Rhythms of Focus

When every choice feels like too much—what to do, where to go, even what to eat—indecision can quietly drain our focus and energy. In this episode of Rhythms of Focus, we reflect on the psychology and mindfulness of decision-making for adults with ADHD and wandering minds. Together, we explore how to turn hesitation into awareness and uncertainty into creative flow.
Listeners will discover practical ways to approach decisions with clarity and gentleness, learning how to work with their ADHD rhythms instead of against them. This is not about forcing productivity—it’s about developing mindful structure, emotional insight, and trust in our intuitive process.
In this episode, we explore:
• How emotions guide decision-making and shape focus for ADHD minds.
• A mindfulness-based technique to ease decision fatigue and anxiety.
• How to transform choices into creative, intentional acts of agency.
The episode closes with an original piano composition, Icicle Drips, to help listeners ground in reflection and calm.

For more, subscribe and visit rhythmsoffocus.com.

#ADHD #WanderingMinds #MindfulFocus #ADHDMindfulness #DecisionFatigue #NeurodivergentCreativity #CreativeFocus #IntentionalLiving #ADHDWellness #MindfulProductivity
Transcript

Should I or shouldn't I? What should I have for dinner? What if I did this or maybe I should do that. But if I do this, then what if it goes wrong? Well, if I don't decide, well, that's a decision too, isn't it?
Decisions do weigh heavy, don't they? What gives?

Matters of Great and Little Concern
There's a quote I like that I got from, watching this movie called Ghost Dog. It's a Jim Jarmusch film, main character, quotes from the book Hagakure, the Book of the Samurai,
" Matters of great concern, should be treated lightly matters of small concern should be treated seriously."
I dunno how well I follow that advice, but it is something curious.
The Weight of Decisions
Decisions are in no way simple. Even the seemingly small ones, like deciding what to order at a restaurant, making small purchase, these can weigh us down into paralysis. Meanwhile, large ones like considering a change of professions, a move and more, these can plague us. They occupy the crevices of our every day, miring us in this anxieties, fears, regrets, and more.
Sometimes we don't even realize we had a decision we could make until some regret form somewhere later, too little, too late. Or we leave them undecided as they create and sustain multiple waves and storms within us, worsening that scatter of a wandering mind.
So decisions can certainly weigh heavy. When we decide, we cut, the word having the same Latin root as homicide, for example.
We go this way and not any of the others. The universe of possibilities collapse into one.
In fact, one piece of advice for decision leverages this, where we use a coin flip, not because we follow where it lands so much as we realize what's important to us. Something that we don't see or feel in our emotional landscapes until that coin is in the air. And this gives us a clue.
Risk and Loss - Decisions and Consciousness
Every decision involves risk or loss. If it didn't, there wouldn't be a decision. We'd simply act. Consciousness itself may only exist for the reason of decision if we are to adopt a neuropsych analytic point of view. That even echoes William James from 1890 who had said "consciousness seems to arise only in response to a problem."
It's like the brain doesn't call attention to itself until some system of pattern matching is off.
We have tension, frustration, excitement, play care. Emotion- all of these cresting into thought as they brush into consciousness.
Decisions rest on the sea of sensation, intention and emotion. Emotions connect into and through the deepest recesses of

