You don’t want to manage symptoms.
You want to solve the issue.

To do any task, you rely on your 28 thinking skills.
When the thinking skills you need to use are strong, the task happens easily.
But when a thinking skill is weak, doing the task becomes a struggle.


By identifying which thinking skills are weak,
you can address the root cause
making the task no longer a struggle.

Here were some of Julie’s struggles and the thinking skills behind them:
📝 Needing to write everything down out of fear of forgetting it (even while doing the task) -this stems from weak working memory.
😲 Feeling overwhelmed by large amounts of information and projects – That’s tied to the thinking skill of clear perception.
📌 Lot of papers to go through and many open projects – This requires better categorization.
💪 Pushing through when things got tough – A matter of perseverance.


Since we want to leverage what’s working,
We also need to identify which thinking skills are strong.
So, I had Julie take the thinking skill assessment (you can take it here: www.lifepixuniversity.com/cf)
And there were many!

The skill that stood out the most (because it’s so rare!) was labeling.
Julie is incredibly precise when it comes to labeling emotions, thoughts, and ideas.
This makes understanding and communication much easier.

Based on these insights,
I’ve created a custom plan of action to address her challenges and achieve her desired outcomes.


To figure out which thinking skills are holding you back, try this exercise:

1) For one week, write down any task you’re procrastinating or struggling with.
Instead of just jotting down the task, go into detail about what part you dislike most.
For example, don’t write “respond to emails.”
Instead, write “getting started on emails when there are too many emails to go through. It's very overwhelming."

2) After a week, look back at what you’ve written and find the pattern.
You may have written down: responding to emails, cleaning a messy room, and getting an update on the new project.
While they all look like they don’t have anything to do with one another,
If you write down the part you don’t want to do, you’ll see a pattern.
In this case, it may be getting overwhelmed when there’s lots of information.
THAT is the problem you want to solve.
​

As someone who used to have a really hard time with working memory,
I know the deep pain of this struggle.

In the first session of Optimize Your ADHD Brain,
I split everyone into pairs, so they get to know one another better.

Before sending them to their breakout rooms
I gave them 3 points to share with their partner.

“Can you repeat number 3?”
Julie was so worried she might forget what she needed to say
that she quickly wrote down the 3 points as I spoke.

At this point in time,
Julie had a challenging time with working memory and holding a few pieces of information at once.

This is the ability to keep track of several pieces of information at the same time while doing a task.
💳 Remembering more than one number when someone gives you a credit card.
🍲 Remembering how long the macaroni needs to be in the pot (without having to take the box out of the garbage:))
👩 Remembering 3 simple questions that you’ll have to answer in a minute.

To address this,
We first practiced holding 2+ pieces of information in her mind at once.
Once she could do this more easily, we started building her working memory.

During sessions,
we do dot pages that shows me what’s happening in your brain
& help you improve your thinking skills.

While most people find a shape and draw it.
I had Julie find all the shapes first and then draw them.
This helped her practice holding serval pieces of information at once and working memory.


In the beginning, it was tough.
She kept forgetting and had to find the shapes again.
After all, this is a skill that hasn’t really been used.
It wasn't long before
Julie developed a way to hold 2 shapes in her brain, and then 3, and then it just happened naturally.

What I love about this is,
It grew her ability to hold multiple pieces of information at once & working memory in all areas of her life.
She didn’t need people to repeat details again and again.
She was able to keep track of what she needed for the task at hand.

The amount of time and mental energy this saved is astonishing.
You don’t even realize this is an issue till you’re on the other side.
(talking from personal experience 😉)

📌 Here’s how you can work on holding multiple pieces of information at once:
Give yourself 3 things to do without writing it down.

For example, I’m going to make a coffee, answer this email and respond to Voxer

Once you feel like you’re able to remember 3 tasks, make it 4, then 5… how far can you go?
​

While there’s a lot of talking during our sessions,
It’s not only talking.
Quite a big chunk of the session, you’re doing brain exercises that work on optimizing your brain in the moment.

While doing these exercises,
Julie would get super focused on finding the right answer.
Sometimes she’d get fixated on a dot, thinking, “This must be the shape.”

Sometimes it was the right dot,
And sometimes it wasn’t.

