15 Comments
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Nushen Baihe's avatar

Thank you for that very specific and instructive post! I’m guilty of ‘Make this better’ too (and usually sufficiently thrilled with whatever comes back), but i loved the contextual input you’ve provided in your write up!

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Kamil Banc's avatar

We’ve all been there and we are learning together

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Wendy Scott's avatar

Thanks, I’m as specific as I can be with my prompts but learned some new tips from your article.

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Indian Podcast List (IPL)'s avatar

Very well, pointed out, Kamil, being structured and specific with the prompts on ChatGPT has always given better results. Additonally I had stayed away for a long time from using it for personal and therapeutic use case, but with bringing in more specificity and vulnerability, I am seeing great results on that front too

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Jenna Jonaitis's avatar

Dang this is good.

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ADHD Academic's avatar

Or stop using AI

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Kamil Banc's avatar

the choice is your's ;)

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Melissa Hingorani, Ph.D.'s avatar

As a fellow academic with ADHD, I have significantly benefitted from using to AI to optimize project planning and execution on days when the executive dysfunction is

dominating. 😊

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Kamil Banc's avatar

Please elaborate

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Melissa Hingorani, Ph.D.'s avatar

I use it in a bunch of ways depending on what I’m struggling with, but one of my absolute favorite uses especially for ADHD overwhelm is quick brain dumping. When the overwhelm paralysis kicks in, I’ll FORCE myself to spend 1–2 minutes word-vomiting everything in my head (often using voice over text). It’s usually a messy mix of fragmented phrases: things I might need to do today, this week, long-term projects, emails, etc.

AI helps me turn that internal chaos into something usable by pulling out themes and turning them into small, action items even when I’m only functioning at 10%. Sometimes I’ll even ask: “What can I realistically get done from this mess if I only have 10 minutes and no energy?”

It’s also helped me build preventative tactics for when I feel the overwhelm creeping in like making a “could do” list instead of a “should do” list (because sometimes, with ADHD, you really can’t do sh** 😅). It’s not always easy, but I’ve learned that if I can just get myself to brain dump even in the ugliest way it almost always gives me a little peace of mind.

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ADHD Academic's avatar

Same! I would love to know how I could use AI to help me do that.

I have used it to provide a bare bones draft of recommendation letters, which are my kryptonite. I will stare at the blank page and have no idea what to say. If I ask AI to draft the letter, it will produce something with the correct structure, which is in other respects nothing I would ever say in 1000 years. But then I can revise it.

I have also used it to try to plan my day – I’ll tell it what tasks I need to perform and how long they will take and ask it to prioritize and schedule. But this doesn’t work because then I just ignore the schedule.

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Luis Gaviria's avatar

Superb post! Thank you!

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Grace Grossmann's avatar

This is SO good! Love the specifics

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Tavian Lux's avatar

Writers supporting writers — let’s follow each other and grow. subscribe, and ill subscribe ANYONE!

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Lee Archer  |  Nottingham Arts's avatar

Or just stop using it.

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