🎒 Teacher's Workbook: The Yap Method

Library class 1 of 3 · 90 minutes · 18 slides · pairs with the projector deck

This is everything behind the slides. The deck is what the room sees; this workbook is what you know. Each segment below matches one slide and gives you the goal, an expanded version of what to say, exactly what to do with your hands and feet, and the ways the moment usually goes sideways. Skim it the night before, print the worksheet for the room, and teach off the deck.

Open the projector deck → ← All classes

THE SHAPE OF ITWhat this class does

People walk in believing they need to get organized before they can use any system. They walk out having already used one — messy voice in, one finished tiny action out, and a save card in their pocket. By the end, every person in the room should be able to:

What this class deliberately does not do: promise outcomes. AI does not cure, diagnose, or treat ADHD, and no study shows any AI tool improves ADHD outcomes. Every claim you make tonight is "can support," "can help you start" — never more. If you hold that line, you'll be the most trustworthy AI talk this room has ever heard.

BEFORE YOU TEACHMaterials & setup

Bring:

Room: tables beat rows — people will be working on phones and writing cards. Ask the librarian for the wifi password written large somewhere visible before you start. Recruit one helper (staff or a confident early arriver) to walk the room during the two sprints; you can't reach 20 stuck phones alone.

Know your controls: arrow keys or clicking advances. Bullet slides reveal one line per press — you control the pace. The corner badge shows the run-sheet time so you always know if you're ahead or behind. Timers keep counting even if you bump a key. If the venue gives you two hours instead of 90 minutes, teach the extended workshop version instead — same method, bigger break, QR join slide.

AT A GLANCEThe run sheet

ClockSegmentWhat's happening
0:00WelcomeFrame the promise: leave with a system, a sorted dump, one thing done
0:03Your brain isn't brokenReframe — the room relaxes
0:07The one big ideaThoughts go OUTSIDE the head
0:10The honest partGuardrails, stated early and plainly
0:13Meet the methodThe four words, said out loud together
0:18Phones outEveryone gets to adhdyap.com → Quest
0:21Two rulesPostcard rule + AI can be wrong
0:26Watch me yapLive 90-second messy demo, projected
0:33SMALLER / SHORTERThe boulder demo — the room's favorite moment
0:38Sprint 1 (10 min)Everyone plays the Quest to their MAP
0:50Share-out2–3 volunteers: what surprised you
0:55Pop quizRoom answers before you reveal
1:00TAP: pick your pebbleOne tiny action onto an index card
1:05Sprint 2 (10 min)Body double sprint — everyone works, you too
1:17SNAPThe save card — the step everyone skips
1:21The honest ten minutesThe rabbit hole warning, delivered with love
1:247-day challengeOne line per day, on the worksheet
1:28CloseThe four words again + confetti

SLIDE BY SLIDEThe segment guide

0:00 The Yap Method

Goal: lower the stakes and make three concrete promises before anyone can decide this is "another productivity talk."

Say

"Welcome. Quick honesty before anything else: this is not a class where I tell you to try harder, and it's not a class where you need any tech experience. If you can talk, you're qualified. By the time you leave tonight you'll have three things: a four-word system you can't forget, your own messy brain sorted into piles you can actually look at, and — this is the part people don't believe — one small thing already done. Not planned. Done. Phones stay out the whole time. This is the one class where being on your phone means you're paying attention."

Do

Stand away from the podium if you can. Make eye contact with the back row — at a library class the skeptics sit in the back. Don't advance until the room has settled.

Watch for

Latecomers. Don't restart; the method survives missing three minutes. Wave them in and keep moving — restarting punishes the on-time people.

0:03 Your brain isn't broken

Goal: the emotional unlock. Every exercise later works better if this lands now.

Say

"Hands up — nobody has to — if you've ever been told you talk too much. Keep it up if you've been told you're scattered, or 'so much potential.' Look around. Here's the plan for tonight: every one of those things is about to become fuel. Talking too much? That's the engine of this whole method — we call it yapping, and it's step one. Scattered thoughts? That's just a full backpack, and we're going to dump it out instead of pretending it's organized. Nobody in this room needs to get organized first. If you knew how to get organized first, you wouldn't have ADHD, and you probably wouldn't be here. You start messy. The system meets you there."