And when it wasn’t,
It would get real frustrating.

Here’s the thing-
This wasn’t just the dots pages.
This was happening in life. Business. Relationships. It was everywhere.

So,
We introduced the concept of Zoom in and Zoom out.

Zoom out to see all the dots.
Zoom in on this specific dot to see if it works.

Zoom out to understand the goal of the conversation.
Zoom in on this specific aspect you’re working through.

Zoom out to remind ourselves of the motivation.
Zoom in to figure out how we’re going to tackle this challenge.

I loooooved how Julie was able to see when to zoom in and when to zoom out.
And she got really good at being able to switch back and forth between the two during the same task.

If you get fixated on details OR can’t stand the details ‘cuz you’re staying focused on the big picture,
Add the phrases Zoom in and Zoom out to your vocabulary.

Teach it to the people around you.
Write it on a sticky note.
Whenever you’re stuck, use the zooming that’s needed.
​

The brain exercises we do in Optimize Your ADHD Brain sessions,
Are a mirror of your brain.

While you’re finding the answer,
I get to see how your brain is working so we can make the improvements in real-time.

When I found Julie jumping around the page
instead of going in order “’cuz she couldn’t find the answer”
I immediately knew,
In real life,
She jumps from task to task without finishing them.

When I asked her about it,
She showed me her big stack of papers with all the tasks she still needed to deal with.

And so,
while doing the dot pages,
Julie got specific instructions to stay on the frame until she was able to figure it out.
Close the loop. 💫

While it wasn’t easy at first,
Closing the loop became easier.

One day,
Midway through the program,
Julie shared she’s closing the loop when working with clients.

It used to be,
That when she’d finish a session or workshop,
She’d get off Zoom… and next…
Leaving the loop still open with notes that needed to be written and random bits to deal with.

The next time she was getting ready to work with the client,
there’d be a mental workout of figuring out exactly what she meant in her unfinished notes.

Now,
She took an extra couple of minutes after the session to write out her notes.

This way,
When it came time to review her notes,
It was all ready for her and she didn’t need to waste any time trying to figure it out.

NOTE: We didn’t create a system for her to keep track of her clients notes.
We helped her brain see the benefit of closing the loop,
Created new neuron connections while doing the dot sheets,
And then it automatically happened in real life.

📝So, how can you close the loop in your life?
Before jumping to your next task, take a moment to ask yourself:
Is there anything else I need to do to close out this task?

This could mean jotting down notes,
sending a follow-up email,
or even setting a reminder for a future task.

Don’t leave anything hanging!
Taking those few extra minutes to tie up loose ends
will help you focus on the next task more easily
and will save you time & headache when the next time you deal with this.
​

The best way to learn,
Is not to have someone tell you.

A much better option,
Is to have someone mediate you.

That’s why in Optimize Your ADHD Brain,
I don’t teach you at all.

Instead,
I ask you questions,
to get your brain thinking.

This way,
What we’re talking about
Doesn’t go in one ear and out the other,

Instead,
It creates neuro pathways in your brain that stay forever.

The process of asking someone questions to help get to the answer,
Is one of my all-time favorites.
As it guarantees you never get stuck.

But here’s the thing -
I don’t want you to rely on me.
I want you to be able to figure out what to do in any situation
Without me being there.

So that’s why,
During your time in Optimize Your ADHD Brain,
You get lots of chances to practice mediation.

When we started practicing,
Julie Boll was a bit hesitant.
She wanted to be the one “practiced on”
To hear different perspectives and types of questions
Or maybe simply, because it was new and different. 😏

But obviously,
I didn’t let her get away with it,
And pretty soon she was meditating beautifully.

So much so that in later sessions,
she’d swoop in during conversations I was having with other participants,
and help them find their answers.

Julie is now using those mediation skills in her everyday life to tackle challenges head-on.

Instead of feeling stuck,
she’s able to navigate tricky situations on her own,
making problem-solving a breeze and keeping her stress levels down!

So, what is exactly mediation?
Mediation is the process of asking someone questions to help them come to a conclusion themselves.
When you ask yourself questions to help yourself come to a conclusion, it’s called self-mediation.


3 Power Questions You Can Ask Yourself to Start Your Mediation:
1. What do I see?
2. What is the problem?
3. What strategy can I use?


