ADHD Planning & Prioritizing

First, a heads up… This article is not just for those of you who work in creative professions, such as writers, designers, architects, etc. Everyone with ADHD needs to know how ADHD adults complete creative work. Because, whatever your work, you engage in some activities that require you to use your creativity. Maybe it’s creating a presentation, writing an article, designing a product, planning a class, etc. And you may also have the ADHD super power of having lots of ideas, which can be a gift and a challenge, as you know. But follow though is likely not one of your super powers. You’ve tried breaking your tasks down, estimating the time and scheduling them. But these typical suggestions have not worked for you. Part…

  Can ADHD adults complete tasks? Of course. Yet, I know it’s frustrating for ADHD adults to have every intention of following through, and then falling short. If this is happening to you, I imagine you’re wondering why, right? First, the three components we all need to be able to follow through on our intentions are knowledge, motivation — the desire to do something — and skills. If you, like many other ADHD adults, attribute your lack of follow through to not be motivated enough, you may think, “If I really wanted to do it, I would! I mean, sheesh, everyone else gets their stuff done…” But, I bet, if you are like most of my clients, lack of motivation usually isn’t the problem. I…

 Are you avoiding going after your long-term goals — dreams? Because you don’t think it’s possible, especially for ADHD adults? You can. Really. Using the steps below you can devise the right kind of goal and plans that will make it possible for you to follow through. As you read below you may wonder whether it is worth all the time and effort. I know. But putting in the time and energy up front will save you time in the long run, and help you progress more effectively and efficiently toward your goals. Yet, I know that it may take a while to trust that this is true. Give it a try. As the saying goes, you may have to see it to believe it….

I recently received the comment below asking how ADHD adults execute big projects. I am interested in how to maintain interest and progress for long projects. I am great at starting projects (lots of enthusiasm, love the creativity in planning a project), but then I lose interest and I get boooored and start avoiding it. Once I am bored I am easily distracted (by writing this email, as an example).  As a result I usually do it all in the last few days under an adrenaline rush, and am often late.  I am good at organizing, I try to do lots of small projects instead of large ones, I can break projects down into smaller tasks, but occasionally I must work on a long writing…

Wonder how ADHD adults can prioritize when it seems so hard right now? Maybe you’re just trying to get through the day. And it seems like you’re often in a reactive mode. Sure, you’ll want to adopt the skills, strategies and habits you need to get a better handle on your day-to-day tasks But I bet you don’t want to wait until you have everything under control before you act on your longer-term goals, right? Below are strategies you can use to work toward your big vision now. Even if your days are not going as smoothly as you’d like. # 1  – Create a List of Your Projects The first step is to create a list of all your active projects — any task…