If you’ve ever had all day to get your work done and ended the day feeling like you got nothing done, welcome to the challenges facing creative workers in current times. Distractions — inner and outer — lurk around every corner. A simple email check can send you down a rabbit hole of new urgencies, completely derailing your day.
The strategy of time blocking — when employed effectively — can solve many of these issues, helping you maintain focus on your outcomes so you can make meaningful progress on what matters, and keeping your day from going off the rails so you can feel good about your day.
Time blocking can be an especially helpful for strategy for people with ADHD by giving us anchors in our day that keep us from getting too lost in mind wandering or “avoidance strategies” — aka procrastination.
That said, for those of us with ADHD, getting things done is rarely as simple as “put it on your calendar, sit down at that time, and “just do it.”
The key to effective time blocking requires consideration beyond the core essential elements of task planning and the necessary time blocks to include into your day and week.
Here 3 additional elements to consider when time blocking if you have ADHD.
3 Factors for ADHDers to Consider When Time Blocking Your Schedule
(1) Support Needed: Who
One helpful strategy for many ADHDers to get things done is to have support from other people either in getting started, doing the task, or both.
This is often referred to as “body doubling,” although that’s only one form of personal support.That support can take several different forms. For example, do you need —
- an accountability buddy to prompt you to start at a certain time or to check in with after you finish?
- a body double to sit in the room with you while you do the task?
- a collaborative buddy to engage in the task with you?
- a group of people in your environment who are all doing similar work?
- a group of people who are doing their own thing but creating an energy that helps you focus?
- do you need this support in person — physically in the same room with you — or can it be virtual, such as over Zoom?
- do you need support only to get started, or throughout the task?
You know that if you time block a task for which you need support and you don’t have that support, chances are slim to none that you’ll follow through.
When planning your outcomes and necessary tasks, consider specifically what type of support you need. Then coordinate your schedule with your support person.
(2) Starting and Ending Rituals
The paradox for people with ADHD is that we often find it hard to get started, but once we get started we find it hard to stop and switch to something else.
This is the law of inertia at work. Inertia is the tendency to stay in the current state — whether at rest or in motion.
Inertia explains why we are either going non-stop all day like the Energizer Bunny until we burn out, or why we can spend an extra 30 minutes (or more) in the car before getting out to walk into the supermarket.
One way to combat inertia is to create starting rituals and ending rituals for your tasks. A ritual doesn’t have to be anything “woo” like lighting a candle or chanting. It’s simply an action you take that “sets the scene” for the task.
When you link that specific action with the task that follows, the ritual signals to your brain that it’s time to do the task.
For example, opening your laptop or iPad, or placing your notebook and colored pens on your desk might be the signal for you to start your work.
In the same way, it’s helpful to have an ending ritual that signals the end to your time block. This can be the opposite action, such as closing your laptop or putting away your pens and notebook.
(3) Palette Cleansers
A crucial component of sustainable productivity is to care for your brain and body. When we lock into hyperfocus mode or have trouble stopping, we forget that our brains need a break.
When you’re weightlifting heavy loads, you incorporate more rest between sets to allow your nervous system to recover. In the same way, we need to have extra rest breaks between work sessions that are heavy cognitive loads.
When you have a lot of heavy cognitive work, it helps to schedule something “light” and completely different between time block sessions as a “palette cleanser” to give your brain a break before you re-engage it.
A palette cleanser might be a brief walk outside, a break for lunch, or a phone-a-friend session. What’s important is that it give you a break from the type of task you were doing. So if your cognitive-heavy tasks involve looking at a screen time, this isn’t the time for an email or social media break.
Scheduling in these little palette cleansers will also help you avoid the mistake of overscheduling your day.
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