Executive Functioning: Planning

What is it?

Planning is the ability to set goals, think ahead, decide what needs to happen to reach the goal, and organize those steps in a logical order. Planning can be seemingly simple things like, going to get groceries, cleaning the kitchen, or taking out the trash. It can also be bigger things like, leading a meeting at work, starting a really cool blog, or building a shed. People with ADHD struggle with this in many different ways. And it isn’t just a matter of laziness, lack of motivation, or disorganization.

People that fall on the ADHD spectrum struggle with this for a variety of reasons. Sometimes the brain has trouble visualizing logical steps to complete the task. It can be hard to prioritize what to do first. It could be a matter of motivation due the process feeling unclear or overwhelming. When the plan starts to feel overwhelming, it can start to feel irrelevant. It isn’t because we don’t want to plan things, it’s that our brain kind of freezes before the plan can even be started.

This can look different in each individual and can vary for each plan. It can look like procrastination, “I’ll start this later”, and then rushing to follow through with the plan at the last minute. Starting projects can be hard if there is no clear goal or order. Not knowing where to begin in a project or plan can be a factor too. Or forgetting the steps to complete the project.

Planning differs from organization. Planning is all about sequencing, doing what needs to be done and when. Organization is all about structure, everything has its place of where it needs to go.

Tools to try

Visual planners: I know I say this a lot but they are so helpful. Especially with planning. Seeing each step broken down into smaller pieces and completing them one at a time. This can also be known as “chunking tasks”.

Timers: Setting a time to complete the task. Then taking a short break and coming back to it with the time set again.

Backward planning: This is more situational but start making the plan from the end goal and plan out all the steps backwards. Then start at the beginning.

Talk it out: Talking it out with someone, or yourself aloud, can be very helpful to take some load off the brain of only visualizing it.

Stick notes: Writing the steps out in the order they need to be completed and then taking them off one at a time after they have been completed.