36: An ADHD Friendly Way to Set Goals for the New Year!

ADHD-Friendly Goals, Part 1: The WHAT IF Method

It’s time to make some ADHD-friendly goals for the new year. This idea borrows its root from Gretchen Rubin’s Happier podcast, where she picks a set number of finite, accomplishable goals for the year rather than open-ended habits you can fall off of and never climb back onto. Here’s my own twist on it, built around an acronym I call WHAT IF.

The WHAT IF acronym

The “if” stands for being intentionally flexible. The “what” breaks down into four categories: W is something you want to do, H is something you have to do, A is an aspiration you’re trying to achieve, and T is everything you’ve already tackled. The idea is to land on a set of seven goals in each of the first three categories, for a total of twenty-one, plus one more that ties them together.

Start with the have-tos

The have-tos are the nagging, finite tasks you walk past again and again, telling yourself you’ll get to them eventually. Not open-ended goals like losing weight, but concrete, one-time tasks: restaining a weathered front door, having the septic system cleaned, getting the windows and gutters done, painting the interior, fixing a gate that’s becoming a hazard for the dogs. None of these are exciting. None of them are fun. But there’s real peace of mind in finally clearing something that could technically be done at any time, and therefore has been done at no time for years.

The trick is starting small and literal: walk through your own house, room by room, and notice what you’ve been turning a blind eye to. Write down seven of them. They don’t have to be expensive or dramatic, just the tasks that have been quietly weighing on you.

Then move to the want-tos

The want-tos are the fun half, the things that make a house feel like yours rather than just functional. Painting a dining room in a color you’d never dare try elsewhere. Rearranging a room so it actually gets used. Finally hanging the frames that have been leaning against a wall for a year. These matter because we need things to look forward to, things that pull us toward doing them rather than just pushing us to check off obligations.

One want-to worth calling out: tackling a monthly, focused declutter project, breaking a space like the kitchen into smaller pieces, a pantry one week, a fridge and freezer the next, cabinets and drawers after that. Big spaces get a lot less overwhelming once they’re broken into that kind of bite-sized order.

Your practical, actionable step

Grab two colors of sticky notes, or something like them. On one color, write seven have-tos, the nagging finite tasks around your house you keep walking past. On the other, write seven want-tos, the things that would make your space more genuinely yours. Keep them visible somewhere you’ll actually see them, and let the list be flexible rather than a source of guilt.

Until next time, continue to choose joy.