ADHD College Planning • Office Hours for Your Brain

ADHD Student

Aug 21

Welcome to Season 31 of Taking Control: The ADHD Podcast! In this episode, Pete and Nikki kick off the Back-to-School Series for college students with ADHD by tackling one of the most essential—and overwhelming—skills for academic success: planning. From understanding the logic of a syllabus to building an ADHD-friendly workflow using calendars, task managers, and learning management systems, this episode is packed with practical, real-world strategies to help students plan smarter, not harder.

You’ll learn how to create your “College Workbox,” build semester-overview tools, and develop weekly and daily habits that support executive function and reduce academic stress. Pete also brings in insights from his experience as a former university faculty member to help students understand what instructors actually notice—and what they don’t. Whether you’re starting your first year or returning to campus as an adult student, this is your guide to planning a semester that works for your brain.

Links & Notes

Pete Wright Hello, everybody, and welcome to Taking Control, the ADHD podcast on True Story FM. I'm Pete Wright, and right there is Nikki Kinzer, friend of the class. Nikki Kinzer Oh, yes. I'm a studious student. Pete Wright Welcome to season 31 of this ye olde ADHD podcast. Nikki Kinzer Right? That's right. Welcome. Pete Wright Oh, it's very exciting. Nikki Kinzer 31. Pete Wright 31. It's not really a thing you can do when you're 31 that you couldn't do when you're 30. That's disappointing. hmm all right yeah this one this one is we're talking about school we're talking about college Nikki Kinzer new opportunities though new doors to go through Pete Wright you've got some new stuff that you're doing with regard to college and planning we're going to talk about that and we are going to talk specifically about what it means to go back to school as an adult college student and figure out how to succeed with your adhd before we dive in don't forget to Follow us on Instagram, Facebook, and Blue Sky. We're at Take Control ADHD everywhere. And if you like what you hear and want more of it, extended episodes, live streams, member-only content, head over to patreon.com slash the ADHD podcast and join our incredible community of supporters. You can also visit us at takecontroladhd.com to learn more about our coaching programs, workshops, and resources built just for you. And now, college planning. Welcome to college planning. So this is the big one, right? Like this is the big, the big meta skill of college. It's pretty crucial. If you don't have this game locked down, Nikki Kinzer It's pretty crucial. Yeah. Pete Wright it's gonna, you're, you're asking for some, some trouble. So let's put some thought into it. Nikki Kinzer Right, right. Because in the academic setting, there are so many deadlines and milestones. And as we mentioned in this question that was asked from one of our members, a lot of incoming information is coming in. Pete Wright Yeah. Nikki Kinzer there's a lot to organize there's a lot to manage you've got your academics but you got your social life and uh you know if you're an undergraduate and you're on the younger side you probably have a really big social life that you have to manage uh if in if you're a graduate student you didn't Pete Wright I never had that big of a social life. Nikki Kinzer have that oh yeah see i experienced that now with my daughter being in school like she has a lot of Pete Wright No. Yeah. She is so much more popular than I ever was in college. Nikki Kinzer managing that she's doing. Yeah, she, she's, she's very social. She likes to be out there with the Pete Wright Like an order of magnitude more popular. Yeah. Nikki Kinzer people. So, but you know, but then we also talk about, I work with a lot of graduate students who Pete Wright Yeah. Nikki Kinzer tend to be a little more serious about their academics at that point. But that's a lot of pressure too, because the classes are harder. They're more in depth, right? But there's so much to manage. And so that's why it's such a crucial skill for college students is that you have to Pete Wright Terima kasih. Nikki Kinzer learn how to plan, plan your week. You need to be able to look ahead. You need to know what you're doing today. It's, yeah, it's really important. And we want to, we want to offer some help. Pete Wright Well, and I want to throw in just a little bit of grist for the mill in this conversation, because we're talking in the member pre-show, we answered this question about a lot of information coming in. The other side of that is also true, depending on what class you're going to take, that the biggest peril that you face is the fact that there aren't a lot of deadlines. Maybe there's just a final or a final project and nothing else between start day of a course and end day of a course. Nikki Kinzer right yeah oh that throws you for a loop yeah Pete Wright And so I want to make sure we sort of embrace both ends of that particular spectrum because they're both hard for ADHD. Nikki Kinzer well you bring up a good point too because uh you know we have people I've worked with people who are studying for uh LSATs and things like that right like there is no structure there on how to Pete Wright Mm-hmm. Nikki Kinzer study for a big test like