one shot DM, where

14:19

everything is a little bit more like siloed

14:21

into individual quests, you know, versus

14:24

the long haul. It kind of

14:26

is like when you have a martial

14:28

player, also interesting that I'm choosing

14:30

martial for for something and not caster for something...ooo,

14:32

weird

14:33

Mm-Hmm.

14:34

Weird. Um, when you have a martial

14:36

player who has clearly, like, like, spent

14:39

their background, their story becoming

14:41

the the best at what they they have practiced,

14:44

they have strength, they

14:46

have precision, they have

14:48

dexterity and constitution and all these things,

14:52

and they come they come up a big bad against

14:55

whom non non magical weapons simply

14:57

do not work.

15:00

Yeah. What we're talking,

15:03

we just need some magic, what we're talking about

15:05

for, for. For those of you listening

15:07

that the last five minutes

15:09

made zero sense to you, we're just talking

15:11

about spinning wheels. We're just talking about,

15:14

like, having all the tools

15:16

right there. are Literally

15:19

every tool that you could, that

15:21

you could possibly need to be prepared. You know

15:23

what you're thinking about. You, you're excited.

15:25

You, you're excited about the work

15:28

that you're doing. It's not like, it's

15:30

not like you don't want to do it. You.

15:33

In fact, I want to do it more than I've ever

15:35

wanted to do most things, and yet

15:37

I'm still like, like, I

15:40

just can't latch on and rock.

15:42

I just can't. And I've had plenty

15:44

of times last year where I was. I was.

15:47

Latching on and rocking.

15:48

Uh huh.

15:49

That is such a weird why am I keep saying latching

15:52

on and

15:52

And

15:53

rocking. And rocking. Those

15:55

don't well together. together.

15:58

Latching on to what?? Anyway,

16:03

uh, plugging in and rocking?

16:06

How about that one? Plugging in and

16:08

rocking.

16:09

Yeah. I can't can't even get

16:11

my amp in the door. least you're at the phase where

16:13

you're where you're trying to plug it in.

16:14

I am, so hard and I just

16:17

I just can't I'm I am surviving.

16:19

That's all I'm doing I'm not like flourishing

16:23

and and and I'm I'm getting

16:25

tired of it. Now look, we can blame

16:28

the Midwestern winter

16:30

Oh, sure. I can't.

16:32

I mean you I can do that you

16:34

you can blame bad news that you've gotten

16:36

recently. You can, there's lots of things can

16:38

throw you off your game. And of course where this is

16:41

gonna be one of those podcasts

16:43

where we will not have an answer,

16:46

but it also is a podcast for those of you

16:48

who don't have ADHD because

16:51

this is certainly not a

16:55

trait that is specific

16:57

to our brains,

16:59

brains, but we just wanted

17:01

to talk about it. So what do we, what do we do?

17:03

How do we get our groove back? How do we plug

17:06

in and rock?

17:07

well, Well, that's part, Matt. Matt, I

17:09

I, I almost wonder if there way

17:11

for us right here on

17:14

today's episode to kind kind

17:16

of show

17:18

like, what are are the beginnings

17:20

of our process is and how we're, because

17:23

that's what people are always for, right? People always

17:25

want to know, to know, like, but how, are you doing

17:27

that? Like, but what what are you using? What are the

17:30

specific, you know, you, we've talked a

17:32

lot lot about

17:34

PKM!

17:35

Personal Knowledge Managers.

17:38

And, you know, right right now we are in the process

17:40

as a business, Bivins Brothers Creative, and

17:42

also as creative organization,

17:45

The Pocket Dimension, switching

17:47

over to a new to some some

17:49

of us PKM. And it's important

17:52

work that we're doing building these

17:54

Notion databases to

17:56

house both

17:58

both like our task management side and kind

18:00

of of like the bird's eye

18:02

view of everything we've got

18:05

going on. But right now now

18:07

while it's getting built, that's

18:09

lending to us feeling bit lost.

18:11

It is also lending, it is also lending to,

18:14

to that. So, let

18:16

me start it, let me start

18:18

this section of the conversation

18:20

by a word of warning. Uh,

18:23

try not to futz

18:26

with your, with your system.

18:29

Try not to do that. I will say

18:32

that, one thing

18:34

I wanted to do at the beginning of the year, ironically,

18:38

And as I say this out loud, I realize how truly

18:41

foolish it sounds. I

18:44

really wanted to simplify,

18:46

actually. I wanted to, I

18:49

wanted to really simplify because I was

18:51

very much aware that I was

18:54

futzing. Last

18:56

year in 2023, I fell in love with this,

18:58

this, this, this, PKM,

19:02

this,

19:02

It's so absurd to say it. say

19:04

it. I am.

