Planning with ADHD

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Hello Dear Reader,
It's that time of year again. The internet is full of content about goal setting, working out, planning, diets, organizing, etc, etc, etc, everything you need to become a new and better person. And for a neurodivergent person, particularly someone with ADHD it is a time of guilt and frustration. Many of us start the year with a new goal, a new planning system, a new batch of the same basic advice, new equipment and tools, and the determination to just buckle down and try harder and just DO it this year. This will be the system that helps us get organized and get our lives together. And then... It doesn't because it wasn't designed for us and for how our brains work. (1)



I have tried many different systems for planning and organizing over the years some have been more successful than others and I'm going to share what has worked well for me and what hasn't and hopefully some of these ideas might help you too.
What hasn't worked:
  • Trying harder
  • Guilt 
  • Preset up planners and systems
  • Counting on remembering anything

For years I followed this cycle. 
Get a new plan for organizing my life and meeting goals, spend hours researching it, and getting the things I needed to use it. 
Getting set up and sticking to it for a bit, deciding that this was it this was the one! I had finally done it! Then the novelty would wear off, something new would become the main focus of my time and energy and I would just... forget. 
Suddenly realizing that everything had spiraled out of control again, beat myself up for failing to stick to anything and feel guilty for the mess my life was in and how that mess impacted those around me. 
Decide I need a new approach, one that will work this time. AND I super promise to try harder this time.
Repeat.
The missing thing from my understanding of myself and the systems that I was using was the needs of my neurodivergent brain. It wasn't that the systems were bad or that I was but that they were not created with people like me in mind. 


Then three years ago I found bullet journaling YouTube (1) and this and a diagnosis finally got me the right path.
What is working:
  • Check-ins and adjustments
  • Flexibility
  • Compassion for myself
  • Multiple reminders
  • All my tasks and information are in the same place for me to see each day
  • All my tasks and information are in separate places that are shared with my support system for extra reminders and backup information
  • Space to be creative

If you are not familiar with the Bullet Journal Method by Ryder Carroll (2) it is a way of navigating planning and tracking in a flexible and forgiving system. Because it's designed to be used as you go and as you need, you don't have pages of pre-printed dates and calendars that you don't need or didn't use. You don't have sections predesigned for things that are not really useful or meaningful for you. You can set it up exactly as you need it. This means people have gotten really creative with it and you can find "spreads" for tracking just about any aspect of your life all around Pinterest and Instagram.

I have spent a couple of years trying new things from month to month and refining things to find what works best for me and my needs and then I pair this with other tools to help remind me and pull me back in when I forget. But the big thing the bullet journal method has taught me is that there is no perfect. When I forget and things start to get out of control I know I can come back to it, recommit, and try again and I have not failed. 

Next week I will go into more detail about exactly how I have my current system of apps and journal set up and why I use it the way I do. In the meantime let me know what questions you might have about things in the comments.








Footnotes:
(1) This has been a great channel for me to learn from:
(2) Some Bullet Journal YouTube channels that I love:

(3) https://bulletjournal.com/  has more information about the basic system and links to his books and videos


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