The Importance of Planning
Elle O'Flaherty, JD, PCC, ACCG, CCSP, CPRW
Founder, Speaker & Coach - Executive | ADHD | Career | Productivity | Motivation
You know what's hard? Pausing to plan. Especially for those of us in the ADHD community. Our action-oriented brains jump from ready to go without any consideration of get set. It causes us to prioritize the wrong things, lose the thread of a project, and feel out of control of our days.
So what can we do?
First, reassure your brain that this won't take long.
Set a five-minute timer first thing in the morning or last thing before your workday ends to plan what you absolutely must do—one to three things, at the most. ?
Then, decide which one task you're most interested in doing, and do it.
I hear all of you echoing neurotypical productivity books, "Do the hardest thing first!" Absolutely not. We can easily fritter away a whole day by trying to do the hard thing. Instead, get some momentum by knocking the fun thing off the list.
Next, let's right-size those tasks.
"Find an event space" is not a task. It's an overwhelming series of tasks that will take who knows how long. Break that into microchunks you can complete in 5-20 minutes (lean towards 10 if you're having trouble getting started). The actual first microchunk might be to choose how far out from the city center your event can be and put a circle on the map. Maybe the next chunk is to list all the event spaces within that circle. Now, you're on your way with small, actionable steps.
The first microchunk should be so easy that your brain rolls its eyes and says it can obviously get that done.
When you commit to micro-chunking, you also commit to be honest with your brain. Promise your brain that if it wants to stop after the first microchunk, you'll stop. That way, your brain will believe you next time. Odds are that you'll get into the task and make serious progress. If it just isn't the time, though, and your brain isn't interested? Stop. We're retraining our brains to trust us and to know that we won't bully our brains into doing things. We're working with our brains.
Let's keep listening to our brains and working with them instead of against them.
TIPS
Notice Your Needs
Sometimes, we're so focused on what we're doing or thinking about that we miss signs from our body or ourselves. We might not notice our physical needs like thirst or needing to use the bathroom. We might not notice our emotions until they're so strong that we can't ignore them (because we're about to explode). Especially for those of us in the ADHD community.
领英推荐
Remind yourself to pause throughout the day and do a quick scan of your physical and emotional needs. It'll help you to drink water like you swear you will and to react more calmly when your emotions are engaged.
TOOLS
Drag & Drop To-Dos
Trello is a listmaking app that lets you visualize your to-do list with drag-and-drop convenience. It can do so much more than just that, but if you're highly visual and looking for an easy way to prioritize and visualize your tasks (not to mention color code), Trello might be helpful. If you do decide to try it, remember, what's the easiest way you can set it up? Not the perfect way, but the easiest way to get you started.
Appearances this Month
October 2023
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