How to actually stick to your plans with ADHD (it's not discipline) — Transcript

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1. 0:00You sit there on Sunday making this elaborate  plan like you time block. You break down the
2. 0:04complex task into smaller tasks and you're feeling  so productive but then Monday comes and you don't
3. 0:09even look at the schedule that you've made and  then you start doing the tasks like randomly
4. 0:13and by the end of the day you feel like a failure  because you can't even follow a simple plan and a
5. 0:18lot of people think they're not disciplined enough  and that's the reason why they can't follow a plan
6. 0:22but it's actually not the discipline. The issue  is you're approaching this completely backwards.
7. 0:27Traditional productivity advice tells you to break  tasks into smaller chunks, time block everything,
8. 0:32and add buffer time and just stick to it. But  that doesn't work if you have ADHD or if you're
9. 0:38just wired definitely because ADHD brains don't  get motivated by neat little schedules. We get
10. 0:43motivated by pressure, urgency, novelty, and yes,  sometimes little bit even a panic. Making plans
11. 0:49and sticking to plans are actually two completely  different skills. And in many videos that I've
12. 0:54seen about productivity, they only focus on one  of them. So, in this video, I'm going to show you
13. 0:58two game-changing methods that literally helped  my ADHD brain to finally follow through on plans
14. 1:04and actually like follow my deadlines. Okay, I'm  actually getting [ __ ] done these days. Like,
15. 1:09you can't even see how often I'm posting videos  on YouTube. Impressive. Very nice. I'm going to
16. 1:16teach you how to hack your brain so you can feel  actually motivated the things that you need to do
17. 1:21without crying every single night. So, let's get  started. So, the first game changer I want to talk
18. 1:26about is something I call the reverse engineering  your deadline to visualize urgency. Here's the
19. 1:32thing. ADHD brains don't get motivated at all  when we see like a to-do list. We get motivated by
20. 1:37urgency, pressure, and panic. Okay? And if we  can't feel how urgent something is, and if it's
21. 1:45not like novel or entertaining for our brains, our  brain just like doesn't care. We get distracted
22. 1:50by other things that seem more interesting in  the moment. and suddenly it's the day before
23. 1:55deadline and we're just trying to hyperfocus  to get it done. This is why regular planners
24. 2:00actually don't work for us. Like you look at it,  you see work on project scheduled for Tuesday
25. 2:05but there's no sense of urgency there. Your brain  just goes and says like ah I can do it later and
26. 2:10then you end up working on something completely  irrelevant and random. And to solve this issue,
27. 2:15like most productivity advice basically tells you  just to break big project into smaller tasks and
28. 2:21assign like due dates for them, blah blah blah.  Put a buffer time between them. But to be honest,
29. 2:26that's actually not really enough for ADHD because  prioritizing and deciding what to do requires a
30. 2:32lot of executive function, which is the part of  the function that ADHD people struggle with. Like
31. 2:36if you don't know what an executive function is,  if you want to learn more about it, I have a like
32. 2:40a very detailed video explaining it here. You  can watch it. Also, even when we do break down
33. 2:46project into smaller tasks, we struggle to see how  all these little pieces like fit together into a
34. 2:52bigger picture because we lack the sense of time.  And this is especially actually hard when tasks
35. 2:57have dependencies. So like one task has to be done  before you can do the next thing. For example,
36. 3:03let's say filming a video, right? Like to for  me to film a video, I need to script the video
37. 3:07first. So it's dependent on it. So we mess up  things when things are dependent on each other
38. 3:13because we lack sense of time and we just like do  it everything the day before the deadline and then
39. 3:18we're not giving our best and putting ourselves  a lot of pressure. So I finally solved this issue
40. 3:23by using a system called the lead day system  and this simple system does the hard planning
41. 3:28work for me. It uses the concept of like lead days  which is basically counting how many days before
42. 3:34the deadline each task needs to be completed.  So here's basically how it works. In my notion
43. 3:38template, I start with my final deadline. Like  this is the handover date when this project needs
44. 3:43to be done. Okay? Then I basically work backwards  marking how many days before that deadline each
45. 3:48smaller task needs to be done. Let me give you an  example to explain this better. So let's say your
46. 3:53manager assigned you a presentation that is like  due in 10 days or so. Okay? So if you would work
47. 3:58backwards from that deadline, first we have the  presentation delivery which happens on day 10,
48. 4:03right? Because that is the handover date. So  the lead day is going to be zero because you
49. 4:07don't need any lead days before that like  a buffer and then probably before handing
50. 4:11over that presentation you need to do a final  practice run ideally a day before that. So our
51. 4:16lead day becomes one because it has to happen  one day before the handover date. And then we
52. 4:22have the manager review. You want there maybe  like feedback at least 3 days before the actual
53. 4:26handover date. So our lead date becomes three.  And to finish the slides you probably need to
54. 4:31create the first draft by day six. So our lead day  is day six, which means outlining your main points
55. 4:37and researching and gathering data will probably  happen a day before that. So the lead day becomes
56. 4:41seven. So see how each task has to happen in an  order to unlock the next task. Like you can't
57. 4:47present without practicing and you can't practice  without slides and you can also make slides with
58. 4:52an outline and you can't create an outline without  a research. I know it sounds like a nightmare,
59. 4:56okay? But like listen to me. Listen to me. Pay  attention. Listen to me. This is very important.
