773.312.3612 | Sliding fee scale considered at all of our locations

Blog
Mar 12
Effective Strategies for Planning & Organization with ADHD by Rob Davies

Expert ADHD Planning Tips for Smoother Routines

Do you hear from your child that they do not have homework or do not remember what homework they have, but then find out later about missing assignments from their teachers? Do your child’s struggles to get ready for school remind you of a frozen computer screen? Or do you feel overwhelmed trying to keep track of events on your family’s calendar or things you have to do? Children and adults with ADHD often struggle with tasks and responsibilities when they involve planning, memory, and organization. These individuals will benefit from expert ADHD planning tips to help them remember to complete tasks and daily routines, organize papers and supplies, and keep track of appointments and events.

Helping Children with ADHD

Implementing Task Lists for ADHD Planning

Children with ADHD frequently struggle to remember tasks they have to complete. A number of these youths have poor working memory, which makes it challenging for them to remember tasks such as homework assignments. Education specialists emphasize the critical difference that using a planner can make to help children remember their homework. They additionally recommend that youths with ADHD note assignments in planners that have larger spaces for writing.

In addition, the steps for completing a task often are not clear for children with ADHD. Making a checklist to define these steps clearly in advance can minimize the emotional strain many kids with executive dysfunction experience while trying to make decisions and enable them to focus their mental energy on the task at hand. As one educational therapist explains, “Often these kids will get so wrapped up in the decision-making process that they never even start the task. Or, if they do begin, they’re constantly starting and restarting because they’ve thought of a better way to do it. In the end they’re exhausted when the time comes to actually follow though.” Checklists can be made for almost anything, including
morning routines. Visual checklists that include pictures can also be used to define the steps in a task. A visual checklist for morning routines might have pictures of getting out of bed, brushing teeth, getting dressed, and eating breakfast.

Organizing Materials Effectively for ADHD Planning

Children with ADHD also commonly have difficulty with organizing papers and supplies and benefit from numerous tools to help them stay organized. Parents will likely provide key support in implementing these tools.

Children will find mental relief from having multiple copies of supplies and papers. Arrangements can be made for children to have two sets of books and supplies. Having one set for home and one for school leaves children with less to remember to bring back and forth. Parents can also make multiple copies of important papers such as permission slips and event announcements. Posting these in several areas of the house can provide visual reminders of important dates and deadlines. When children have more visual cues and fewer tasks to remember on their own, they can conserve their mental energy for learning.

Organization experts additionally recommend creating systems for filing papers and organizing books and supplies. Parents and children should set up a file system so that children can easily file papers for specific subjects in folders for that subject and find these papers later. These folders, as well as books and notebooks, can also be color-coded so that all supplies for particular subjects are the same color. For example, folders, books, and notebooks for history could be red, and all materials for science could be yellow.

Moreover, parents and children can set up boxes to put additional supplies, shelves for books, and a bulletin board for announcements. One specialist proposes using a shower caddy or cleaning supply caddy for supplies such as pencils, markers, scissors, and glue.

Furthermore, parents should help their children stay organized with regular checks and clean-outs of their children’s supplies. Parents can check their children’s belongings daily and help them clean out and organize assignment notebooks, work binders, and backpacks once per week.

Utilizing Calendars as Part of ADHD Planning

Children with ADHD often have difficulty keeping track of appointments and events. Calendars tend to be critical for enabling these children and their families to plan for and manage their time commitments. Calendars can serve as a visual record of activities for parents and children. They also can help children develop accountability since children can look at calendars to see when parents will or will not be available for help with homework or other tasks and plan their time accordingly.

In addition, families can obtain large, wall-sized calendars for family appointments and events. Families can use different color markers for different family members to note each person’s individual schedules on large calendars. Parents and children can look at these calendars and see how their respective activities fit into the bigger picture of the household.

Apps for Managing ADHD as Teenager & Adult More Independently

As children with ADHD transition into their teenage years and adulthood, they are expected to manage responsibilities and keep track of appointments and events with increasingly more independence and less support from their parents. In addition, human beings have increasingly relied on technology to organize their lives, particularly in the youngest generations. Numerous smart phone applications now exist with functions that assist individuals in keeping track of tasks and appointments based on the unique workflows and structures of their lives.

Google Calendar

The application for Google Calendar enables users to create tasks and assign dates and times to complete them. Individuals can additionally create different lists of tasks by category. Users can also create calendar events. Once events are added, users can add guests, friends, and colleagues and invite these other individuals to add events to their calendars. Moreover, individuals can create reminders to complete tasks and alerts for upcoming events.

Google Calendar users can view their complete schedules in their calendar or can look at their schedules for a day, a week, or a month. Tasks that need to be completed on a given day and birthdays and holidays appear at the top of each day on an individual’s schedule. Users can also search for tasks and events they need to find. In addition, Google Calendar syncs with Gmail and other Google apps on iOS and Android phones and works on any web browser.

Google Keep

Google Keep allows users to create notes on their phones. Individuals can also add reminders to tasks that need to be completed from the notes they create, and these reminders can include dates, times, and locations. In addition, users can create step-by-step checklists and color-code their notes. Google Keep is available on computers, smart phones, and tablets and can sync across all these devices.

Todoist

Todoist users can create tasks and assign dates and times to complete them, as they can with Google Calendar. They also can add sub-tasks to tasks, copy web links to tasks and projects, and share projects with others. In addition, individuals can create folders, filters, and labels for tasks and assign priorities to different tasks.

Individuals using Todoist can also create routine tasks to complete on a daily basis and get reminders for these tasks. Todoist additionally enables users to search for tasks and events. Moreover, users can view tasks they have already completed. This application works on iOS and Android phones and any web browser.

Evernote

Evernote provides its users with functions that enable them to use a vast array of customized strategies for managing tasks and appointments. Evernote users can create tasks and add due dates and reminders to tasks. The application also allows for tasks to be repeated and assigned to others.

Individuals can additionally create notes in Evernote and add tasks with the above functions and web links to these notes. Users can label, tag, and filter these notes as well as share them with others and link them to calendar events. Individuals can also store, scan, and tag handwritten notes and drawings, take photos, and create voice reminders and store them in Evernote. Moreover, this application enables users to pin notes they use often and search for notes that match selected criteria.

The task lists, calendar events, labels, reminders, and other nuanced functions in each of these applications are invaluable for individuals with ADHD. These functions take the pressure off these individuals to remember tasks and identify steps within tasks. They also allow these individuals to
compartmentalize tasks and events from different realms of their life and set up events for these individuals in a visual way.

If you are the parent of a child that struggles with ADHD symptoms, you may feel overwhelmed by recommendations for helping him stay on track. You might also question how effective recommended strategies will be for your child or lament having to support him in managing responsibilities other children can handle on their own. If you struggle with planning, memory, and organization, you may perceive managing task lists and calendars and using tools for planning and organization to be tedious.

Nevertheless, these ADHD planning tips strategies and tools can enable your child to conserve his mental energy for completing the content of their homework and the steps to get ready for school. They can also relieve your memory from having to remember when his basketball games are.

References

–By Rob Davies, LCSW

Rob Davies