Living with ADHD presents constant challenges, as we are always looking for ways to accomplish all of the things we want and need to do. We often experience anxiety as a result of this.
Because of that, I want to share some of the things I keep in my weekly planner to help me stay on top of them.
Whether you suffer from overwhelm, anxiety, memory issues, disorganization, constant confusion, or not taking care of yourself, these simple little additions to your weekly calendar might just help.
1) A Habit, Mantra, or Intention For The Week
For me, making sure I include ALL those things in my weekly planner is stressful. They’re all important to me though. As a result, I include just one of these when I plan my schedule for a week.
To make this more flexible, I categorized it under a section titled “reminders” so it can be used for anything – from a reminder to drink water to a reminder to remember an intention or mantra.
Aside from reminding us to do something important, it also gives us the chance to take a moment to remember that self-care plays a significant role in productivity.
2) YAY’s!
When my niece and I rocked our errands and the grocery store she totally cracked me up when she said that ADHD’ers should get a prize for everything.
… wash our hair: get a prize
… wake up on time: get a prize
… shower: get a price
… blow dry your hair: omg… two prizes
The cool thing about that is that she isn’t wrong. Most of us do need more encouragement than others.
Unfortunately, getting that encouragement can be quite difficult. That is why I started adding YAYs to my weekly planner: Basically, if we can’t get it from others, we have to give it to ourselves.
It used to be hard for me to do this, but since I’ve been doing it regularly, I enjoy trying to remember the things I’m proud of each week.
3) What You’re Going To Do (vs “goals”)
For us, this can be a bit more complicated than it may seem at first. It is common for planners to use words like “goal” or “objective”, which for many of us can be triggering.
On the other hand, some people create very long to-do lists that are daunting to look at before we’re even finished with them.
That’s why this section in my planners just says “I will…”.
Like a lot of other ADHD’ers I need the flexibility to turn this section into whatever I need it to be. For example, I can say:
- I will focus on
- I will complete
- I will work on
- I will accomplish
We have to work with our brains. Fighting it just makes things harder. These are just a few of the ways I try to do that.
If you’re finding it hard to get a planner that works for you, keep your eye out for these things.
So, now what?
If these are things you struggle with too, then it definitely makes sense for you to add these things to your planners as well.
If the thought of trying to figure out how to do that is overwhelming, grab my planning and goal setting bundle. All of the things mentioned in this post are included in them so that it’s easy for you to get started asap.
