Marla Cummins

ADHD Coach and Productivity Consultant

The ADHD Adult’s Guide To The Weekly Review

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how adhd adults do long-term planning

A practice of weekly review, hands down, is how adhd adults do long-term planning to reach long-term goals. It is also the one strategy that is often overlooked by many because:

  • they are not sure what to do in a weekly review.
  • they don’t think they have the time.
  • there truly is a steep learning curve. I know.

Hopefully, after reading this article, you will both understand how spending time to review will benefit you and be willing to try it because you have a guide to follow.

Remember, though, these are only suggestions. As you practice you will likely adapt this guide to suit your particular needs.

Ready to start?

What Keeps ADHD Adults From Being Productive

There are many reasons Adults with ADHD are not productive. And I write about those reasons in many of my articles.

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.”

And I think this is definitely true for Adults with ADHD.

Luckily, there are workarounds for these challenges. And, you guessed it. The weekly review is one of the workarounds.

Why A Weekly Review Is Critical For Adults With ADHD

Before looking at the process of weekly review let’s look at why it is particularly important for Adults with ADHD.

While I know taking the time to do a weekly review may seem superfluous for you now, especially given how much you have on your plate, knowing its potential benefits may just change your mind. I hope.

A practice of weekly review:

  • offsets the pull of immediate gratification many Adults with ADHD experience.
  • helps you to be more intentional because you have a clear overview of everything on your plate.
  • reminds you of your priorities, intentions and best practices.
  • minimizes the need to rely on your memory, which you know is notoriously unreliable.
  • reduces your overwhelm because you will not need to process information running around in your head while you are on the go.
  • provides you with the confidence that you are not forgetting about your commitments.

If you decide to incorporate this practice into your week, I’m sure you will experience several of these advantages.

The 4 Steps of the Weekly Review

The guide below, liberally adapted from Steven Covey and David Allen, will help you get started.

Step 1 – Get Clear

Put all papers (business cards, receipts, etc.) you have collected over the week into your physical in-box.

Go through all papers, meeting notes, voicemails, and emails from the previous week and decide what you need to do with them.

Step 2 – Get Current

Review Task List:

  • Review the status of your projects. Add new actions and mark off completed tasks. Make sure you identify at least one action step for each project.
  • Mark off other completed discrete tasks and add new ones that come to mind.
  • Check off “waiting for” tasks that are complete and add ones that need follow up.
  • Review Maybe/Someday List. Decide whether you want to take action, leave them on the list or delete them.

Calendar Review:

  • Look at previous calendar items and add tasks to your list that come to mind.
  • Also, scan upcoming dates. Add tasks that are required for these. Adjust and/or confirm appointments, if necessary.

Step 3 – Reflect

Note what went well the previous week and what was a challenge. Decide if there’s anything you want to do differently the next week.

Step 4 – Block Off Time To Work

Blocking off time for the next week to work on tasks related to your projects. Make sure to treat these times as any other appointment.

5 Factors That Will Help You Successfully Follow Through in Your Weekly Review

1.First, make sure you review your system to ensure it is the right one for you. Add and subtract steps as needed. There is no one right way to do a weekly review, really.

2. You might be tempted at times to give up because you can’t do it perfectly. Be careful of this black and white thinking. If you don’t have enough time to do a thorough review, do part of it. For example, maybe one week you:

  • Empty your head from Step 1
  • Get Current – Step 2
  • Schedule Your MIT – Step 5

A partial review is better than no review. Choose the steps that are the most important each week, if you can’t do a full review.

3. Habits take time to build. You know that.  And, if you have not been successful with building habits in the past, you may want to give up on doing a weekly review, if you are not initially successful.

Give yourself permission to do the weekly review imperfectly for at least 8 weeks before you decide it is not worth the effort.

4. Focus on reviewing, not doing the actual tasks. I know focusing is a challenge, right? Try repeating the mantra, “I’m doing this and not that!”

You will be tempted to start working on some of the tasks that come up during the review. If it literally takes 2 minutes or less, that is fine. But, if it takes more time, you will not have time for your review.

5. Choose a specific day and time each week to do your weekly review.

First, choose a time when you are most likely to be fresh and alert. I recommend Thursday or Friday morning so you can go into the weekend feeling confident you are ready for the next week.

How ADHD Adults Do Long-Term Planning

If you follow the steps above consistently, you will strengthen your reviewing and planning muscle. And resist the pull of immediate gratification.

Remember, it will take time and practice. As you want to get good enough so that you are in the driver’s seat and can do what is most important to you.

