0:04

Welcome to Hackinger ADHD. Part

0:06

of the ADHD rewired podcast

0:08

network I'm your host, William

0:10

Kirby, and I have ADHD. On

0:13

this podcast, I dig into the tools, tactics,

0:15

and

0:15

best practices help you work with your ADHD

0:18

brain. Hey, team. This week, we're talking

0:20

about our weeks and how we can get more out

0:22

of them with weekly review. The

0:25

idea behind a weekly review is that

0:27

we're looking back on how things went and using

0:29

that to help us figure out how we want our

0:31

next week to go. In this episode,

0:33

we're going to be going over the benefits of performing

0:36

a weekly review. Look at some of the ways that

0:38

we can make doing it easier and then get into

0:40

the nitty gritty of how to actually perform them.

0:42

If you'd like to follow along with the show notes page,

0:45

you can find that at hacking your ad

0:47

h d dot com slash weekly

0:49

review. Alright. Keep on listening

0:51

to find out how what we did last week

0:53

is going to affect what we do next week and how

0:55

we can put all that

0:56

to good use. This

1:05

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2:49

Let's get started by

2:51

talking about what a weekly review is and

2:54

what the point is because I feel like that's an

2:56

idea that comes up a lot with planning.

2:58

What's the point of planning if I have ADHD?

3:00

Am I just gonna forget what I planned?

3:03

Well, we'll get to that. First, what

3:05

is a weekly review or reset

3:07

or preview or whatever you want to call

3:09

it. And all of those names work pretty well

3:11

for what we're looking to get done here. Although

3:14

I'm a bit partial to reset a lot of the time

3:16

because I like the idea of clearing out

3:18

my systems to get ready for the next week.

3:20

And that's really what we're trying to do

3:22

with the weekly review. We're

3:24

looking back at the past week so that we can

3:26

get ready for the next week. We'll

3:28

get into what all that entails in a little but

3:31

what we're trying to do is figure out what

3:33

we did, what worked, and what didn't

3:35

work, and then how we can apply that

3:37

to what we're going to do next week.

3:40

I know that sounds like a lot, but

3:42

we only have to do what going to work for us. We

3:44

don't have to do everything that I talk about in this

3:46

episode. One of the biggest keys

3:48

for us is keeping it short and simple

3:51

and doing what works for us. So

3:53

your weekly review may end up being shorter

3:55

than what I do, or it could be a lot more

3:57

involved. It just depends on what you

3:59

want. I've already

4:01

touched on why we want to do the weekly review

4:04

by describing its function. By looking

4:06

back at the past, it gives us a clearer

4:08

picture of how we're doing and that can be

4:10

incredibly helpful for us looking into the next

4:12

week. It can be hard to see where you're going,

4:15

if you don't know where you've been and specifically

4:17

where you're at right now.

4:19

The weekly review helps give

4:21

us clarity into what's going on in our

4:23

life as well as helping us keep track

4:26

of our future planning. Now,

4:28

just as importantly as to what the weekly

4:30

review is, it's also important to

4:32

understand what it isn't. And

4:34

namely, that means it is not a time

4:36

to beat ourselves over what we haven't

4:38

gotten done or what we did wrong. When

4:41

we're looking back, It is incredibly

4:43

easy to slip into self judgment

4:45

and get down on ourselves over all those things we

4:47

were supposed to do, but just didn't.

4:50

Trust me when I tell you that no one gets

4:52

through everything on their to do list. We

4:54

all are always going to have more to

4:56

do. And let me tell you we all have

4:58

things on our to do list that have been on there

5:01

way too long that we've just never

5:03

got around to doing. Important things.

5:05

I know I sure have a lot of things that

5:07

I've been meaning to get to, but just haven't executed

5:09

on. In fact, I have an appointment

5:11

on my list that I miss three years ago and have

5:13

yet to reschedule. And you know

5:15

as some accountability, I'm going to get that

5:17

scheduled before I release this episode because I

5:19

really do need to get that checked up on.

5:22

But yes, we all have those

5:24

things that we know we ought to do, but

5:26

for whatever reason we don't follow through on.