Do

Actually raise your own hand first on the "talk too much" question — you're a bartender of 29 years, own it. Your hand going up gives the room permission.

Watch for

Someone tearing up. It happens, especially at 50+ classes — decades of "lazy" is a lot to put down. Don't spotlight them; just slow your pace for ten seconds and keep the warmth on.

0:07 The one big idea

Goal: plant the single concept the whole night hangs on — externalize, don't memorize.

Say

"If you remember one idea from tonight, make it this one: an ADHD brain doesn't have a storage problem, it has a holding problem. Working memory is a small table, and every new thing that lands shoves an old thing off the edge. The fix has never been to grip harder. The fix is to put thoughts outside your head, onto something that doesn't lose them. People have done this forever — notebooks, sticky notes, the string on the finger. What's new in the last few years is that for the first time, the outside place can talk back. It can sort what you dumped. That's the entire reason AI matters for brains like ours. Not because it's smart. Because it's outside."

Do

Use a physical prop moment: hold your palms out like a small table, pile invisible things on until they "fall off." Corny works in a library.

Watch for

The person who wants to debate AI in general. Acknowledge and defer: "Hold that — slide four is literally for you."

0:10 The honest part, up front

Goal: earn trust by saying the disclaimers before the sales-y part, not after. This slide is why libraries invite you back.

Say

"Now the slide most AI talks skip. AI does not cure ADHD. It does not diagnose ADHD — not even with your whole life story pasted in. It does not replace therapy, medication, or coaching, and if anyone tells you otherwise, they're selling something. And it is sometimes just wrong — confidently, fluently wrong. Here's the honest state of the research in 2026: not one study shows an AI tool improves ADHD outcomes. Zero. So why are we here? Because there's one thing it demonstrably can do: help you start. Catch the thought before it's gone, shrink the mountain to a pebble, sit with you while you begin. Tonight is about that — the starting — and nothing bigger."

Do

Slow down. Deliver this one flat and serious — contrast makes it credible. This is also your legal-and-ethical armor for the whole evening; never skip it to save time.

Watch for

Relief. You'll see shoulders drop — people braced for hype. That relief is the product.

0:13 Meet the method — YAP · MAP · TAP · SNAP

Goal: install the four words in working memory using call-and-response. They rhyme on purpose.

Say

"Four words, and you're going to say them with me because that's how they stick. YAP — dump the backpack. Talk messy, out loud, no organizing while you dump. MAP — the AI flattens your hundred crumpled papers into five piles: tasks, worries, ideas, feelings, questions. TAP — you pick up one paper. One action, two to ten minutes, no bigger. SNAP — you save your game before you stop, four lines on a card, so tomorrow you don't start from zero. That's it. That's the whole method. It fits on a fridge magnet, and that's deliberate — you'll be using it on your worst days, and on your worst days you can't run a twelve-step framework."

Do

Each word lands one at a time on the slide — press, say it, have the room say it back, then explain. Four presses, four echoes. Don't rush the echo; the slight silliness bonds the room.

Watch for

A quiet room on the first echo. Normal. Grin and say "you're allowed to actually say it — this is the yapping class." Second word is always louder.

0:18 Phones out

Goal: get 100% of the room onto adhdyap.com → Quest. Nobody left behind — this is the segment where you lose people permanently if you rush.

Say

"Phones out — for real. Open your browser and type adhdyap dot com. Tap the big button that says Quest. That's it, then look up. If your phone is being difficult, hand goes up and one of us comes to you — I promise you are not the only one, and this is a no-shame room. While you type: this website is free, there's no account, no email wall, nothing to buy. It's the method as a game, and it'll still be there when you're home in your pajamas — which is really where this method lives."

Do

Have the wifi password ON the screen or whiteboard before this moment. Walk the room; your helper takes the far side. Budget the full three minutes — check "who's not in yet?" twice. If someone's phone truly won't cooperate, pair them with a neighbor: shared phones work fine for tonight.

Watch for

The person insisting they'll "just watch." Gently pair them up anyway — watchers at minute 18 become regretters at minute 80.

0:21 Two rules before anyone types

Goal: install both safety rules right before first contact with an AI — placement matters more than wording.