19:06

I'm

19:06

Mm I'm a PKM.

19:09

This, this, uh, this app, this really,

19:12

really well designed app called Tana,

19:14

uh, after, you

19:17

know, skirting around all

19:19

of these things to try to organize, I'm

19:22

not going to be able to, I'm not gonna be

19:24

able to do that. I will not, I will

19:26

not permanently

19:28

choose a tool that

19:30

will ever

19:33

completely satisfy me. It will not turn off

19:35

the oo shiny. It will not. not,

19:38

It's impossible, so I'm, I am, I

19:40

am okay with that, but what I do

19:42

love and what I do feel like I work really

19:45

hard on is the

19:47

system. The system that,

19:49

that allows me to think

19:51

about organization and hierarchy

19:54

and, and, and

19:56

of course I, I kind of use

19:58

TTRPG terms to help

20:00

me get there and inspire me to work in

20:02

it, right?

20:03

Well, let me let me let me take a little bit

20:05

of the pressure off a couple of of years

20:07

ago, and we've talked about this on the podcast before.

20:10

As a group, we decided that we that

20:12

we uh, like a project management

20:15

to house all of our client

20:17

data and, and give me as

20:19

kind of the group project manager, again,

20:21

it's like bird's bird's eye look, but then be

20:23

able to kind of like dive deeper

20:25

where I needed to, um,

20:28

into task management beyond project

20:30

management. We looked at Notion.

20:33

We may have even looked at Obsidian. We We

20:35

looked at a bunch of different, um,

20:37

options. And we

20:40

did trial runs of Asana

20:42

and of Monday and several

20:45

others that are, you know, like base

20:47

campy type type of, you corporate

20:49

project management. Um, and

20:51

at the time we decided collectively

20:54

as a group that like, let's not

20:56

try and build it. Let's find

20:59

something that's the closest match to what we think

21:01

need. And I'm not I'm not saying it was bad.

21:03

It got the job done at the time. It

21:06

helped us grow in certain certain

21:08

ways. So I'm not here to poo poo

21:11

that we that we made. But I think there was always this like

21:13

question in the back of our minds of like, but

21:15

is it is it exactly what we need. Like, if

21:17

we we built it, could we build it better. Because you know

21:19

you know what you need more than that. So

21:22

we are now are now kind of having

21:24

to go back go back and do of bit of undoing

21:27

and extra rework. Because

21:30

we didn't listen that litte voice, and we said, No, no, no,

21:32

let's find like the closest approximation,

21:35

rather than exactly what we want. And

21:38

so now we're like, kind of at the end of

21:40

last of last year, I kind of feel like we hit

21:42

the walls and ceiling

21:45

ceiling and, floor and everything

21:47

else of what our selected platform

21:49

was able to allow to allow us to do.

21:51

And that's And that's when we all just kind of collectively said,

21:54

let's just just move to Notion already.

21:57

And it's, and it's a great, it is a great,

21:59

great tool. Everybody's heard of it

22:01

now. I do like Notion.

22:03

I could do a lot of what I'm already

22:05

doing myself in Notion.

22:08

I can move that over, which actually

22:10

will be so great. I can, I won't

22:12

have to try to balance things in my own

22:15

set of tools. And I mean personal

22:17

projects like like sell

22:20

an old computer, that's

22:23

the project, uh, but

22:25

of course there are more tasks in there, right? Like

22:27

with ADHD you have to learn that

22:29

it's, the task is not sell

22:32

my computer, that's not a task,

22:35

Take pictures of my of my computer.

22:37

Price

22:38

Take the

22:39

about, about it. Reply

22:41

to comments. Settle on a, on

22:43

a, on time to pick up or ship.

22:45

Yeah

22:46

mhm,

22:46

Well, I mean, that's a perfect, example

22:49

of where my head has been with

22:51

with ADHd20 so year is

22:53

that I love ADHd20.

22:56

I I love having this podcast

22:59

every every time we want to try

23:01

and like get into we realize

23:03

that it's not enough right now now to

23:05

record an ADHd20 episode because we haven't.

23:08

We're still in the process of making the calendar and

23:10

defining the subtasks and for every episode

23:13

that we put out. And Matt and I, by the way, by

23:15

the way, we're not asking for sympathy here Like

23:16

no, no,

23:17

this is something that we love,

23:19

Oh, it's, it's, uh, it's our own torture.

