You sit there on Sunday making this elaborate plan.
Like you time block, you break down the complex task into smaller tasks and you're feeling so productive.
But then Monday comes and you don't even look at the schedule that you've made.
And then you start doing the tasks like randomly.
By end of the day, you feel like a failure because you can't even follow a simple plan.
And a lot of people think they're not disciplined enough and that's the reason why they can't follow a plan.
But it's actually not the discipline.
The issue is you're approaching this completely backwards.
Traditional productivity advice tells you to break tasks into smaller chunks time, block everything and add buffer time and just stick to it.
But that doesn't work if you have ADHD or if you're just wired differently.
Because ADHD brains don't get motivated by neat little schedules.
We get motivated by pressure, urgency, novelty, and yes, sometimes a little bit even a panic.
Making plans and sticking to plans are actually two completely different skills.
And in many videos that I've seen about productivity, they only focus on one of them.
So in this video I'm going to show you two game-changing methods that literally helped my ADHD brain to finally follow through on plans and actually like, follow my deadlines okay.
I'm actually getting shit done these days.
Like you can even see how often I'm posting videos on YouTube.
Impressive.
Very nice.
I'm going to teach you how to hack your brain so you can feel actually motivated the things that you need to do, without crying every single night.
So let's get started.
So the first game changer I want to talk about is something I call the reverse engineering your deadline to visualize urgency.
Here's the thing ADHD brains don't get motivated at all when we see like a to-do list.
We get motivated by urgency, pressure and panic okay.
And if we can't feel how urgent something is and if it's not like novel or entertaining for our brains, our brain just like doesn't care.
We get distracted by other things that seem more interesting in the moment and suddenly it's the day before deadline and we're just trying to hyper focus to get it done.
This is why regular planners actually don't work for us.
Like you look at it, you see work on projects scheduled for Tuesday, but there's no sense of urgency there.
Your brain just goes and says like, ah, I can do it later.
And then you end up working on something completely irrelevant and random.
And to solve this issue like most productivity advice basically tells you just to break big project into smaller tasks and assign like due dates for them.
Blah blah, blah.
Put a buffer time between them.
But, to be honest, that's actually not really enough for ADHD, because prioritizing and deciding what to do requires a lot of executive function, which is the part of the function that ADHD people struggle with.
If you don't know what an executive function is, if you want to learn more about it, I have a very detailed video explaining it here.
You can watch it.
Also, even when we do break down projects into smaller tasks, we struggle to see how all these little pieces fit together into a bigger picture, because we lack the sense of time.
And this is especially actually hard when tasks have dependencies.
So like one task has to be done before you can do the next thing.
For example, let's say filming a video, right?
Like for me to film a video, I need to script the video first.
So it's dependent on it.
So we mess up things when things are dependent on each other, because we lack sense of time and we just like do it everything the day before the deadline.
And then we're not giving our best and putting ourselves a lot of pressure.
So I finally solved this issue by using a system called the lead day system.
And this simple system does the hard planning work for me.
It uses the concept of like lead days, which is basically counting how many days before the deadline each task needs to be completed.
Here's basically how it works in my notion template.
I start with my final deadline, like this is the handover date when this project needs to be done.
Okay, then i basically work backwards, marking how many days before that deadline each smaller task needs to be done.
Let me give you an example to explain this better.
So let's say your manager assigned you a presentation that is like due in 10 days or so.
Okay, so if you would work backwards from that deadline, first we have the presentation delivery, which happens on day 10 right, because that is the handover date.
So the lead day is going to be zero because you don't need any lead days before that like a buffer.
And then, probably before handing over that presentation, you need to do a final practice run, ideally a day before that.
So our lead day becomes one because it has to happen one day before the handover date.
And then we have the manager review.
You want there maybe like feedback at least three days before the actual handover date.
So our lead date becomes three.
And to finish the slides, you probably need to create the first draft by day six.
So our lead day is day six, which means outlining your main points, and researching and gathering data will probably happen a day before that.
So the lead day becomes seven.
So see how each task has to happen in an order to unlock the next task.
Like, you can't present without practicing and you can't practice without slides, and you can't also make slides with an outline and you can't create an outline without a research.
I know it sounds like a nightmare, okay?
But like, listen to me, listen to me attention, listen to me.
This is very important.