Important points to remember when mediating someone else:
- You need to build a good rapport with the other person.
If they don’t feel you care about them, it won’t work. Remember, the focus is on them, not you.

- As the mediator, it’s your responsibility to ensure the other person understands the question.
If they don’t, rephrase it in a way that makes sense to them.

- You’re not telling them the answer.
You’re helping them come to the answer themselves.
​

Most people reach out to me because of their logical problems:
Procrastination,
Time management,
Communication issues,
Lack of systems,
Delegation….

But here’s the thing-
Almost everyone who goes through Optimize Your ADHD Brain
ends up seeing some pretty amazing improvements in their emotional side, too.

You see,
Emotions and cognition are two sides of the same coin.
When one is down, the other one goes down too.
But when one improves, the other gets better too.

For example,
If you get overwhelmed by 486 unread emails,
It’s likely because your brain is overwhelmed by all that incoming information.
Improve your brain's ability to take in lots of information at once,
And the overwhelm is no longer relevant.

In Julie’s case,
She’d get anxious she’d forget an important detail.
This caused her to always have the need to write everything down and constantly worry she’s gonna miss the next thing.

As soon as we improved working memory,
Her anxiety levels automatically went down as she now knew she’d remember what she needed to remember.

Or what about those moments when Julie would find herself in stressful conversations?
Julie would work hard to keep herself and her nervous system calm.

Once she improved her thinking skill of categorizations and mastered zooming in / zooming out, conversations were easier and didn’t take as much emotional energy.

So even though we didn’t focus directly on emotional regulation, it automatically improved.

You can experience success faster,
If you don’t just focus on what’s in front of you.

In Optimize Your ADHD Brain, we end each session by taking a moment to write down a life principle.

A life principle is a nugget of wisdom that can be used in many areas of life.

This way,
Instead of having to learn the lesson over and over again,
You generalize the lesson, apply it everywhere, and experience success in more areas.

For Julie Boll, this practice was a game changer.
This simple act transformed her mindset and unlocked new levels of clarity.

Here is some life principles Julie wrote:
· Sometimes we have to break the pattern to see the pattern.
· Consistency is less decisions.
· The more I understand the task before I start, the faster I go.
· When I look for the path, I can be accurate and prevent future work and clean up.

I didn’t tell Julie what these life principles should be.
Julie reflected, extracted, and came up with these sentences word for word.

📌Here’s how you can write your own life principles and accelerate your success:

After completing a challenging task, take a moment to reflect.

Ask yourself, What helped me do this task?
Then, craft a general insight that can be applied to different areas of your life.

If you’re stuck, use this formula:
When I __________, then I __________.

Remember,
Your life principle needs to be general.
As soon as it’s too specific and doesn’t apply to many areas of life, it’s not doing its job.

Keep your life principles broad to see the real magic happen.

I highly recommend you keep a stack of index cards or a running list on your phone of all your life principles.
The more you review and integrate them, the faster you’ll cement those lessons into your daily life.

All 28 foundational thinking skills are important.
Some are just more important than others.

Comparison is one of those more important thinking skills.
When Julie shared, she was overwhelmed with way too many projects,
I right away knew comparisons was the cause of the overwhelm.

When Julie had to make a big business decision on how to move forward for the upcoming year,
Comparisons was needed to make the decision.

When Julie wanted to get better at using the systems she created,
Once again comparisons was the culprit.

While most people would have given her advice on each of these areas,
It was a lot smarter to solve the root issue –
Improve comparisons.

This way ANY area of her life related to comparisons will improve.

Comparisons is hidden in your life too.
Making decisions.
Prioritizing
Risk assessment
Spending time on the right tasks
All uses the thinking skill of comparing.

If you’re struggling with any of the above,
There’s a good chance comparing is getting in your way too.

Like Julie,
Instead of putting on a band-aid,
You’ll want to solve the root issue –
Improve comparisons.

Most business owners *think* they know how to compare.
But then,
You learn they have a hard time making decisions, prioritizing or with risk assessment.

That,
All comes from the thinking skill of comparisons.

In school we’re often told to compare
(how many compare & contrast essays did you have to do?!)

But we never really learn how to compare correctly,
Especially for life & business.