23:21

yeah, but yeah, we, we have made the

23:23

torturous things torturous, and nobody else.

23:26

So I'm I'm curious, if

23:28

we can just can just like, Pull

23:30

down the the curtain for a and

23:33

actually show ADHd20

23:35

listeners a little bit about the Notion

23:37

databse, specific to how to

23:39

how we've TTRPG ified it.

23:42

I would, I would love that. And, and I

23:44

will, I will also say that, In my

23:46

own brain, because we love

23:49

TTRPGs, that is where I put this,

23:51

this hierarchy system in my brain.

23:54

It makes, it actually makes more sense

23:56

to me than some of the tried

23:58

and true, very popular productivity

24:01

methods, like the

24:03

PARA method by Tiago

24:05

Forte. PARA, stands

24:08

for Projects, Areas,

24:10

Resources, Archive. And,

24:13

and, and the idea, this is the part I took from

24:15

him that I love so much, is

24:17

that if you can just remember

24:20

P A R A, and you have those

24:22

folders, then they can be

24:24

in Notion, on your computer,

24:28

In your email, la de de,

24:30

da da da da da. So you're not guessing

24:32

where things go so

24:34

much, right? The pro the I

24:36

started to have problems though, conceptually,

24:39

with the differences between

24:41

projects and areas and resources.

24:43

And I'm not asking for someone to explain it to me. I

24:46

do actually get his system. I've I've

24:48

bought his books. I love his books. I love

24:50

his I love him. He's great.

24:52

He seems like a super Just,

24:54

just great guy and,

24:57

uh, I understand the concept but it just doesn't quite

24:59

work for me and then there's other ones

25:02

like Getting Things Done by David Allen, who

25:04

has been around for, jeez,

25:06

20? 20? More. 20?

25:09

No. They're probably going

25:11

on 25, 30 years now. He is,

25:13

he is seen as sort of a, a true

25:16

godfather of productivity

25:18

and, and his, his thing is great for ADHD

25:21

in that, it will not stay in your brain.

25:23

Do not use your brain as,

25:25

do not, do not expect your brain to remember

25:27

things. Take it out. Take

25:30

the idea out. Put it into Inbox

25:32

or Inboxes and use that. Uh,

25:35

but I, I just, I'm

25:38

just a hacker, I just can't,

25:41

for whatever reason, it just doesn't

25:43

quite click for me until

25:45

I do it myself, so, I started

25:47

last year putting together this system

25:50

related to RPG terms, and this is the

25:52

way it applies to us. What I'm

25:54

trying to do is is filter

25:57

all of the things so

26:00

that I can turn quote unquote turn

26:02

on and off sections

26:05

of all the things that we have to do

26:08

so that I'm not I don't get

26:10

up in the morning look at Notion

26:12

or any other project task

26:15

management and go and

26:17

just close it and go play video games.

26:20

That's what I'm trying to do. So

26:22

I start off with realms. Uh,

26:24

you and I are involved with three

26:26

distinct realms. One of them is Bivins

26:29

Brothers Creative, which is our digital design

26:31

marketing firm. Uh,

26:33

so that is one realm. And

26:35

then another realm, of course, is The Pocket Dimension,

26:37

which includes this podcast.

26:40

And then a third one for me is called CaptionPoint,

26:43

where I, caption live

26:45

theater performances for the

26:47

deaf and hard of hearing. So So

26:49

a project for Bivins Brothers is not the

26:52

same thing as a project for the Pocket

26:54

Dimension, It's not the same thing

26:56

as a captioning project, uh,

26:58

with a theater CaptionPoint. They just don't,

27:00

And I think for so long I was trying to put

27:02

them all together and

27:04

I couldn't do it. I just couldn't do

27:07

it. Yeah. So I have a, we

27:09

have a second level that I'm calling

27:11

the campaign. So if you're in

27:13

a realm, then the second level down

27:16

is called the campaign. And that was

27:18

helpful to me because another

27:21

really tricky thing is the difference between,

27:24

ongoing projects and

27:26

one off projects or, you

27:28

know, campaigns and one shots,

27:31

right? Like, I

27:33

still don't know of a system that

27:37

That really sets those boundaries for me

27:39

personally. I haven't seen, I haven't read

27:41

about it. and it's problematic

27:44

to me because, because

27:46

ADHd20 is a project,

27:49

like you said, you just said, we

27:51

have all these things we have to do. Not only

27:53

the things that you mentioned per

27:55

episode, we also have just

27:57

admin things, Becoming a business,

28:01

Tax forms!

28:02

Tax forms! All of it.