Say

"Before a single person types a word into any AI, two rules that hold for tonight and forever. Rule one, the postcard rule: nothing goes into an AI that you wouldn't write on the back of a postcard. Fake names only — Person A, Company B, Project X. No medical details, no legal situation, no account numbers, no money specifics. The AI chat window is not your diary and it's not your doctor's office. Rule two: AI can be wrong. Confidently wrong, politely wrong, wrong in perfect grammar. It's a helper, not a doctor, and everything it hands you gets your human judgment before it gets your trust. Say rule one back to me: what's it called? (Postcard rule.) Good."

Do

Two lines reveal one at a time. Point at the worksheet — the postcard rule box is printed there so it goes home with them.

Watch for

"Is it safe at all?" — answer honestly: "Treat it like a stranger with a great memory. That's exactly why the rule exists." Don't promise any company's privacy policy.

0:26 Watch me yap

Goal: model messiness. Your demo gives everyone permission to be unpolished — the worse your yap sounds, the better the class goes.

Say

"I'm going to do this live, projected, no script — and I want you to notice how bad it sounds. Ninety seconds." [Yap for real about your actual week — half-sentences, backtracking, 'oh and also' — with fake names.] "Okay. That was a mess. That was the point. Now watch the map appear… look at that. Five piles. I didn't organize anything — I just dumped, and the sorting happened to me. One more thing: when an AI answers, it usually answers with an essay. Watch what happens when the essay comes — and listen for the magic word, because it's the next slide."

Do

Use the site's yap box in your second tab, projected. Prepare the topic of your yap in advance (a real, safe, funny week) but never the wording — rehearsed messy reads as fake. If the mic misbehaves, type instead and say "typing works the same — the voice button is a convenience, not a requirement."

Watch for

Wifi failure. Fallback: yap into the AI app on your phone, hold it to the mic if needed, and narrate what's on your screen. The demo's job is permission, not polish.

0:33 The two magic words — SMALLER · SHORTER

Goal: hand the room the single most reusable tool of the night. The boulder demo is the moment people remember.

Say

"Two words, and the AI has to obey them. When it hands you a nine-step plan and your chest tightens — you say SMALLER. It has to shrink the step. Still too big? SMALLER again. There's no limit and no shame; you can say it five times. And when it answers in a wall of text — a wall of text is a new pile of crumpled papers, the exact thing that overwhelms the brain it was supposed to help — you say SHORTER. Watch the boulder." [Tap — boulder shrinks.] "Every tap is you saying the word. By the end it's a pebble. The rule underneath the whole method: if AI doesn't make your next step smaller, it's not helping. Write those two words somewhere you'll see them."

Do

The boulder on this slide shrinks on click/tap — let the ROOM call the word each time you tap. Three or four taps, chorus getting louder. This is theater; enjoy it.

Watch for

Someone asking "does it really work on any AI?" — yes: "Any chat AI. It's not a feature, it's just an instruction, and instructions are the one thing they always take."

0:38 Sprint 1 — play to your MAP ⏱ 10:00

Goal: every person experiences YAP → MAP on their own real life, then STOPS — the stop is what keeps the room together.

Say

"Your turn. Ten minutes on the clock. Play the Quest through Level 2 — that's your yap and your map — then stop and look up. Do not keep going; I'll know, and worse, you'll miss the good part. Yap about something real: this week, that thing you're avoiding, the move, the inbox. Messy is the point — you heard how bad mine was. Fake names, postcard rule. If you're stuck staring at the box, here's your starter: 'Okay so this week I have to…' and just keep talking. Hands up for help, no shame. Go."

Do

Start the slide timer (it has a 3-2-1 count-in). Then WALK — you and your helper cover the room the whole ten minutes. Crouch to eye level when helping. The commonest fix: people typing one tidy sentence — tell them "messier, longer, keep going, you're allowed."

Watch for

Fast finishers getting fidgety: point them at their Feelings pile — "anything in there surprise you?" Late strugglers: sit with them; a helper finishing alongside beats a helper explaining. The timer keeps counting even if the slide changes — don't panic if you bump it.

0:50 What surprised you?

Goal: surface the "it saw me" moment publicly so the room learns it wasn't a fluke.

