By Jeff Copper, MBA, PCC, PCAC, CPCC, ACG – May 26, 2025
Living with ADHD often means navigating the world in a way that’s fundamentally different from how others experience it. Recently, I had a personal realization that’s helped me better understand how my brain works, and I hope it offers some clarity for you, as well. When I’m working, I often find myself stuck when it comes to reading instructions, especially online. Just reading the words or the definitions isn’t enough for me. I need to work with it or see it in practical application. Without examples or step-by-step demonstrations, it feels like I’m just reading words without grasping their meaning.
It’s like being in a math class where you read a textbook but never work through practice problems. Imagine reading about equations and then being handed a test—no examples, no exercises, just theory. For me, that’s how it feels with most of what I see online. Without practical examples or visual demonstrations, I’m left just guessing.
When I finally stumble upon a video or a tutorial that walks me through a concept, things seem to click. Seeing how something works in real time makes all the difference for me. This insight has helped me realize I’m not crazy for struggling in situations where others might breeze through. It’s just how my brain processes information… through tangible examples, not abstract definitions.
If this resonates with you, I encourage you to shift your focus when learning something new. Actively search for examples, tutorials, or walk-throughs. When you find them, you’ll discover that they make a huge difference in how you absorb and apply information.
This insight is just one of many I’ve shared on Attention Talk Video, so please check out my video below: ADHD Dilemma: Finding Examples for Practice Problems.”
And if you’d like to dive deeper into how ADHD minds work and how to optimize your learning process, please come back to visit us often. Remember, you’re not alone in this journey, and small insights like these can lead to big breakthroughs. Please leave your comments; I’d love to know your thoughts on this topic.
Welcome, everybody, to this edition of Attention Talk Video. I’m your host, ADHD and attention coach Jeff Copper, and I’m here to share an insight that I had recently with regard to myself that’s helpful for me and those with ADHD. It doesn’t necessarily solve the problem, but it creates an awareness, it explains a lot of what’s kind of going on, and enables me to go search in the right place.
When I go on the Internet and I’m doing stuff, I need to see it. I need to work with it. When I read stuff, it’s just words. I need to know what the definitions are. In particular, when I’m working with Google, whether it’s Google Analytics, or Google AdWords, or Google YouTube. They talk about things, but I’m like, “What does this really mean?” And it dawned on me the other day, it’s kind of like math class. If you ever notice, math class has only got, or math book has only got a couple pages that you read, or when I was getting my MBA, finance has a couple pages that you read that comes up with definitions. But after that, they give you example problems that you work through in order to understand, really, what the math is about or what the finance is about, so you get a working knowledge in application so your just not guessing.
So imagine if you will you were taking a math class and you read the book, and then you were just given a test. I don’t know about you, but I would crash and burn all over the place.
And that’s what I find on the internet, is that there’s words, and they give you the… You read through that stuff, but if you actually have to go apply it, it’s crash and burn, because I need the sample problems. I need those examples. I need somebody to walk through it. I need somebody to show it to me, and I need somebody to see it. And I’ve found for me, as the internet progresses, with the exception of YouTube, because sometimes I can stumble into a YouTube that show me an example. It’s very laborious and very hard to find these things, and often, I find myself dying to say, “Somebody, can you just show me how this works, or give me some sample problems, or some type of example so I can actually see how it applies?”
Again, what I hope is that this provides a little bit of insight what’s going on, so you don’t think you’re crazy, as I have thought I was crazy. But I’m coming to realize it’s very real and very important, and I’m… More and more, when I go into some things, I find out what it is, but I’m searching for those sample problems, those examples where somebody can explain it, and those situations where I’ve found it, it’s been very helpful. So, as they say, if you’re not looking for it, you’re likely not going to find it, so now that I’m looking for it, it kind of speeds up that process.
We hope this has been an enlightening insight and maybe an aha for you. We hope you will find value in this and subscribe to Attention Talk Video. Again, this is a little bit of a personal story. Most of my tips and stories actually are born by clients that I work with, but this is a little aha that I had that I wanted to share with you, so we hope you found that of use. To learn more about me, go to digcoaching.com. Hope you enjoyed the video.