191: An ADHD Friendly Planning Hack to Keep from Overplanning or Underplanning

Why on the Fly: A Quick Planning Hack for When You Don’t Have Time to Plan

Fish brains tend to land in one of two camps: we either skip planning entirely and just live life on the fly, or we get so excited about the act of planning itself that we never actually come back to execute it. Today I want to give you a happy medium between those two extremes, something I’m calling a why on the fly.

The execution problem this solves

You know the scenario. You sit down, build a real grocery list based on actual recipes, check your pantry and freezer, do it all right. You get to the store and forget the list entirely, or you remember it’s on your phone, and still walk the aisles from memory without ever glancing at it. You get home and the one thing you actually needed is missing. I have personally walked out of a checkout line still holding a coupon in my hand after already paying for everything, completely forgetting to use it. If that’s you too, you’re in good company.

A quick recap of the Why framework

Back in episode 186, I introduced planning according to your why, an acronym where the H stands for reframing a “have to do” into a “helps to do,” something that helps your family, your home, or yourself, and the Y stands for giving yourself permission to take care of you in small ways too. The why on the fly takes that same framework and shrinks it down for moments when you don’t have the time or energy to build out a whole week or day’s plan.

How it works

Look around your house right now for one small, manageable clutter pile, the kind you’ve become blind to or have been quietly avoiding. Ask yourself why it’s still there. Often you’ll find a specific stumbling block hiding underneath it.

Mine, at the moment I recorded this, was a pile of pens and small notepads that had been sitting on my kitchen counter for almost a week, driving the type-A monkey brains in my family quietly crazy. My husband had cleaned out his office and offered me the extra pens and pads, and I genuinely wanted them in my kitchen junk drawer, since I constantly need a quick scrap of paper for a school note or a reminder before I forget it entirely. The problem was that the junk drawer itself was too chaotic to add anything to without it jamming shut. So I told myself I needed to clean out the drawer first, and then felt guilty even considering that when there was a sink full of dishes, a counter that needed wiping, and a floor covered in dog hair right behind me. What are a few pens compared to all of that? That guilt is exactly what kept the pile sitting there, blocking the toaster, for a week.

Give yourself permission to do the thing you actually want

This is where the why comes in. So much of our clutter persists because clearing it requires a smaller task first, and that smaller task feels frivolous or unjustified when there’s a longer list of things that feel more urgent or responsible. I firmly believe that taking action on the thing you actually want to do creates the momentum that carries you into the things you need to do. Movement creates movement.

The actual why on the fly

Set a short timer, fifteen minutes is plenty, and tackle just that one small pile. For my junk drawer, that meant dumping it out, wiping it down, and sorting through what was actually in there. If you need a second round, set another short timer, maybe ten minutes, to get everything back in neatly. Then comes your five minutes of you: pick a small reward that makes the moment feel good. I keep a scented countertop spray just for this, so once the drawer was sorted and the pens and notepads tucked away, I sprayed down the counter until it gleamed and smelled wonderful. Every time I walk past it now, I notice it, and it makes me smile.

Total time for the whole thing: about thirty minutes. If that still feels like too much, shrink it further, ten minutes, five minutes, even one. Chances are you’ve built the task up in your head to feel like a two-hour project when it’s really a fraction of that.

Your practical, actionable step

Right now, find one small clutter pile you’ve been walking past, ask yourself what smaller task is blocking you from dealing with it, and set a short timer to just do that one thing. Give yourself a small reward when it’s done, and let that be your why on the fly.

Until next time, continue to choose joy.