that so this definitely comes into play too is how do you plan for that Pete Wright Right. Nikki Kinzer in a way that, you know, is benefiting you. So, yeah. Pete Wright Right, right. Nikki Kinzer So a lot of what we're going to talk about today, Pete Wright Right. Nikki Kinzer I have to talk about our book, of course, because Unapologetically ADHD, we break down planning. And one of the things that we talk about is your work box, right? So this is where your work is living. Pete Wright Yeah. Nikki Kinzer And this is what we have to think about in the college setting is what are your essential planning tools when you're a college student? What is your college workbox? And so we want to identify what your needs are, what your preferences are. It's interesting because even though a lot of the students that I work with, they grew up with technology, right? They know the phone better than me, not you. You probably know it pretty darn well, but like definitely better than me. Pete Wright Угу. Nikki Kinzer But they still like paper. They still like the whiteboard. They still like that hand to paper, I need to know what I'm doing today. So as an individual, you have to figure out what works for you. My daughter's in college right now. She likes having a weekly paper planner. She has a friend who is dialed into Notion. And man, is she dialed into it. And so everyone's different, right? Pete Wright Yeah. Nikki Kinzer So we've got to identify what works for you, what tools you resonate with. The main ones that we want to focus on is, of course, your calendar, how you're taking notes, how are you managing the tasks that you have to do. And then most schools, I don't know of any school that doesn't have a learning management system that they, yeah, most schools do. Pete Wright Not anymore. Yeah. Yeah. Moodle, Canvas. Yeah, there are a ton of them, but those are the big two. Nikki Kinzer Yes. Yeah. And so you got to learn that because that is a huge inbox. That's going to be a partner for you. Pete Wright Well, the thing about it is it's also a workbox, right? And that's what you have to separate, Nikki Kinzer Oh, for sure. Pete Wright because there are many of the course discussion threads are going to be in these platforms. And so you're going to have to know these inside and out. And I really recommend investing, like marking in your calendar. Spend two hours learning, watching YouTube videos, become an advanced user of these LMS platforms, these learning management systems. It is huge. Nikki Kinzer Absolutely. It's how professors are updating you and things change all the time. Pete Wright Yep. Nikki Kinzer - That's the thing too that I definitely have noticed Pete Wright Right. Nikki Kinzer is that what the syllabus says at the beginning, it changes. And so if you're not in class to hear the change or you missed it because you were distracted, it's gonna end up being in that LMS system, Pete Wright Yeah. Nikki Kinzer the learning management system. Pete Wright Yeah. Right. Nikki Kinzer So yes, I think that that's where you start, right? Is you really figure out first, what are the tools you need? And then figuring out how they work together. Pete Wright Well, I just want to throw in because I realized a bit of frustration that I had actually as a parent. Nikki Kinzer Oh, sure. Pete Wright Because, you know, when you're a parent, especially through high school, you get these things. There are LMSs for high schools now, too, right? All the kids are in these similar platforms. And we would have, you know, other teachers who decided, oh, we're not going to use that. Like the language teacher was like, no, I'm going to use my own thing. And it's going to be Google Classroom, right? Well, that can happen in college, too. It can happen in grad school where your teachers are like, you know what? I just I have a different thing. I've been teaching for 30 years and I do it this way, too. All I'm saying about learn the system is learn whatever system is presented. If your professor comes to you and says, I'm using a Google Classroom, learn that, too. And yes, it's a burden at the beginning of the term, but it's a burden you only have to take on once, right? Learn it, you'll use it, and move forward. So that's it. That's the big footnote caveat. It sucks, and you just got to do it. Nikki Kinzer yeah yeah uh so for visual thinkers which you know most adhd years are uh one of the things when we talk about paper and we talk about what do you need around your your room your walls that large wall calendar you know that shows you the whole semester um i love colorful sticky notes for uncivable reminders like for little things that you need to do today. Put a sticky note on your computer so you don't forget, right? We need those things because you might ignore the alarm on your phone, but you're not going to ignore the big red sticky note that's on top of your laptop. Whiteboard systems are great. I've had many students who go get a huge whiteboard and will figure out like, you know, what are your tasks for the week and what are your important due dates and Pete Wright Продолжение следует... Nikki Kinzer write them down even though they're on the calendar we're still writing them down on that visual whiteboard too so they can see it um so there's a lot of different things that you can do so again these tools we just want