Why Your Planner is not Working for You

Executives with ADHD seldom want to bring their planners to me. They’re embarrassed. They’ve already tried using every kind of planner to organize themselves, but nothing seems to work. So they limp along, believing that planners just aren’t for them. But eventually, when they’re overwhelmed enough, they’re ready to acknowledge that something isn’t working for them — and it may not be the planner.

Can you relate?

Planning is a highly complex cognitive skill that supports you in being at your very best in your highly complex life. If you truly do want to be in charge of your time, get over the idea that planning is easy, irrelevant or just another task to do.

It’s important to know that there’s no perfect planner out there that will solve all your problems. The answer isn’t just an attractive piece of stationary or a cool electronic app!

How you use your planner or not, is a reflection of state of your executive functioning. The way you interact with your planner is a window into how your brain works, how you think, how you regulate your emotions, prioritize, plan and organize major (and minor) parts of your life.

When you recognize that you really do need to feel more on top of your day, you’re ready to create a system that will actually work for you.

Be bold. Get to know why your planner hasn’t worked for you so far. There’s valuable information in there.
Here are the most common reasons planners fail for my clients