28:04

Chewing bubblegum, and riding a

28:06

bicycle

28:08

And calling your mom.

28:09

and your mom

28:12

It's not just a one and done, so it does

28:14

not fit in the just projects.

28:16

It doesn't really fit in areas

28:19

either, because areas are

28:21

more like realms in

28:24

Tiago's way You know, again, you can, you

28:26

can make it work. The

28:28

way that you need, and that's what I'm trying to do here. So

28:30

we've got our session

28:33

today is going to going to

28:35

in the campaign of right.

28:40

And then a layer down from that

28:42

is the quest. Quests

28:45

absolutely have ends. They have

28:47

a beginning, and have they

28:50

We are on a quest right now

28:51

We're on a quest right this

28:53

This episode is a quest

28:55

Yes, we are in

28:57

You're part of our quest, as you're watching

28:59

and listening to

29:00

Exactly!! Season 3,

29:03

Episode 2 is the quest,

29:05

uh, in the campaign of ADHd20,

29:08

and, It will have an end, because

29:10

we're recording now, and there's editing,

29:13

and then there's all these other things that you mentioned. And

29:15

each one of those things, this

29:17

recording currently, is then

29:19

the action. action

29:22

that we're, it's a task, right?

29:24

The task is record this episode. Yep.

29:27

Uh, So, I

29:29

broke it down into that. We call

29:31

them actions just because it's a 5e

29:33

thing, but, you know,

29:36

in a turn, you have

29:38

different actions available to you. And because

29:41

recording is not similar to editing,

29:43

is not similar to writing, it

29:45

felt like actions

29:48

is good word that.

29:49

Yep.

29:50

And then the only

29:52

other thing, the only other thing that I add

29:54

is sort of like a satellite that's kind of related

29:57

to these actions are encounters.

29:59

And encounters are really just sort

30:01

of meetings and

30:03

events and

30:06

other, you know, happenings.

30:09

So if we had, um, if we actually

30:11

planned our episodes

30:13

ahead of time instead of being gremlins who

30:15

just are like, let's turn the mic on and see what happens.

30:18

We, we might have an encounter related

30:20

to the quest of season three, episode

30:22

two, is what you're saying?

30:24

what That's I would say. Yeah, yeah. And

30:26

so the best, you

30:29

know, if you go to, again, if you go to YouTube

30:31

and you look up someone like Thomas Frank Ali

30:34

Abdaal or any of the the

30:36

geniuses that, that spend a lot of time in

30:38

Notion, uh, they're going to

30:41

be able to sell you these beautiful templates

30:44

they have worked so hard and it's got, it

30:46

has formulas that have this really

30:48

high level math, and it's all

30:51

up to date, it really works well. But again,

30:53

templates don't for

30:56

me because they're, they're

30:59

always just a little

31:01

bit too opinionated. we're

31:03

finally getting to sort of the crux of

31:05

this conversation, which is where

31:07

I am right now with that

31:10

building. I

31:13

know what the system because I've been using

31:16

this system personally for most

31:18

of last year, so I think that it's going

31:20

to be great for all us, because all of us

31:23

understand TTRPGs, all

31:25

of all of us can, you know,

31:27

conceptualize these, these

31:29

thoughts and ideas, uh, so

31:31

it, I think that it will all make sense, but it

31:33

is the building, it is the putting together,

31:36

I'm down to the, like, the, the,

31:39

the adding of,

31:41

of mortar?

31:44

the Between Is that what you say?

31:46

Why do I always Why do I always

31:49

choose of

31:50

You know so much about so many things

31:52

and you're like, lemme talk about engineering.

31:55

Let me talk about sports. You do,

31:57

you do have a knack for picking, damnit,

32:00

picking the things that you're not Yeah, let's put in, put

32:02

in like performance or music terms, you know, like

32:04

we've, we've had the rehearsals, we've

32:06

done the blocking,

32:07

Like we've got, blocking. So

32:09

now we're

32:10

It's time to get off book Matt.

32:13

We have to get off We have to get off book.

32:15

We have to not only get off book, but we,

32:17

you know, we need to memorize, memorize

32:19

our lines so that can start to really,

32:21

like, internalize

32:23

the character and really, move

32:27

like the character would.

32:30

Wow. Taking

32:34

me back, man. Taking me back.

32:36

And it is, it is a lot of work, and I,

32:39

I want to be spending all time

32:41

doing it, and, but like you said,

32:44

it is so much like, it

32:46

creates chaos instead of helps, because

32:49

it's like when you move into a new house,

32:51

or you need to redecorate your

32:53

entire living room for whatever

32:56

reason that you want to, and it's trashed

33:00

for so

33:01

Yeah, we're not dopamining in

33:03

our, in our Notion just yet.