Say

"Two or three brave volunteers — what did your map show you that you didn't expect? Sharing is optional, always. You don't have to read anything out; just tell us what surprised you about the shape of it." [After each share, reflect it back:] "Did you catch that? She dumped tasks and the map came back half feelings. That's the most common surprise in this class — the Feelings pile is full and nobody put it there on purpose. That pile is why sorting in your head doesn't work: the feelings are stapled to the tasks, and until they're in separate piles you can't pick either one up."

Do

Count to five in your head after asking — the silence feels long but someone always breaks it. Thank every share by name. If nobody volunteers, share what YOUR map showed and ask "who else got a fat Feelings pile?" — hands will go up, and hands count as sharing.

Watch for

An overshare (medical, marital, legal). Catch it kindly: "That's real, and that's exactly the stuff the postcard rule protects — thank you for trusting us with it." Then move on; don't let the room turn into group therapy.

0:55 Pop quiz

Goal: retrieval practice on SMALLER — the answer they'll need most often after tonight.

Say

"Pop quiz — shout it out. The AI hands you a nine-step plan. What do you say?" [Let the room answer before revealing.] "SMALLER. Not 'thank you, I'll try my best' — that's the polite path back to overwhelm. And not 'explain each step in more detail' — more detail is a bigger wall. One word, and the plan has to shrink until the next step takes ten minutes or less. That's the entire trick, and you now know it forever."

Do

The quiz slide lets the room commit to an answer before the reveal — use it. Wrong guesses are gold: "'Explain more' is SO reasonable-sounding, and it's a trap — who can say why?"

Watch for

Everyone getting it instantly. Great — celebrate and bank the two minutes for the sprint that's coming.

1:00 TAP: pick your pebble

Goal: everyone chooses ONE physical action from their own map and commits it to an index card before the sprint.

Say

"Look at your map. You're going to pick up exactly one paper. The test for a real TAP: it's physical, it's from YOUR map, and it takes two to ten minutes. 'Deal with the garage' is not a tap — that's a boulder wearing a name tag. 'Put one box in the car' is a tap. 'Fix my resume' — boulder. 'Open the file and fix the phone number' — tap. If everything on your map feels like a boulder, you know the word: ask the AI to make it SMALLER until something takes ten minutes. Then write your tap on the index card, big letters. That card is your contract for the next segment."

Do

Hand out index cards NOW, not earlier (early cards become doodle pads). Walk and read cards over shoulders — the commonest failure is a tap that's secretly a project. Ask "could you finish that in ten minutes, honestly?" and help them shrink it on the spot.

Watch for

Perfectionists agonizing over which tap. Rule of thumb out loud: "If you're torn between two, take the funnier one. Momentum doesn't care which pebble you pick."

1:05 Sprint 2 — body double sprint ⏱ 10:00

Goal: the payoff. Everyone does their tap simultaneously — the room becomes one big body double, and people feel the difference in their own resistance.

Say

"Here's a thing people with ADHD have sworn by for years: working next to other people makes starting easier. It's called body doubling. Honest label, because we do honest labels here: thousands of people swear by it, and the formal research barely exists — no one gets to call it clinically proven. But you're about to run the experiment on yourself, which beats any study. Ten minutes. Everyone does their tap — the one on your card — right now, together. Phone calls in the hallway are allowed. Emails count. Texts count. I'm working too; I have my own card. When the timer hits zero there will be confetti, because finishing a thing you were avoiding deserves confetti. Three, two, one—"

Do

Start the timer and DO YOUR OWN TAP visibly — a real one. The room checks whether you're really working; be really working. At zero, the slide celebrates. Lead applause.

Watch for

Someone whose tap needs a computer they don't have: their tap becomes "write the three sentences I'll type later" — paper counts. Someone finished in four minutes: "Pick a second pebble or sit and enjoy being done early — both are winning."

1:17 SNAP: save your game

Goal: teach the step everyone skips while the feeling of "I'll definitely remember this" is happening to them in real time.