This episode explores the complex nature of care and how especially those with ADHD can be caught in a vicious cycle of others feeling as though we don't care at all, or caring too much, to the point of being unable to take any steps to move forward.
We address common feelings of being overwhelmed and questioning self-worth. The confusion that sometimes comes mistaking care with worry and highlighting the burdens that can bring.
We delve into how care, when practiced skillfully, can help individuals better support themselves and others.
The episode concludes with a relatable Reddit comment on simplifying life's purpose to care and an original musical piece titled 'Aging.'
For more, subscribe and visit rhythmsoffocus.com.
#ADHD #WanderingMinds #focusstrategies #neurodivergent #findingfocus #RhythmsofFocus #ADHDPodcast
Transcript:
I'm being pulled, every which way. I need to do the dishes, I need to do the laundry, I have to write the report - maybe I just need to rest.
If I tell others I can't do this right now, they might tell me I don't care enough.
Well, do I not care enough? How do I know if I'm being selfish?
The Push/Pull of Caring
In our younger days, we may have turned in so-called sloppy work. Often some comment of not caring enough is applied somewhere along the way.
Said enough times, we might wonder about this of ourselves. Maybe it's true.
Wandering minds already have enough to struggle with. To stay on track we can create any number of guides, lists, markers, all these sorts of things that help us move forward.
But in the meantime, even with these in helping us, we often have to pull ourselves back from one thing after another.
We move into one thing, we get distracted. We dive deep into another, we might have to fight to pull ourselves out.
It can be terribly exhausting, and yet there are still things to do.
Wallowing in the Overwhelm of Caring
Do we not have enough willpower? Or is it that we don't care enough?
Even when we say, "I don't care," the fact that something entered our mind, even to negate it, means that something about it has our attention.
In this way, caring is hardly some binary thing.
What is care?
What is it though? What is care?
In one sense, well, it's an emotion. We can even point at it neuroanatomically: pathways and transmitters, dendritic connections and the like.
We can also see it as an emotion in the sense of that which brushes into consciousness. Whether gently in barely perceptible waves or in crushing impossible storms.
What I think is often missed in discussions about care is that it's more than an emotion. Beyond that, it is this spirit and practice.
Harnessing the Power of Care
Care flows through, and with, emotion. Emanating from meaning in the stories of our lives into that of perception, thought, action — at the very least.
Often, care can be this wonderful spirit around which we can organize ourselves; doing the things that we feel to be helpful to those around us.
Care involves a depth of attention on something.
It's the spirit that nourishes, that creates the bed of intuition, that tempers and guides strength, the force of mystery of a force at all.
We care in considering, when we rest our minds in some experience, our interests, our intentions attuning to what is.
Ideally, we may even take our time. Find patience to reach some gentle acknowledgement where our decisions are deliberate. We can heighten that powerful measure of being. Agency itself.
When we care for others, when we care for ourselves, when we care for the emotions of play and curiosity and discovery within ourselves.
We can often fly on this feeling of mastery, meaningful work, and meaningful relationships.
The Invisible Weight of Caring
But there can be a burden to caring. As a...

Miles Davis says, there is no such thing as a mistake.
How can we understand the truth within this seemingly odd idea?

We’ll explore how to gently reframe errors as part of our creative rhythm, not as failures that derail us. We'll consider how to distinguish between
- an error (a deviation from our path),
- a mistake (an unacknowledged error), and
- a lesson (an acknowledged opportunity to learn).

This episode features an original piano composition called *Enter*

For more, subscribe and visit rhythmsoffocus.com.

Hashtags

#ADHD #WanderingMinds #MindfulProductivity #CreativeFlow #AgencyOverPerfection #ErrorAsLesson #RhythmsOfFocus #FocusWithoutForce #NeurodivergentCreativity #MistakesAreData
Transcript

