What the EF? Understanding Planning & Prioritization
Part of the What the EF? Executive Functioning blog series
Planning and prioritization are two executive functioning skills that play a central role in helping us initiate and complete tasks. They are also intertwined with so many other executive functioning skills. You might be able to think about what needs to happen, but turning that into a clear sequence of steps or deciding what matters most in the moment can feel like you’ve got one big tangled ball of yarn in your brain.
What may look like "laziness" from the outside could actually be someone getting stuck trying to identify and decide which steps to start with. So, planning and prioritization are cognitive skills that help us be able to initiate tasks. These are skills that individuals with ADHD often find challenging.
What does it really mean to plan?
My definition of planning in the context of executive functioning would be that it’s the mental process of identifying, organizing and sequencing actions to achieve an identified goal.
Planning can include:
Identifying steps of an action.
Identifying a time frame needed to complete the goal.
Identifying materials or knowledge needed to complete the goal.
Deciding what order to complete the steps in (this is where prioritization crosses over)
Identifying and problem solving for barriers.
Connections with other skills
As we’ve already established, many executive functioning skills cross over one another. To be able to plan you also need the skill of working memory so you can hold in mind
what the goal is
what steps exist
what order they go in
what resources are needed
what might interfere
If working memory is a challenge, then planning is also likely to be a challenge.
Time management is another companion skill that helps translate those steps into reality across time. It answers questions like:
When does this happen?
How long will it take?
What else is competing for that time?
Without time management, a plan cannot be concrete enough to execute. Without working memory, you’ll lose the pieces and be unable to execute the plan.
So when a task doesn’t get completed, it’s often not just a “lack of planning” issue alone. It can be difficult with any or multiple of these executive functioning skills and we’ll need to find separate strategies to address each challenge. It seems like planning can really be viewed as bringing together all of the other executive functioning skills.
What does it really mean to prioritize?
Planning and prioritization are closely connected. Planning helps us identify what needs to happen. Prioritization helps us decide what needs to happen first.
Merriam Webster’s definition of priority was quite unhelpful in that it says, “to list or rate (projects, goals, etc.) in order of priority”. I was always taught using the word or part of the word in the definition was frowned upon. But essentially, to prioritize is to decide where each item should be ranked in terms of position.
Prioritization is tricky because there often isn’t a universal “correct” answer of what should happen first. Instead, prioritization is context dependent and values based. Many existing tools to help with prioritization focus solely on urgency or importance, such as the Eisenhower Matrix. While that can be a helpful tool in some contexts, urgency and importance are just one of the value lenses that we can utilize to help with prioritization.
Before we can prioritize the tasks in our list, we have to choose which lens to prioritize at the moment. Examples of values lenses include:
Time/urgency
Relationship impact (Commitments, Responsibility, Connection)
Financial impact
Physical Health & Safety (Rest, Energy Conservation, Healing)
Mental Wellbeing (Personal Growth, Ease, Joy)
Once you’ve decided on what value you want to prioritize most for the situation at hand, then you can move to using some reflective prompts to help you come to a decision.
Using Prioritization Prompts
Just "knowing" what should come first can feel difficult for many people, particularly Autistic people and those with ADHD. We often receive advice to "prioritize what's important," but rarely are we taught how to determine what is most important in a given moment.
A helpful first step is asking yourself:
"What matters most for me right now?"
Different situations call for different priorities. Rather than assuming there is one universally "correct" order, you can intentionally choose the lens you want to use to make your decision.
Some possible lenses include:
Time
Money
Physical energy
Mental or emotional well being
Relationships
Enjoyment or interest
Reducing future stress
Meeting deadlines
Living according to your values
You don't have to analyze these for very long. Simply pause and do a quick mental check-in.
Which of these feels most urgent today?
Which one has been causing me the most stress lately?
If I could improve just one of these areas today, which would make the biggest difference?
For example:
If my relationships feel strained, I may choose to prioritize tasks that strengthen those relationships or prevent further harm.
If money is especially tight this month, I may prioritize tasks that save money, prevent fees, or increase income.
If I'm physically exhausted, I may intentionally choose tasks that require very little energy and save more demanding tasks for another day.
If I've been feeling bored or understimulated, I may prioritize the tasks that sound the most interesting or satisfying, knowing that I'm much more likely to actually complete them.
If my available time is very limited, I may focus on tasks that can realistically be finished before I need to leave, rather than starting something that I won't have time to complete.
Once you've identified your lens, look back at your task list and ask:
"Which task best supports this priority?"
Suppose your to-do list looks like this:
Cancel streaming subscription
Schedule dentist appointment
Complete school form
Sweep the floor
Deposit check
Pay credit card bill
Notice how the "right" first task changes depending on the lens you're using.
Saving Money
I might choose: Cancel the streaming subscription or pay the credit card bill.
Because: They reduce expenses or prevent interest and late fees.
Relationships
I might choose: Complete the school form.