Say

"Right now, this second, you feel like you'll obviously remember where you left off. That feeling is lying to you, and every person in this room has been burned by it. So before we stop: second index card, four lines. What I did. Where I stopped. My next tiny tap. One note to future me — the thing you'd forget, the file name, the person's number, the 'don't forget the coupon.' Think of a video game: nobody replays the whole level every time — you load your save. This card is the save file for your head. Tomorrow you don't need motivation or memory. You need thirty seconds and this card. It's the least glamorous step of the method and it's the one that saves you."

Do

Write your own SNAP card on the document camera or narrate it out loud. The four lines are on the worksheet as a fill-in — point there. Give the room the full three minutes to actually write; silence here is productive.

Watch for

"Can the AI store my SNAP instead?" — "Yes, and paper survives dead batteries and app switches. Do paper for a week first; graduate to digital when the habit's real." (Class 2 — the second brain — is exactly this graduation.)

1:21 The honest ten minutes

Goal: the rabbit-hole warning — protect them from the failure mode that eats the most well-intentioned starters.

Say

"Last warning, and it's the one I'd tattoo somewhere if I could. The same thing that makes AI feel great to an ADHD brain — endless, novel, always answering — makes it a world-class rabbit hole. Endless prompting feels productive and isn't. Three hours of talking to the AI about the task is three hours the task didn't get. So the rule, twice, because it's the whole class in one sentence: if AI doesn't make your next step smaller, it's not helping. If AI doesn't make your next step smaller, it's not helping. And one more honest thing: some problems don't need a smaller step, they need a professional — a doctor, a lawyer, a therapist. The method knows its own edges. That's what makes it safe to use hard."

Do

Have the room say the rule with you the second time. Slow, plain delivery — this is the other bookend to slide four's honesty.

Watch for

Time pressure. If you're behind schedule, this slide does NOT get cut — trim the share-out earlier instead. The warnings are the brand.

1:24 The 7-day challenge

Goal: convert tonight's spark into one tiny assignment per day — each day practices exactly one piece of the method.

Say

"Homework, but ADHD-sized: one tiny thing a day, and each day is one piece of what you just did. Day one, yap and get your map — you literally already know how. Day two, tap one pebble. Day three, make a SNAP card. Day four is the important one: RESTART from that card. Day four is where the method proves itself — the morning you skip the re-yapping and just load your save. Day five, a ten-minute body double sprint: a friend on the phone, a coffee shop, anybody working near you. Day six, take something genuinely scary and say SMALLER at it until it stops being scary. Day seven, ask your AI to help you write your own master prompt — the Prompts page on the site will take you further when you're ready. It's all on your worksheet with checkboxes, because checkboxes are dopamine."

Do

Reveal one day per press, but move briskly — the detail is on the worksheet, so this is a flyover, not a reading.

Watch for

Overachievers planning all seven tonight. "Do day one tonight. Just day one. The method is a marathon of pebbles."

1:28 You did the thing

Goal: end on the four words and on self-compassion, with proof in their pockets.

Say

"Look at what's in your hands right now: a sorted map of your actual life, a finished tap, and a save card. You didn't learn about a system tonight — you ran one. Four words, one more time, all together: YAP. MAP. TAP. SNAP. Here's the best part: you don't need to remember this class. The card remembers it for you — that's the whole point of putting things outside your head. Go easy on yourself this week. Some days you'll only manage the yap. A yap-only day is still a day the backpack got lighter. Thank you — I'll stick around for questions, and everything from tonight lives free at adhdyap.com."

Do

The four words land one per press with the room saying them; the slide fires confetti on the last one. Then STOP TALKING and let the applause happen. Stay 15 minutes after — the realest questions arrive one-on-one.

Watch for

The librarian — thank them by name in front of the room. That's how the next booking happens.

BE READYTough questions from the room

"Which AI app should I use?"

"Any free chat AI works for everything we did tonight — the method is app-agnostic on purpose. Start with whichever one is already on your phone or easiest to install, use the free tier, and don't pay anyone a dollar until you've done the 7-day challenge. The method matters more than the tool — and the Tools page on the site keeps an honestly-labeled list with prices if you want to compare later."

"Is my information safe with these AI companies?"

"Treat every AI like a stranger with a great memory — that's exactly what the postcard rule is for. Fake names, no medical, legal, or money details, nothing you wouldn't put on a postcard. Follow that rule and the privacy question mostly answers itself, because there's nothing sensitive in there to worry about. I can't vouch for any company's policy, and neither can anyone else giving a talk."

