You've been here before. Your desk is littered with abandoned planners, your phone is a graveyard of productivity apps, and your browser bookmarks are filled with "life-changing" organizational methods you tried for exactly nine days.
But then one morning you finally figure it out! A fresh start! A new system that will change everything! Will it work this time?
When we ADHDers set out to develop a personal productivity system, we often fall into one of two traps.
Trap #1. We either improvise an impressive Rube Goldberg Apparatus that involves multiple apps and platforms held together by duct tape and chicken wire, and requires a complicated taxonomy of tags, categories, contexts, and priorities used diligently and tweaked daily. (Hi GTD! đź‘‹)
Trap #2. Or we conjure what I’ve heard some people call a Productivity Rain Dance, that derives its magic from using just the right type of organizer with just the right kind of pen, at just the right time of day—precicely seventeen seconds before the first rays of sunshine are about to hit the tips of cypress trees in your garden. And if you miss that golden moment, you might as well go back to bed! So you get up at 4 am and meditate on the lightness of life for two hours to get yourself in the right mood!
What’s surprising is not that these systems eventually fall apart, but that they work at all.
For a few glorious weeks, your enthusiasm carries you. You diligently maintain your complex categories, you perform your morning ritual with religious dedication, and you feel like you've finally cracked the code. You're productive, organized, and on top of things.
Then the novelty wears off.
The ADHD brain is fundamentally motivated by novelty. Once it fades, maintaining your system becomes just another tedious chore your brain actively resists. What was once exciting becomes boring, and what once felt automatic requires tremendous willpower.
When the system inevitably fails, the shame cycle begins again. You blame yourself rather than recognizing that the system was never designed for your brain's unique wiring.
Surfing the Motivation Wave: A Different Approach
After decades of trial and error, here's what I discovered works for my ADHD brain: building a productivity system that accounts for the natural ebbs and flows of my motivation and attention.
When hyperfocus hits, I can write 5,000 words in a single day! (Imagine, just a few days like this and my book will be done!) But when I’m in a slump, even feeding myself becomes a struggle.
Your productivity system must be usable even when you're at your worst. And that means building in flexibility and forgiveness!
Your productivity system—or maybe it’s better to call it a philosophy, because, let’s face it, it’s probably going to evolve, more than once—should allow you to effortlessly surf your hyperfocus when it hits, but also support you when you’re just paddling around waiting for the next wave.
Principle #1: Design for Your Lowest Energy State
Most systems are designed for ideal conditions—when you're focused, energetic, and motivated. But that's precisely when you least need a system. A truly effective ADHD productivity system should:
- Be simple enough to use when executive function is at its lowest
- Require minimal maintenance and decision-making
- Have clear defaults for when you can't make choices
- Include pre-determined pathways and templates for common tasks
Principle #2: Support Variable Attention and Energy
Your attention and energy will fluctuate—that's not a flaw, it's a feature of your ADHD brain. Your system should support your varied energy states equally well:
- High-focus mode: For those rare, precious hours when hyperfocus kicks in
- Maintenance mode: For average days when you can handle routine, low friction tasks
- Survival mode: For the tough days when executive function is minimal
On low-energy days, you shouldn't have to figure out what to do—your system should tell you.
Principle #3: Reduce Friction
The best ADHD systems remove obstacles and reduce friction:
- Automate the boring parts that your brain resists (spend some of your high-focus days on this—your future self will thank you!)
- Externalize memory so you don't have to remember processes (use notes, checklists, and reminders liberally)
- Simplify inputs while maintaining robust outputs (“Hey Siri, remind me to thaw chicken for dinner when I get home” is so much easier than unlocking your phone, looking for the right app, and typing the reminder by hand)
- Create visual cues that bypass the need for recall
- Remove all startup obstacles for important work (e.g.: by strategically planting “ignition steps” or preparing "motivation packets"—pre-assembled resources for specific projects)
- Design clear stopping points to preserve momentum for the next session
Principle #4: Build in Flexibility and Forgiveness
Your system needs to bend without breaking:
- It should expect and accommodate lapses rather than punishing them
- Include easy on-ramps and Ignition Steps to get back on track after inevitable derailments
- Have no "behind" state where catching up feels impossible
- Offer multiple paths to completion for when the planned route doesn't work
The Minimum Viable Productivity System
Here's what a resilient ADHD productivity system might look like in practice:
1. The Single Source of Truth
Maintain one primary location for all tasks, appointments, and commitments. This could be digital or analog, but it must be:
- Always accessible
- Simple to add items
- Easy to review at a glance
I use Apple Reminders and Calendar. But the specific tool matters less than the consistency. Whether it's a bullet journal, a digital task manager, or a wall calendar, pick one system and make it the authority.
There’s a lot I like about Getting Things Done, but one aspect absolutely does not work for my ADHD brain—the Someday/Maybe category. It creates unnecessary noise in my system and makes it easy to miss important tasks. I recommend saving your Someday/Maybes in a separate place.
2. The Focus Power-Up
Before diving in—be it at the beginning of the day or when you’re coming back after a distraction—spend just a couple of minutes contemplating:
- What one tiniest task will move me closer to my longer-term goal and make me feel good about my day?
- What appointments or time commitments do I have today that cannot be missed?
This power-up should be so simple you could do it even on your worst day.
3. The Energy-Matched Task List
Organize tasks not by project or deadline, but by the energy and attention required. I personally like sorting it all out into these three buckets:
- Deep focus tasks: Tasks that require divergent thinking, sustained attention or motivation, move you closer or accelerate your progress toward your long-term goals, or make future productivity easier, such as automating routine tasks
- Maintenance tasks: Tasks you can complete in under 10 minutes, even while tired or distracted
- Survival tasks: Routine maintenance, organizational, and admin tasks that cannot be missed or postponed, like paying your bills
This organization allows you to match tasks to your current state rather than forcing yourself to work against your brain's momentary capacity. And more importantly, it helps you ride the motivation wave when it hits.
4. The Forgiveness Protocol
Establish a non-judgmental reset process for when things inevitably slip:
- A template for getting back on track after system lapses
- Permission to modify the system without starting over completely
- Celebration of partial wins and incomplete progress!
Next Steps
After all the planners, apps, and systems, here's what matters most: Your productivity system should be a tool that serves you, not a master that judges you.
The goal isn't perfect adherence to any system. The goal is moving forward on what matters despite the unique challenges of your ADHD brain.
Your productivity isn't measured by how well you maintain a system, but by how well your system maintains you through the inevitable fluctuations in attention, energy, and motivation that come with ADHD.
Start small. Instead of overhauling your entire productivity approach, choose one principle from this article and implement it this week. Notice how it feels to work with your brain's natural patterns rather than against them.
Remember that the true measure of success isn't sticking with a system forever—it's building a system flexible enough to evolve as you do, supporting you through both the motivation waves and the quiet waters between them.
Your ADHD brain isn't broken. It just surfs differently.
And if you want support in building a productivity system that works with your ADHD brain instead of against it, click the button below to start the conversation.