Want to watch a video about the weekly review by David Allen of Getting Things Done? Check this out Episode #43: The Power of the GTD Weekly Review. Remember, though, it’s for the neuro- typical audience. So, he might suggest something that does not work for you out-of-the-box. That’s okay. You can adapt it to your needs.

 

 

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Marla has an excellent understanding of ADHD and a great knowledge base of related topics. She was able to expertly guide me through decisions I needed to make and helped me tackle big and small things I needed to do. Knowing I had adhd was only 25% of the battle for me. I’m so glad that I chose to stay committed to coaching. Now that I have more self awareness about myself and my adhd I trust myself to get what I need done. I don’t try to do too much anymore and when I’ve done all I can on my own I’m more willing to reach out for support. My production is way higher than I expected, but I’m also way less stressed and that makes it easier on a personal level at home too.

— A.V., Vice President - Investment Sales

Coaching with Marla was very useful, and also essential. I do not know what I would have done w/o the Sunday night periods of going over the past week, looking forward to the next week, and making a plan. The actual phone check ins on Tuesdays…crucial, to help me get clear, as well as for the simple act of accountability. Marla served as a focal point (as in, ‘oh, yeah, this was what I was doing’), and–at times–as an anchor that grounded things. I can not imagine having had to go through the past 6 months w.o. someone ‘outside’ me, and my life, to help me stay the course. Now, I feel more confident in my abilities, in what I have to offer. I realize I do have options. How freeing! Lastly, but certainly not least, I have a very, very clear sense of my values, and I am using those to guide me, and that helps me to trust in my course.

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Before working with Marla I got by by winging it but I was not keeping up with the flow of information and I wasn’t managing my time productively. I was often reactive and overwhelmed. I didn’t even think I could be productive… Identifying where and why I was having struggles and having a person to help me through those was the most helpful. Marla is non-judgemental so when something didn’t go as expected, I felt OK talking to her about it and exploring different options to try.  She is a very good listener and is able to give helpful insights and suggestions. I truly enjoy our conversations. The outcome that I appreciate the most is that I feel more in control. Before there was always something I was forgetting to do or follow-up on. Now I think I have much better handle on things.  Also, I am able to focus more time on longer term projects so they don’t become a complete crisis when getting close to the due dates. This has eliminated the last minute rush that used to happen all the time. I am also just calmer. When I started to work with Marla I was at a point in my life that I was not satisfied with how my life was going. I wish I had done this earlier!

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What I gained from working with Marla was invaluable. Marla was consistently supportive, positive and uncritical. I learned to honor the way I work best, and am more accepting of my ADD and other characteristics. Now I ask myself, how can I get what I need to get done without running against my own personality? After learning more about ADD from Marla, I don’t think of my challenges as a personal weakness. This change in my thinking allows me to better handle my challenges by thinking of strategies to manage them, rather than engaging in self blame! Yes, cost was definitely a factor when I decided to work with Marla, but I knew that this is what good professionals charge. Being able to make choices that are right for me and learn strategies that last a life time is invaluable to me. The investment was certainly worth it. From working with Marla, I learned a lot about goal setting, meeting objectives, and doing that as a person with ADD. If you are stuck or frustrated, I would certainly hire Marla as a coach.

— C.O., Financial Manager

I have a lot more peace of mind, less stress, much less anxiety… I feel that we make progress in every session and always feel more confident that I am learning skills that will help me personally and professionally. I particularly like that I do not feel ashamed when I talk about areas I want to improve. Understanding that I wasn’t broken, and just think about things differently was key. Trying to learn the way non-ADHD people learn was a mistake I have repeated my whole life. I now know what the best environment is for me and can recognize distractions and noise immediately. I am now able to have way more confidence to let go of the recurring thoughts about tasks, because I have tools that remember for me. I drop a lot less balls. In fact, typically, if I don’t do something now, it’s because I consciously lowered it on my priority list. I couldn’t do that very well before. I used to just shut down and drop everything because the stress was so great. That never happens anymore. Thanks again for all your help.  Your coaching was probably the best investment I've ever made in me!

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Together we identified obstacles that were preventing me from truly going after the job that I would be happiest in. I’m balancing a full workload (I currently have 4 part-time jobs), graduate school, and 15-20 hours of training as a competitive cyclist. For a few years, I was having trouble committing myself to finding a new job and this was, in turn, making it difficult for me to work toward my graduate degree. I recently overcame a major hurdle in my progress toward my degree and am in touch with an increasing pool of potential employers. Marla is a time management guru, to be sure, but her most unique skill is her ability to ask questions that help me to step outside of myself for a moment and take a hard look at my motivations and decision making processes. Her questions have helped me to become more independently active in that I now know how to ask myself the kinds of questions that Marla might ask me. Without Marla’s help, I probably would not be as far along in my job search as I am now and would still be far from finishing my degree. Thanks, Marla!

