Fed up of failing to stick to a routine? Try ‘Intuitive Working’ instead

When we think about productivity and time management, one thing comes up again and again: ROUTINES.

I get the concept. And on paper, the idea is sound:

1.?Organise your day into things that need to be done in a certain order

2. Do them repeatedly

It makes logical sense

?? but unfortunately, humans don’t.

Humans are made of organic matter, not cogs and wheels: we don’t always follow sensible rules or make perfect sense

?? so, the idea that we’re able to make ourselves fit onto a linear path feels deeply unnatural to me.

Take one of my coaching clients ?- we’ll call her Zelda because that name is devastatingly underused.

?? Anyway, Zelda is a freelance graphic designer and, by her own admission, has always struggled with time management.

?? In uni, she was the person staying up for two days straight before a deadline to do her entire project.

?? When she worked for someone else, she was always late to the office and struggled with the 9-5 workday, feeling massively uncomfortable and antsy. She'd also end up catching up on incomplete projects in her own time.

Now she works for herself, she was initially looking forward to making her own work routine...

... but she's never quite managed to crack it.

? She had an adhd assessment and through her diagnosis was able to find resources and recommendations about how her particular flavour of neurodivergence manifested.

?? She decided to start and finish her day later

?? she allocated ‘creative time’ at the beginning of the day and after lunch, when she felt like it flowed a little easier

?? she came up with a morning routine that should help her get ready, and an evening routine to help her relax

?? but she couldn’t stick to it for more than a few days, even though it ‘made sense’ for how she thought her energy levels worked.

That's where I came in.

Zelda really wanted to nail down her routine and knew that, if that structure were in place, everything else would follow

But through an intense line of questioning featuring a brief visit downtown under a bright light, I suggested that maybe, just maybe, a ‘routine’ wasn’t right for her.

?? “But I thought routines were great for people with adhd” she told me, wide-eyed. “It’s supposed to help us focus”

???? I shrugged. “It might work for some people. But maybe you’re not wired that way.”

As I said before, the idea of anyone working to any kind of schedule doesn’t make sense to me

?? but when you throw in adhd – where we experience extreme highs and lulls in executive functioning – it baffles me that experts will suggest a regular routine.

It feels like a game we can’t win.

?? Throw into that the fact that Zelda has a menstrual cycle, the inevitable differences in her mood and energy levels throughout the month mean that some days will flow more easily than others (excuse the pun!) A static routine just doesn’t flex to accommodate this.

???? And all of that’s before you add in the individual variances in her days, weeks and months.

???? What if she didn’t sleep well last night?

???? What if she’s under a lot of stress and deadlines?

???? What if she’s on holiday.

My theory is this: solid routines try to make us behave in linear ways when we actually operate in cycles.

So, I advocated something different for Zelda. Something I’m experimenting with myself and have recommended to many other coaching clients:

INTUITIVE WORKING

?? Intuitive working is about recognising the state that your brain is in, and working in a way that optimises it.

?? This is quite scary to do at first, because it means basically ditching the idea of a routine; that solid, reliable structure that we’ve known throughout our school years and into the world of work

But once you get the hang of it, things start to get really interesting.

?? You might be thinking “Alice, this feels vague as fuck – how the hell am I supposed to decode my chaotic brain and work in a way that suits it? It’s a wild horse that runs rampant across the wilderness – there is no rhyme or reason. It can’t be done, damn it!!!”

Don’t worry – I’ve got an easy method for you to try out. If it doesn’t work, you’re no worse off than you are now.

?? I call it the PACS Method.

THE PACS METHOD

‘PACS’ stands for ‘practical,’ ‘admin,’ ‘creative,’ and ‘social.’ These are four simple categories I use to break up the modes in my brain.

?? Sometimes, I feel energised to the point of agitation – but if I try and sit down and do a complicated, boring or repetitive task, I’ll be chronically unproductive.

??This means my brain is in a naturally Practical mode, so if I’m working from home, my time would be better spent running some errands, doing my laundry, or going for a run.

?? Other times, I’ll wake up in the middle of the night, my brain buzzing with interesting ideas that I’d struggle to ignore and go back to sleep.

?? Why do that? My brain is in Creative mode, so I’ll get up and write for however long it takes to switch off, then I’ll go back to bed.

? I’ve written songs this way (despite not actually being a songwriter) designed entire presentations, written articles, newsletters, book chapters, and streams of content. All through optimising my brain when it was naturally ‘in the zone.’

?Admin is my weakest mode, so it works best if my energy is pretty steady, and I’ll use incentives and games to help me get things done (I’ll be talking about gamification in a future newsletter)

???? And finally, Social mode.

Some days I wanna People, and some days, I DON’T. I’ve learned over time where the perfect balance lies (you might have seen a post I did recently about ‘cat days’ and ‘dog days.’)

?? Basically, a very heavy social day will result in a huge energy crash for me, so I try to schedule activities with that in mind, and anticipate a heavy social hangover after day-long events or lots of networking.

?

HOW TO USE THE PACS METHOD

??? The simplest way to apply the PACS Method is to split the activities you have to do into those four categories – I find doodling a quadrant on a piece of paper helpful.

? Then, decide what mode your brain is in right now, and attack that quadrant first.

?? What you’ll find is that you'll fly through it so much more seamlessly than if you had a random ‘to-do’ list that you worked through in a random order

???? And the dopamine hit you’ll get when you see your progress is HUGE.

“But Alice; what if my brain is only in one mode all day?”

?? It’s unlikely because of the way our energy levels work:

we fluctuate throughout the day as we digest our food, wake up or wind down – even changes in the weather or environment will affect how our brains feel.

?? The aim isn’t perfection here ?- it’s an improvement

?? and any improvement on an overly structured routine that makes you feel shit, will be worth it!

?

I won’t guarantee that you’ll suddenly get everything done, but here are some of the results Zelda found when she tried this for two weeks:

?

?? She felt better about herself – she stopped judging herself and referring to herself as ‘unproductive’

?? She stopped procrastinating! Almost overnight – because she could recognise the mode her brain was in and find things to do in that category

?? She got through her work more smoothly and easily

?? She let herself have loads of downtime, because she was more productive than she’d been in years (not that you have to earn your rest, but that’s a topic for another day!)

?? She enjoyed starting work at different times, depending on the day

?? She planned her week to spread out her social demands as she learned more about her social energy levels (her tolerance is much higher than mine, but she still had ‘social hangovers’ sometimes, which she managed to reduce by restructuring her week.)

???? That last one is important, because as responsive and in-the-moment as Intuitive Working feels, it can actually help you plan ahead as well

because as you practice the PACS Method, you’ll start to learn more about yourself and how your unique brain fluctuates.

?? An important thing to note is that alllllll of this will be more feasible for some people than others;

if you work for a micromanaging boss in a highly structured work environment, you might not be able to move to an ideal start or finish time

but all of us will find some places where we can move, and tweak, and optimise – and all those minor adjustments start to compound quickly.

?

? There is no such thing as a perfect system, but a solid Daily Routine, in my opinion, is about the worst thing most of us can do to ourselves.

By trying to force a linear structure on our gorgeous, organic brains, we cut through the natural ebbs and flows in our energy that can actually help us, if we pay attention to them.

?

?? Give it a go and let me know how you get on!

?

Keep on being your badass self,

?

-- Alice Lyons ?? ??

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?? Want help figuring out how you work best?

? Book a?20-minute coffee chat?to find out how we can work together

?? ...or dive into an?epic coaching session?