The beautiful thing about this is that in my kaizen notion template system, you have to only set this up once, because most jobs have recurring projects, right like, even the project itself is different.
Probably the tasks that are like following them is the same thing.
For example, i'm like posting a new video.
The video itself is different, but the individual steps that i need to follow is almost almost always the same like, with some maybe minor changes.
So basically created a button in my Kaizen Notion system that duplicates all the steps automatically for each project.
All you have to do is basically set the final deadline, and then it calculate everything else for you.
And you can like create different buttons for different projects and then never worry about calculating those.
So because of this button, now we get the automatic deadline on appearing in the system.
So basically now i have all these tasks with their automatic deadlines based on their lead days.
It automatically shows it me on my notion system because i code it, i use ai to code like hours and hours, and i finally figure it out.
Okay, so it shows you the automatic deadline.
The cool part is basically the template also shows me the due date, which is when i'm planning to do the thing.
So ideally i want to do the thing before the deadline of that specific task to give myself a little bit of buffer time and a little bit of breathing time.
Okay, but like, when you look at the both times of like oh, the deadline, the due date, etc etc.
It just already screams a lot of like mental energy, And this is exactly the thing that I'm trying to avoid.
So basically I created another property.
I literally coded this as well, which does the thing for me as well.
So this is probably the most game changing part of this system that I created.
But basically this property looks at my auto deadline as well as my due date and automatically tells me the urgency level.
If the auto deadline and due date are on the same date, it says due today.
If i have one buffer day, it says due tomorrow.
And if i'm behind schedule, it basically says like past due, so that i know like i have to do this right now.
And if i have a little bit of time but i should probably get started it says like better start soon.
And if i have a plenty time of buffer, it says like on track.
And And, to be honest, like this whole thing actually completely changed things for me, because now when I look at my task list and I can immediately see what's urgent and what's not and what I have time for.
I don't really have to like use my mental energy and like try to calculate everything to see which task I'm supposed to be working, and this was a game changer.
Like before this, I was trying to use Eisenhower metrics and it helped me for a while.
But on the days where I was overwhelmed, like I couldn't really figure out what's important and what's urgent,
Like that was a lot of mental power to me.
But now the system like automatically identifies it for me, right?
Like my brain sees like the past year.
I'm like, oh my God, I have to do this right now.
And then some of them are like on track so I can do them later, not right now.
The only work you need to do is literally like maybe spend 20, 30 minutes identifying the recurring project types that you have and the recurring tasks that comes with that project.
And then you have to like break down the lead dates for each task, right?
And just creating the button, which is very easy to do.
And then it's like automatic forever.
You just need to press a one button. i'm not gonna lie figuring out this on notion literally took me hours because i don't know how to code and some parts of it you have to code it but i use an ai like to figure out the codes and i fix them and there were like bugs and etc etc like you can absolutely do this alone if you want like you can create them it's not rocket science but if you would rather just like use the already made one then check out my kaizen adhe template the links in the description below when you get it i have a full video tutorial showing you exactly how to set this up which is quite easy and will take you like maybe an hour maybe less of your time to customize for your specific needs i break it down step by step links in the description below now let's talk about the method two which is sprinting instead of time blocking so now you have your tasks with automatic deadlines showing urgency levels but here's the common mistake that people make next which is trying to schedule every minute of their day you probably also did this right like email from 10 to 10 30 and then check this document from 10 30 to 10 45 and from 10 35 i'm going to take a five minute break blah blah and then it's like minute by minute and it's so packed and then like something happens and you get distracted and then you're not following the schedule now whole schedule is messed up and because you made it so detailed like there's no way going back and fixing it right like it will take you more time to fix it so now you're just like randomly doing tasks that you remember that you have to do so you get overwhelmed and you just quit the thing and you're like oh why is this happening to me but the thing is like time blocking is just too strict for adhd brains we can't accurately guess how long each task takes and every single day our performance is like so different sometimes you're hyper focused sometimes you can't focus at all sometimes you're just like doing random for 30 minutes and you're late like time blocking does not really work for us so that's why i started using something called a sprinting method basically how it works is that instead of assigning specific times for tasks you categorize them based on the type of the work that you have okay most people's work can be grouped into three to maybe four categories and mine are sprint one is urgent basically things that are screaming for my attention right now like i I have to do it today.
And then sprint two is deadlines.
This is basically like tasks that with approaching deadlines that need my focus.