you to be able to see the semester as a big picture but then also be able to plan your day and week with you know whether that's a weekly pad or it's a to-do list or whatever it is that you use we want to be able to see big picture and small picture Pete Wright So, in this whole process, we want to be aware of the role of friction and how friction both can support us and can sort of hinder us, right, and stop us. Nikki Kinzer stop us yeah Pete Wright and where that's important to use that. When you're doing your planning, when you're taking information from all these different inboxes, and that includes your syllabus, which we're gonna talk about in a minute, I think it's really important to have your own system, whether that's in Things or Todoist or Notion or whatever it is, that you're doing a lot of copying and pasting, right? That you're taking stuff from one place and putting it in your place, in your words, the way you understand it, rewrite the assignment in a way that works for you and breaks it down for you. Don't assume that just because everything is in all these inboxes that you're just going to remember to look in all the places where all the signals are. Because you're not. You have to go through a little bit of that scut work of just putting stuff in your own system. I think using voice dictation removes friction from that, right? when you just say, I'm going to start dictating tasks very quickly. I'm testing in Todoist right now an AI tool where you just start talking about all the things that you need to do in one long stream of consciousness, Nikki Kinzer Продолжение следует... Pete Wright and it creates all the different tasks that it found in that long stream of consciousness for you. Those kinds of things are extremely useful. For me, I think note-taking by hand on paper is still really useful. And being able to write notes and then go back and retype them into your system, Notion, wherever it is, is useful for learning. And so because part of, you know, reframing and typing your own notes in is helping you regurgitate the stuff you learned in class. Nikki Kinzer Продолжение следует... Pete Wright That's adding friction to the system versus taking it out, capturing stuff when you need it fast so you don't lose it versus slowing down and really thinking. Those are the two different sort of ways friction sort of applies for me when I think about student success. Nikki Kinzer I like the fact that what you were highlighting there too is that we can't just assume that everything is going to be in the learning management system and that it's always going to be there because you don't remember to always check it. And I can tell you the number of times when I've met with college students on our weekly appointment and we've had to go back in because it wasn't written somewhere else. And when I asked the question, when is this due, the person doesn't know and so has to go in and look at it. So there is that friction point. So I'm glad you bring that up because I think that that's a really important key. Pete Wright Продолжение следует... Nikki Kinzer And as a coach, it makes me think I need to be more aware of that. Like, let's make sure it goes somewhere else too, not just depending on that. So, yeah, that's a very, very good point. So one of the things that we have our students do at the very beginning of the semester, and we actually have a new pack or a new service where I'm offering this to students who are looking to plan their semester ahead and they just want that upfront help. Pete Wright Продолжение следует... Nikki Kinzer and the exercise, most people do it, but they don't always do it fully. Like they get started and then they kind of like, you know, get distracted, which makes sense because you have ADHD. Of course that's going to happen. But one of the things we want to do at the very beginning is we want to gather your syllabi from the learning management system and you want to get your calendars together and you want to make sure that you're putting the things that are important into your calendar. One of the things that you added here to our outline is what is the logic of a syllabus? So tell me a little bit more about what you mean by that. Pete Wright Well, professors have a different sort of, have unique systems around syllabus. And a lot of institutions now, especially the big ones, have standards for professors to follow when preparing a syllabus. And it'll be kind of like a fill in the blanks, right? It includes course policies, course descriptions, includes a schedule of, but not always a schedule of assignments, right? It used to be, but when I went to school, the syllabus was one document and it was huge, and it had all of those things plus the entire detailed list of due dates. And it was very easy to put all those due dates in my system, my day planner. That's harder to do now. So you have to think through the logic of the syllabus is, one, to understand the course Nikki Kinzer Продолжение следует... Pete Wright you're taking and the objectives that you need to get out of it. If the instructor is saying in this syllabus, I'm going to teach you XYZ, by the end of the course, you need to be able to say I'm learning XYZ. That gives you an opportunity to map all of the resources that come in to what you're actually purported to learn. I don't know students