How This Weekly Habit Helps ADHD Adults Follow Through
To stay focused on your goals and feel grounded as you move forward, it’s critical for adults with ADHD to have a weekly practice of reviewing, organizing, and planning.
And while this practice is hands down the one habit many of my clients have benefited most from, it is also one of the most difficult to implement. No doubt about it.
Though I know you can do it, if you want, because my clients have.
But it will take time, support, and a healthy dose of self-compassion when it inevitably does not go as well as you’d like.
You may even resist doing it at times, when you don’t think you have the time, or when it just becomes too frustrating.
I hope you won’t give up.
Are You Productive Or Just Really Busy
When I start working with clients, it’s not uncommon for one of their main frustrations to be losing sight of their dreams, concrete goals, and the day-to-day actions they need to take to reach them.
While we are working together, they, of course, benefit from my accountability.
But our work is meant to be time-limited, of course. And when our engagement ends, I want them to have the scaffolding they need to “fly.”
And part of that is learning to effectively do what is most important to them, not just ticking as many things as they can as fast as they can off their task list.
If you are doing the latter right now, it might feel like you are on a hamster wheel or playing whack-a-mole, right? You’re moving fast. But as soon as you do one task, another one pops up.
So at the end of the day, you might often feel like you haven’t been productive. And that’s likely because you’re not sure that you have done what is most important to you.
What Does It Mean For ADHD Adults To Be Productive?
The way I define productivity is doing what is essential (important) to you — engaging in activities that bring meaning to your life.
This might mean being present with the people who are important to you, engaging in enjoyable, meaningful activities, and making sure you’re engaging in high-leverage professional tasks to reach your goals in that realm.
If this definition aligns with how you think about productivity, what would a productive day look like for you?
How Can A Weekly Process of Reviewing, Organizing and Planning Help ADHD Adults Be Productive?
A weekly process can help you be productive and avoid what David Allen of Getting Things Done (GTD) says gets in the way for many people.
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 busyness 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.
I see this all the time in my work with ADHD adults.
And I know that a consistent weekly review, organizing, and planning process can help you address these challenges, as well as some of your ADHD-specific challenges, by:
- Helping offset the pull of immediate gratification.
- Reminding you of your priorities, intentions, and best practices.
- Minimizing reliance on your memory.
- Reducing the overwhelm of trying to keep information in your head.
- Helping you feel more confident that you are remembering your commitments.
- Giving you time to reflect on your challenges and decide how to turn them around.
- Allowing you time to create an execution plan.
That would be nice, right?
What Tools Do You Need For A Weekly Habit Of Reviewing, Organizing, and Planning?
One of the first keys to engaging in this process effectively is having the right tools.
At minimum, you’ll want a calendar and a task manager. Without these tools and knowing how to use them effectively, you won’t be confident in how much time you have or what exactly is on your plate.
Having an organized electronic notebook is also helpful. So you don’t have random bits of paper or electronic notes all over.
A calendar should reflect the hard landscape of your life. To learn more about how you can use your calendar effectively, check out my post: ADHD Adults Who Want to Be Productive and Not Stressed Use These Calendar Tips.
A task manager keeps all your tasks in one place so you can easily see what is on your plate. You can discover how to use a task manager here: Learn How ADHD Adults Use a Task Manager to Reduce Their Overwhelm. As you probably know, there are many electronic ones to choose from. I happen to use Todoist.
An electronic notebook helps keep all your notes in one place rather than scattered across various pieces of paper. I use Evernote. Of course, there are many other to choose from.
It’s Not The Time To Actually Do Your Task 😉
I know you’re going to be tempted to do the tasks. When this happens, it will likely be because of one of a few reasons:
- You might say to yourself about a task, “Oh, this will only take 2 minutes.” And then 20 minutes later…
- Maybe you’ll feel a sense of urgency when you see something that is long overdue, or due soon, maybe tomorrow. So then you convince yourself that that’s what you should do.
- You may even forget the long-term benefit and decide it’s not worth doing when you have so much work to do.
- Alternatively, you may remember the reason you want to do it, but the outcome is just too far into the future for you to feel connected to it in the moment. Remember, ADHD adults tend toward immediate gratification.
But you really want to be the stamp and stick to the process.
And also remind yourself:
I’m doing this and not that.
I’m doing this and not that.
I’m doing this and not that.
Also, consider what would help you “be the stamp.”
Here are a few tips to get you started:
- If a task will take 2 minutes or less, go ahead and do it. Otherwise, write down whatever comes to mind on a piece of paper next to you.
- Incorporate some support to help you follow through. You might try body doubling with someone you know in person, over Zoom, or via an app like Focusmate.
- Do your weekly review in an environment that cues you, since you always do it there, such as in a cafe.
- Consider other strategies from this post to help you follow through: How ADHD Adults Can Stop Procrastinating and Follow Through.
What else do you know that might help you follow through?
What Is the Goal of Experimenting With This Process?
Your end goal is to end up with a personalized checklist which you can refer to each week.
You will be able to do this by learning from what you do each week as you experiment. Then, after each iteration, you will refine your checklist until you have one that works well for you.
While I’m sure you will come up with your own ideas, the following suggestions can help you get started.
Weekly Review, Organizing and Planning Suggestions
Step I – Process
Go through all the paper/physical items you have not yet processed from the previous week.
