1. Understanding Executive Function: What It Is and Why It Matters

2. The Zoom Out, Zoom In Dance: A Foundation for Better Productivity

3. Task Analysis: Slicing the Bread Loaf

4. The Art of Prioritization: Deciding What Matters Now

5. The Daily Aiming Ritual: Putting Prioritization into Practice

6. Building Your Productivity System: Backlogs and Daily Todo Lists

In my previous posts (linked above), I introduced the concept of executive function, explored the "Zoom Out, Zoom In Dance" that separates planning from execution, discussed how to break down complex projects through Task Analysis, examined prioritization frameworks, shared the Daily Aiming Ritual, and explored how to build sustainable backlog and todo systems. Now I want to address a critical aspect of planning that ties these elements together: designing time management systems that work with your brain rather than against it.

This post completes our exploration of planning implementation by addressing when and how you'll tackle the tasks you've identified. Effective time management during planning sets the stage for successful execution - creating the conditions that support your work rather than becoming another source of stress.

The Planning vs. Execution Distinction in Time Management

Before diving in, I want to clarify an important distinction. Time management occurs in two distinct phases that require different approaches:

Time Management in Planning (our focus today) involves creating realistic schedules based on your energy patterns, developing accurate estimation skills, designing flexible structures for when particular tasks will occur, and integrating calendar systems with task management. It also includes thoughtfully arranging your environment to support time awareness during execution.

Time Management in Execution (which I'll address in a future post) involves maintaining awareness of time's passage during execution of tasks, recognizing when you've gone off schedule, and making real-time adaptations as unexpected events occur or tasks take longer than anticipated.

This distinction matters because the skills needed to address the challenges characteristic of each phase are fundamentally different. Today, I'll focus on the planning phase which involves learning how to create structured schedules that set you up for success.

The Foundation: Setting Up Time Awareness Supports

A critical planning aspect of time management that often gets overlooked is setting up systems to support time awareness. Before you can create effective schedules, you need reliable ways to perceive time's passage accurately.

Martin, a graphic designer with ADHD, would regularly find himself shocked to discover that three hours had passed when it felt like thirty minutes. This time perception challenge made sticking to any schedule nearly impossible, regardless of how well it was designed.

During our planning sessions, I worked with Martin to develop "time anchors" e.g., environmental supports to help Martin support and maintain his awareness of time's passage:

1. Sensory anchors: We identified several options that felt right for his workspace and preferences:

   • A subtle chiming clock that marked quarter hours

   • A visual Time Timer that showed time elapsing graphically

   • Playlists of a specific duration that created an intuitive sense of how much time had passed

2. Body-based anchors: We also incorporated physical reminders:

   • A hydration schedule that naturally marked time through the ritual of refilling his water bottle

   • Brief movement breaks at regular intervals

   • Paying attention to hunger signals as rough indicators of larger time blocks

What made these strategies effective was that they worked with Martin's sensory preferences rather than against them. He particularly resonated with auditory cues, so we emphasized those in his system. For clients with different sensory profiles, I might recommend more visual or movement-based cues.

The physical manifestation of time awareness is remarkable. Many clients report a shift from feeling constantly surprised by time ("It's 3pm already?") to developing an embodied sense, a feeling of time's flow. This physical awareness creates the foundation for more effective scheduling.

The Estimation Challenge: Understanding Task Duration

Even with improved time awareness, another fundamental challenge often undermines time management systems: inaccurate estimation of how long tasks actually take.

Elena, a marketing executive I worked with, consistently scheduled one hour for her weekly report when the task reliably took 90-120 minutes. Each week, this miscalculation would trigger a cascading schedule breakdown as each subsequent task got pushed later, creating a growing sense of being behind and increasing stress throughout the day.

