Hi, welcome back to MyEF Coach for more tips and tricks and tools on executive functioning.

Today’s tool is about planning. Those of us with executive functioning struggles

can sometimes get a little caught up with the idea of planning. There’s a lot of decision

fatigue that happens or decision paralysis, as well as just the inability to know where to start.

Things often feel too big to actually know how to create a plan and where to dive in and how it

starts. I work with a lot of teenagers sometimes who are struggling with how do I make a plan for

a large school project. I have to do a research paper, but I don’t really know where to start.

A lot of times the procrastination and the need for urgency in order to get our brains to go,

for those of us who have ADHD, means that we don’t actually get to plan because there’s no urgency

when you have a long extended period before an assignment is due. And so this tool today,

which comes from Sarah Ward, I was lucky enough to start attending her trainings back in 2017.

And she is an incredible guru on executive functioning. I highly recommend her trainings

if you can go and find one for purchase. I really appreciated all the things I’ve learned from her

over the years. So this particular tool is called the Get Ready, Do Done. It’s actually quite basic in

it’s like zoomed out sense. And it looks like this. It has three boxes. It says get ready, do and done.

But once you dive into this, you’ll realize that there’s a few steps that just probably wouldn’t

happen naturally if you were to create your own plan without using this particular method.

So the most important part of this planning process is that you have to go in reverse. And so when you

have this big project, whether you’re an adult and you have a work project that you need to do, or

you’re trying to clean out your garage, and it’s been years since you’ve done it. Or if you’re a student,

and you’re struggling to get started on a project simply because the due date isn’t close enough to

give you enough urgency or go-go juice to actually get going. So this particular tool says you have to

start with done. And in this red box where it says done, you will draw a picture of what the finished

product looks like. And so it’s really, really important that you actually do draw a picture.

People will say, well, I’ll just write down like what the done looks like, but actually a picture is

absolutely necessary. And I’m going to explain why. When you were a tiny baby, or when you first came into

the world, assuming that you have visual sight, you were able to immediately, because it’s an innate

built-in part of who you are able to read pictures or symbols or signs. You could read the facial

expressions of your mom as she looked closely into your face as you were a sleeping baby. You read

something from that. So if she smiled at you, you read some kind of message of being safe, or my mom

loves me. But had your mom held up a little sticky note in front of your baby face that said, I love you,

it would have meant nothing. Because the reality is learning to read or process language verbally is

something that you could not have mastered for years to come. And so having a visual is actually

something that your brain can read instantly. It doesn’t have to go through a process of a learned

skill for having learned to read or learn to process verbal language. And so because we can read symbols

automatically, it takes a lot of the pressure and the anxiety and the stress off the brain when you

start with a picture. And so the very first thing you would do using this method, if you have three

boxes, you’re going to start in the box that says done, that would be on the far right side of your

page. I’m not sure if my screen is mirroring or if it’s in reverse. So on the far right hand side,

you’re going to start in the done box, you’re going to draw a sketch of what done looks like. So an

example I often show to clients that are here in my office is I’ve drawn a picture where I should have

done it today. But I’ve drawn a picture where I’ve like sketched my lawn and it’s mowed both directions,

because that’s the way I like it. And it also shows in my sketch, an arrow where it’s showing shoes

back in like a shoe bin in my garage to show that I’ve put my shoes away from mowing. An arrow showing

the lawnmower is has been returned to the shed in the backyard and the gas can has been returned to

the shed. And even the grass clippings are shown in the picture being dumped out in like our chicken

yard for the chicken seat. So that picture demonstrates done because it shows that the task itself is

complete, but also all of the details of like where things need to be and things being put away is done.

And I also have in the picture, like a little stick figure of myself smiling with thumbs up. And the

reason why that’s important and why I always ask clients to include themselves in the picture with

the emotion that they would represent after having that task done. So if I’m working with a college

student and I’m like, imagine your thesis paper is done, like, how are you going to feel? I want you to

show me that in your picture. And the smiles on these little drawings that people make are awesome.

The reason why you want to have that emotion in there is because our motivation is highly tied to our

to our emotions. And so oftentimes, I want to do something right now because it gives me an instant

feeling I get instant gratification of feeling good or getting hit of dopamine or just enjoyment from doing

X, whether it’s as a as an adult, it might be for me, it’s going outside getting exercise hiking

for some others or for teenagers, it might be playing video games. That’s their big source of

enjoyment. And so that’s the thing they want to do. By including an emotion in the drawing, you’re

actually helping to make yourself want to do this task that you actually don’t want to do because

you’re seeing the future emotion that you will feel, which helps with the motivation of how you feel right

now. So that’s an important to put in the drawing. But the drawing itself now gives you a picture of

what needs to be done. And that is worth so much. Because as soon as you have a picture, it’s so much

easier to start. You look at the picture and think like, Oh, I can do that. Whereas if you don’t have

a picture, and you just have either a lot of writing about what needs to be done, or like an assignment from

your boss, or just the idea of something, it can feel so overwhelming, and we don’t know where to start.