33:05

It is, it is instilling a

33:07

level of panic and fear versus

33:10

a dopamine boost.

33:14

I mean, not to not to catastrophize

33:16

my feelings or anything. I would never

33:18

ever do that. But that's so

33:20

and that was kind of what I wanted to talk about, though,

33:22

today is that like, what

33:25

is it? What can it be that can keep

33:27

us going over that hump? Because all I

33:29

want to do is give into the darkness at this you

33:31

know, like,

33:32

This is hard for because yes,

33:35

I do like tweaking and you, you are,

33:38

I know that you're getting frustrated, which

33:40

you should be, and honestly,

33:43

I just, I just have to make

33:46

it work. We have been pairing,

33:48

which is a really good thing, we've been, you and I've

33:50

been, even if you have

33:52

no input whatsoever, you

33:55

just simply being on the other side of a screen

33:57

or, or a, or a Slack

33:59

huddle is, It's,

34:02

it's everything that I need, because

34:05

sometimes, you

34:07

know, again, here it is, here's the crux,

34:09

it's like, that needs to happen.

34:11

This is, this

34:14

is the, like, I've referred to this time

34:16

as the messy middle before, right? It's, it's

34:18

that just. Everything is

34:20

just, I love the analogy

34:22

of the, the, the house you're moving

34:24

into where you're just, you're convinced

34:26

you're never going to be at home and settled again at

34:28

some point. And then, and usually like, it's

34:31

always darkest before the dawn though, right? Like

34:33

it, it's in that moment of hopelessness

34:36

that, that things then do start to come

34:38

together. I am convinced always.

34:40

And, and it's like that with creating anything.

34:44

But this part is also the unsexiest

34:47

of them. And you and I are

34:49

fueled by, like, when things

34:51

are working and things are hopping and we're like,

34:53

we're great. Like, you, you can't stop

34:55

us. But keeping us motivated

34:58

through the unsexy times where

35:00

it's like, this is boring.

35:02

This is arduous. This is grueling.

35:05

Like, this is, you know, like all of these just, and

35:08

that's what it is. Like, as much as we love

35:10

all of this, These

35:14

little menial things like, stacking on top of each other and seemingly

35:16

not making any sense. And

35:19

it's like, okay, so to take things back

35:21

into the theater analogy,

35:23

you know, we have to get off book.

35:26

get off book

35:26

The last thing that I want to do,

35:29

bring my friends down with I

35:31

don't want you to see this before it's

35:33

ready for you to see. However,

35:37

the most helpful thing would be to have somebody

35:39

to run lines with. Cause that's how you

35:41

get into the patter of it. And all of us

35:43

as actors have done this. We're like, no, I can do this on my

35:45

own. I mean, I, I used to spend hours like

35:48

recording myself and, you

35:50

know, like if I say it enough, but

35:52

it's never, and it's one of those things like the

35:54

efficiency of, I could spend six

35:56

hours reading, re reading,

35:58

saying, re saying, recording, or

36:02

I could probably spend like an hour with a friend

36:04

just running lines. Like as

36:06

speedily as possible, and that's going to be the more,

36:08

but I don't want to, I don't want to ask for that help.

36:11

I don't, I don't, I don't want to show this to somebody

36:13

before it's ready. Um,

36:15

so how do we, and so that's, I think that's important

36:18

for friends who

36:20

listen to this episode as ways to help

36:22

us or other NeuroSpicy types

36:25

in their life. We're not going to

36:27

ask for the help. The end. Like,

36:30

we can cut the episode off here. So like, what

36:32

are, what are the telltale signs

36:34

that we're spinning and we're in the messy middle and

36:36

that we're like, feeling

36:39

some kind of way about this and not

36:41

wanting to like, let anybody in?

36:45

And let anybody like see our panic

36:48

or our just, you know, I

36:52

think I think, well,

36:54

like I think about, you know, like, I don't know if I have any

36:56

signs, but it makes, I was thinking the other day about

36:58

social media. Mm and there was something

37:00

that like I needed to post. But

37:03

I didn't want to put I didn't want to go through that

37:06

because my house is a wreck right now.

37:09

Shouldn't surprise my house is always a wreck, but it's

37:11

like especially bad right now.

