Episode Details

Amanda Horswill is a digital editor, content and SEO strategist with more than twenty years of experience across a variety of roles in the publishing sector. She also happens to have ADHD, an adult diagnosis that’s changed her life for the better.

1. JN: How does your neurodiversity impact your productivity both positively and negatively?
   1. Positive:
      1. Divergent/creative thinking
         1. Octopus thinking:
            1. Courier Mail - Des Houton = Spaghetti Head - tentacles going everywhere
         2. Interesting similes/metaphors
         3. Anticipating problems
      2. Hyper-focus:
         1. Early career pre-family: long hours, super intense work hitting deadlines
         2. Post dogs + mortgage + family: too much hyper-focus led to burnout - 
            1. Hyperfocus and ADHD seem like an interesting combo.
   2. Negative:
      1. Different ways of thinking leave people disoriented
      2. Three steps ahead - forget that other people don’t have the same context
      3. Identity issues with late diagnosis
2. JC: What "work" projects are you concentrating on?
   1. Solve issues that come up for writers preventing them from getting articles out there on Canstar’s WordPress site
   2. Streamlining CMS
3. JN: How about the rest of the time? What do you enjoy doing in your off time?
   1. Neurodiverse family:
      1. Son (11yo) has ASD L2 + ADHD
         1. Not stereotypical: caring, artistic but has communication challenges
         2. Special interests
      2. Daughter (late diagnosis - whole family diagnosed at time of son)
      3. De-escalation activities
         1. Cooking
         2. Garden
         3. Playing games
4. JC: What does your morning routine look like and how has it evolved over time?
   1. Extra sleep
   2. Coordinated effort organizing the kids with partner
   3. Morning routine used as calming / grounding routine
   4. Start work 8 - 8:30, at home 3 days per week, from home 2 days per week
      1. Commute time used to transition between environments
      2. More difficult WFH (don’t have that transition time)
         1. Remedy: block out time to center (time otherwise spent commuting and transitioning)
5. JN: What do you do to optimize productivity during your working hours?
   1. Compartmentalizing especially when the environment is messy/other people around
      1. Be ok with the kitchen looking like a trash can
   2. Channeling hyperfocus
      1. Prepare space (mental and physical)
      2. Attention props
         1. Sensory toys
      3. The right level of hard difficulty/stimulation
         1. Understimulated:
            1. Sensory toy
            2. Tea/Chocolate
            3. Loud music
            4. Make the work interesting - find the right job/figure out how to make it relevant
               1. Folding washing
                  1. Watch movies/listen to music
                  2. Try and do it really fast - beat the PB
         2. Overstimulated
            1. Calm down
               1. Reduce stimuli by working in the walk-in wardrobe where it’s silent 
               2. Noise-reducing headphones: Loop
               3. Soft jumper
               4. Write a big list of everything that is 
   3. Be ok with not knowing the answer
   4. Find the right colleagues who understand ways of thinking
   5. Medication 
   6. Therapy
6. JC: What is one habit you'd like to remove from your life (either a bad habit or one that takes up too much time)?
   1. Procrastabusy: too much time setting up the environment for productivity
      1. Following up phone calls with tradespeople
         1. Tactic: husband keeps texting until it gets done
   2. Eating chocolate
   3. Talking so much
7. JN: How do you switch off at night?
   1. Sleep has been a challenge especially pre-diagnosis
   2. Strict shutoff time for work -> transition to f