So the next thing, once you have that picture, you’re going to go into the middle box, the do box,

which in this case is green. And in the do box, you’re now going to be looking at what is done in

your picture. And you think about where you are right now. And you start writing bullet points of

each of the steps that has to happen for that to be true. So in the case of my lawn mowing picture,

I would have that I need to put on my lawn mowing shoes, because I always wear them when I mow the lawn,

so I don’t ruin my shoe, my other shoes. And then I would need to get out the lawn, the lawnmower and the

gasoline. I would need to make sure that the bag is attached to the lawn mower. I would need to add

gas to the lawn mower, start the lawn mower, mow the lawn one direction, mow the lawn the other

direction, because I care. And then empty the clippings. I need to put away my gas, the gas can,

the lawn mower, and my shoes, and empty the, before I put the lawn mower away, I need to empty the clippings

into the chicken yard. So those would be all of my bullet points. Notice that it’s pretty detailed.

It didn’t just say mow the lawn, put things away, because that’s way too generic and not specific

enough that you might actually miss things. If I say put stuff away, I could put away my shoes and think

I’m done, but I haven’t yet put away the other items that were needed to be put away in order for

the job to actually be complete or done. So now you have a list of all the details of things you need to do.

Now, when you do this activity for something that actually is a larger project, mowing the lawn is

kind of a bad example because it can happen in like one fell swoop. In fact, that’s the best way for

that to go. I wouldn’t do like a little bit here and a little bit there. Like I want to mow the whole

lawn all at once. But for a project that you have to do at work, maybe you’re putting together a

presentation that you have to give to your boss. And as you’re working on that presentation, it’s pretty

lengthy, let’s say, and it’s not something that you’re going to make the entire presentation in one sitting

at your desk. And so by having your do list marked out with bullet points, you can actually plan it so

that every time you have a block of work time, you can say, “Okay, I’m going to do one of those bullet

points.” And the bullet point might take five minutes, it might take 20 minutes, but the reality is that you

can cross them out one at a time and know that you’re moving in the direction of getting that project

done. I find it really helpful, but it’s not always necessary to give due dates to each bullet

point in the list. If you’re someone who struggles with procrastination, it’s really helpful to change

the overall due date of like this project is due in a week to every single day I have one thing due or

two things due so that I know I’m going to be done. I like to give myself a day prior to the due date.

So I know I’m going to be done the day before the due date. And marking it out that way can be really

helpful. If you’re someone who struggles to follow your own deadlines like that you’ve made for yourself,

I highly recommend using an accountability partner so that you make sure that you follow through.

So moving on, the first box of the Get Ready, Do, Done, which is the one you fill out third,

is the Get Ready. And in that Get Ready box, Sarah Ward originally teaches that this is where

you put the materials that you need in order to do all the things on the due list. I’ve kind of expanded

that because in with the population I work with and even knowing myself, it’s not always just about the

materials. I don’t always just need, you know, my computer and my pen and my notebook and the things that I

need to complete the task. I also need a correct environment. And so on the Get Ready that I use,

I have a note underneath that says, “What materials do you need? What environment is needed? And also,

what do I need mentally in order to engage?” And so for me, the environment can change depending on

what the task is. I might need a noisy coffee shop because sometimes that just like triggers enough, like,

I know that there’s people around who could be watching me if I wasn’t on task and I want to be on task.

So sometimes there’s a little bit of like stimulation from having an audience even if they’re not there to

watch me at all. So sometimes a coffee shop is the right environment depending on the task. Sometimes my

office is the right environment. Sometimes being at home is the right environment. And other times

there’s a different environment altogether. But figuring out and thinking about what environment is correct

to do this task is actually really helpful. So think about environment. Think about the materials themselves.

So in my example of the lawn mowing, I would need the lawn mower. I need the gas can. I would need my shoes.

I didn’t put this on there, but I would probably need my headphones and my phone so that I could listen to

an audio book or music because that helps me enjoy the task more. But you write down the materials that

you need to complete the task. I’m writing down the location or the environment that I might need, like

whether I need somewhere quiet or whether I need somewhere where I can bounce ideas off someone, etc. And then I’m

also writing down anything I might need to do mentally in order to prepare myself for this task. So for

example, if I’m working on creating the pamphlet for a funeral of a dear friend or something like that,

I might need to also check myself and recognize that I need to take some time for myself ahead of time

to process or think or pray or do the things that I need to get myself ready to do that hard emotional task.

If I am working on mowing the lawn, I might need to prepare myself for the fact that it’s going to be

really warm and how long it’s going to take me and remind myself like, oh, I need to have at least

an hour of time because I know that not only do I have to mow the lawn, but I’m probably going to need

to take a shower afterwards because it’s going to be gross. And so preparing myself that way and making

sure mentally I know how much time I need. If I’m going to be working on a work project, I might know that

I might need to do some type of an activity that gets my brain really focused. So whether that’s if

you’ve seen any other videos like doing circles and squares simultaneously to help lock in or get my

focus going or some type of focus activity that’s going to get me mentally prepared. So all of that

would go on the get ready. So at that point, I would have a completed get ready, do done. And actually,

I’ll grab, pause, I’ll grab this one just to give an example. But here is the get ready, do done that I

just described of mowing the lawn. It’s in pencil. So I’m not sure how well it’ll show up on the video.

But over here is my done picture. The lawn is mowed. Everything is put away. As I mentioned,

here’s my bullet point list of everything that needs to happen. And then here are the things that I need.

And I did write down all the things I mentioned, as well as that I need a water bottle. So in good

weather and dry grass. So I hope that is helpful. I hope that this will be a really good tool for you

as you are working on how to create a plan for doing those pesky, non preferred tasks or those longer

tasks that take more time. If you’ve appreciated this video or taking good nuggets away, please share

it with others as well as subscribe so that you can get more of our tools and tricks for the future.

Thanks so much.