37:13

And I just have not had the

37:16

time nor desire to do anything about it. So it's like, I can't

37:18

I can't do this because this is

37:20

and then I was like, I had this thought of like, Why

37:23

do, what if more people just showed their messy

37:26

house? Like, why

37:28

as a society have we decided that you're only worthy

37:31

of being in a, you

37:33

know, reel on Instagram if

37:35

it looks pristine? And, you know, I'm

37:37

not somebody, there are people who get a lot of joy

37:40

from minimalism. And

37:42

that's, I just, I don't care. I just

37:44

don't care. And people telling me I should

37:47

care is what like causes the

37:49

brain,

37:50

Yeah,

37:51

rather than me actually caring. Um,

37:54

yeah. So I don't know, like, what

37:56

are my telltale signs? Well, I

37:58

share less. I snap

38:01

inward more. So if you're, if

38:03

you're not hearing from me or not seeing me,

38:06

that could be a sign that I've, Homer

38:08

Simpsoned into the bushes because I don't want anybody to

38:10

see me struggle. Um,

38:15

yeah,

38:16

I'm just back there eating doughnuts, you know?

38:18

Um.

38:20

And that's, and that's another sign, isn't it?

38:22

Like eating donuts when you know

38:24

you shouldn't be eating doughnuts.

38:26

Like, I take care, I take care

38:28

of myself less, uh,

38:31

I I definitely am like, yeah, whatever.

38:34

I, I do play video games when I, shouldn't,

38:36

you know? like I, um, I

38:39

make bad decisions.

38:41

Yeah.

38:42

that's a sign, cause I'm trying to

38:44

avoid, trying to escape. Mm

38:46

hmm.

38:47

What else? What else? We're outing

38:49

ourselves here. We're telling it, we're giving

38:51

everybody the power to be like, ah,

38:54

you're in the messy middle and you're floundering. And

38:56

that's, I mean, that, that, that is truly, when

38:58

we get to this part, we are. Floundering.

39:02

And that's for me, that's the weird balance

39:04

of my particular brand of ADHD,

39:06

right? Is there's the side of

39:08

me that does get really overstimulated.

39:12

And the best way for me to get out of that

39:14

is to detach.

39:16

mmhmm,

39:17

Is to like, that

39:22

can be healthy for me to, but there

39:24

does have to be some point where I then like,

39:26

reemerge.

39:27

yeah,

39:29

And that's the problem, is I detach, I go

39:31

away, and then I get too comfortable back there. I don't

39:33

know, I didn't realize I did this until we

39:35

started having this conversation, this is all news

39:37

no,

39:37

to me

39:37

That's really good. So, so my, I did,

39:40

I did call up Brittany

39:42

I can call her Brittany now, cause she's

39:44

like one of us.

39:46

Y'all have met we've met her.

39:48

um, and, she

39:50

said, one of the biggest problems

39:53

is that you don't, you're, we're not trusting

39:55

our gut Her I

39:58

could go to the whiteboard in the

40:00

next room. I could write down everything

40:02

I have do, I

40:04

could do it. It's in, it's in my head.

40:07

I, I It's there. I'm

40:10

now not trusting enough.

40:12

I'm not trusting myself, trusting

40:15

my gut to say, these are the things know

40:18

be getting done, these are the things that should be

40:20

getting Instead, I'm

40:22

working on other things that shouldn't. Instead,

40:24

I'm, I just don't, I'm not trusting myself.

40:27

I'm not trusting my gut

40:30

feeling, no, no, you

40:32

are right, you are right, just,

40:35

just fight through it, keep going.

40:38

If the tool itself is driving you away

40:40

from it, then take

40:43

a disposable piece of paper and disposable

40:46

pen and put down

40:48

write it down. what you have

40:50

to get done until you

40:53

get to the point where you trust yourself and

40:55

you say, okay. That's, that

40:58

is the truth. That's the truth right

41:00

now. Maybe not next week,

41:02

maybe not in a month, right this minute,

41:06

has and just do it.

41:08

Uh, because the messy

41:10

middle is so confusing for

41:13

ADHD brains, because

41:16

so many times, as we've said, it

41:18

is absolutely

41:20

filled with stuff we want to do. Uh,

41:23

I would, I would love to

41:25

be able to charge, I'm I'm

41:28

just announcing this right now, I would love very

41:30

much to be able to charge my hourly fee

41:33

to set people

41:35

up with a customized

41:37

Notion environment, Airtable

41:40

environment, uh, Obsidian

41:43

environment, I mean, Tana environment, you

41:45

name it, that would be

41:47

a dream job to me. I,

41:50

I really love that work,

41:52

I love the idea, but I'm

41:55

in the middle of my

41:57

own mess, and

42:00

it's hard.

