How To Prioritize For ADHD Adults
Topic: How to prioritize your to do list, the costs of not prioritizing, the benefits of prioritizing, the different ways to prioritize. See the other Adult ADHD Issues.
Facilitator: Pete Quily.
Thanks for Christopher Stanbury for taking the notes.
July 2013 Meeting Notes for the Vancouver Adult ADD Support Group
Prioritization is a huge problem for adults with ADHD. Here are some of the costs of not prioritizing effectively, the benefits of doing it effectively, ways of prioritizing, and what helps you to prioritize.
1. What are your most and least favorite ways to prioritize?
I.e., Time, easy, hard, stress level, sort & simple (clear the deck), the fun stuff.
2. Why?
3. What is the cost of not prioritizing effectively?
Affect other people so their lives are screwed up
Anxiety and stress ADDers are more stressed than most.
Create crisis as result of tasks undone
Eating properly and diet problems, forget to eat
Emotional volatility
Harms long term success
Higher risk of addiction long term stress can increase risk of addiction which leads to even more problems
If you know the cost, and benefit, of prioritizing, it will make it easier to achieve [your goal].
Important tasks remain undone
Increase in obesity (and possibility diabetes as well)
Life planning should be taught in school
Long term effect on health i.e. from high stress
Loss of time, money, health care (taxes undone)
Lots of half done tasks
Miss deadlines, opportunities
More abuse, etc
Poor life-style choices
Risk of injury i.e., forget safety equipment
What works for one person may not work for another person.
4. Benefits of prioritizing effectively
Better self care
Better self confidence
Clarity improved
Group Exercise
Improved relationships Adders need to be better than most.
Increased success – reduced failure
Less confusion
Less stress
Longer life, better health
More free time as more productive
More happiness
More productivity
Personal satisfaction
Reach your full potential
Reduce list so it is doable, apply reality filters.
Set alarms
Take five minutes to create a to-do list for tomorrow.
Then arrange yourselves into groups of three to compare priority choices.
5. What are different ways of prioritizing?
Choose some that work for you – that you can do easily
Ask your spouse / somebody else
Break large projects down into steps
Do what is on your own list first
Do what works for you that day
Enjoyment
Fear – What are you afraid of most?
Importance
Limit priorities / tasks
Most time efficient way to do task
People pleasing
Selective priorities
Simple / pleasant
Simplify
Stress / reduced stress
Swallow the frog first (what you do not want to do)
There may be ideas here you have not considered. Which options work for you?
Time long/short
6. What helps you to prioritize?
Boundaries – if you do not set boundaries on others, your plate is always overflowing, which will lead to overload and overwhelm.
Check out this book, Boundaries: When to Say Yes, How to Say No to Take Control of Your Life by Henry Cloud.
Do it at a time when you feel good, have the energy, when your brain is “on line”.
Have a someday / maybe list as David Allen suggests
If every day you manage to do ___ things only, then only put ___ things on your tomorrow list.
Learn to say No.
Learn to set boundaries on others
Learn to set boundaries on yourself
Limit the things on your list. Having no limit is stress amplification.
Look ahead
Number in order of importance
Otherwise you set yourself up for constant failure.
Pick most important and ensure it is done
Schedule routine items that are important to you
Schedule time to re-prioritize list
Time cost the tasks on your list
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