 A jazz musician. Miles Davis once said, "don't fear mistakes. There are none." Now I might wonder if that would go for the pilot flying my plane, there's still a powerful depth of truth and beauty in the statement.
Today's episode, I'll be reading a passage from my book, workflow Mastery about Error, mistake, and Lesson.
And I hope you enjoy it. 
 I make mistakes. I'm convinced that no one can avoid making mistakes despite the authority with which miles may make his claim.
But there's a beauty and truth within that phrase. Do not fear mistakes. There are none.
While I do not know for certain if "no mistakes" is applicable to every craft beyond art, its presence as a path in art is undeniable.
The lesson as I understand it, is of learning and adapting to what is originally perceived as error so that it becomes a path towards mastery, even in the moments of improvisation.
I imagine that at least some of this concept bears truth in all endeavors. We can distinguish the ideas, the concepts between error, mistake and lesson.
An error is a perceived deviation from a path towards a vision.
Deviations are influenced by whatever reality throws at us. Reality may include any object, including those external to ourselves or even meaning itself. If, for instance, we assume a meaning of something to be different than what it does mean, maybe by way of not seeing it's unconscious elements, then it's an error.
 On the other hand, we may discover some incompatibility between vision and reality. In setting the alarm clock for 6:00 AM to begin a 7:00 AM workday, we may have neglected to take into account the preparations for the morning and the commute amounting to 75 minutes of time.
A mistake is an unacknowledged error.
A lesson is an acknowledged opportunity to learn, such as an acknowledged error.
So in this way, acknowledgement is precisely the difference between mistake and lesson. The degree to which an error is acknowledged in a depth of its details is the degree to which the lesson it provides may become useful.
We may then decide for or against developing that lesson as an intention for learning.
Acknowledgement allows an error to become a lesson. It brings an object's consideration to our sense of agency. We can then create the playgrounds, workspaces, habits, systems, and other means of organizing to effectively develop any intention based on this error, and we turn it into a lesson.
In the case of the alarm, we may ignore it or chastise ourselves for being lazy or incapable of predicting time. We may instead decide it's meaningful to sleep and therefore make arrangements for an earlier time for bed. On the other hand, we may realize a much greater meaning found in a sense of irritation with the work itself, and that we've just unconsciously acted out against it.
It becomes clear that errors may be viewed as not necessarily objects themselves so much as their misalignments between vision and reality.
The degree to which we can acknowledge the discrepancies between vision and...

Caught between “I can’t start” and runaway hyperfocus, many of us feel like passengers in our own minds rather than pilots of our days. In this episode of Rhythms of Focus, we explore how wandering minds and ADHD can move from stuckness and self-blame toward genuine agency, ease, and purposeful action.
We reflect on why “I don’t wanna” feelings are not failures of willpower but signals from our emotional world, and how redefining motivation can help us align emotion and intention without shame or force. We also walk through the Eight Gears of Focus, a gentle framework for moving from simple awareness into meaningful action, completion, and performance in a sustainable way.
Listeners will learn:
- How to see emotions as waves moving through awareness, rather than enemies to overpower.
- How “force-based” productivity (shame, urgency, pressure) quietly erodes our sense of agency—and what to do instead.
- How to use the Eight Gears of Focus to locate where flow is blocked and create kinder, more rhythmic next steps.
This episode also features an original piano composition that mirrors the movement from hesitation into grounded focus, supporting a calmer nervous system as we listen. To stay with us on this journey of mindful productivity for wandering minds, subscribe and visit rhythmsoffocus.com for more resources and practice invitations.
Hashtags
#ADHD #WanderingMinds #MindfulProductivity #EmotionalRegulation #Hyperfocus #Agency #Motivation #Neurodivergent #PianoMeditation #RhythmsOfFocus
Transcript
Stuck Between Inaction and Hyperfocus
I cannot act. If I act, I'm in hyperfocus and my emotions. Well, they're dysregulated, as they say. Why are there so many problems? Where's the commonality between these? What can I do?
 ADHD, Wandering Minds, and the Question of Action
 I continue to search for some commonality, some simplicity that would explain the wandering mind. With ADHD, the central character in the coterie of wandering minds, it's useful to hear out the experts.
Dr. Russell Barkley says, "ADHD is not a disorder of knowing what to do, it's a disorder of doing what you know at the right times and places."
Is It Willpower, Free Will, or Something Else?
What is it to not be able to act? Is it a lack of free will? The alignment of emotion and action are disrupted at the moments that would otherwise be meaningful to us? Sometimes we point at motivation. There's something can be said about this, but often that idea of motivation, this messy word can raise the cackles on the back of our collective necks, conjures the idea of willpower.
Redefining Motivation for the ADHD Brain
But these depend on our definitions. I define motivation as the degree to which our emotions align with our intentions. One trouble, however, are these pesky, "I don't want our feelings," powerful and complex as they can be, and they don't align. So how do we align our emotions and our intentions?
Defining Emotion
Well, first, let's consider what emotions even are.
Certainly there are multiple approaches from the spiritual to the practical, to the molecular and beyond. Rather than say what's right, I'm simply going to define it here, and now.
Emotions are that which flows into consciousness, whether by brush or by storm.
Essentially, whatever comes to mind. Is the cresting of an emotion.
Perception as Emotion and the Role of Resonance
Now, this is a very different definition than what you're likely used to. Words, ideas, actions all crest into and through consciousness from emotion. What that means is that perception is also an emotion. Something outside of us resonates with something inside of us. If there was nothing within us with which to resonate, it wouldn't register. It would not reach conscious awareness.
But as emotion arrives, we cannot argue with them. We might...