5:28

And it's really important that we're not using this

5:30

review to beat ourselves up about them.

5:33

The review is a time for us to

5:35

figure out what we're doing next. based

5:37

on what has already happened and

5:39

that's not going to work if we're focused on the

5:41

wrong things. This means

5:43

our review is also about not overplanning

5:45

ourselves into doing nothing. When

5:47

we're looking back at what worked and what didn't,

5:50

if we see that we overplanned last week,

5:52

Well, we can file that away for

5:54

next week as one of those things that didn't

5:56

work and we should try and avoid. We're

5:59

just looking to create some guidelines our future

6:01

self to help us do all those things that we

6:03

want to do, but just have a little bit

6:05

of trouble remembering that we do want to

6:07

do them. and this helps give us that

6:09

clarity.

6:18

This all sounds well and good, but I

6:20

also know it can feel incredibly overwhelming

6:22

to sit down to do a weekly review and realize

6:24

that we just don't know where to start.

6:26

I've definitely been there, where

6:28

I know it's a good idea, but I have no

6:30

idea what to do when I sit down to do

6:32

it. Even if I have an idea of

6:34

where to start, it can feel overwhelming. So

6:37

my first suggestion here is that we help ease

6:39

ourselves into it. This means that

6:41

we really want to carve out time to do

6:43

this. Now, the amount of time you're

6:45

going to need is going to depend on a lot how

6:47

much you choose that you wanna do. When

6:49

we're starting out simpler is always

6:51

going to be better. And that means we probably

6:53

don't need as much time, although

6:55

we are going to have to have some

6:58

transitions into making sure this works.

7:00

So let's shoot for something around fifteen

7:02

minutes. And when you're scheduling

7:04

this, make sure to add a bit more time on

7:06

your calendar to help yourself put that transition

7:08

in and out. So you may wanna schedule for

7:10

more around thirty minutes if that's something that

7:12

you can swing. We'll also be

7:14

helpful as working with a timer here to help keep you

7:16

on track. I like to use visual timers

7:18

like the time timer, but anything that will help

7:20

you get reminded of how long every little piece

7:22

takes will be helpful. And

7:25

to be sure, we want to treat this with the

7:27

importance of any other work task we

7:29

might have to do. So really put this

7:31

in your calendar. You also might want to

7:33

create a playlist of songs to listen to while

7:35

you do your view. Anything that will help you

7:37

get in the groove of doing this thing

7:39

and that'll help QU into focusing in

7:41

on this and that it's

7:43

a real task because this isn't just a

7:46

imaginary, oh, this would be nice. The

7:48

more we treat this like a real task, the

7:50

better we'll be on following through.

7:52

And the real advantage of planning comes when

7:54

we can work on doing this consistently. which

7:57

I know sounds really intimidating with

7:59

ADHD. If we treat

8:01

this like something that we'll just get to when

8:03

we have the time, well, we're just not going to

8:05

get to it. This

8:07

also brings up the question of when

8:09

we should be doing our weekly review. But

8:11

the answer is really going to be up to

8:13

you. Personally, I like doing mine on Friday

8:16

afternoons before my kids are home from school.

8:18

For me, I know that my weekends tend to

8:20

be too much in the air to follow through on getting

8:22

my review done then. but really

8:24

whenever works for you is going to be the

8:26

best. Maybe you can dedicate a bit of

8:28

time on Sunday afternoon. That would be

8:30

great. Maybe you want to start your Monday morning with a

8:32

review of last week and getting clear for this

8:35

week. Also, great. Or

8:37

maybe the only time you have is on Wednesday,

8:39

And you want to do the reset then so you can finish

8:41

off your week strong, and that would

8:44

also work. The point is building the

8:46

time into your day so you can actually follow

8:48

through with your intention. of doing review.

8:51

Another thing that can be helpful for going through

8:53

the review is doing a quick declutter and

8:55

clearing off your desk. and

8:57

decluttering is a great way to frame our weekly

8:59

review. We're pulling ideas out of our head and

9:01

moving things around. We're

9:03

decluttering our brain and getting ourselves into the

9:05

right space. start off the next

9:06

week strong.

