Creating a Schedule in 3 Easy Steps

It finally happens. You have some time to get things done. And, even better, you have a little bit of motivation to get started.

But there’s so much to do! What do you do first?

Everything feels like it needs to be done. You start to feel overwhelmed by the possibilities. That feeling of overwhelm is too much, and before you know it your motivation is gone. You end up wasting time and feeling guilty about all the things you could have done. Sound familiar?

One of the biggest difficulties with ADHD is the struggle with executive functioning. Executive functioning refers to prioritizing, planning, use of working memory, and self-regulation. Because of this, some of the best strategies to manage ADHD externalize executive functions. And as a result, the all-too-familiar scenario above can be transformed into a happy story of productivity.

A schedule is one way to outsource your executive function and can be extremely helpful. The key is to do it in a way that works for you, which might mean trying a few different things. Today I’ll share with you my most recent effort at creating a schedule for myself, and why I think this is the most optimistic I have ever been about a plan.

The first step to success with a schedule is to have the right mindset about it. Perfectionism is a sure path to failure. It sets the bar too high, and we give up quickly. Think of this plan as a jumping off point, or a loose framework. If you start out the day with no expectations about what you are going to do, so much time is wasted figuring out where to start, (remember the trouble with prioritizing mentioned above?) When we can figure out ahead of time what we are going to do, one obstacle is moved out of the way to actually getting it done. 

Things might not go exactly to plan, but when you’ve written out what needs to be done, you can adjust the plan and get some things checked off your list. That might feel like a failure, but how much would you have gotten done if you had no plan at all? And you can always learn something from these “failed” attempts. There’s no reason to attach shame or guilt to the process of figuring out what works for you. If we can embrace even the smallest of successes, we’re so much more likely to keep trying.

Still in the realm of mindset: start small, and work your way up. It’s a lot easier to continue if you give yourself small steps that are easy to follow through with, and then add on to the schedule as the tasks begin to feel like habits.

Now for the actual schedule creation! This might feel simple and obvious, but often those are the things we need laid out for us, when we have ADHD. I don’t know how many times I’ve googled the most basic “how to’s” because for some reason, in difficult times, those things feel abstract and hard to tackle.

Step 1. Map out your base schedule.

Write out the tasks that happen regularly, daily or weekly, that you can already count on. There are two ends of a spectrum here, and I’ve experienced both of them. Either you have such an unstructured day, that there’s hardly anything to put here; or you have so many scheduled items, it’s hard to figure out where you will find time to do anything else. I used to be firmly in the super unstructured camp, I thought I had recently moved to the opposite end of the spectrum. After mapping out my base schedule, I realized that I have more time in my day than I thought.

I learn from examples, so I’ll break down my base schedule for you. My end caps are waking up and going to bed, that part is easy, right? Then everyday I take my girls to school. Mid-morning I have either an ADDCA class or a Coaching Skills Practicum. Sometime after lunch, I will have a session with a coaching client or a session with my coach. My girls get home from school around the same time everyday. And then I have time set aside in the evening for dinner. I look at these events as the landmarks throughout my day.

The rest of the steps apply mostly to schedules that have some time-bound items, but if you have a completely empty schedule most days, I will have some tips for you later on in this post!

Step 2. Identify your unstructured time.

Once those first events are mapped out, now figure out how much time you have in between. These are the times where you think to yourself “okay I need to get some stuff done, before the next thing starts.” But maybe you never really get much done.

For a long time I’ve just shown up to my scheduled events, floundering in between. Usually, I spend so much time figuring out what I “should” be doing, that I don’t get anything done. Or I spend way too much time on one task, and run out of time before I have even eaten lunch!

I identified 2 hours before taking the girls to school (if I get up early) and about 1.5 hours after I’ve dropped them off. My afternoon varies a lot, I have up to 4 hours of time, usually broken up with an hour-long coaching session. The girls get home from school and I have 2 hours until dinner. After dinner I have about 4 hours until bedtime.

Step 3. Create routines for each section of unstructured time.

This, to me, is the secret sauce of the process. Because I have figured out how much time I really have, I can make a more realistic plan for what to do during that time. I would not recommend creating a routine that will completely fill the time block. Instead, pick a few tasks, or maybe one big task, that you feel pretty confident you can do in the time allotted.

For my routines, I have chosen some tasks that might seem way too big, but I have chosen it with the intention of only working on it for a bit. My hope is that these bigger tasks will feel more manageable if I just do a little bit everyday.

Again with examples! I have six routines or processes throughout the day. My morning routine consists of yoga, tidying up my living room, and vacuuming the living room rug. When I get back from taking the girls to school, I feed my pets, finish getting ready for the day, empty my dishwasher, and tidy up the bedrooms. That last one is an example of something that could be really big! But my main focus is to remove trash and dishes from the bedrooms. If I have time, I’ll do more, but the bare minimum is my goal. 

