Learning to Mind Map Quickly & Easily for Lawyers with ADHD

Christina Scalera is a lawyer and serial entrepreneur. They call her "The Queen of Black Friday."

Christina has several incredible businesses under her belt, including an award-winning Shopify store. She founded and ran a successful intellectual property law firm in Georgia and Colorado. She created and co-hosted a brilliant podcast ("The Creative Empire Podcast") and now helps lawyers turn their services into products at ChristinaScalera.com.

The secret underbelly of her "overnight" success, though, is that she tried (and failed) several times to build her dream life. Standing in her way was crippling credit card debt ($78,982, if I'm not mistaken), self-doubt, anxiety, depression, and trouble with grocery shopping (among other things).

She also has ADHD. This is her story.

Learn More About Christina Scalera

• ChristinaScalera.com
• Instagram
• Facebook
• Pinterest
• LinkedIn
• TheContractShop.com ("What if legal stuff didn't suck?")

Two Quotes from Christina Scalera

"If you want to have a successful life or business, you have to automate everything."

"ADHD medication broke the pattern of me feeling like I was a piece of crap. It broke the cycle and the pattern."

Resources Christina Scalera Mentions in this Episode

• Kelly Newsome Georges
• The Rising Tide Society
• Perennial Seller by Ryan Holliday
• Dr. Daniel Amen's "7 Types of ADHD"
• Cognitive-behavioral therapy for ADHD
• ADHD medication
• Clickfunnels, Russell Brunson, and Julie Stoian.
• “Soap Opera Sequence”
• The Tile App

 JDHD | For Lawyers with ADHD

• Are you looking for 1:1 coaching for your life as a lawyer with ADHD? Let's talk! You can book a time right here.
• You can learn more, read the transcript & view the show notes, and much more right here.
  • Join the JDHD mailing list.
  • Sign up for my free 10-Day email course, "An Introduction to ADHD for Lawyers."
• Follow JDHD (and Marshall Lichty) on your favorite social channels!  
  • Twitter (JDHD)
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Erin Keyes is a lawyer and the Dean of Students at the University of Minnesota Law School.

In this first episode since before the world shut down, we talk about what it means for law students and lawyers with ADHD to keep themselves healthy. We talk about why ADHD can make law school harder, how law schools can support ADHD law students, and the well-known pattern of ADHD law students falling behind and struggling to get caught back up.

We talk about how ADHD looks different in women, the panic monster and negative feedback loops, and how students are helping one another with ADHD and other mental wellness issues.

And we talk about how you slay the ADHD panic monster. Just start. Start the process of figuring out a way to figure out a way.

Learn More about Erin Keyes, JD

• The University of Minnesota Law School
• Twitter
• Email Dean Keyes

Two Quotes

"Some students struggle with how to build meaning over the course of a semester and give themselves lots of opportunities to test their understanding of information. Because you can't cram in law school."

"There is so much shame around the manifestation of ADHD in terms of the things that are left undone. The things that were started but not finished. There's a good reason why ADHD is so highly correlated with anxiety and depression. It is not just a function issue. It's also an emotional issue."

ADHD Resources in this Episode

• Professor Fred Morrison
• David Jaffe
• Jerry Organ
• Organ, Jerome M. and Jaffe, David and Bender, Katherine, "Suffering in Silence: The Survey of Law Student Well-Being and the Reluctance of Law Students to Seek Help for Substance Use and Mental Health Concerns" (September 13, 2016). Journal of Legal Education.
• Krill, Patrick R. JD, LLM; Johnson, Ryan MA; Albert, Linda MSSW, "The Prevalence of Substance Use and Other Mental Health Concerns Among American Attorneys," Journal of Addiction Medicine.
• National Task Force on Lawyer Wellbeing
• The Path to Lawyer Well-Being: Practical Recommendations for Positive Change
• Minnesota Lawyers Concerned for Lawyers ADHD Support Group

 JDHD | For Lawyers with ADHD

• You can learn more, read the transcript & view the show notes, and much more right here.
  • Join the JDHD mailing list.
  • Sign up for my free 10-Day email course, "An Introduction to ADHD for Lawyers."
• Follow JDHD (and Marshall Lichty) on your favorite social channels!  
  • Twitter (JDHD)
  • Twitter (Marshall)
  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Subscribe to our YouTube channel.

Show notes are coming, I promise!!!

Magically, Shawn Healy and I weave together Muggsy Bogues, the itty-bitty shitty committee, the evil New York Yankees, and spot-on practical tips for lawyers with ADHD.

He's charming, insightful, calming, and brilliant, and he talked for more than an hour about how to make meaningful progress building a better life and a better law practice as a lawyer with ADHD.