42:01

Well, that's the absurd part here, Matt, is

42:03

that it, and you could for literally

42:06

anybody. But yourself,

42:09

like, I was having a very

42:11

intuitive led conversation

42:13

with my best friend a couple of days

42:15

ago. She is in

42:17

the process of Uh,

42:20

just, she's got a lot of work stuff going on. I'll leave

42:22

it there, right? And there

42:25

were some, like, definite, like, pings that I

42:27

was getting. And I, like, she and I have the type of relationship

42:29

where I could just, like, be totally honest with her and tell it

42:31

to her whether she wants to hear it or not.

42:33

To which her usual response

42:35

is, I hate you, she says

42:38

with a smile. Like, because she knows I'm right in that moment.

42:40

She knows that I'm like, and she's like, how

42:42

are you doing this? I'm like, let me be very clear. I

42:44

could not do this for myself. We can't

42:46

do these things for ourselves. You

42:48

could only like, because you have to have that perspective.

42:52

So yes, I am fully convinced that tomorrow

42:54

you could meet with anybody listening

42:56

to this podcast, take down

42:59

their requirements, exactly what

43:01

they need, exactly what they've hated about every

43:03

PKM before, exactly

43:05

the way that they want to use it. You could probably even

43:07

talk to them about that which interests the hell

43:09

out of them. Like you love

43:12

to and are good at doing. And you

43:14

could build them this completely custom database

43:17

with little gentle nods to

43:19

things that make them tick, if not TTRPGs,

43:22

you could probably have it done by the end of this week.

43:24

week I probably could, I probably could, probably

43:28

could,

43:29

I that That's been my overwhelming

43:31

thought about myself all year long is like, I

43:33

could do this for anybody else. Why?

43:37

Why can I not just do it for myself?

43:40

Maybe that's the lesson. Maybe that's

43:42

the lesson, is there, at some point

43:44

in all of our lives, there do just

43:46

be things we be outsourcin'.

43:48

Yeah. Oh, yes,

43:52

I don't cut my own hair or color my

43:54

own hair. That's true. I go

43:56

to somebody else and have them

43:58

do it. That's true. Could I

44:00

put purple in my own hair? Probably.

44:02

Would it look like it does what Emily does? Absolutely

44:05

not. You know, like, because I'm not

44:07

a professional at that thing. But like, I think,

44:10

I think that's the, that's the, that

44:12

is the hacky downside

44:14

of our brains of like, we think we can fix

44:16

and do a lot more

44:18

Mm hmm.

44:20

than maybe we can or should. Oh, no.

44:23

Oh, no. What

44:25

are we going to do now?

44:31

What? Here's what we need. Okay.

44:33

Okay, here's what we need. We

44:36

need a NeuroSpice Exchange

44:38

Program,

44:38

Mm hmm. Okay.

44:40

Where like, we just kind of figure out like, who's

44:42

like, just like borrowing and sharing,

44:45

you know, I'm really

44:47

good at helping other people do

44:50

things like write cover letters, write

44:52

newsletters, like anything that they need to be

44:54

able to like brag about something,

44:56

but in a non totally gross way. I'm

44:58

your girl. I will write that for you all day, every day.

45:01

My friends know that I'm good at writing when it comes

45:03

to anything with a slight marketing or selling

45:05

bend, and they have me do that.

45:09

I don't want to touch a PivotTable.

45:12

I don't want to touch a budget, so I go to them.

45:14

When I need something done in Excel or

45:16

Sheets or, like, Numbers Based,

45:19

why don't we just do more of that?

45:20

I mean, a lot of this comes

45:22

down to money, right? A lot of this comes down to cost

45:25

because I, it's

45:27

a one two punch of well, I to

45:30

do this and if and if I do it,

45:32

then it it is, it

45:35

does not cost any money. I

45:37

don't mind paying people what they're worth.

45:39

that's not a problem, but

45:42

Maybe we have that money, maybe we have that

45:44

money, And, if

45:46

I have the ability to do it, that is, you

45:48

know, that just seems silly.

45:52

But, that is a dangerous

45:54

place to be sometimes. I like what

45:56

you're suggesting, because if

45:59

it was a barter system of,

46:04

I don't know, What would you, you, you have a coupon

46:06

book, This

46:09

notion setup will guarantee

46:12

you, uh, I know.