Throughout the rest of my routines I have different steps of the laundry process, tidying up different areas of the house, doing homework with my daughters, and planning for the next day. On Monday I had about four items in each routine. I haven’t been feeling great, so Tuesday I kept my first three routines the same, but cut back on my afternoon and evening routines. For my Wednesday routine, I cut back even more and now there are two to three tasks in each routine.

Once I start to feel better, and the tasks feel easier, I’ll consider adding on. But if I force myself to stick with the original plan, and I can’t follow through, I will feel frustrated and discouraged. I’m adjusting every day to the time and energy I have, and I’m keeping my expectations in check. This isn’t about immediate and total transformation, it’s about getting comfortable with the basics of a schedule and how much time you have. (Time-blindness anyone?)

And that’s it!

Three steps to creating a schedule. Map out a base schedule. Identify unstructured time. Assign specific routines or tasks to each time block. Seems simple enough, right? But it only works if it’s done with the right intentions and expectations. Keep reading to learn more about why this works for me, and what to do if you only have unstructured time.

The reasons this works for me. 

#1- The event acts as a trigger for the start of a routine. I know it’s time to start my routine, because the previous activity has ended. When I get home from dropping off my daughters, I jump right into the tasks I have chosen (feed pets, empty dishwasher, shower/get ready for the day.) If I get right to it, I can enjoy the remainder of my time before the next event starts. If I get home and sit on the couch, I will usually struggle with feelings of guilt about the things I should be doing. I know exactly what I need to do, so it’s easier to start as soon as I walk through the door. And I know that if I start right away, before I talk myself out of it, it’s never as hard as I imagine it will be. 

If I decide to take a break first, I’m mindful of the time. I’ll set a timer, or play a short podcast episode to let me know it’s time to end my break and get moving. Because of time-blindness, it’s easy to take a break for “just a minute” and realize you are out of time and didn’t get anything done. Once I accepted this about myself, it became easier to build in those disruptors to keep me aware of the passage of time.

#2- It cuts down on feelings of overwhelm. You might ask, why schedule all of these tasks? Why not just work from a to do list? For me, having a to do list isn’t very helpful, because it still leaves a lot of decision-making to do in the moment. Because of difficulty with prioritizing, everything that needs to get done just lives in my head, all feeling equally important. By assigning tasks to specific parts of my day, I ensure that certain processes are moving forward. I don’t forget about the clothes in the washer, because in one of my routines I’m reminded to put them in the dryer. Dishes don’t get stacked on the counters, because in one of my routines, I’m reminded to empty the dishwasher, so dirty dishes can be put away. (Okay dishes still get stacked on the counter, will someone please come teach my family how to put them in the dishwasher?! But at least I can easily put them away…)

If I put all of these tasks into one list I’d have 20+ tasks to choose from. Instead I have 3-5 tasks to do in one go. It doesn’t feel so big, when it’s broken down. And because I know when I will do the tasks, I don’t have to keep thinking about them all day.

#3- I can be more realistic about my time. Because I have laid out my schedule clearly, I get a fuller picture of the time I have available. Some days are busier than others, so I can set my expectations a bit lower and assign fewer tasks. Some days have larger blocks of time available. These are days where I can prioritize big tasks, or put a little more on my schedule. When I see the days in comparison to each other, it helps me see that my time is not limitless. This really motivates me to take advantage of the time available.

What if all of my time is unstructured?

There are ways to apply some of these principles even if you have hardly anything on your schedule. This was my life for a long time, and I know what a struggle it can be. It feels like you have so much time to get things done, and it’s easy to procrastinate until suddenly everything is overwhelming and you don’t know where to start.

If this is you, I have two recommendations. First, take advantage of the little bit of structure there might be, i.e. waking up and having meals. It doesn’t have to be time-bound, it can be strictly on a “when this happens, then this comes next” basis. Start with just a few tasks, and maybe only 2 or 3 routines in the day. If you are feeling really overwhelmed, just focus on trash, dishes, and laundry.

Next, find areas in your life that are already working for you in some sense, or activities that you do regularly (even if they are just for fun.) You can use these as the anchors for your schedule. So maybe, “after an episode of my show I will do routine A,” (to make this work, I highly recommend turning off the autoplay feature on your streaming apps!) Or “when I listen to a podcast, I will do routine B.” Even without real structure in your schedule, there are ways to build it in, in a flexible way. But it works best when you start with things that are already happening in your life, rather than trying to create something out of thin air.

Get Started!

Go grab a pen and paper and start mapping everything out. Identify your unstructured time and decide which daily tasks you want to schedule in each spot. If you are finding it difficult to even get started feel free to message me with any questions! You can find me pretty easily over in my free Facebook Group for moms who have ADHD. And I’ll be opening up 4 spots for one-on-one coaching in October! Hit the Contact link at the top of the page or go straight to the Get Started page if you are interested in ADHD Coaching.