How To Plan A Productive Day With ADHD
(originally published February 28, 2020, updated December 13, 2024)
How do you plan your days so you are sure you are working toward your goals in alignment with your values? I know that is what you want to do. But right now you may start each day wondering how you are going to get “everything.” Then at the end of the day you may feel like you didn’t get enough done. Some days you may even feel like you didn’t get anything done!
It’s frustrating to start and end your day like this, for sure.
What Does The Beginning Of Your Day Look Like?
Maybe you start your day by stopping for coffee on the way to work. You get to the office, maybe a little later than you planned. The first thing you do is look at your email and calendar, if you haven’t already looked at it on your phone.
As long as you don’t have any appointments / meetings first thing in the morning, you may, like many, start your day by crafting emails. You feel like you are getting work done. No doubt, sometimes there are urgent emails you need to send. Sometimes, though, you may start with email because you can’t decide what else to do.
It totally makes sense. As, it’s the path of least resistance, right? At least for those emails that are easy to answer. The question is, is it the best way to start your day? That is, is email your most important task?
I’ll look at those and other questions, as I offer guidelines to help you decide how to plan your day so you can focus on your most meaningful work.
What Does It Mean to Be Productive When You Have ADHD?
First let’s start with a definition of productivity. Right now, you may think the highlight of productivity is when you are able to check off everything on your list as fast as you can. So when you are not able to do this you may feel let down. There is a different, more helpful, definition I’d encourage you to consider.
Another way to view productivity is doing what is essential to you — engaging in activities that bring meaning to your life. If you view productivity this way, what would change about where you focus your time and energy each day? Take a few minutes to visualize what your days and weeks would look like.
It is likely you would stop being reactive, trying to get everything done. Your stress and overwhelm will decrease. As you will work exerting more control to the extent it is possible? If you can decide what is essential to you, and plan accordingly, you’ll have more confidence at the end of the day that you were truly productive.
It is important, though, that you feel like enough regardless of how much you accomplished. That is, it is important not to base your self-worth on how much you accomplish. Because, if you do, you will contribute to your overwhelm, which will get in the way of your productivity.
#1 Start with a Weekly Review Practice to Be More Intentional
You just don’t have time each day to do the deep dive necessary to organize and make decisions about your tasks and your calendar. This type of upfront thinking is better done during your weekly review.
As David Allen of Getting Things Done (GTD) says of people’s lack of productivity:
“It’s not one thing, but five, all wrapped together: People keep stuff in their head. They don’t decide what they need to do about stuff they know they need to do something about. And they don’t organize action reminders and support materials in functional categories. Also, they don’t maintain and review a complete and objective inventory of their commitments. Then they waste energy and burn out, allowing their busy-ness to be driven by what’s latest and loudest, hoping it’s the right thing to do but never feeling the relief that it is.”
When you do a deep dive 1x week in your weekly review you will have more clarity about what is important for you to do each day. This will also minimize your overwhelm each day. The weekly review practice will also help you resist the pull of immediate gratification. So you can plan to work toward your long-term goals and not rely exclusively on your sense of urgency for motivation.
Check out The ADHD Adult’s Guide to the Weekly Review to explore suggestions on how you can create your own weekly review and planning checklist.
#2 Plan Each Day Before Diving In
Once you’ve done your weekly review, the next step is to plan each day. Because it isn’t possible to either remember or prioritize just once a week.
Also, you will likely default to your habitual way of “running your day,” unless you create a daily plan. This may mean, as I noted above, starting with email. Then you may either rely on your sense of urgency or other people’s request to decide what to do next. Sound familiar?
While you may not total control over your schedule, planning out your day will help you do more of what is important to you.
1-3-5 Rule
Another strategy is to pick 1 large task, 3 medium tasks and 5 small tasks. You can adjust this depending on your day. For example, if you have a meeting heavy day, you will probably need to cut down on the number of tasks you do. Also, if you are usually faced with unexpected tasks each day, you may need a lot of buffer. This mean you may need.
Time Blocking
Another strategy, and the one I use, is block scheduling what you’re going to do each day. This is particularly useful if your days do not have a lot of external structure. Below is a hypothetical example. Notice the buffer time in between the blocks. Because stuff happens, right?
#3 Make the Plan Visible
You know that even if you create a plan, you might forget it, right? Unless you have a plan to remember it throughout the day. So maybe you might write the plan down in some random place. Then you might find the piece of paper at the end of the day. Maybe you did some of the task and other you might have forgotten.
To minimize the chances of this happening, make your plan visible. It could be on a whiteboard, a piece of paper prominently placed where you can see it or in another visible place. Want more ideas? Check out these 20 ways to remember what you want. Just don’t try to keep it in your head!
