What I’ve worked through with my coach

Here’s what I’ve worked through with my coach:

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• Punctuality: discussed ways to have better calendar notifications that I won’t miss and to plan out my schedule on paper the night before.

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• Big tasks that I tend to procrastinate on: figured out strategies to break down tasks into smaller chunks that are easy to tackle.

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• Shutting off work at a reasonable time: explored the root cause of why I’ve been working late and nailed down tactics for communicating better with my team so they don’t need to work late at night.

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• Packing for a trip: holidays have tended to be a bit problematic. I often forget critical items and don’t pack until the last minute. We looked into how I can better organise my packing lists and my coach held me accountable to packing well before the trip.

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• Paying attention to boring meetings: I struggle big time with this. It was helpful to get empathy from my coach and hear that she struggles with the same issue. She shared some tactics she uses (stim toys, taking notes and doodling) and I liked the idea of doodling so have started implementing that.

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Where do the insights come from? 

What is interesting is that often the insights that I get out of the session are not things my coach says but rather what I say in response to the open ended questions she asks. That might lead to the question: what’s the point of a coach if I’m figuring everything out on my own? It is a valid question. I’ve worked with other coaches who only asked questions and I found it really irritating especially when I didn’t think the questions were relevant. 

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My Shimmer coach strikes the right balance between asking questions and sharing her own experience as a fellow ADHDer who confronts the same challenges I do. The lived experience is really key. It means she’s asking questions that are actually useful. Often the questions seem to be based on a motivational interviewing approach (e.g. “Why don’t you switch off at 8pm?”, “What could a solution be?”, “How willing are you to adhere to that solution?”) which works really well for me. Although I technically could have figured it out on my own, I clearly have not figured it out on my own yet after 17 years of adulthood. Somehow the act of vocalising my thoughts brings out ideas from my subconscious that I’m willing to try out. 

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The discussion helps me to translate an abstract idea (e.g. breaking tasks down) into a tactic that I’m willing to experiment with.

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Accountability

The other aspect of the service that I like is the accountability layer. After the call, my coach creates action steps in the app. Some of them are recurring (e.g. write down a plan for the next day on paper) and others are one off (e.g. write a packing list for the trip). I don’t tend to use the other features of the app yet but the targeted to-do list is useful for me. It means I don’t forget about the actions before the next call.

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The verdict

I think Shimmer is well worth the money. The price point may be tricky for students but for working professionals, it’s a small amount. I’m confident the productivity gains I’ve made will more than make up for the cost.