9:16

Now, before we jump into the how to

9:18

section, I'd also like to stress that we're not trying to

9:20

take a lot of time here for this process.

9:22

We want to make things quick and

9:24

easy as we can. So while we could really

9:26

go into some of the questions and ideas

9:29

here, you don't need to. If

9:31

something isn't driving with you, feel free to

9:33

skip it. Remember, this is your view, so

9:35

do it in a way that's going to keep you engaged

9:37

with it. One of the ways I like

9:39

to start my review is with a quick five

9:41

minute brain dump about my ideas from the

9:43

week. Just getting down whatever is up in my

9:45

head and taking up space. so then I

9:47

can focus on the review. With our

9:49

brain dump out of the way, we can start

9:51

reflecting on how our week went. If you need to,

9:53

it can be helpful to glance over your calendar from

9:55

last week to jog your memory about what's going on

9:57

here. But remember, we're not really

9:59

looking ahead yet, and we'll get to that in just a

10:01

little bit. Questions we can

10:03

ask ourselves during this are things

10:05

like, what were my wins from this week? And

10:07

remember they don't have to be big wins, just

10:09

any wins from the week. also what

10:11

was working well and what wasn't working.

10:14

A couple of keys here are again

10:16

to remember to stay out of judgment and

10:18

to get curious. Instead of,

10:20

I didn't mote along because I was

10:22

lazy, well, what was really going on?

10:24

Did I overschedule myself?

10:26

Was I out of energy did I not

10:28

give myself enough time to get it done? And

10:30

this is important because when we sit

10:33

with the explanations like, I was

10:35

just lazy, We're not giving ourselves

10:37

anything to work with. The solution to

10:39

being lazy is to just not be

10:41

lazy. But I can create real

10:43

solutions if I have things more like

10:45

I need to make more time on my schedule to complete

10:47

tasks, or I need to build some more

10:49

accountability and to help with my follow through. The point

10:51

being that when we have strictly judgment

10:53

views of why we didn't do something, it often

10:55

doesn't help us come up with solutions.

10:58

Now with our reflection

11:00

complete, we can get to our main

11:02

decluttering at this point, and that's going to

11:04

start off with our inboxes. So

11:06

this can be email, text messages,

11:08

slash channels, anywhere that you build up

11:10

these messages that you need to get taken care

11:12

of. This can even be something like the

11:14

pictures on your phone. I know I take a

11:16

lot of pictures on my phone throughout the week. as

11:18

little reminders of things and sometimes

11:21

Okay. Well, most of the time, I forget to check back

11:23

on those pictures. So having a real time

11:25

to go through and check them is really

11:27

helpful. We can also now pull our

11:29

calendars back out. If there was

11:31

anything from the last couple of weeks that didn't get

11:33

taken care of and is still relevant,

11:35

that can be moved and then we can start looking

11:37

ahead. And since this is a weekly

11:39

review, we only want to look ahead only

11:41

about one to two weeks. What

11:43

are the things that are coming up that we need to

11:46

prepare for? Is there anything out of your normal

11:48

routine that you're going to need extra reminders

11:50

about? I have an appointment at the

11:52

bank this week, and I know that unless

11:54

I really remind myself about it,

11:56

I'm going forget because it's just not part

11:58

of my normal

11:59

routine and it's not

12:00

just the appointment that is important for me to

12:03

remember about but also that I can't do

12:05

anything else during that time slot.

12:07

Often, when I'm trying to just mentally

12:09

rehearse my week, I tend to either fudge my

12:11

time estimates or mentally

12:13

double booked tasks. So

12:15

normally, while I'd have my Wednesday afternoon

12:17

free, with that appointment in the way, I have

12:19

to shuffle around any test I'd normally

12:21

normally go Oh yeah, I can just do

12:23

that during my free time on Wednesday. With

12:25

the review, I'm making sure that I'm looking

12:27

at these things and that I'm mentally getting

12:29

these things on my radar. Sure.