Usually with the urgency format that I explained, like with my Kaizen Notion template.
It says like do today.
Those things are the sprint two deadline category.
And then we have the sprint three, which is admin work.
These are like emails, scheduling, organizing, the boring stuff.
And a lot of my chores also falls into this place as well.
And I also put my meetings here, like sprint three admin.
And then we have sprint four, which is creative work, because I'm a YouTuber where I'll be like writing, brainstorming.
Anything that needs my creative energy goes to sprint four.
So and I try to allocate roughly like maximum two hours for each sprint, ideally 90 minutes, because it usually takes two hours to get done with like 90 minutes of work because I get distracted.
Like roughly I would say an hour and a half to two hours per sprint. for every single day, okay?
And instead of saying like I'll do this specific task at like 10 am, you say this like okay, I'll email my manager at sprint three, which is admin org.
Or let's say I have to send this document, it's urgent, so it's sprint one.
Or let's say I have a deadline coming up and I have to do a research.
Instead of adding it like from 12 to 2 p.m.
I'm gonna do this research, I add it to sprint two, which I handle all the deadlines that I have.
So basically, you look at all of your tasks for the day and you sort them into these sprint categories, right?
And then you roughly estimate how long each task will take.
In my Kaizen system I have a spot for this, but you can also do it like manually.
You write in your journal or write it in whatever app you're using to manage your to-do list.
But the only thing I'm reminding you again is that you try to make not the each sprint longer than two hours.
That's very important.
And you try to like, you add up those estimated amount of times and you try to keep it reasonable, because one of the important things about sticking to a plan is making a plan that you can stick first place.
So when you use this like sprinting method, you are grouping similar types of tasks together, which means way less context switching, and context switching is literally one of the worst things for ADHD.
So you're like bundling similar tasks into together so you can get into flow and get through them all at once.
Also, the very cool thing about these sprints is that they are flexible based on your energy.
So most days, for example, when I wake up, I start with sprint one and sprint two.
So I handle the urgent stuff and deadlines.
And then I eat lunch, maybe take an hour to an hour and a half break.
And then I handle the sprint three admin work.
And then I'll do the sprint four, which is creative work because I'm more creative at night.
For example, I'm filming this video and it's 7 p.m. or something.
But like some days I feel very creative first thing in the morning.
For example, this morning, actually when I wake up, I had so many ideas for content that normal traditional productivity method will say like oh, first handle the urgent things.
But like I was feeling creative and I didn't want to waste this creative flow And I know if I start at something that I'm not currently feeling like, I'm not going to be able to focus because of my ADHD brain.
So I said okay, like first I'm going to tackle the sprint four creative tasks first and then I'm going to get into sprint one and sprint two.
So when you do this like sprinting method and when you are like more flexibly scheduling things based on your energy of that day, you're more likely to going to be focused because you're not like rigidly telling yourself that you have to do this.
You are choosing to do it, which helps quite a lot in my opinion.
So i handled the creative work and then i did like the sprint one, sprint two, sprint three and then now i'm back at sprint four.
Like this sprint gives you structure without trapping you, which is, i feel like, the important thing that all adhd people need to figure out is like allowing yourself to be flexible but also have structure right.
Like finding that sweet spot is very difficult.
Like you still have categories to work through, like your sprint categories, but you can adjust based on how your brain is functioning that day, how your energy, how your mood is that day.
Okay, one more thing that is crucial, you have to plan transition time between sprints.
And I'm not only talking about like five minutes, 10 minutes or something like that.
I'm talking about minimum of 15 minutes between sprints, between different tasks that you're doing.
Because for me personally like, even if I go to the toilet or if I just leave my desk to make myself a coffee, there's no way that i'm returning to my desk in less than 15 minutes, like i tracked it.
Okay, i use this like visual timer to literally like calculate my breaks and stuff like that, but still i never have returned back to my desk in less than 15 minutes.
I get distracted.
I clean this area, i do that, i disorganize, i organize my room, i suddenly clean the dishes for no reason.
It does not happen so.
So now I plan for it.
Like between my sprints or whenever I'm like leaving my desk.
I schedule a 15 minute like break between them.
And between each sprints.
I ideally like schedule 20 to 30 minutes, but usually it ends up like 35 minutes or so to actually recharge my brain and almost like reestablish the mode for the next sprint.