When we finally finish a project yet still feel behind, it is rarely about the checklist and almost always about our relationship with time, memory, and trust.
In this episode of Rhythms of Focus, we explore how wandering minds and ADHD can turn “done” into “never enough,” and how we can gently reshape that story using an Honor Guide rather than another rigid system. We discover how time blindness, working memory limits, and fragile self-trust quietly fuel our endless to-do lists, and how a visit-based approach can restore a calmer rhythm to our days. We also walk through the three core parts of the Honor Guide—the Engaged, the Horizon, and the Steady—so we can build a meeting ground between our past, present, and future selves.
- We clarify why finishing a project does not settle our nervous system and how to respond with agency instead of pressure.
- We learn how to design an Honor Guide that protects our attention while still honoring our desires and energy.
- We practice shifting from force and deadlines to gentle, daily visits that create sustainable momentum.
This episode also features an original piano composition, “Spoken Speaking Spirit,” as a kind of emotional journaling and time-travel through music. If this resonates, we invite you to subscribe and visit rhythmsoffocus.com so we can keep cultivating these rhythms of focus together.
## Hashtags
#ADHD #WanderingMinds #MindfulProductivity #HonorGuide #TimeBlindness #WorkingMemory #CreativeFocus #NeurodivergentFriendly #PianoMusic #RhythmsOfFocus
Transcript

> Whew. Finally finished a project. I can't believe it. I finished a project. Time to celebrate. Wait, there's the, oh, I gotta do that one thing first. Well, what about, what about that other thing? Oh my goodness, there, there's zillions of things I still need to do. How does anyone do anything?

### Big Rocks, Hyper-Scheduling, and Endless To‑Do Lists

Organizing the day is not a simple matter. Some suggest setting up three "big rocks", these three large items that you wanna make sure you deal with today. Otherwise, all the little things take over, it can be a highly effective approach.

Others suggest what's called hyper scheduling. It's a method of estimating a time for everything you need or want to do and scheduling every minute on your calendar. It's kind of similar to using a budget for money, but here with seconds, minutes, and hours.

Others create long lists, infinitely long lists. They spend the day scanning that list, searching for something simultaneously easy, important within their energy levels and interest. And these things kind of pile up until the lists, toxicity levels break, and we start a new list.

Well, any of these have their utility, but sometimes they also have their troubles. Even the simple three big rocks. In a recent episode of the rhythms of Focus, I described, uh, four limits to productivity, namely time, working, memory, agency, and trust.

### Time Blindness, Working Memory, Agency, and Trust

Wandering minds in particular struggle with all of these. So-called Time Blindness, a constriction of working memory, an exhaustion of an injury to agency in which we say I don't wanna, and a lack of trust between the past, present, and future selves, such that sending messages between them is rife with strife.

The waves of focus methodology includes a number of tools to help manage, and today, rather than go into so much of the, philosophical underpinnings of it. I just wanna describe what are the rudiments of what I call an honor guide.

Introducing the Honor Guide – A Meeting Ground for Your Selves

The honor guide is a meeting ground between the past, present, and future selves. It has a fairly simple...