Learn More about Shawn Healy, PhD

Dr. Shawn Healy is Clinical Psychologist and a member of the clinical staff at Lawyers Concerned for Lawyers in Massachusetts where he provides individual clinical consultations, groups, and workshops to law students, lawyers, and judges. He regularly presents and publishes on all manner of mental health topics germane to the legal community. Over the past year, Dr. Healy has run several workshops on Practicing Law with ADHD and runs an ongoing monthly support group for law students and lawyers with ADHD. Dr. Healy is also the coauthor of the book The Full Weight of the Law: How Legal Professionals Can Recognize and Rebound from Depression (ABA Publication, 2017).

• Facebook (Massachusetts Lawyers Concerned for Lawyers)
• Twitter (Shawn Healy)
• Twitter (LCL-Massachusetts)
• https://www.linkedin.com/in/shawn-healy-phd-704b6b3/
• YouTube (LCL-Massachusetts)
• LCL-Massachusetts Website

Two Quotes

"ADHD and ADD can look like something as simple as difficulty reading material and focusing on it. It can be something as difficult as having their mind wander during classes, during meetings, trying to get stuff done and struggling to focus enough to get important stuff done, feeling the pressure of a deadline bearing down, but just feeling totally powerless in their ability to focus and get the work product done."

"Everybody needs to feel like they have some control over when they work and when they stop working..."

ADHD Resources in this Episode

• The Full Weight of the Law: How Legal Professionals Can Recognize and Rebound from Depression, by Jeffrey Fortgang and Shawn Healy
• LCL-MA ADHD Resources
• David & Goliath, by Malcolm Gladwell
• The Small Firm Roadmap, by Aaron Street, Sam Glover, Stephanie Everett, and Marshall Lichty
• Quiet, by Susan Cain
• Spark, by John Ratey, MD
• Acuity Scheduling
• Transforming ADHD, by Greg Crosby and Tonya Lippert

JDHD | For Lawyers with ADHD

• You can learn lots more, read the show notes, and much, more by visiting TheJDHD.com/9.
• Join the JDHD mailing list.
• Leave Marshall a voice note at Speakpipe.com/JDHD
• Sign up for my totally free 10-Day email course, "An Introduction to ADHD for Lawyers."
• Sign up for our text newsletter— Text “JDHD” to (551) 212-8883 to join!
• Follow JDHD (and Marshall Lichty) on your favorite social channels!

David Seah is possibly the most interesting man in the world. Growing up in a seminary on the top of a mountain, he has evolved from video game designer to JavaScript developer to cult productivity internet superhero.

His carefully-crafted, user-focused productivity tools help ADHD lawyers and non-ADHD lawyers alike grapple with their most important priorities and vanquish their most challenging struggles.

Learn More about David Seah

• Facebook
• Twitter
• Patreon
• Discord Server
• Instagram
• DavidSeah.com
• Ko-Fi
• GitHub
• Pinterest
• YouTube
• Shopify

Two Quotes

“The big secret with productivity systems is you can follow any of them and they work... so long as you keep following them."

"A Gantt chart is a way of visualizing how much time a set of tasks will take to complete a project... It's great at Thanksgiving when you're cooking all these things at the same time and only have four burners on your oven. So I actually make a Gantt chart every year for my Thanksgiving dinner. That's how nerdy I am."

ADHD Resources in this Episode

• The JDHD Landing Page at DavidSeah.com!
• All of Dave's productivity tools in one place!
• The Emergent Task Planner StickyPad on Amazon
• The Emergent Task Planner
• The Emergent Task Timer
• Manual Gantt Charting in Excel
• The Concrete Goals Tracker
• The Task Progress Tracker
• The Day Grid Balancer
• The Task Order Up!
• Time Tracking in Excel
• Checklist Manifesto, by Atul Gawande

 JDHD | For Lawyers with ADHD

• You can learn lots more, read the show notes, and much, more by visiting TheJDHD.com/8.
• Join the JDHD mailing list.
• Leave Marshall a voice note at Speakpipe.com/JDHD
• Sign up for my totally free 10-Day email course, "An Introduction to ADHD for Lawyers."
• Sign up for our text newsletter— Text “JDHD” to (551) 212-8883 to join!
• Follow JDHD (and Marshall Lichty) on your favorite social channels!  
  • Twitter (JDHD)
  • Twitter (Marshall)
  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Subscribe to our YouTube channel.

Liz Vennum is hilarious and compassionate and crushing it as a law firm owner with ADHD. Her vulnerability and her (gentle but persistent and swift) kicks in my ass have inspired me and—in many ways—are responsible for helping me get over my own imposter syndrome and perfectionism to launch this podcast and the website that goes with it.