And actually, like by planning those transition times as well as breaks, I realized I actually get more done because I'm not burning out halfway through the day and I'm constantly like moving the tasks and moving the sprints based on my energy, which is allowing me to be more flexible.
Now there's one more, another thing that is extremely important, and it's a skill that we're lacking, which is tracking how long actually tasks takes you versus how long you think they will take to get a sense of time, because with ADHD, our sense of time is just terrible.
You know, you think like three hours pass and you look at the clock and it's like five minutes, and then you think like you may be scrolled for five minutes and you realize it's like six hours, like what the hell, what the hell?
And then, like there's another thing is like i avoid a task because i think it's gonna take me two hours, and i like avoid and avoid and avoid, procrastinate for ages, and i do the thing and it just takes me like 10 minutes and i'm like Why did this happen?
So I have a detailed system for tracking this in my Kaizen Notion template.
Basically you log your estimated time versus actual time.
You categorize tasks by type and, with the time, with the data that you give, it basically gets an average of the time that you estimated versus it actually took you.
So you get like a comprehensive data for each task.
So you can finally plan realistic sprints that you can actually follow through.
And I know I mentioned my Notion template multiple times in this video because it's been a game changer for me.
But I want to be completely transparent with you.
Like, you don't necessarily have to purchase my template to be productive, or I'm not saying that it's the only way that works for ADHD brains or anything like that.
Okay, like it took me genuinely months and months to build this product and I got a lot of feedback from you guys, like from fellow ADHDers, and it adjusted and I improved the template and I'm still improving it and then fixing bugs whenever they happen, because I coded parts of it.
So I always like try to improve it every single time.
Like you absolutely do not need my template to be productive.
If you have the time and energy, you can like literally build this from scratch for yourself.
It's not like rocket science, you know, like it just takes a lot of time.
But if you rather just have it ready to go so you can actually start using it, instead of spending weeks building it and then abandoning it completely, like I did.
My Kaizen ADHD notion template, the link is in the below.
And when you get it, I have a full video tutorials walking you through everything the lead day system, the sprint day planning, the time tracking and also many other things.
Also there's like a Discord community for template users where we talk about ADHD struggles, share tips and help each other and communicate.
And I'm also more active there.
Honestly, like so far, i got a lot of feedback from the 600 users that we have in the template and a lot of people tell me that this is the first system that they actually like, stuck with it and they're using it.
Then also, they're like adjusting for their lives as well.
So it's genuinely really like makes me happy to see that.
To be honest, it's obviously not perfect and i'm still trying to improve it to make it better, make it easier to use and if you don't want to invest in my template right now, it's completely fine.
And also like, if you don't have the money and if you want to learn still how you can set this up, let me know in the comments and i'll show.
I'll make a video showing how to set this up on notion.
But like, if you're tired of trying to figure out, trying to set things up for you, and if you want to start using a system that is built for you, then check out my template links in the description below.
And finally, like I'm not telling you that like, just because you get this template or you change like, apply the system in your life, everything is going to be better.
Like, it's not going to be an overnight change.
Because, like, with ADHD, everything changes, right?
Like some things work for you and then next month something like your energy shifts your brain like tweaks and then not working for you anymore.
So it's like a constant adaptation and it can be very tiring and i agree with that, but it's something that we need to deal with it.
Life learn lifelong, which is kind of sad and curse at the same time.
But the principle doesn't change.
You need to build a system that works with your brain instead of against it, and you need to adjust and adapt to it.
You just need a system that actually works with your adhd brain and not act like you don't have it and you think like it's only discipline.
If only i would be more disciplined, i would do it.
No, Like you are wired differently than adjust to it okay.
I'm not saying that you can't be productive if you have ADHD.
You can, but it's going to be a little different than other people.
So start with one method, whether you get my template or not.
Like do it on your Google spreadsheet.
I don't know, like Todoist, the journaling, whatever.
It works probably. and try it for a week and see what happens.
I genuinely promise you it will help you because it changed my life.
It made things so much easier for me.
You see, I'm active on social media.
I abandoned YouTube for months and months and months, even though it's my job, because I couldn't create videos, because I didn't know what to do every single day and I was paralyzed.
But now, I'm posting, I'm consistent, I'm hitting the gym.
I'm healthy, I'm glowing, you can see me.
It works, try it.
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