How I Prioritize My Day to Stay Productive With ADHD

Do you have trouble staying productive thanks to your ADHD brain? Here’s how I prioritize my day to get things done!

If you have ADHD, then you know how hard it is to make to-do lists, stick with them, and feel productive.

We struggle with executive dysfunction. And planning, executing, and organizing all fall into that.

When I was diagnosed back in 2022, I realized I wasn’t actually lazy- I just had to work with my brain, not against it.

Since then, I’ve taken some steps to make my life a bit more organized. I’ve found out what I need to prioritize, and when. And it’s done wonders for my productivity!

Below are all the things I do to prioritize my day, to help me be productive in a way that works for me. This may not all work for you, but take what you can!

Plan the night before

The next day actually starts the night before, when I look at my weekly to-do list and write the next steps in my planner.

I use Silk and Sonder planners, which both keeps me focused on my tasks and helps me be creative in journaling.

Since I own my own business, my tasks look something like:

• Write or publish a blog post
• Create social media images
• Add a product to Etsy
• Record a recipe

But I also have home tasks, which go on a separate list. Things like vacuuming, cleaning the bathrooms… the usual cleaning stuff.

I’ve found that if I don’t plan out my tasks the night before, I move around aimlessly the next day and don’t get anything productive done.

Wake up at the same time every day

This started way back in my early adult life, when I had to wake up at 3:00 AM to get to work at McDonalds.

Yes, that sucked. But it instilled discipline in me that continues to this day.

My routine is the same every morning. And if I ignore my alarm and sleep in, my whole day gets thrown off.

Sometimes it’s 4:30 AM, sometimes it’s 5:00 AM. But I know that in order to be productive, my wake-up time has to be consistent!

Brain dump in the mornings

Even though I plan my day the night before, I usually remember a thing or two during the night.

I’ll write down either tasks that I forgot about, or little things that I need to remember for later. This helps me get everything out of my brain and onto paper, which helps quiet the noise in my head.

Exercise

There really is no specific time that works for every person. I prefer to work out in the early morning because it makes me feel like I got a healthy start to my day, and I’m more likely to be productive.

My workouts last usually 30 minutes, and consists of yoga, weight-lifting, or low-impact cardio.

Do the hard things in high-energy times

Have you figured out what time of day you have the most energy? This is when you’ll get the most important tasks done.

For me, my high-energy time is between 7:00 AM and 10:00 AM. I can hunker down and write blog posts or do any work that requires a lot of thinking and brain power.

And I try to stick to this every day, even when my daughter Allison is home for the summer. It may mean I have to stop at 9:00. But I know that if I want to make the most of my day, I have to get the important stuff done first.

Do mindless tasks in the afternoon

There’s something about the hours of 12:00 and 3:00 PM that really drains my brain energy. I don’t know if it’s because of lunch, but my brain decides it doesn’t want to do “thinking” work anymore.

This is when I’ll do the tasks that don’t take much brainpower. Folding laundry, cleaning the bathroom, watching an educational video, etc.

Bonus points if I can mindlessly pace around the house while doing it. I hate sitting still for long periods of time, so learning something new while getting some exercise is a duo I can get behind.

Now, life doesn’t always go according to plan. A couple days a week, I forget to plan out the next day. And sometimes my brain just decides it doesn’t want to do any work.

But as long as I’m consistent with the above, my day tends to go a lot better!

Leave a comment and tell me: What things do you do every day to help you be more productive?