who, without being told to do this, will do this. I don't know students who sit down and say, oh, I have assignments to do that meet specific learning objectives. Nikki Kinzer Продолжение следует... Pete Wright How do I know if I'm successful in teaching or taking a class if I can't at the end of it say I learned what the syllabus said I was going to learn? So focus on that because the teacher is teaching you how to be successful, right? Is teaching you what to do to be successful. And then there's a lot of policies, cheating policies, those kinds of things that are templates, right, of the university or the department. Nikki Kinzer Продолжение следует... Pete Wright then there may be in this document or in a separate document that's attached the schedule of deliverables of the stuff you're going to have to do. Take these and put them in your own system, your task management system as projects or your calendar and your calendar. Ideally, they're talking with one another, your calendar and your to-do system. Document this stuff manually, copy and paste it, retype it, whatever it is. Nikki Kinzer Продолжение следует... Pete Wright do the work because write it in because you, it's just like taking notes. You have to introduce friction so that you internalize all the deliverables upfront. So you know what you're working toward. The number of students who would come to me, like, you know, the eighth week of a 12 week class and say, I didn't see this coming when it was in the syllabus on day one and we talked about it on day one, it is frustratingly high, that number. And so you can do yourself a lot of favors Nikki Kinzer Продолжение следует... Pete Wright by introducing friction to slow down, get through all the boilerplate stuff, and really think through the deliverables. You have to slow down and figure out what the entire arc of the course is. It will be frustrating when you run into those professors who don't give you everything at once. But more often, that happens a lot in high school, but more often than not in college, you'll get the whole course and you should document, document, document. Nikki Kinzer Well, and I think one of the things you can do, you know, that makes it ADHD friendly is to use color coding too when you are putting these things into your system so that you know that an exam date is colored red. So it has that, it doesn't look the same as a weekly homework assignment, right? We need it to jump out at you. So using some color coding, exam dates, red, major projects, papers could be orange. Your daily homework or reading assignments could be in a third color that you love, right? Like we want these things to jump out at you. We also want to make sure you know important dates like add and drop and withdraw deadlines. Pete Wright Продолжение следует... Nikki Kinzer I have found this with my own children, you know, missing those when they probably would have been better off withdrawing from a class or doing pass, no pass, whatever the options are, right? So knowing when those deadlines are really important. But then also on your calendar specifically, adding your work schedule and other known commitments. If you're in clubs that you know are going to meet every Wednesday, we need that on the calendar because that is not time that's available to you anymore. But if you don't see it somewhere, Pete Wright Продолжение следует... Nikki Kinzer you may think it's available and now you've like double booked yourself or you forget to go to the club meeting because it wasn't on your calendar. So we really want to make sure that we're using these tools and updating them and being consistent with them. And one of the things that I do with my students too, is I look at when is, when are their study blocks? If you have two classes on campus and there's a two hour, you know, space there between the two classes, you know, make that a study block and go to the library and study for two hours. Like, don't just, you know, use that time. Think of it as like a job, you know, you don't necessarily have a two hour break. Let's like, let's get some stuff done. You're already in the study mode. Pete Wright Продолжение следует... Nikki Kinzer right you're already on campus you're in class like you know so really trying to use their time in a way that makes sense Pete Wright I love that so much. And I said, I had written right after that in our notes. I was like learning. There's a line between showing up daily and actually building trust with your instructor. Showing up daily is going to college and going to class, right? Building trust with your instructors is showing up daily, going to class, going to work, which is studying, right, and integrating what you've learned and going back to class and being able to show that you've integrated and are ready to move on to the next thing, right? To really show that your effort is toward long term integration between the stuff that you're given and the stuff that you need to know for your career, for life, for just being a human being. And there's so much of that that is exciting. But how many freshmen have I seen just watching my own kids go through school who treat college as like there's class and then there's all the other social stuff that I'm going to fill in the blanks with. Nikki Kinzer Продолжение следует... Pete Wright There's playing pool and going to the