#4 Trust Your Plan Is the Right One for Today
Even with a visible plan, you might still have a difficult time following through. One of the reasons for this is you may not trust that you made the right decision. So throughout the day you wonder if you chose the right work to do. And because you have a hard time regulating, you don’t stick to the plan.
The key to changing this is to trust and follow the plan unless there is a compelling reason to change it, like an emergency. Trust that your past self had a good reason for creating the plan. Tomorrow? Well, you can write a new story — a new plan!
One strategy that will help you follow through at the critical moment of choice is to use self-talk to guide your actions. For example, you could tell yourself,
“I may not be remembering why this is important right now. But I had a good reason when I made the plan. So, I’m going to stick with it. Even though answering these emails really feels more important right now.”
Another strategy that will help you stick to the plan to remember the reward. One way to do this is to add a cue word to the task, such as “tenure” or “promotion.” Otherwise, because of your ADHD working memory challenges, you may forget why you would choose to follow through.
The third tip you can use is to remind yourself:
“I’m doing this and not that!”
“I’m doing this and not that!”
“I’m doing this and not that!”
So, you remember to be the stamp today and stick to the plan.
#5 Resist One – More – Thingitis
The other key to a well planned day is to avoid adding “just” one more thing to your task list. While you tell yourself “I’ll do _______ (fill in the blank), and then I’ll really be able to focus.” When was the last time you said this?
This can show up when you tell yourself “I’ll just straighten up then I’ll get to work. No doubt physical clutter can sometimes contribute to your mental clutter, making it hard to focus. While organizing your space is definitely a good thing, you might be able to put it aside so you can work.
Do you tell yourself “If I just straighten, then I could really focus?” Resist the urge. Find another time. Instead, clear a space or move to another space so you can work
You might also be tempted to do a task as soon as it pops into your mind. Often you want to do this because you are afraid you might forget to do it later. It might be an errand, phone call, email, online transaction, etc. You tell yourself, “I’ll just do this now. It will only take two minutes.” It probably doesn’t take 2 minutes, right. ?
Again, resist the urge. Not easy, I know. Instead, write it down on your task list so you can be confident that you won’t forget it. Also, remind yourself, “I’m doing this and not that!”
#6 Practice Good Self-Care
To be able to carry out your plan it is also important that you take care of yourself over the course of the day. Because if you don’t and stay glued to your chair you might inadvertently take the break you so badly need. So that you might end up:
- surf the web mindlessly, getting caught up in social media, reading articles, etc.
- working on something that feels urgent but wasn’t part of your plan.
It could be that you are procrastinating. But you could be doing this because sometimes you really need a break. So, while you inadvertently end up taking the break you need, you still tell yourself you don’t have time for a break. And you continue sitting at your desk, maybe even beating yourself up for not being more productive.
Regardless of what you have scheduled, when you are feeling drained, ask yourself: “What is the best thing I could do to be productive in the long-run — the rest of today, tomorrow, this week?”
You might decide, at minimum, to get up, stretch and drink some water. Then maybe you decide you really need a longer break. Go for a short walk. If you’re hungry, eat. I know these are all things you know and are just sensible suggestions. But you may often forget in the moment to check in with yourself about what you need.
Because surfing the web or similar activities is just not going to give you the respite and energy you need to continue working.
And sometimes the best thing you can do is to call it a day!
#7 Create a Work Shutdown Ritual
The last past of your daily practice should be a shutdown ritual. You are explicitly giving yourself permission to stop working and then going through some type of review and planning process. So, you can minimize the chances of ruminating about all your open loops — unfinished work.
Having a shutdown ritual can help you explicitly end your day. Curious to learn more about this? Deep Work author, Cal Newport, details his shutdown ritual here. While your ritual will probably look different, the objective is still the same.
As Newport says at the end of his day, “Schedule shut down complete.” What mantra would you like to use?
There are many reasons to have explicit boundaries around your workday. For one, you may want to balance your work life with your other priorities, including family/friends, hobbies, volunteer work, etc. And you also want to take care of your physical and mental health, for sure.
But having enough playtime/downtime can also help you do better in your professional life, too — be more productive. Check out my article, How Play Helps ADHD Adults Be More Effective at Everything! for a more in-depth explanation of how time away from work can help you:
- improve your executive functions.
- connect with others
- reduce your overwhelm and stress
- think creatively
What does your shut down routine look like?
Ready to Be Productive Each Day Without Overwhelm When You Have ADHD?
What can you do today to do what is most essential to you and also reduce your overwhelm?
