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.
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.
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:
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:
On low-energy days, you shouldn't have to figure out what to do—your system should tell you.
The best ADHD systems remove obstacles and reduce friction:
Your system needs to bend without breaking:
Here's what a resilient ADHD productivity system might look like in practice:
Maintain one primary location for all tasks, appointments, and commitments. This could be digital or analog, but it must be:
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.
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:
This power-up should be so simple you could do it even on your worst day.
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:
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.
Establish a non-judgmental reset process for when things inevitably slip:
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.