This may include anything you would put in a physical inbox, such as mail, receipts, and business cards. Decide where each item belongs and put it there – add to task list, recycle, throw away, file, etc.
Finish processing any meeting notes from the previous week. It’s best to process meeting notes as soon after your meetings as possible. But now is the time to do any you missed
This is also the time to process any communication you missed from the week before.
- This includes email you missed from the week before. Emails more than a week old should be part of a “backlog project” to handle at a separate time.
- Also, process any other forms of communication from the week before, which might include messages via texts, voicemails, Slack, Teams, WhatsApp, etc.
- Other communication not listed above.
Step 2 – Manage Your Tasks
Next, decide what goes on your task list, and craft it to make execution easier.
If you don’t yet have a working task management system, check out this 3-Part Series, starting with Part 1 – How to Tame Your To-Do List When You Have ADHD.
Here are some of the steps to take:
- Add any new tasks or projects to your list.
- Review the status of your projects. Add new actions and mark off completed actions. Make sure you identify at least one action step for each project.
- Add new and mark off completed discrete tasks that are not related to a project.
- Make sure you include “waiting for tasks,” which are often overlooked. For example, if you call the plumber and are waiting for a call back. You might add the task, “text Bob if I don’t hear from him.” Be sure to add a reasonable due date. So, if you called him on Monday, you might decide to call him again on Thursday.
- Check on your Maybe/Someday List. This is a list of tasks and projects you have no intention of doing right now but don’t want to forget. Decide whether you want to take action, leave them on the list, or delete them.
Step 3 – Manage Your Calendar
If you have done the previous steps, you should have captured most, but not all, of your tasks.
Now you are reviewing your calendar, the hard landscape of your life. So, if you have a commitment at a specific date and time, it should be on your calendar rather than in your memory. You know how that works out.
If you want to learn more about using your calendar effectively, check out ADHD and Calendars – What Is Your Plan?
During your weekly process, you’ll want to:
- Look back over the past week and add any tasks that come to mind to your list. Just in case you forgot to add tasks.
- Scan upcoming dates far enough into the future that you feel comfortable you have time to get prepared for whatever is coming up. This could be the upcoming week, month, quarter, or other period. If there are tasks related to upcoming dates that you have not captured yet, add them to your task list.
- Adjust and/or confirm appointments, if necessary.
Step 4 – Execution Planning
Once you’ve curated your task list and organized your calendar to reflect the most current hard landscape of your life, you’ll want to create a plan to execute on your work.
Though I know many of you will want/need to plan further ahead in order to complete your larger projects. At minimum, decide where (what projects) you will focus your time and energy in the next week.
You may want to set aside recurring blocks of time for larger projects to ensure you work on them consistently.
You may also want to block off discrete, nonrecurring blocks of time to work on a task. And for these, it’s usually best to block them off no more than a week in advance, as you know things can change quickly.
If you do decide to block off time on your calendar, whether it’s a one-off or recurring, you want to treat it like an appointment. Yes, I know you’ve probably tried and struggled to do this.
So, you’ll want to consider what kind of support you’ll need to improve your chances of following through, especially if you know you might encounter friction when you try to start the task.
For example, you might want to decide where you’ll do the task. You might also decide to add accountability or body doubling to oyur plan for following through when the time comes.
For more ideas on how to follow through on your tasks, check out this post: How ADHD Adults Can Stop Procrastinating and Follow Through.
Step 5 – Reflect
It is also helpful to take a few minutes to reflect on the previous week.
Here are three questions you can use:
- What have I accomplished in the past week that is in alignment with my goals and values?
- What is/are my win(s) for the week that I am particularly proud of?
- What challenges and problems am I facing right now? How am I addressing them, or could I address them (if you have ideas)?
Of course, feel free to use whatever questions you think will be most useful to help you as you experiment and refine your weekly process.
How to Sustain a Weekly Review, Organizing and Planning Process
As I mentioned above, you will likely hit some speed bumps when you try to start and sustain this habit. As you probably have with any other habit you’ve tried to adopt.
The key to increasing the chances of sustaining this habit is to decide what you can do to help you do it.
One of the first things that might help is to choose a specific day and time to do this; you may decide to break it up over 2-3 days or to do it all on one day. I recommend Thursday or Friday morning so you can go into the weekend feeling confident you are ready for the next week.
Then decide on what kinds of supports you need to sustain this habit. As I mentioned earlier, you can check out this post, How ADHD Adults Can Stop Procrastinating and Follow Through, for strategies.
In the beginning, your goal should be to just touch it. This might mean doing only part of the process some weeks. The benefits of this strategy are:
- It will likely become easier over time.
- You will also likely be able to do it more quickly the more often you do it.
- As you develop the muscle memory of how helpful it is, you will be more likely to continue.
Be okay with some discomfort. I suggest challenging yourself to try it imperfectly for at least 8 weeks before deciding whether you’re going to stop or continue.
Add and subtract steps as needed until you feel your system is the right one for you for now. There is no one right way to do a weekly review. Really.
Weekly Review, Organization and Planning for ADHD Adults
I know initially this process may feel daunting and even stressful at times.
So, I hope if you decide to try it out, you will more often be in the driver’s seat and able to do what matters most to you.
(originally published July 10, 2016, updated April 4, 2022 and September 29, 2026)