60. 5:01The beautiful thing about this is that in my  Kaizen notion template system, you have to only
61. 5:06set this up once because most jobs have recurring  projects, right? Like even the project itself
62. 5:12is different. Probably the tasks that are like  following them is the same thing. For example,
63. 5:16I'm like posting a new video. The video itself is  different, but the individual steps that I need to
64. 5:20follow is almost almost always the same like with  some maybe minor changes. So I basically created a
65. 5:25button in my Kaisen notion system that duplicates  all the steps automatically for each project.
66. 5:31All you have to do is basically sets the final  deadline and then it calculate everything else
67. 5:36for you and you can like create different buttons  for different projects and then never worry about
68. 5:41calculating those. So because of this button now  we get the automatic deadline on appearing in the
69. 5:47system. So basically now I have all these tasks  with their automatic deadlines based on their
70. 5:51lead days. It automatically shows it me on my  notion system because I cod it. I use AI to code
71. 5:56like hours and hours and I finally figure it out.  Okay, so it shows you the automatic deadline. The
72. 6:01cool part is basically the template also shows me  the due date which is when I'm planning to do the
73. 6:06thing. So ideally I want to do the thing before  the deadline of that specific task to give myself
74. 6:13a little bit of buffer time and a little bit of  breathing time. Okay. But like when you look at
75. 6:16the both times of like oh the deadline, the due  date, etc., etc., it just already screams a lot
76. 6:21of like mental energy. This is the exactly thing  that I'm trying to avoid. So basically I created
77. 6:26another property. I literally coded this as well  which does the thing for me as well. So this is
78. 6:31probably the most game-changing part of this like  system that I created. But basically this property
79. 6:36looks at my auto deadline as well as my due date  and automatically tells me the urgency level. So
80. 6:42if the auto deadline and due date are on the same  date, it says due today. If I have one buffer day,
81. 6:47it says due tomorrow. And if I'm behind schedule,  it basically says like past due so that I know
82. 6:53like I have to do this right now. And if I have  a little bit of time, but I should probably get
83. 6:57started, it says like better start soon. And  if I have a plenty time of buffer, it says
84. 7:02like on track. And to be honest, like this whole  thing actually completely change things for me
85. 7:07because now when I look at my task list and I can  immediately see what's urgent and what's not and
86. 7:11what I have time for. I don't really have to like  use my mental energy and like try to calculate
87. 7:16everything to see which task I'm supposed to be  working and this was a game changer. Like before
88. 7:20this I was trying to use Eisenhower matrix and  it helped me for a while but on the days where
89. 7:24I was overwhelmed like I couldn't really figure  out what's important and what's urgent like that
90. 7:28was a lot of mental power to me but now the  system like automatically identifies it for
91. 7:32me right like my brain sees like the past I'm  like oh my god I have to do this right now and
92. 7:37then some of them are like on track so I can do  them later not right now. The only work you need
93. 7:41to do is literally like maybe spend 20 30 minutes  identifying the recurring project types that you
94. 7:47have and the recurring tasks that comes with that  project and then you have to like break down the
95. 7:51lead dates for the each task, right? And just  creating the button which is very easy to do and
96. 7:56then it's like automatic forever. You just need  to press a one button. Like I'm not going to lie,
97. 8:00figuring out this on notion literally took me  hours because I don't know how to code and some
98. 8:05parts of it you have to code it. But I use an  AI like to figure out the codes and I fix them
99. 8:10and there were like bugs and etc etc. Like you can  absolutely do this alone if you want. Like you can
100. 8:15create them. It's not rocket science. But if you  would rather just like use the already made one,
101. 8:19then check out my Kaizen ADHD template. The  links in the description below. When you get it,
102. 8:23I have a full video tutorial showing you exactly  how to set this up, which is quite easy and will
103. 8:28take you like maybe an hour, maybe less of your  time to customize for your specific needs. I break
104. 8:33it down step by step. Links in the description  below. Now let's talk about the method two which
105. 8:38is sprinting instead of time blocking. So now you  have your tasks with automatic deadlines showing
106. 8:44urgency levels. But here's the common mistake that  people make next which is trying to schedule every
107. 8:50minute of their day. You probably also did this,  right? Like email from 10 to 10:30 and then check
108. 8:55this document from 10:30 to 10:45 and from 10:35  I'm going to take a 5minut break blah blah blah.