This "planning fallacy" - our tendency to underestimate task duration - affects nearly everyone. But I've observed that it's often amplified in those with executive function challenges due to several factors:

1. Incomplete visualization: Difficulty clearly thinking through each and every step involved in completing a task

2. Transition blindness: Forgetting to account for setup, context-switching, and wrap-up time

3. State-dependent estimation: Your current energy level dramatically influences your perception of your future capacity

4. Optimism bias: The persistent belief that "this time will be different," despite contrary evidence

I've found that addressing this challenge requires both awareness and systematic correction. I often ask clients to conduct a simple experiment: for one week, track the actual time their regular tasks take compared to their estimates. This data-gathering approach removes judgment and creates awareness of personal patterns.

Rebecca, a professor with significant estimation challenges, discovered through this exercise that she consistently underestimated writing tasks by 50-75% while slightly overestimating administrative tasks. This insight allowed her to apply appropriate adjustment factors to different categories of work, dramatically improving scheduling accuracy.

What I find particularly striking from an embodied perspective is how variations in your physiological and emotional state actually affect how you estimate. When you're feeling energized and optimistic during your planning session, you're likely to create schedules that assume your high-energy state will persist throughout execution. Being aware of this bias and intentionally adjusting for it helps you create more realistic schedules.

Calendar Approaches: Finding Your System

The calendar system you use for time management isn't neutral - it interacts with your cognitive style and sensory processing patterns in important ways. During planning, selecting the right approach can dramatically affect your ability to create and maintain an effective schedule.

Some key dimensions to consider when evaluating calendar systems:

1. Digital vs. Analog: Digital calendars excel at synchronization, automation, and notifications, while paper systems offer tactile engagement and save you from screen fatigue.

2. Visual Density: Some people process information better with detailed, comprehensive calendar views showing multiple weeks, while others get overwhelmed and need simplified daily or weekly views.

3. Planning Horizon: Calendar systems vary in how effectively they represent different time horizons - from daily details to monthly overviews to annual perspectives.

4. Integration Capabilities: How well does the calendar connect with your task management system and other productivity tools?

Thomas, a consultant with ADHD, struggled with standard calendar formats that showed time in equal hour blocks. He found a specialized calendar that used variable-sized blocks to visually represent the actual duration of events, which dramatically improved his ability to plan realistically. This visual approach matched his cognitive style in a way that standard calendars didn't.

Conversely, Jenna, a designer with sensory sensitivity, found digital calendars overwhelming. The bright screens, notification sounds, and dense information contributed to sensory overload. She switched over to using a simple paper planner with a margin layout that gave each day breathing room. She used colored pencils to make clear different categories of activities, which improved her planning experience significantly.

The best calendar approach is rarely the most feature-rich but rather the one that both provides the best fit for your specific cognitive and sensory needs, and avoids unnecessary complexity and additional cognitive load.

Bridging Systems: Calendar and Task Integration

A critical aspect of time management planning is effectively integrating your calendar system (when things happen) with your task management system (what needs to be done). These two systems often exist in separate tools or mental spaces, creating a disconnect between intentions and execution.

Nathan, a business consultant I work with, maintained an impressive task management system in Todoist and a meticulously organized calendar in Google Calendar. Yet he still found himself missing important tasks and deadlines. As we explored his process, I realized that while both systems were well-maintained individually, they weren't effectively communicating with each other. Tasks with deadlines weren't consistently reflected on his calendar, and calendar commitments weren't factored into his daily task selection.

This integration challenge is particularly significant for those with executive function difficulties, as it requires having enough energy to manage consistently keeping two separate systems updated, each with content from the other.

Some time and task integration approaches I've found effective include:

1. Time-blocking for task categories: Allocating specific calendar blocks for categories of tasks rather than individual items

2. Task-to-calendar workflows: Creating automated or manual systems to ensure deadline-based tasks appear on the calendar

3. Calendar-first planning: Using the calendar as the primary planning tool, with task lists serving as inputs to calendar decisions rather than separate systems

4. Unified tools: For some clients, using a single tool that handles both calendar and task management reduces the integration burden

This integration isn't just about efficiency – it directly impacts the psychological experience of time management. When calendar and task systems are disconnected, it creates a persistent sense of uncertainty ("Am I forgetting something?") that increases cognitive load and anxiety.

