How to Plan Your Day with ADHD | ADHD Planning Tips
Time flies when you’re having fun…
Or when you’re doing something you love to do.
Or when you’re avoiding doing something you don’t want to do.
At least if you’re like me and have ADHD.
Those of us with ADHD often struggle with time. And schedules. And planning. And structure.
And if you’re a mom with ADHD trying to build a successful business, you’re going to have to build in some structure to manage your time and create better awareness around where you need to be when.
But alas…we ADHDers really have a love-hate relationship with structure and routine. It can get so boring right? And yet, as I just said, if you want to build a successful business while balancing your mom duties, you are going to need to create some sort of structure to your day.
That’s why I wanted to spend a little time exploring my current, ever-evolving system for planning my week in order to balance everything that comes with running a business and my family.
Let me start by saying, as with many things I discuss when it comes to my ADHD life, this is one version of what I do to plan my week. I would call it the BEST version. There are also week’s where I do a little less and to be honest, pay the price with frustration and energy. But as of right now, I’d say this is what I’m doing 75-80% of the time.
The Difference Between Scheduling and Planning
Before I run you through my specific process, I think there is an important distinction to define that may help you better understand all the parts and pieces of my personal process.
It all starts with the difference, at least in my mind, between my schedule versus planning.
I like to think of my schedule or calendar as “where I need to be” versus my planning which is “what I need to do”.
I often refer to my cell phone as “my brain” because it does a much better remembering important things like were I need to be, via my Google Calendar.
I have trained myself to enter important dates and times into my Google Calendar immediately or as soon as possible.
I say trained because this took some time and a lot of effort to do.
I would even venture to say that I didn’t start using a calendar regularly until I started my first business. Until then it was just a sort of “fly by the seat of my pants and hope I don’t miss anything”.
But getting into the habit of putting appointments of my schedule isn’t planning for my week itself. It is a part of my planning process.
My schedule creates an awareness around what I have committed to so I can better PLAN what to do for the day or the week.
How I Plan My Week as an ADHD Entrepreneur
Let’s finish up with a brief overview of my current planning process.
I say current because as with so many of my routines and ADHD coping strategies, it is always evolving depending on the season I’m in both with my business and as a mom.
I also want to mention that I provide a version of the weekly and daily printables I’m showing you today to my coaching clients as a springboard to developing their own routines around planning. And with that said…here’s my process:
ADHD Planning Strategies: Gather What You Need
My first step is to gather what I need so I don’t run the risk of getting distracted if I need to get up and grab something.
I make sure my Google Calendar is pulled up on my computer. I print off the weekly and daily planning sheets I will need for the week.
And, something I haven’t mentioned yet, I grab the little notebook where I keep my ongoing to-do list.
ADHD Planning Strategies: Review Your Upcoming Schedule
My next step is to take a look at my Google Calendar schedule for the week.
This shows me when I’ll be meeting with clients, any other work commitments or calls I’ve scheduled, and what’s going on with my family.
ADHD Planning Strategies: Create a Weekly Overview
I then take the information I gathered from my calendars and transfer it to a weekly overview sheet I’ve created. Now, this may feel like an extra or unnecessary step. Especially since our ADHD brains are always trying to convince us there is a quicker means to an end.
But I actually find that seeing my schedule for the week laid out really helps me with my tendency to overcommit.
I can see which columns have more things in them, then adjust what I’d like to focus on based on my available time. I found that if I was just focusing day to day, I may say to myself “well, I can just finish this tomorrow” all the while not remembering that tomorrow I’ve got a full day of clients and commitments.
And this weekly overview isn’t super detailed. Just basic information like calls for the day, reminders I need to schedule for a client, marketing I’d like to put out, and family commitments. The whole process usually takes me about 5-10 minutes max on Sunday afternoon or Monday morning when I do it.
Once I know how my time is affected by my schedule, I can fill in when I would like to work on other tasks or projects, for my business or my home, based on the remaining availability.
For instance, last week I had to submit a bunch of stuff for an upcoming summit that I’m taking part in that was due on Friday. The front end of my week was very call heavy so I knew I had Wednesday and Thursday to gather the required info because I didn’t want to be scrambling to do it all Friday morning. So I made notes on my weekly overview to work on my submission pieces on those days.
ADHD Planning Strategies: Create a Daily Plan
Finally, I use my weekly overview to plan each day as it comes along.
I don’t know about you, but I do better when I spend a little time each day reviewing things rather than just planning the whole week at once.
I need those constant reminders about what I’m supposed to be working on. I created this daily planning worksheet so I can keep track of my commitments, my to-dos, and some of my personal habits I struggle with like eating and taking my medications and supplements.
Transferring the data I have from my weekly overview to my daily planning page only takes around 5-10 minutes each morning. But wow, what a great way to remind myself what I need to be doing and what I want to be doing.
And there you have it. That is an overview of the process I use to plan my week and my day. Not too scary or structured, right?
I like to think of it as a “loose structure” a sort of framework to help me create awareness around where I need to be, what I need to do, and when I can actually do it as a busy mom and entrepreneur.
If you’re still struggling to find your best planning strategy as an ADHD mom entrepreneur, I would love to help you figure it out. Part of what I do during the weekly calls with my clients to is review their upcoming week and commitments so we can schedule times to get those priority tasks done.
To learn more about how my ADHD coaching can support you in juggling life as an ADHD mom and ADHD entrepreneur, click the button below to schedule your free, no-obligation call.