When I started working with Julie on comparisons,
The first thing we needed to make sure,
Was that she was comparing on the same parameters, the same criteria.

It isn’t helpful to say I like A better because it’s bigger.
While I like B better because it’s cheaper.
One is talking about size and the other is talking about price.
We need to compare each option on the same parameter.

While in our 90-day programs Optimize Your ADHD Brain, we have very specific exercises that are created to help you with comparisons

Here’s how you can improve comparisons at home:

Take 2 random items around you and compare them.
The best way to do this is to create a chart.
On top put the two items and going down the side of the chart put all the parameters you’re going to compare them on: color, size, texture, price, origin, use etc.
Then fill out the chart accordingly.

After you’ve done your chart with actual items, make another chart, but this time pick items that are not around you.
Items that you need to think about.
It makes it that bit more challenging when you need to envision the item instead of it being right there in front of you.

Once your second chat is done, if you’re up for a real challenge, think about two abstract concepts and compare those.
For example, two of your tasks, two of your marketing funnels, two-character traits etc.

Now that you can do it in writing, up your game by comparing correctly when talking.
Next time you are explaining something or need to make a decision, explain your thought process through the parameters.
While you do this it will most definitely take you longer to talk, it’s also creating new neuro connections in your brain and organizing info the a clear, cohesive way.

👉 If you find yourself stuck in decision-making, procrastinating, or unable to prioritize,
remember,
It might not be about motivation or willpower at all.
It could simply be that your brain needs to improve comparisons a bit.

When running a business,
EVERYTHING feels important.

But if there are too many priorities,
there are no priorities.

Julie felt like she had too many tasks,
too many projects,
and oh too many priorities

Here’s the truth:
Prioritizing isn’t just about deciding,
it’s about comparing.

Without the skill to evaluate tasks side by side,
everything feels equally urgent,
overwhelm sets in
and nothing gets done.

As Julie was in the Optimize Your ADHD Brain cohort that focused on her comparison skills, I could see her improvements weekly.

I know within a short time, the root problem will be solved.

Meanwhile,
I showed her The Priority Power Play -
A framework I’ve created and use every time I feel pulled in 100 directions.

Here’s how it works:

1. Brain Dump: Write every task or project on a piece of paper.

2. Compare Tasks: Look at the first two tasks. Which one is more important? Compare the winner to the next task on your list. Keep going until you’ve identified your #1 priority.

3. Organize by Priority: Write the most important task at the top of a new sheet. Repeat the comparison process with the remaining tasks until they are on the new sheet of paper in priority order.

As Julie worked through the framework, her clarity improved instantly.
She stopped spinning her wheels on low-priority tasks and started seeing progress where it mattered most.

Once she strengthened her comparison skills and mastered the Priority Power Play, Julie always knew exactly what to focus take her business to the next level.
​

Every business owner has felt the pressure of making decisions.

When the stakes are high,
it’s easy to get stuck or overwhelmed,
not knowing which option to pick.

Julie often struggled with making decisions,
especially when money or people were on the line.

Whether it was choosing who to hire,
deciding on a marketing plan,
or figuring out what to focus on,
the lack of clarity often led to self-doubt and slowed things down.

The root cause of this struggle?
Comparisons.

Because if you can’t properly compare your options,
your brain doesn’t have what it needs to make a clear choice.

By improving her ability to compare, making decisions started becoming easier.

However, improving comparisons at the deepest level takes time.
So, in the meantime, I showed her the Decisions Made Easy Framework:

1. On a clean sheet of paper, list out all your options at the top.

2. On the left side of the page, list all the factors that affect the decision (price, time, location, etc.)

3. Fill in the chart.

4. Rank the factors in order of priority.

5. Boom! The answer is there based on what’s most important.

Once Julie started comparing her options based on the right factors, she could quickly see what mattered most.
It wasn’t long before Julie became more confident in her choices and was able to move forward faster in her business.

The Optimize Your ADHD Brain exercises are a mirror of your brain.
They show you how your brain is processing and dealing with information.

While doing the brain exercises, Julie noticed she kept on switching strategies midway through the paper.
And since these exercises show what’s happening in real life,
I asked her if she keeps on switching strategies when working.

