Planning Tools and Tips for ADHDers
Neurospicy approach to organization.
Liz Tizzard Tips + Toolkit
The prevalence and increased awareness of people diagnosed with ADHD have many (including myself) how much of the ADHD neurospicy biology resides in us and those around us.
If you were to pause and mentally scroll through your contact list, there are guaranteed to be a few people who, from a social understanding, are flaky and unorganized. They struggle to get the basics done in their lives, and no matter how much they try to ‘fit in’ to the world, they are usually met with failures and emotional struggles.
I sat down with Liz Tizzard, a friend whom I love to call my own Energizer Bunny. I wanted to learn to understand her struggles with planning and organization from a lens of not what she needs to fix but what the world around her can better understand and account for.
I strongly believe that people with ADHD don’t need to be fixed. They and you benefit by providing a supportive community that accounts for their diverse perspectives and needs.
I want to summarize the ADHD Plan for Wonder Podcast Series, and if you are up for experiencing Liz’s radiant energy, I encourage you to give them a listen.
Seeing the world through the eyes of an ADHDer
They show up with energy that is either bounding around somewhere between Tigger and the Tasmanian Devil or like a barefoot hippie. They may or may not show up at all, in a complete stage of wandering without focus.
This pendulum swing completely skips the middle in many areas of an ADHDer’s life. There is no in-between, whether it’s energy or the ability to focus. Understanding this has helped me stop judging others when it comes to how people show up.
The struggle is real
Living on the pendulum swing is a practice is hyper hyper-focus and productivity to experiencing energy crashing that resulted in slamming doors and crying in frustration.
Over time, Liz has learned to work with her pendulum swing, balancing her hyper energy and focus with a solid, grounded practice that helps to keep her feet on the ground.
The lack of dopamine in an ADHDer doesn’t do well with boring tasks like laundry, cleaning, and being organized. In fact, anything boring like simply adulting doesn’t provide any dopamine boost so falling into a wallow at the end of the day frustrated with feeling like nothing was accomplished when in fact as a mom, she accomplished so much in a day.
What she lacked was an organizational system that engaged her dopamine visually to show proof of what she has accomplished. This requires a central pen to paper system that incorporates colour for categories of life.
The ADHD Toolkit
Any tool will work in the beginning for an ADHDer until it doesn’t. Which is simply because the person stopped putting in the work. Allowing the ADHD brain to go from progress to paralysis.
And so the reason why right now, the, my day's working so well for me. And I actually just said to Crystal before we met, I was like, I could see how I'll end up working two systems. A myWeek will sit on my kitchen counter and a myDay will come with me everywhere I go. Because now the value of being grounded in my organization has so much more benefit than running by the hip of my pants and then spending that time wallowing.