109. 9:00And then it's like minuteby minute and it's so  packed and then like something happens and you
110. 9:04get distracted and then you're not following  the schedule. Now whole schedule is messed up
111. 9:08and because you made it so detailed like there's  no way going back and fixing it, right? Like it
112. 9:13will take you more time to fix it. So now you're  just like randomly doing tasks that you remember
113. 9:18that you have to do. So you get overwhelmed and  you just quit the thing and you're like, "Huh,
114. 9:21why is this happening to me?" But the thing  is like time blocking is just too strict for
115. 9:26ADHD brains. We can't accurately guess how  long each task takes. And every single day
116. 9:31our performance is like so different. Sometimes  you're hyperfocused. Sometimes you can't focus at
117. 9:35all. Sometimes you're just like doing random  [ __ ] for 30 minutes and you're late. Like
118. 9:39time blocking does not really work for us. So  that's why I started using something called a
119. 9:43sprinting method. Basically how it works is that  instead of assigning specific times for tasks,
120. 9:50you categorize them based on the type of the work  that you have. Okay? Most people's work can be
121. 9:55grouped into three, two, maybe four categories.  And mine are sprint one is urgent. Basically
122. 10:00things that are screaming for my attention right  now like I have to do it today. And then sprint
123. 10:05two is deadlines. This is basically like tasks  that with approaching deadlines that need my
124. 10:10focus usually with the urgency format that I  explained like with my Kaizen notion template.
125. 10:15It says like due today those things are the sprint  2 deadline category. And then we have the sprint
126. 10:20three which is admin work. These are like emails,  scheduling, organizing, the boring stuff. And a
127. 10:25lot of my chores also falls into this place as  well. And I also put my meetings here like sprint
128. 10:303 admin. And then we have sprint four, which is  creative work because I'm a YouTuber where I be
129. 10:34I'll be like writing, brainstorming, anything that  needs my creative energy goes to sprint 4. So,
130. 10:40and I try to allocate roughly like maximum 2 hours  for each sprint. Ideally 90 minutes because it's
131. 10:46usually takes 2 hours to get done with like  90 minutes of work because I get distracted.
132. 10:50like roughly I would say an hour and a half  to two hours per sprint for every single day.