Tracking finances, delegating to the team, creating content -
Switching strategies showed up everywhere.
Okay,
What was going on?

It turns out -
That whenever Julie needed to make a decision,
She switched strategies.

You see,
Making a decision was mentally draining,
So, it was easier for her brain to find a new way to do this task without having to make a decision.

But this would only work,
Till,
You guessed it,
She needed to make a decision again.
So, the amount of time and energy it took get tasks done, was a lot more then was needed.

Making decisions come from the thinking skill of comparing.
By improving her comparisons, making decisions became a breeze.

Now it was just as easy to follow her strategy
As it was to switch to a new strategy.
That mean less procrastination, working got done in less time and best of all didn’t feel as mentally draining.

If you find yourself switching strategy midway through a task,
You’ll want to understand why YOU are doing it.
Because there’s a good chance it a different reason to Julie.

That’s why in Optimize Your ADHD Brain every person gets a lot of one-on-one time.

The reason why your brain is struggling may be different then someone else.
Start by asking yourself -
What part of this task does my brain not like?

And solve that issue.

Clarity with your team is critical.
Without it, even the best plans can fall apart.

Julie joined Optimize Your ADHD Brain with a goal of improving how she worked with her team.
She noticed that the biggest challenge wasn’t a lack of effort,
It was a lack of clarity -
Systems were created and not used.
Tasks were delegated and not done correctly.
Priorities were set and then switched.
Not only was Julie's team confused,
It was often unclear in her own brain.

The cause?
Lack of comparisons.

As we did different exercises to improve comparisons,
Julie found it easier to
Set priorities,
Create and follow through on systems
And make the many micro-decisions that pop up throughout the day.

Her team no longer felt unsure about what to do or how to approach their responsibilities.
They had the clarity they needed to take action confidently.

And Julie?
Was able to focus on higher-level strategy and growth while experiencing more inner peace.

Then,
When we added categorizations into the mix,
The understanding of organizations was put on steroids.

Without strong comparisons, categorizing is just guessing
As in the act of categorizing, you are comparing.

Julie Boll experienced the connection between comparisons and categorizations firsthand,
Before improving her thinking skills, Julie’s categories sometimes made more chaos than organization.

Tasks marked “urgent” weren’t actually urgent.
Projects grouped together didn’t belong in the same bucket.
Systems felt scattered, leaving her team unsure of what to prioritize.

But as we strengthened Julie’s comparison skills, something clicked.
She began to see how comparisons are the first step to categorizing effectively.

She could now clearly distinguish:
What needed attention now vs. what could wait?
Which tasks to delegate vs. which ones to handle herself?
Which projects aligned with her goals vs. which ones were distractions?

With this new clarity,
Julie had what she needed to make better categories.
As we continued the work in Optimize Your ADHD Brain.

We focused on the thinking skill of categorization and -
Julie’s systems became tighter.
Her team finally knew exactly what to do and when to do it.
The overwhelm lifted.
She had more time to focus on growth and strategy.

Want better organization in your business?
Start with comparisons.

📝Here’s a quick exercise:
Pick one area of your work that feels chaotic (e.g., your to-do list or project planning).
Compare the items in that area by asking, “What’s the most important factor here?”
For example: Is it urgency, profitability, or alignment with your goals?
Use that factor to group similar items together.

The stronger your comparisons are, the easier it will be for you to categorize.

Big tasks can feel overwhelming but with the right approach,
They become an opportunity for clarity, action, and even problem prevention.

While Julie was already adept at managing large projects, improving her thinking skill of categorizations, brought her an entirely new level of clarity.

Instead of looking at a product launch as one massive task,
Julie could now see it as a series of smaller, manageable phases, that was able to be adjusted as needed.

The secret?
Before you start categorizing, ask yourself –
What is the goal?

Because there’s no perfect way to categorize.
Depending on what your goal is, is how you’ll want to categorize.

By categorizing based on the goal,
Julie could see how each step connected, allowing her to work more efficiently and spot potential problems,

Instead of feeling bogged down by the size of her projects, Julie now had a clear path forward, with each phase feeling like a manageable, actionable step.

As a result, Julie was able to spend more time on high-leverage tasks without stress or overwhelm.