12:31

I'm still going to wind up with things like,

12:33

oh, I'll do that tomorrow, and then when tomorrow comes

12:35

go, oh, no, I can't do this

12:37

right now. but this does help reduce

12:39

the frequency of such mishaps. Now

12:41

we can use all of these checks to

12:43

build our plan for the upcoming

12:45

week. We're looking back at our email and our

12:47

calendar to build the to do list and

12:49

figuring out what we can do for the

12:51

future. We're looking at what worked and

12:53

what didn't so we can change things

12:55

up where we need to. And that's

12:57

really all there is to the other view is

12:59

just looking back and figuring out

13:01

what's coming next. The review

13:03

can be a force multiplier by giving us

13:05

clarity on what's coming up and how we

13:07

want to approach it. And remember

13:09

to have some fun with it and take it easy. Don't

13:11

let perfect be the enemy of good

13:13

and do what works for

13:15

you. Thanks

13:22

for sticking with me all the way to the end.

13:24

Before you go though, let's do a quick

13:26

rundown of today's top tips. One,

13:28

The point of a weekly review is for us to

13:30

not only look back at what happened last

13:33

week, but also to use that knowledge to

13:35

help us plan how we're going to approach our

13:37

next week. It allows us to gain

13:39

clarity over what we've done and

13:41

what we want to do. Two,

13:43

When we're performing our weekly

13:45

review, it is important to keep ourselves

13:47

out of judgment. We're not

13:49

trying to beat ourselves up over anything we didn't

13:51

get to or did wrong. We're

13:53

just looking to make the next week a better

13:56

131 of the most

13:58

important things we can do to make sure we

13:59

actually complete our weekly review is to build

14:02

in the time to perform it on our

14:04

schedule. By building in and

14:06

protecting our time to perform a weekly

14:08

review, we are far more likely to follow

14:10

through with our intentions. That's

14:13

it. Thanks for listening. I'd love to hear

14:15

what you thought of this episode. You can

14:17

leave me a message over at hacking your ad

14:19

h d dot com slash

14:21

contact. You can also reach me on

14:23

Twitter at hacking your ad h d, and

14:25

I've also just launched a tip top channel that you can

14:27

find by searching for hacking your

14:29

ADHD. If you'd like links or to

14:31

read this episode's Scratch Trip, you can find

14:33

those on the show page at hackinger ad

14:35

hd dot com. If you'd

14:37

like to support the podcast, the best way is

14:39

to share episodes with someone you think would get

14:41

something out of it. Just click the share button

14:43

on your podcast player and send your bestie

14:45

the link with something like, hey, I love this

14:47

episode of hacking your ADHD. I bet you'd

14:49

get a lot out of it too. or you can

14:51

support the show through my patreon at

14:53

hacking your ad h d dot com slash

14:55

patreon. Sign up for the two

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five ten twenty five or even

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fifty dollars a month level and get some great

15:01

perks like monthly bonus content or

15:03

early access to upcoming episodes.

15:06

That's packing your ad h d dot

15:08

com slash patreon. And

15:10

be sure to check out all the other podcasts on

15:12

the ADHD rewire podcast network.

15:15

interviews with fellow ADHDers and

15:17

ADHD experts, check out Eric

15:19

Divershow ADHD Rewired. For

15:21

those of you with kids, be sure to check out

15:23

Brendan Mahan show ADHD Essentials. And

15:25

even if you don't have kids, his show is still a great

15:27

resource for ADHD management. If

15:29

you're interested in exploring issues of race and

15:32

diversity in ADHD, be sure to check out

15:34

ADHD diversified with MJ.

15:36

I also do a live q and a with all the hosts

15:38

of the ADHD rewired podcast

15:40

network on the second Tuesday of the month at ten

15:42

thirty AM pacific. If you'd like to

15:44

sign up, just go to ad h d

15:46

rewire dot com slash

15:48

events. And now for

15:50

your moment of dad, If

15:53

r two is short for R2D2

15:55

and chewie is short for

15:57

chewbacca and Annie is

15:59

short for Anakin, What's Luke Short

16:01

for? A stormtrooper.