Planning projects with ADHD is one of those things that doesn’t sound difficult – and in theory, it’s not – but it’s something I see a lot – like alot of people mishandle. For people who love starting new projects, ADHD brains aren’t so great at knowing how to plan those projects so that their brains don’t melt and they don’t wind up running off to live with wolves.
I think that’s that “irony” that Alanis was talking about.
Before I get started, I’m going to highly suggest that when you plan projects with ADHD, you should do so visually. We’re much better at understanding order that way. I have a planning system I made for ClickUp that has a handy space for just this, but however you do it, make sure you’re able to easily look at what you’re doing.
So let’s launch into how to plan projects effectively with that beautiful brain of yours. The process is as follows:
First: Write down every step, and make ‘em tiny.
Don’t look at me like that. Yes, I mean every step. And they need to be granular. Like, don’t just write “market new product;” instead, write “post to Instagram about new product.” Be specific. Don’t worry about putting everything in order yet; just word-vomit all the steps you can think of onto your list.
But why? When you’re too general, you tend to miss parts of the process. That, and parts of the process wind up out of order, which can lead to setbacks and delays. That can happen anyway, but we’re doing this to mitigate that. So just trust me – make those steps itty bitty.
Next: Put each step in processual order.
NOW you get to think of the order of the process. Start with the earliest task you have, and start putting everything into order. As you’re doing this, you’re going to realize that there are little subtasks and extra things that you didn’t think of in the first step; that’s cool, and exactly what should be happening. Just insert those subtasks as they come to you, and keep going until everything is ordered the right way.
But why? Because otherwise you’re going to wind up doing things in weird orders, and you’re going to either a) wind up with a shoddy end result, or b) end up with a great end result, but only after you’ve yelled and screamed and possibly alienated your neighbors. We’re going for smooth progress here, so this will make that as smooth as possible.
And then: Add due dates to each task.
Next on our ADHD Project Planning Journey, we have putting dates to the process. This can be a malleable guess, or hard and fast, depending on who’s in charge of the final product, and the importance of the end-result. Start by guessing how much time each task will take, then work backwards by choosing the project’s end date (leaving plenty of room for error), and then setting due dates from the earliest task on. As you’re planning these things, be sure to consider:
- Pre-existing engagements
- How long you expect each task to take
- Your motivation and energy levels for each step, and
- The possibility of shit going wrong
But why? To give you a realistic view of when you may be able to deliver. Sometimes, especially when we’re excited about something, we overpromise on deadlines. This helps make sure that you’re being fair to yourself.
Finally: Check in on progress often and adjust as needed.
Make sure that you set a date for yourself to come back and check on your project progress as you go. Ensure that it’s going to remind you regularly – I generally suggest once a week.
But why? With ADHD, it’s super easy for us to lose track of our progress and to either think we’re doing poorly, or to think we’re much further ahead than we actually are. So you need to make sure that you’re regularly checking in on things to ensure that you’re where you need to be, and/or if you need to move things around. Sometimes, you’ll even find that you need to scrap the project altogether, and that’s cool, too. All the more reason to look at things regularly, so that you can save that time and energy for other things if need be.
And by the way, here are a couple of things I’m going to tell you NOT to do, please, please, for the love of all that is holy:
DON’T try to look at the whole thing at once – this is either going to overwhelm you, or it’s going to distract you into wanting to skip to more fun parts of the project. Look at one thing at a time by scheduling those parts of the project onto their place on a calendar.
DON’T skip writing down new steps – New shit is going to crop up; don’t tell yourself that you’ll just remember what it was and continue doing what you’re doing. If you can, write it down wherever you’re planning your project. If you can’t at the moment, write it down wherever and then SET A REMINDER TO PUT IT WITH ALL YOUR OTHER PROJECT TASKS. Which brings me to the last thing:
DON’T keep project pieces in multiple different spots – You know we lose things. If you don’t want to be wandering around at the last minute, freaking out about that last thing that you wrote down, don’t keep project steps all over the place; pick one central spot, and make sure everything is in that one spot.
Planning projects with ADHD takes a few extra precautions, but it can be just as successful and productive and fun as the little dopamine-receptors in our brains tell us they can. Hopefully, all this is going to help you realize that. But hey…if you need any more help, reach out to me; I’m happy to help.
