One thing I struggled with my whole life was time management with executive dysfunction.

For context, I have Autism Spectrum Disorder. I struggle with executive dysfunction, task initiation (getting started), and maintaining attention during a task.

I love my planner. I love the experience of writing down what I will need to do for the week. I use fun pens and stickers. I’ve used Happy Planners, Hero’s Journal, and way more, but I struggle to stick with it despite loving it so much. Not only that, I was forgetting to get my things done! I’ve started to make changes and I’m learning and getting more done.

I discovered recently that people with autism struggle with routines despite needing them and relying on them. The difficulty comes from routines not feeling natural. Typical people perform their routines with little thinking. It’s like the idea of drowsily walking into the kitchen to make your coffee with no brain power at all. We don’t do that easily.

I took to Pinterest to find new organizational techniques. I read article after article about time blocking, “eating the frog”, the big three, etc. Spoiler alert: none of them worked for me.

Here’s my system:

I use a planner called “The Fast Brained Friend”. It’s a small, 30 day planner. I bought a years worth (12 notebooks). Each notebook is a different color. This planner was designed for people with ADHD. They are so small because people often lose motivation when they forget to fill out a week. With a 30 day journal, you don’t have to “live” with your mistakes or missed weeks very long. Each day has a different layout. This creates novelty, which the neurodiverse brain loves. I use my pretty stickers and pens. I make to-do lists. I schedule events. I put routines in my planner as well, and even have pretty stickers to represent them.

What if I forget to look at my planner? Will I miss an event? NO! I put timely events in my Google Calendar and set my notifications appropriately (if it’s a 20 minute drive away, I’ll set the notification for an hour before so I can remember, get ready, and leave on time or early).

What about my to-do list? I have a lot of systems. I write to-dos that I know about a week in advance in my planner. Timely things (ex. “This MUST GET DONE TODAY!!!!”) go in my calendar, but not as a time block, but rather as a goal for the day. Have you used the “All-Day” setting on your calendar? It’s great for goals!

I use a program called Routine on my iPad and laptop. Since it’s not available for my phone, I use it for work-related tasks. It allows me to schedule tasks if I please, or simply allocate them for a day. What I enjoy most is that I can simply type “Print Documents on Monday” and it will allocate the to-do to Monday. I can also brain dump and type in “Create Lessons [Enter] Pack Lunch [Enter] Enter Grades [Enter]” and it will send them to my Routine Inbox for me to allocate to a time, day, or week.

At home, I use whiteboards. In the kitchen, I have kitchen-related tasks. In the bedroom, I have mostly personal tasks. In the home office, I put school/work/blog tasks. For routines, I have a chore chart with switches marked X and ✔. My fiance and I turn any routine tasks that are needed to X so I can check and immediately complete the task.

This is what has worked for me. Let me know what’s worked for you!