By Jeff Copper, MBA, PCC, PCAC, CPCC, ACG – March 3, 2025
Today, we’re talking about one of the most powerful tools for managing ADHD challenges—brainstorming. I don’t mean just the outcome, but the process itself. For those with ADHD, understanding and managing brainstorming can be a game-changer.
Brainstorming is about generating a flood of ideas, no matter how wild or impractical—even absurd ideas. Most won’t be suitable toward the objective, but that’s okay. You only need one great idea to solve a problem. If you embrace creativity and suspend judgment, you can uncover solutions that might otherwise be overlooked.
For example, I once faced a problem with my Toyota Sequoia. It was getting older, and the driver’s seat was falling apart. Replacing it was too expensive, so instead of giving up, I brainstormed with a friend, diving into what I call the “land of the unicorns,” where anything is possible. We explored outlandish ideas until one struck gold: checking junkyards. A quick search revealed a replacement seat for just $120—an affordable, effective solution born from brainstorming.
Another tip: when brainstorming with others is to ask them about their experiences, not their advice. Advice often comes with expectations, while experiences bring insight you can adapt to your situation.
The key to successful brainstorming is not to dismiss any ideas prematurely. Go ahead and have fun generating as many as possible, no matter how ridiculous they seem. Brainstorming is a dynamic, ADHD-friendly tool for tackling challenges. Remember, it’s not about every idea working—it’s about finding one that does. So, enjoy the process, suspend judgment, and watch your creativity soar.
For more ADHD tips and insights, subscribe to our channel, Attention Talk Video. Working together, we can tackle ADHD challenges together, one creative idea at a time! Also, check out my video, “ADHD Tip: Brainstorming: A Powerful Tool.”
TRANSCRIPT:
Welcome everybody to this edition of Attention Talk video. I’m your host, ADHD and attention coach Jeff Copper and I’m here today to talk about one of the most powerful tools for those with ADHD, and it is brainstorming. I don’t want to just talk about the outcome of brainstorming. We all know what the outcome is, and that’s after you’ve done something, you’ve come up with some great idea that you didn’t expect that solves a problem. But few people really focus on the process of brainstorming, and I find those with ADHD, if they understand the process and they begin to manage it a little bit better, they can use it to their advantage.
Basically, brainstorming is the idea of generating ideas. Lots of ideas, crazy ideas, funky ideas, ideas that you never expected and quite frankly, most of the ideas you’re going to come up aren’t going to work. That’s not the point. The point is you only need one. And often when I’m working with those with ADHD, I’ll talk to them about there’s something that’s come up that’s an issue or challenge and that you need to do something. I’ll say, “Let’s go to the land of the unicorns.” And I say that because I like the land of the unicorns because after all, unicorns exist in the land of unicorns.
Like anything is possible. And when you go there and you begin to generate ideas, it’s absolutely fascinating what you can kind of come up with. I have a story that I like to tell with regard to that is I have a very, very old Toyota Sequoia that’s got about 185,000 miles on it, and the driver’s seat is exceptionally worn. I need the car to go about one more year for carpool reasons in my world, and the seat is just falling apart. It’s leather. And I went to have it priced out to find out what it’d be to replace it, and it’s an exorbitant amount of money, like $1,000 per seat. And I would have to do two of them for the passenger side, and it’s just more than I can handle. The notion of going and buying a seat covered just didn’t quite look right.
So I grabbed a friend and began to brainstorm. We went to the land of the unicorns and we came up with wacky ideas like spraying vinyl stuff on it or plastic. I’m just trying to remember something. They were just kind of crazy, and most of them just were ill-conceived. They would never work, but we didn’t stop there. We just kind of kept going, and then all of a sudden my friend said, “Well, what about a junkyard?” I said, “What? A junkyard.” My Toyota Sequoia is a ’03. It’s white, tan interior. Back then, there was only a limited number of colors. And that moment I went to a website and started Googling in Tampa for junkyards. And can you believe it? Not only were there a lot of junkyards, but you could actually go in and search on the make and model of my car and for seats, and sure enough, they had them for $120. Just totally blew me away.
The point of this really is if you have ADHD and you’re trying to solve problems, creativity can almost solve anything out there. But that process is really about brainstorming. And it’s not about coming up… Or I guess what I’m really trying to communicate, often people will come up with ideas and begin to say they won’t work before they really, really generate a lot of possibilities. And my emphasis here is to get together with people and to brainstorm and to come up with as many stupid ideas as you can because it’s amazing. All you need is just one aha to solve that problem.
So another point that I really want to make is there’s a lot of issues and a lot of challenges for those with ADHD. When they go and you’re going to brainstorm with somebody, sometimes that person will give you a lot of advice. And my suggestion is don’t ask other people for their advice. Ask them for their experience. When you ask somebody for their advice, they’re going to tell you their advice and they expect you to take it. Whereas if you ask for their experience, they’re going to share their experience and you can take it or leave it. So if you’re going out to brainstorm with somebody and they’re a professional and maybe they don’t know how to brainstorm or brainstorming sometimes can be brainstorming with multiple people to come up with multiple ideas, be careful and ask for other people’s experiences and not so much their advice. Just a little tip.
In summary, if you have ADHD and you have issues and challenges, I encourage you to use brainstorming much more as a tool and focus on idea generations. Most of them don’t have to work. You just need one. With that, we hope you’ve enjoyed this edition of Attention Talk Video. Please subscribe to our channel to get other tips and tidbits that’ll help you. We hope you enjoyed the show.