arcade. You've got to be conscientious and thoughtful about when you're actually studying. That's the real job. That's the real job of going to school. Nikki Kinzer and that goes into the weekly planning um you know that we want to try to to make a habit you know setting time aside every week for you to review the week ahead uh checking those workbox the workbox tools, the inbox tools, you know, changes, changes are happening all the time. Updates happen all the time. Things get postponed. Um, so we have to be really paying attention to that. You, you know, one of the other things that I think ADHD brains tend to, um, fall into the all or nothing or the everything is urgent, right? So they may feel that overwhelm that we were talking about earlier that everything is coming this week. It's so overwhelming, but this is where you want to actually sit down and break down those tasks and those priorities and figure out like, Pete Wright Продолжение следует... Nikki Kinzer what is my next step? You know, if, if something's not due till Friday, but I've got something due on Wednesday, like you do have to play around with that and figure out like how much time to spend on each thing and, and, um, get help if you need it, you know, processing this and talking to a roommate or to other adhders there's lots of um different supports and things like that in scott in college universities that that can help you but i think even just finding somebody else that Pete Wright Продолжение следует... Nikki Kinzer you know they have adhd the two of you can like really work together and help each other so definitely talking things out can help process that breaking down um of the different projects and And, and, uh, I also want people to think about where their best study areas are. Um, and if you're not sure practice, go to a cafe, go to the library, um, go to, you know, the, if it's nice, see, I say that in Oregon, because if you're in Arizona, it's, Pete Wright Yeah, right. It's actually raining today. Nikki Kinzer it's nice all the time. If you're in Oregon, it's not nice all the time, but you know, are you going to be outside? Pete Wright Yeah. Nikki Kinzer Like, where are you less distracted and where are you more distracted? But all of those things can matter in planning, right? Pete Wright Vielen Dank. Nikki Kinzer Because you want to plan that I'm going to do this and the length of time that you can focus. Two hours may be too long. So let's take a break and then go to the library, study for an hour and then go to your next class. Like, we don't know. We need you to practice and figure that out. But it all goes into the weekly planning, right? Of how you're going to spend your time during that week. Pete Wright The root of it is for me that college isn't just about the academics. I really want to hammer this home. It's about learning how you learn, right? It's that your profs aren't expecting perfection, especially as an undergraduate, right? They're just expecting you to show up and ask questions and try things that work. One of the things that I think is a misnomer is that your professors don't care what you do as a student, right? Nikki Kinzer Mm-hmm. Pete Wright that you can skip all your classes, but if you pass the final, good for you. Nikki Kinzer Right. Pete Wright And that's great. So you've done performative college. You showed up and you got a grade. What are you going to remember when you left? And do you think your professor noticed that you were there? I will tell you that day to day, if a student doesn't show up, especially with these modern tools, I absolutely noticed that the students were not showing up. I noticed they weren't participating in the discussions. And I could tell you, I could predict, they're going to try to make it up on the final project or exam. Nikki Kinzer Mm-hmm. Pete Wright I mean, I give my time to the people who show up. And those students, I didn't care about. I really didn't care. Nikki Kinzer Yeah. Pete Wright But did I notice? Absolutely. Did their reputation get impacted for me? Right? Nikki Kinzer Mm-hmm. Pete Wright Like if they came back to me even after getting an A on a final exam because they're good crammers and they ask me for a reference, I would not give them a reference. Right. Reputation matters in college, especially college and grad school. Nikki Kinzer Right. Pete Wright And so being able to say you showed up, you did the work, people will notice. Nikki Kinzer Yeah. Pete Wright People who will matter in your career and in your academic success will notice when you show up. So being able to put some of these things in place, these systems in place, so that you stay on top of those relationships, build trust, build, you know, affinity with these people, it'll matter. It'll pay dividends, huge, huge dividends in the end. Nikki Kinzer Good stuff, Pete. Pete Wright Hey, thanks, everybody, for hanging out with us. We appreciate you downloading and listening to the show. Thanks for your time and your attention. Don't forget, if you have something to contribute to the conversation, we're heading over to the ShowTalk channel on our Discord server. You can join us right there by becoming a supporting member at the deluxe level or better. On behalf of Nikki Kinzer, I'm Pete Wright, and we'll see you right back here next week on Taking Control, the ADHD podcast.