Because: Not doing so may lead to my child being excluded from an activity and, in turn, becoming upset with me.
Physical Energy
I might choose: Deposit the check using my banking app.
Because: It requires very little effort but still accomplishes something meaningful.
Limited Time
I might choose: Sweep the floor.
Because: It only takes a few minutes, allowing me to finish something before I need to leave.
Reducing Future Stress
I might choose: Schedule the dentist appointment.
Because: It removes a task I've likely been avoiding and may feel anxious about each time I see it on my to-do list.
Sometimes, though, you'll end up with two or three tasks that all fit your chosen priority. That's when it helps to ask a few more questions:
Do any have a deadline/consequences if not completed by a certain time?
Which one will make the rest of my day/week easier?
Which do I currently have the physical/mental capacity for?
Which one have I been avoiding because it feels emotionally uncomfortable?
If I only finished one thing today, which would I feel best about having completed?
These questions aren't meant to identify the one objectively "correct" answer. Instead, they're designed to reduce decision paralysis by giving your brain a consistent process for making choices. The goal isn't perfect prioritization. The goal is making a decision that aligns with what matters most to you at this moment.
Additional Strategies to Support Planning & Prioritization
Making Planning Easier
For big projects, write down the overall goal and just the first few steps rather than the entire project. Once you've completed those, identify the next few steps.
Pair planning with time anchoring ("I'll do this at 2:00 p.m. for 30 minutes.").
Externalize your plans - Move your plan from your head and into a format you can see. This reduces working memory demands. You might write it in a note, sketch it out, create a vision board, accountability through telling a friend, or use a planner or task management app.
Leave “buffer time”. Unexpected things happen, time estimates are often inaccurate, and extra steps frequently emerge. Building in extra time helps prevent your whole plan from falling apart.
Work backwards from deadlines. Start with the final deadline, then identify the step before it, and the step before that. This can make it easier to determine when you realistically need to begin.
Making Decisions Easier
Reduce your options when possible. Fewer choices often make decisions easier.
Talk through your options out loud: Many ADHDers process their thinking best by talking through their options and the pros and cons of each out loud. Speaking your thoughts can feel like taking one tangled ball of yarn and slowly winding it into separate, organized balls. Check out a previous article about verbal/external processing to learn more.
Ask someone you view as thoughtful or decisive how they arrived at their decision. Understanding why they chose something can help you strengthen your own decision-making process. If possible, choose someone whose values align with yours. Just be careful not to ask too many people, as conflicting advice can increase decision paralysis.
Use a Pro/Con Chart for bigger decisions: Writing out a pro/con chart can make your thinking more visible. Just be sure you're comparing at least two realistic options (for example, staying in your current job versus accepting a new one).
When all else fails, pick the quickest, easiest, or most enjoyable task on the list. Doing something generally feels better than doing nothing at all.
Ambition vs. Capacity
A mantra I frequently say to myself that is helpful when I am planning is, “My ambition will always outweigh my capacity.” Let me explain what that means to me. This statement comes up from a part of me that is wise, compassionate, and realistic. It comes after having done a lot of work to come to a place of self acceptance. That, along with my powerful creative brain that is capable of coming up with all sorts of truly great ideas, means that the reality is: I always tend to think everything takes me less time than it actually does. There’s usually a mismatch between the physical and mental energy required to complete something and my desire to do it. There’s no judgment for myself around any of this, it simply is.
This phrase acts as a prompt to help me reality check and shift into more realistic planning.
Do I actually have the time and capacity for this thing? Is this new idea really a priority right now?
If not, then I use a digital note to capture all my ideas around that and mentally file it under the “not right now” category. I personally find that keeping those ideas essentially parked in an infinite parking lot lands much better internally than a hard “no”.
It’s taken a lot of self reflection work to be able to identify realistically how long each task takes and what the energy impact is for me, but it’s been a core piece of getting better at planning and prioritizing. I’ll explore this additional executive functioning skill of “self monitoring” more in depth later in the series.
Final Thoughts
Planning and prioritization aren't about finding the perfect plan or making the "right" decision every time. They're about reducing the amount of thinking your brain has to do in the moment so that taking action becomes a little easier. As you continue learning what works for your own brain, you'll likely discover that there isn't one planning system or prioritization strategy that fits every situation. The goal is to build a flexible toolbox you can draw from, choosing the strategies that best fit your current needs, values, energy, and circumstances.
Like all executive functioning skills, planning and prioritization improve with practice, experimentation, and self-understanding, not self-criticism. Each time you pause to ask yourself, "What matters most right now?" or "What's the next manageable step?" you're strengthening these skills while learning to work with your brain rather than against it.
Bobbi-Jo Molokken
ADHD Coach & Educator: Embrace the Muchness
*Want to learn about other executive functioning skills? Check out the other articles in our What the EF? series
*Looking for products to help with planning & prioritizing? Check out our ADHD Product Recommendations
