Plan your day in one minute: 1 frog, 2 important tasks, up to 5 small ones

Your list has 31 items. Scheduling all of them would take an hour you don’t have, and just looking at the list makes you want to close it. A one-minute plan picks 8 tasks at most and leaves the rest where it is.

How do you plan your day in one minute?

Choose, don’t schedule. You pick a few tasks for today and give one of them a start time:

1. Open your list. All your tasks live in one place, so you choose from it instead of from memory.
2. Pick 1 frog. The task you keep putting off. Just one, and it goes first. If you need help choosing, read eat the frog.
3. Pick 2 important tasks. What else must get done today.
4. Add up to 5 small tasks, or none. Quick jobs to fit in between: a text, a purchase, a 5-minute call.
5. Give the frog a first step and a start time. “Open the tax website, 10:00.” The first step is explained in the 2-minute first step.

Then close the list. The plan is done.

Why only 1 frog, 2 important tasks and 5 small ones?

A short list is easier to keep in mind and easier to start. A meta-analysis of 38 studies found that, on average, adults with ADHD score moderately lower than adults without ADHD on working memory tasks (Alderson and colleagues, 2013). That’s a group average, and it varies a lot from one person to the next. The NHS also lists finding it hard to organize your time among the signs of ADHD in adults.

A cognitive behavioral therapy program for adults with ADHD treats one task list as the foundation, with priorities set on it (Sprich and colleagues, 2010). The same authors note that some clients find looking at their task list upsetting and overwhelming, because it reminds them of everything they have to do. A day list of 8 tasks at most gives you a smaller view for today. The full list stays as storage.

Should you plan in the morning or the evening before?

Either works; pick the one you’ll keep doing. In the morning, you plan with today’s energy and today’s news. The evening before, you wake up with the decision already made.

There’s some evidence for the evening option. In a sleep-lab study of 57 healthy young adults, those who wrote a specific to-do list for 5 minutes at bedtime fell asleep faster than those who wrote about tasks they had completed (Scullin and colleagues, 2018). It’s one small study, not specific to ADHD.

Whichever you choose, keep the same time each day. In the therapy program above, therapist and client agree on a set moment to look at the list each day, such as arriving at work. And a start time for the frog, written as “at 10:00, I open the tax website”, is an if-then plan: across 94 tests, plans of this kind had a medium-to-large effect on reaching goals (Gollwitzer and Sheeran, 2006).

What if the day goes off plan?

Go back to the frog’s first step and give it 5 minutes. If it’s 11:00 and nothing has started, the 5-minute rule is the quickest way back in. If the day has collapsed (a sick child, an urgent request from your manager), move the frog to tomorrow and keep the 2 important tasks. Unfinished tasks get sorted at night in the evening review: tomorrow, back to the list, or dropped.

For a wider look at routines, see how to plan your day with ADHD and how to keep an ADHD to-do list.

Frequently asked questions

What if everything feels important?

Ask two questions: which task has a deadline, and which one has waited the longest? The answers usually give you your frog and your 2 important tasks. Everything else can wait in the list, even if it feels urgent at 8:00. If you still can’t choose, take the task you’d be most relieved to see done tonight and make it the frog.

What if I don’t have a frog today?

Then skip it. Some days have no task you’re dreading, or you’re too tired to face one. Plan your 2 important tasks and a few small ones, and let them lead the day. In Frogg, you can tap “No frog this time” and your important tasks lead the day. Tomorrow you can pick a frog again.

What counts as a small task?

A task you can finish in a few minutes without preparing: send a text, buy stamps, pay a bill you already have open, water the plants. Small tasks fill gaps between bigger ones, and ticking them gives you a quick win. If a “small” task keeps getting skipped for a week, it may be a frog in disguise: give it a first step.

How long should a daily plan take?

About a minute, once your tasks are in one list. The plan is a choice: one frog, 2 important tasks, up to 5 small ones, plus a first step and a start time for the frog. Writing tasks down happens during the day, whenever one comes to mind. If planning takes 20 minutes, you’re probably scheduling instead of choosing.

Where do appointments and meetings go?

In your calendar. The one-minute plan covers tasks you choose to do; fixed events stay in your calendar. Check your calendar while you plan, so you don’t put the frog at 10:00 on a morning with a 10:00 meeting. Then pick a start time for the frog in the first free slot you have.

Sources

1. NHS, ADHD in adults
2. Robert M. Alderson et al., ADHD and working memory in adults: a meta-analytic review, Neuropsychology (2013)
3. Susan E. Sprich et al., Description and Demonstration of CBT for ADHD in Adults, Cognitive and Behavioral Practice (2010)
4. Michael K. Scullin et al., The effects of bedtime writing on difficulty falling asleep, Journal of Experimental Psychology: General (2018)
5. Peter M. Gollwitzer and Paschal Sheeran, Implementation intentions and goal achievement: a meta-analysis, Advances in Experimental Social Psychology (2006)