133. 10:55Okay? And instead of saying like I'll do this  specific task at like 10:00 a.m. you say this
134. 11:00like okay I'll email my manager at sprint 3 which  is admin work or let's say I have to send this
135. 11:04document it's urgent so it's sprint one or let's  say I have a deadline coming up and I have to do
136. 11:09a research instead of adding it like from 12 to  2 p.m. I'm going to do this research I add it to
137. 11:13sprint 2 which I handle all the deadlines that I  have. So basically, you look at all of your tasks
138. 11:18for the day and you sort them into these sprint  categories, right? And then you roughly estimate
139. 11:23how long each task will take. In my Kaizen system,  I have a spot for this, but you can also do it
140. 11:27like manually. You write in your journal or write  it in whatever app you're using to manage your
141. 11:32to-do list. But the only thing I'm reminding you  again is that you try to make not the each sprint
142. 11:38longer than 2 hours. That's very important. and  you try to like you add up those estimated amount
143. 11:42of times and you try to keep it reasonable because  one of the important things about sticking to
144. 11:47a plan is making a plan that you can stick first  place. So when you use this like sprinting method,
145. 11:52you are grouping similar types of tasks together  which means way less context switching and context
146. 11:58switching is literally one of the worst things for  ADHD. So you're like bundling similar tasks into
147. 12:03together so you can get into flow and get through  them all at once. And also the very cool thing
148. 12:09about these sprints is that they are flexible  based on your energy. So most days for example
149. 12:15when I wake up I start with sprint one and sprint  two. So I handle the urgent stuff and deadlines
150. 12:20and then I eat lunch maybe take an hour to an  hour and a half break and then I handle the sprint
151. 12:25three admin work and then I'll do the sprint 4  which is creative work because I'm more creative
152. 12:29at night. For example, I'm filming this video and  it's 7:00 p.m. or something. But like some days
153. 12:34I feel very creative first thing in the morning.  For example, this morning actually when I wake up,
154. 12:38I had so many ideas for content that normal  traditional productivity method will say like,
155. 12:43"Oh, first handle the urgent things." But like I  was feeling creative and I didn't want to waste
156. 12:48this creative flow and I know if I started  something that I'm not currently feeling like
157. 12:53I'm not going to be able to focus because of my  adi brain. So I said okay like first I'm going to
158. 12:58tackle the sprint 4 creative tasks first and then  I'm going to get into sprint one and sprint two.
159. 13:03So when you do this like sprinting method and when  you are like more flexibly scheduling things based
160. 13:08on your energy of that day, you're more likely  to going to be focused because you're not like
161. 13:13rigidly telling yourself that you have to do this.  You are choosing to do it which helps quite a lot
162. 13:19in my opinion. So I handled the creative work and  then I did like the sprint one, sprint two, sprint
163. 13:23three and then now I'm back at sprint four. Like  this sprint gives you structure without trapping
164. 13:28you which is I feel like the important thing  that all ADHD people needs to figure out is like
165. 13:33allowing yourself to be flexible but also have  structure right like finding that sweet spot is
166. 13:38very difficult like you still have categories to  work through like your sprint categories but you
167. 13:43can adjust based on how your brain is functioning  that day, how your energy, how your mood is that
168. 13:47day. Okay, one more thing that is crucial. You  have to plan transition time between sprints.
169. 13:53And I'm not only talking about like 5 minutes, 10  minutes or something like that. I'm talking about
170. 13:58minimum of 15 minutes between sprints, between  different tasks that you're doing. Because for
171. 14:03me personally, like even if I go to the toilet or  if I just leave my desk to make myself a coffee,
172. 14:09there's no way that I'm returning to my desk  in less than 15 minutes. Like I tracked it,
173. 14:14okay? I use this like visual timer to literally  like calculate my breaks and stuff like that. But
174. 14:20still, I never have returned back to my desk in  less than 15 minutes. I get distracted. I clean
175. 14:27this area. I do that. I disorgani. I organize my  room. I suddenly clean the dishes for no reason.
176. 14:33It does not happen. So now I plan for it. Like  between my sprints or whenever I'm like leaving
177. 14:37my desk, I schedule a 15minute like break between  them. And between each sprints, I ideally like
178. 14:42schedule 20 to 30 minutes, but usually it ends end  ends up like 35 minutes or so to actually recharge
179. 14:48my brain and almost like reestablish the mode for  the next sprint. And actually like by planning
180. 14:53those transition times as well as breaks, I  realize I actually get more done because I'm
181. 14:58not burning out halfway through the day and I'm  constantly like moving the tasks and moving the
182. 15:02sprints based on my energy, which is allowing me  to be more flexible. Now, there's one more another
183. 15:08thing that is extremely important and it's a skill  that we're lacking, which is tracking how long
184. 15:14actually tasks takes you versus how long you think  they will take to get a sense of time. Because
185. 15:20with ADHD, our sense of time is just terrible.  You know, you think like 3 hours pass and you
186. 15:25look at the clock and it's like 5 minutes and then  you think like you maybe scroll for 5 minutes and
187. 15:30you realize it's like 6 hours. Like what the hell?  What the hell? And then like there's another thing
188. 15:34is like I avoid a task because I think it's going  to take me 2 hours and I like avoid and avoid and
189. 15:38avoid procrastinate for ages and I do this thing  and it just takes me like 10 minutes and I'm like
190. 15:43why did this happen? So I have a detailed system  for tracking this in my Kaizen notion template.