"Does this actually work for ADHD? Where's the proof?"

"Honest answer: no study shows any AI tool improves ADHD outcomes — including this method. What's real: the general research on AI help shows the gains cluster around starting — first drafts, blank pages, task beginnings — which is exactly where ADHD brains stall. So we claim support, not treatment, and we tell you to run the experiment on yourself: track your week, count your taps. Your own data beats my claims."

"I don't have ADHD — is this still useful?"

"Yes. Dump-then-sort helps any overloaded brain; ADHD brains just need it more urgently. You're welcome here, and your neighbor with ADHD needs the method to survive the week — that difference is worth understanding too."

"Can the AI diagnose me? I've always suspected I have ADHD."

"No — and don't let it try. Not with your whole history pasted in. What you can do: real screening checklists exist (ask your doctor about the ASRS), and the AI CAN help you prepare for that appointment — yap about how things have been going, have it sort your notes into a one-page list of things to mention. Results go to a clinician, never a chatbot."

"My kid/grandkid has ADHD — will this work for them?"

"Tonight's class is built for adults, and everything here is adult self-management, not treatment. For a child, the method's ideas — externalize, shrink the step, save your place — travel fine as parenting tools, but AI app accounts have age rules and a kid's ADHD care belongs with their doctor. Take home the postcard rule and SMALLER; leave the apps to the grown-ups."

"What about the AI being wrong? How would I even know?"

"Great instinct — keep it. For tonight's uses the stakes are low on purpose: if it sorts your dump into slightly odd piles or suggests a clumsy tiny step, the cost is nearly zero, and you're the editor anyway. The rule scales with stakes: the more a wrong answer would cost you, the less you should let AI answer it alone. Facts you'll act on get checked; anything medical, legal, or financial goes to a professional."

"Isn't talking to an AI instead of people kind of sad?"

"It would be, as a replacement. This is the opposite: the yap is a pressure valve so the thought stops circling your head — and notice the method pushes you back toward humans constantly: body doubling with real people, a professional for the big stuff, this room tonight. The AI holds the backpack. People are still the point."

PRINT MEStudent worksheet — The Yap Method

Print one per seat (this section prints clean on its own — use the print button up top). It's the take-home version of the whole night.

🎒 The Yap Method — my worksheet

Name: ____________________ · Date: ____________

The four words (fill them in as we go)

YAP = ______________________________________ (dump the backpack — talk messy, don't organize)

MAP = ______________________________________ (AI sorts it: Tasks · Worries · Ideas · Feelings · Questions)

TAP = ______________________________________ (pick up ONE paper — 2 to 10 minutes, no bigger)

SNAP = _____________________________________ (save your game before you stop)

📮 The postcard rule (the one safety rule)

Nothing goes into an AI that I wouldn't write on a postcard. Fake names only — Person A, Company B, Project X. No medical, legal, or money details. And: AI can be wrong. Helper, not doctor.

My two magic words

Plan too big? Say SMALLER (as many times as it takes). Wall of text? Say SHORTER. The rule: if AI doesn't make my next step smaller, it's not helping.

What surprised me in my MAP

My TAP (one tiny action, 2–10 minutes)

💾 My SNAP card (four lines, every time I stop)

1. What I did:

2. Where I stopped:

3. My next tiny tap:

4. Note to future me:

📅 The 7-day challenge

  • Day 1 — Yap into a free AI app + get my map
  • Day 2 — Tap one pebble (2–10 min)
  • Day 3 — Write a SNAP card before I stop
  • Day 4 — RESTART from the card (the day it proves itself)
  • Day 5 — 10-minute body double sprint with anyone
  • Day 6 — Say SMALLER at something scary until it isn't
  • Day 7 — Build my own master prompt (adhdyap.com → Prompts)

🚨 The emergency prompt (copy this when overwhelmed)

"I'm overwhelmed right now. Don't ask me questions. Tell me one tiny thing to do in the next 5 minutes. Two sentences max."

Everything from tonight, free: adhdyap.com · AI supports an ADHD brain. It does not cure, diagnose, or treat ADHD — and it can be wrong.

AFTERWARDAfter class