As the Managing Attorney at Vennum PLLC in North Carolina, Liz opens up about her life as a mom with ADHD, a business owner, a spouse, and a bleeding heart.

We talk about growing up as a girl with undiagnosed ADHD (inattentive, not hyperactive), Facebook groups, ADHD in the workplace, why JDHDs make great litigators, and Liz's approach to people and talent and management and serving her clients.

Learn More about Liz Vennum

• Facebook
• Twitter
• LinkedIn
• Instagram
• VennumLaw.com

Two Quotes

“It was just a relief at that point. Like, 'Oh. Thank God. This is why.' This is why I always think 'Well, you could be first in your class if you tried a little harder. You could keep your stuff organized if you were just more disciplined... Just to be able to let that GO..."

"We all had these two things in common: We were lawyer moms and we had ADHD. So the other moms who have coordinated birthday parties for their well-dressed children in matching socks, they just don't understand about the rest of our lives."

ADHD Resources in this Episode

• Law Mamas Facebook Group
• Law Moms Focus Facebook Group (for law moms with ADHD)
• ADDitude Magazine
• Checklist Manifesto, by Atul Gawande
• David Seah
• Manager READMEs (blog post) (video)
• Good Boss, Bad Boss, by Robert Sutton

 JDHD | For Lawyers with ADHD

• You can learn lots more, read the show notes, and much, more by visiting TheJDHD.com/7.
  • Join the JDHD mailing list.
  • Sign up for my totally free 10-Day email course, "An Introduction to ADHD for Lawyers."
  • Sign up for our text newsletter— Text “JDHD” to (551) 212-8883 to join!
  • Follow JDHD (and Marshall Lichty) on your favorite social channels!  
    • Twitter (JDHD)
    • Twitter (Marshall)
    • Facebook
    • Instagram
    • Subscribe to our YouTube channel.

Megan Zavieh is a lawyer who helps other lawyers. She's a California state bar defense lawyer, an entrepreneur, an innovator and #legaltech nerd, and an omnipresent voice in attorney mental health and well-being.

In today's episode, we talk about lawyers with ADHD, shame, helping self-represented lawyers in attorney discipline proceedings, and how anxiety, depression, and ADHD show up as frequent patterns in Megan's clients.

We also talk about building law firms with margin and space and systems and incremental improvement. Megan's story inspires all of us lawyers with ADHD: we don't need "perfect" systems. We need the curiosity to start building them and the habit of improving them over time.

Learn More about Megan Zavieh

• Facebook
• Twitter
• LinkedIn
• YouTube
• Instagram
• ZaviehLaw.com
• Megan's podcast, Lawyers Gone Ethical, and the Lawyers Gone Ethical episode we recorded together.
• The State Bar Playbook

Two Quotes

“These people need help. These are the lawyers that I always said back when I was 18 that I want to be their psychiatrist. I don’t want to be their psychiatrist anymore, but I can be their counselor, and I can be their guide through this process.”

"Maybe you don't need medication, maybe you don't need to go to a psychiatrist, but we need to talk about this. And I think that lawyer-to-lawyer is going to be the best network for us to be having those conversations so that in the future you start to find out early on that if you get that feeling, it means you need to do something, not that there's something wrong with you."

ADHD Resources in this Episode

• Acuity Scheduling (*When I recorded this episode with Megan, I wasn't an affiliate. But now I am an Acuity affiliate. If you use my link, I'll get a small commission that helps JDHD stay focused. I use and endorse Acuity without reservation and without influence from my affiliate status.)
• Calendly
• Lawyerist LabCon (f/k/a TBD Law)
• ABA TECHSHOW

 JDHD | For Lawyers with ADHD

• You can learn lots more, read the show notes, and much, more by visiting TheJDHD.com/6.
  • Join the JDHD mailing list.
  • Sign up for my totally free 10-Day email course, "An Introduction to ADHD for Lawyers."
  • Sign up for our text newsletter— Text “JDHD” to (551) 212-8883 to join!
  • Follow JDHD (and Marshall Lichty) on your favorite social channels!  
    • Twitter (JDHD)
    • Twitter (Marshall)
    • Facebook
    • Instagram
    • Subscribe to our YouTube channel.

On his 70th birthday, Edward (Ned) Hallowell, M.D. shares his unflinchingly positive outlook about adults with ADHD and the gift it can be in our lives.

Dr. Hallowell's 1994 best-selling book Driven to Distraction remains one of the single most important books about adults with ADHD ever written. His latest book, V.A.S.T., argues that ADHD is an outdated name and that Variable Attention Stimulus Trait is a much better one.