📦Here’s how you can improve your own categorizations:
Find a drawer, box of supplies, or even a bunch of snacks to organize.
Before you start, you tell yourself the pretend reason why you’re organizing this:
For a trip?
For a video?
For ease of use on a daily basis?
Then organize your items accordingly.

As you are organizing it, I want you to think of your items in groups.
This is the group of all the summer shirts or the group of healthy snacks that need a utensil to eat.
Organize your items based on these groups.
Remember, the types of groups you’ll have will depend on the purpose of why you’re organizing it.
Once it’s done, mix all the items back together and come up with another purpose of organizing it.
Using the same items and organizing them in different ways, will help train your brain on organizing via purpose and use.

This exercise will get your brain to start thinking in categories.
That way when you’re faced with a complex task, your brain can take a minute to figure out the goal and come up with the best way to categorize it.

Grouping random tasks together may seem strange to an outsider,
But it can save you dozens of hours and endless headaches.

By improving categorizations, Julie completely transformed how she approached her workweek.
Instead of feeling overwhelmed by a never-ending list of random tasks, she started seeing seemingly random connections between her tasks.

Tasks that once felt scattered suddenly clicked together. By categorizing them into related groups, Julie was able to knock out multiple things at once, saving time and cutting down on unnecessary switching between tasks.

Now it was no longer about “client” or “project”
It was about doing as much as she could of one task.

She found herself batching 12 weeks' worth of email newsletters (wow!)
And banging out the hours' worth of curriculum that used to be a weekly stress.

What Julie discovered was that categorization didn’t just save time; it saved her energy.
Rather than constantly shifting gears and wasting focus, she could now tackle related tasks in chunks, getting more done in less time.

Want to organize your week in the most efficient way possible?
This is the exercise I taught Julie in Optimize Your ADHD Brain:

1. Write out all your tasks for the week, each on its own index card or sticky note (yes, even the smallest of your tasks).

2. Lay out all the cards.

3. Group tasks are similar (even if they’re from different projects). For example, admin work or copywriting.

4. Once you’ve created groups, schedule time blocks in your week to do these tasks together.

Use this system every week and watch how your time, focus, and productivity improve:)
Personally, I do this exercise every Friday and that way I know I’m making the best use of my time.

The moment you stop growing,
You start dying.

That’s why in business there’s no “enough point”
It’s about constantly putting yourself in challenging situations that either -
Grow the business,
Grows you,
Or both. (Being honest, this is the real answer 😉)

When Julie joined Optimize Your ADHD Brain Advanced, she already had a track record of success, but as a growing person, she wanted to go even further.

She set five ambitious goals to challenge herself and streamline her business:
1. Become more consistent.
2. Empower her team to do the best work possible.
3. Organize her tasks in an efficient, productive way.
4. Improve how she categorizes routine tasks and priority projects.
5. Navigate staff turnover with clarity and ease.

After the cohort, I sat down with Julie to see if & how she’s met these goals.

Here are the results:

1. Consistency has improved dramatically. By understanding what was getting in the way, Julie has been able to create systems that work for her brain. Now staying on top of things isn't such a challenge.

2. Empowering her team? By defining processes and clearly communicating who’s in charge of what, Julie's team knows exactly what's expected of them. Her business now allows her to focus on what she does best.

3. Julie’s task organization and productivity have also skyrocketed. She’s labeled and categorized her database for efficiency. This significantly reduced having to go back, and double check... saving both time and energy.

4. Improving categorizations was a game-changer. By putting tasks in phases, Julie is able to identify gaps, address potential issues early, and ensure nothing falls through the cracks. She’s also been grouping tasks to do more of one task at a time (like batching out 12 weeks' worth of emails) so she has more brain space to work on other tasks.

5. And when it came to staff turnover, Julie restructured her business to rely on a cohesive, aligned team rather than patchwork support. With clearer systems and processes, she’s now equipped to handle transitions smoothly and confidently.


What’s truly remarkable about Julie is her commitment to growth.
She hasn’t stopped at simply achieving these goals.
She’s continuing to sharpen her thinking skills to take things to the next level.

Her thinking skills are no longer just tools, they’ve become her edge.

This is the power of optimizing your brain, it doesn’t just help you achieve your goals –
It transforms the way you work,
lead,
and live,
over and over again.