191. 15:49It basically you log your estimated time versus  actual time. You categorize tasks by type and
192. 15:54with the time with the data that you give it  basically gets an average of the time that you
193. 15:59estimated versus it actually took you. So you get  like a comprehensive data for each task. So you
194. 16:04can finally plan realistic sprints that you can  actually follow through. And I know I mentioned
195. 16:08my notion template multiple times in this video  because it's been a game changer for me, but I
196. 16:14want to be completely transparent with you. Like  you don't necessarily have to purchase my template
197. 16:20to be productive or I'm not saying that it's the  only way that works for ADHD brains or anything
198. 16:24like that, okay? Like it took me genuinely months  and months to build this product and I got a lot
199. 16:29of feedback from you guys like from fellow ADHDers  and adjusted and I improved template and I'm still
200. 16:34improving it and then fixing bugs whenever they  happen because I coded parts of it. So, you know,
201. 16:40I always like try to improve it every single time.  Like you absolutely do not need my template to be
202. 16:46productive. If you have the time and energy, you  can like literally build this from scratch for
203. 16:51yourself. It's not like rocket science, you  know? Like it just takes a lot of time. But
204. 16:55if you rather just have it ready to go so you can  actually start using it instead of spending weeks
205. 16:59building it and then abandoning it completely  like I did my Kaizen ADHD notion template the
206. 17:05link is in the below. Okay. And when you get it  I have a full video tutorials walking you through
207. 17:09everything. The lead day system the sprint day  planning the time tracking and also many other
208. 17:14things. Also there's like a Discord community for  template users where we talk about ADHD struggles
209. 17:20share tips and help each other and communicate.  And I'm also more active there. And honestly,
210. 17:25like so far, I got a lot of feedback from the 600  users that we have in the template. And a lot of
211. 17:31people tell me that this is the first system that  they actually like stuck with it and they're using
212. 17:35it. Then also they're like adjusting for their  lives as well. So it's genuinely really like makes
213. 17:40me happy to see that to be honest. It's obviously  not perfect and I'm still trying to improve it to
214. 17:44make it better, make it easier to use. And if you  don't want to invest in my template right now,
215. 17:49it's completely fine. And also like if you  don't have the money and if you want to learn
216. 17:53still how you can set this up, let me know in  the comments and I'll show I'll make a video
217. 17:57showing how to set this up on notion. But like  if you're tired of trying to figure out trying
218. 18:02to set things up for you and if you want to  start using a system that is built for you,
219. 18:07then check out my template links in description  below. And finally, like I'm not telling you
220. 18:11that like just because you get this template or  you change like apply the system in your life
221. 18:16everything is going to better. like it's not going  to be an overnight change because like with ADHD
222. 18:20everything changes right like something's work  for you and then next month something like your
223. 18:24energy shifts your brain like tweaks and then  it's not working for you anymore so it's like a
224. 18:29constant adaptation and it can be very tiring and  I agree with that but it's something that we need
225. 18:34to deal with life learn lifelong which is kind of  sad and curse at the same time but the principle
226. 18:41doesn't change you need to build a system that  works with your brain instead of against it and
227. 18:45you need to adjust trust and adapt to it. You just  need a system that actually works with your ADHD
228. 18:51brain and not act like you don't have it and you  think like it's only discipline. If only I would
229. 18:57be more disciplined, I would do it. No, like you  are wired differently. Then adjust to it. Okay?
230. 19:02I'm not saying that you can't be productive if you  have ADT. You can, but it's going to be a little
231. 19:06different than other people. So, start with one  method whether you get my template or not. Like
232. 19:11do it on your Google spreadsheet. I don't know  like to-do list, the journaling, whatever. It
233. 19:15works probably and try it for a week and see what  happens. Like I genuinely promise you it will help
234. 19:20you because it changed my life. It made things so  much easier for me. You see, like I'm active on
235. 19:25social media. I abandoned YouTube for months and  months and months even though it's my job because
236. 19:30I couldn't create videos because I didn't know  what to do every single day and I was paralyzed.
237. 19:35But now I'm posting. I'm consistent. I'm hitting  the gym. Okay? I'm healthy. I'm glowing. You can
238. 19:41see me. It works. Try it. If you want to see  more videos breaking down ADHD related content,
239. 19:47comment down below. And also, if you find this  video helpful, please subscribe. If you're
240. 19:51watching this video and if you're not sure whether  you have ADHD or not, then watch this video