Finally, Dr. Hallowell shares his belief that ADHD is "get-out-of-able." That diagnosing, treating, and learning to harness ADHD's gifts puts an end to the suffering it can bring. 

Learn More about Dr. Hallowell

• The Hallowell Centers
• Books by Dr. Hallowell
• Dr. Hallowell on ADDitude Magazine
• Distraction Podcast with Dr. Ned Hallowell

Two Quotes

"In my career, I have not been treating disabilities. I have been helping people unwrap their gifts."

"ADHD can ruin your life and just make life a living hell if you don't know what's going on. And that's so sad because this living hell is get-out-of-able. You don't have to live in it. You don't have to suffer."

ADHD Resources in this Episode

• Driven to Distraction 
• Delivered From Distraction

 JDHD | For Lawyers with ADHD

• You can learn lots more, read the show notes, and much, more by visiting TheJDHD.com/5.
  • Join the JDHD mailing list.
  • Sign up for my totally free 10-Day email course, "An Introduction to ADHD for Lawyers."
  • Sign up for our text newsletter— Text “JDHD” to (551) 212-8883 to join!
  • Follow JDHD (and Marshall Lichty) on your favorite social channels!  
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Get this episode's show notes (https://TheJDHD.com/4) and watch the video on YouTube (https://youtu.be/ukaxL4enuwU)

Mind mapping is a powerful productivity habit for lawyers with ADHD.

In this video, we walk through through mind mapping for productivity, including the basics, when and how to use it, and some great software tools to help you get started. We also talk about other resources to learn more about mind mapping and do a deep-dive into Mind Node, one specific mind mapping tool that Marshall uses frequently as a lawyer with ADD to get started with brainstorming, outlining, and finishing projects.

Mind Mapping Tools Mentioned in this Episode:

• MindNode
• Xmind
• Bubbl
• WiseMapping
• Mindomo
• Coggle
• OmniGraffle
• LucidChart
• Microsoft Visio
• MindMeister
• Mappio/Biggerplate

Additional Mind Mapping Resources:

• Tony Buzan’s TED Talk
• Lawyerist.com on Mind Mapping
• Mind Map Art (“Showcasing the world’s finest mind maps”)
• The Complete Guide on How to Mind Map for Beginners
• The Best Mind Mapping Software on G2

JDHD | For Lawyers with ADHD

Are you interested in learning more about ADHD in general or ADHD for lawyers in particular? You can listen to this video as a podcast, read the show notes, and much more by visiting TheJDHD.com/4.

• Subscribe to our YouTube channel: TheJDHD.com/YouTube
• See the show notes: https://TheJDHD/4
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• Sign up for our text newsletter— Text “JDHD” to (551) 212-8883.

In this episode with Dr. Gary Johnson, we talk about lawyers, common ADHD myths, time optimism, shame, and the Never-Boring Guarantee!

Even better, we talk about high IQs, ADD's “friends and neighbors” (the so-called “comorbidities”) and the single feature or ADHD that we’d like to eradicate from the planet (Spoiler alert: It's shame.)

Dr. Johnson is a psychologist specializing in evaluating and treating the “hard cases” of adults, children, and lawyers with ADD and ADHD.

Learn More about Gary Johnson

• Calm Clinic—The Center for Learning, Attention, and Memory
• Dr. Johnson's Email Address: gary@calm.us

Two Quotes

“If you have ADHD as an adult and it hasn’t been diagnosed, it is expected that you would either have some depression or anxiety that went along with it.”

“The older someone is when they get diagnosed, the higher the IQ.”

ADHD Resources in this Episode

• John Drozd, Ph.D, The Neuro Assessment Center, LLC
• The Godfathers of ADHD, Ned Hallowell and John Ratey
  • Driven to Distraction 
  • Delivered From Distraction
• Dav Pilkey, author, Dog Man: For Whom the Ball Rolls
• You Mean I'm Not Lazy, Stupid or Crazy?!, by Kate Kelly and Peggy Ramundo

 JDHD | For Lawyers with ADHD

• You can learn lots more, read the show notes, and much, more by visiting TheJDHD.com/3.
  • Join the JDHD mailing list.
  • Sign up for my totally free 10-Day email course, "An Introduction to ADHD for Lawyers."
  • Sign up for our text newsletter— Text “JDHD” to (551) 212-8883 to join!
  • Follow JDHD (and Marshall Lichty) on your favorite social channels!  
    • Twitter (JDHD)
    • Twitter (Marshall)
    • Facebook
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    • Subscribe to our YouTube channel.