— Paul D., PhD Candidate / High-School Teacher

Through our work I clarified my goals, identified communication issues, fuzzy planning and established personal accountability. In working with Marla, I received practical organizing and planning techniques, inspiration and empowering suggestions.  Marla helped me work with each issue as developing life skills and emphasized personal responsibility. Marla is an excellent coach and compassionate, encouraging mirror. I recommend her without any reservations.

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The coaching worked so well because it was tailored just for me - not a cookie cutter type of experience. It was exactly what I needed! We identified and worked on my concerns - got at the root cause and figured out what I could do to make it better. I proved I am capable of growth and change. For one, my communication has improved through the different departments and with my own team. My email and task organization are better, too. I have more tools at my disposal to help with my organization which helps me feel more calm and settled, even when things start to get hectic at work. I have tried to be perfect for too long and it was causing me to focus on the wrong areas... I stopped thinking it is always my fault and I've started to develop a thicker skin when I do make a mistake. I can move on more quickly and stay focused on the current tasks instead of worrying unnecessarily. I am more confident in my abilities and I have learned how to stop worrying as often about things outside of my control. Marla did a wonderful job with everything. Everything we worked on I made improvements in!

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Marla has been tremendously helpful in keeping me “on track” with important and complex projects during a time when I cannot afford to get lost. At the same time, she is helping me realize that while avocational goals are important, so too are relationships and personal fairness. In our last meeting, Marla helped me begin to tackle a lifelong misapprehension of time and how to gain control of it. More important than problems solved is my greater confidence in addressing problems and trying to solve them, rather than simply quitting because no resolution is apparent. Marla offers a non-judgemental, objective appreciation for the large and small difficulties and success that are not apparent to myself, and a way to order these things so that they can be confronted and appreciated, respectively. She has helped me see what appear to be insurmountable problems as just small impediments. Specifically, she has goaded me into making phone calls to people that I didn’t think would want to hear from me, and to do everything to keep communications channels open. She has also helped me by keeping a focus on the challenge I feel in organizing and constantly reviewing how to strike a balance between letting my schedule get out of control and focusing too intently on it and thus losing track of the bigger picture.

— Josh D., Professional Writer and Editor

Marla was my second coach. The first one did not really help me, so I was kind of skeptical. Marla’s help was astonishing. After only a few calls she seemed to have me figured out pretty well. She called me on empty promises, pushed me just enough never too much, and together we came up with tools that actually work and which I actually use. She has an uncanny ability to know how far she can push me without ticking me off. Thanks to that I never felt pressure to lie about or excuse what I had done or how I was doing. After living with ADD for many years I started believing that I was lazy, stupid, and crazy. Marla was able to convince me that I was none of these by helping me solve small issues and get a track record of success. Once those things were accomplished, many of the pieces sort of fell in to place.

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...while working with Marla, I have been able to move into a career that I have always wanted to be in. I spent many years with undiagnosed ADD not knowing why I had such difficulty with staying focused, starting projects and having difficulty finishing them, unable to prioritize what I needed to do in my life, and many of the other symptoms. I finally sought help through a physician who recommended taking medication. It was also suggested I find an ADD coach to help me re-learn new ways of managing my ADD. I contacted Marla, and after the first conversation I felt comfortable enough to give the coaching a try. After a few sessions working with Marla, she was able to help me start developing the goals and tools I needed to start clearing the clutter in my life. Today using the different techniques that I have learned while working with Marla, I manage my time more efficiently, and complete projects to the end. It is good to know that you do not need to make the journey alone with ADD. I look forward to working with Marla now and in the future.

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I've never felt as hopeful as I am now. Marla's reassuring voice and straightforward manner helped me to internalize a consistent approach to each problem. Before I was frazzled, couldn't do what I needed to do and felt like a fraud professionally. When things weren't working before I saw it as a personal failing. We figured out what I needed to do. And now stuff is not falling through my fingers and I'm not surprised by things that come up professionally. Every accomplishment felt reinforcing. I remind myself when I have organizational challenges now that it is my neurobiology, not me! I don't see myself as defective and am not ashamed anymore. I just think about the next step I need to do to figure it out.

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