46:14

Well, let, let's, let's make this more

46:17

universally applicable and we can,

46:19

we can go offline and talk specifically about

46:21

how, like, we're going to put this into play. But I would say for

46:23

those listening to this right now who

46:25

have hit the messy middle, who have realized that things

46:27

aren't moving forward in the direction that they want to,

46:29

or they're watching one

46:31

of their loved ones spin out the way that we

46:33

have confessed to doing. Think

46:35

through the people in your life and joys,

46:38

because I have friends who love organizing

46:40

stuff. I bet I could call any

46:42

one of these friends who love organizing

46:45

and say, this is my closet room. And

46:48

then I bet there is something in their life that they

46:51

have been putting off that I could be like, can I

46:53

run these errands for you

46:55

because I love driving around in my car. Or

46:57

can I, you know, like, can I, you know,

47:00

put together a list of books for you?

47:02

I'm thinking about, my friends, specifically have, like, a spreadsheet

47:05

of books that we all own so we

47:07

know who to go to to borrow books from. Um,

47:11

right. So, like, just

47:13

things like that, like, in your own life, think through,

47:16

you know, whether you have a partner, like the things

47:18

you're good at that your partner's not, and where you

47:20

guys can be on kind of an exchange program and then like

47:23

zoom out that circle a little bit and think about like your

47:25

first layer of friends. And again, like

47:27

if we all just start being

47:30

more honest with ourselves of like, I'm good at

47:32

this, but I don't enjoy it. Or I'm

47:34

good at this, but I don't currently have the capacity to

47:36

think about it. Or I'm good at this in other

47:38

people's lives, but I just can't seem to make it happen for myself.

47:41

Could I get your help with

47:44

it? Yes. Um, being open

47:46

to that possibility of the exchange of energy

47:49

could be a cool level up for all of us this year.

47:53

I know. really could.

47:55

DeDee dilly dee

47:59

dill

47:59

In a later episode.

48:02

Yeah, we can't fix everything in an

48:04

hour of our time. I

48:06

everybody that we weren't going to fix it this time.

48:08

That's okay, sometimes it happens. But it does

48:11

help to talk about it, I think. It definitely helps

48:13

to talk about it. And it helps to make

48:15

it aware, and it helps to like,

48:18

That actually, I'm going to toot

48:20

both of our own horns for a second. That

48:22

is something I am proud of both of us for,

48:25

for this, because you and I were both like, you

48:28

know, like, it makes me slightly uncomfortable.

48:30

And we've got these things going like, so let's just, and,

48:33

and, and I did that to you, you asked

48:35

me, you were like, we're gonna record today. And I was like, I don't

48:37

want to because I don't know. And then I was like, no,

48:40

let's talk about it.

48:41

Yeah, man.

48:42

And that is growth right there that we were

48:44

like, we're not where we want to be.

48:47

We're struggling. Yeah. But

48:50

I didn't snap myself up and

48:54

detach fully. No. I

48:56

trusted my buddy, Matthew.

48:58

it did it You did and I trusted

49:01

of our ADHd20 friends.

49:03

Yes. Thank you friends.

49:07

We knew y'all could

49:10

knew. We knew. that

49:12

you were going to be there for even though you're

49:15

not there for us until

49:17

you're listening to this Which is

49:20

energy.

49:21

See, but that's the thing. Now let's get into WooWoo for a

49:23

second. Let's have Alison's WooWoo Corner

49:25

be a part of every, be

49:27

a part of every episode. Yes.

49:31

Yes, that is something. Yeah, we need to, we need to get like,

49:33

uh, segue music, and,

49:36

uh an intro this season. But

49:39

for Alison's WooWoo Corner, Matthew, time

49:42

is a weird soup. It's

49:45

not happening in a linear way, the way

49:47

that our human brains have taught

49:50

us. So there

49:52

was already an exchange of energy

49:54

of our listeners helping

49:57

us. Long before we

49:59

sat down to record, so they already have helped

50:01

us, even though this episode has not been edited

50:03

and produced

50:06

yet. How you like them

50:08

apples?

50:10

I love love apples.

50:13

And I love woo. woo.

50:15

Yeah! too! Me too!

50:18

Woo woo!

50:19

just need more, um, opportunities to say

50:21

my favorite phrase, "Time is a

50:23

weird soup hmm.

50:24

Uh, in any given day, so thank you for

50:27

Anytime. It

50:28

It feels good. That might be my next tattoo. Oh,

50:31

wow. Yeah. Time is a

50:34

weird soup. Thank

50:36

you, Ashley Johnson.

50:37

you, Ashley Johnson. your heart.

50:40

That's wonderful. Alright,

50:42

Well, let's call it and let's get back to work,

50:44

Alison. Let's do some stuff!

50:48

Okay.

50:58

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