Scheduling Approaches: Timeboxing vs. Timeslotting

When approaching time management planning, I've found it valuable to distinguish between two fundamentally different approaches: timeboxing and timeslotting. Each serves a different purpose and works better for different types of executive function challenges.

Timeslotting involves scheduling specific tasks for specific times. For example, "Write quarterly report from 10:00-11:30am." This approach provides very concrete guidance and works well for clients who benefit from external structure and clear expectations. However, it's vulnerable to estimation errors and can create significant stress when things take longer than planned.

Timeboxing involves allocating limited time to make progress on tasks without necessarily completing them. For example, "Work on quarterly report for 90 minutes in the morning." This approach focuses on input (time spent) rather than output (task completion) and creates more flexibility for complex tasks with uncertain durations.

Katherine, a financial analyst with significant anxiety around task completion, would create detailed timeslotted schedules that inevitably fell apart when tasks took longer than estimated. This created a devastating cycle of perceived failure and self-criticism. When we shifted her to a timeboxing approach for complex analytical tasks, her anxiety decreased significantly. The focus on "working on" rather than "completing" tasks within specific time windows created psychological safety while still providing helpful structure.

Conversely, Michael, a teacher with ADHD, found timeboxing too ambiguous during planning. The open-ended nature of "work on grading for two hours" left too much room for distraction and task-switching. He benefited from more specific timeslotting: "Grade economics papers from 3:00-4:00pm, then switch to biology quizzes from 4:00-5:00pm."

The interaction between different scheduling approaches and nervous system regulation patterns is quite revealing. Timeboxing often works better for those whose anxiety is triggered by perceived failure or rigid expectations, while timeslotting typically works better for those who struggle with sustaining focus without concrete endpoints. The most effective time management system often involves strategically combining both approaches based on task type and your personal regulatory needs.

Energy-Aligned Scheduling: Working With Your Natural Rhythms

With improved time awareness, more accurate estimation, and integrated systems, we can address perhaps the most crucial aspect of effective time management: aligning your schedule with your body's natural energy rhythms.

Traditional scheduling approaches focus on logical task sequencing or deadline proximity. The embodied approach I teach emphasizes matching task types to your natural energy fluctuations throughout the day.

David, a software developer I work with, noticed a distinct pattern in his energy and focus: mornings brought clear, analytical thinking perfect for complex coding; early afternoons saw a significant energy dip; and late afternoons brought a different kind of energy - less focused but more creative and associative. Despite recognizing this pattern, he continued scheduling his most difficult coding for early afternoon because that's when team meetings ended, leaving him feeling frequently frustrated.

David's productivity and satisfaction dramatically improved when we restructured his schedule to align with his natural rhythms e.g., complex coding in the morning, administrative and simpler tasks during the afternoon dip, and exploratory or creative work in the late afternoon.

This energy-aligned approach isn't just about preferences – it's about working with your neurobiological reality. Research shows that we naturally cycle through periods of higher and lower alertness (ultradian rhythms), typically in 90-120 minute waves. These patterns are influenced by circadian rhythms, food intake, movement, and other physiological factors.

To implement this energy-aligned approach effectively, I recommend that you:

1. Track your energy patterns: Notice when you naturally feel most alert, creative, focused, social, or fatigued. Look for consistent patterns across days.

2. Categorize your tasks: Identify which tasks require intense focus, creative thinking, social energy, or can be done even when energy is lower.

3. Match tasks to energy states: Schedule your most demanding or important work during your peak energy periods; reserve lower-energy periods for routine tasks or breaks.

4. Honor your need for recovery: Include intentional breaks or lighter activities following intense work periods.

What makes this approach particularly valuable for those with executive function challenges is that it reduces the overall self-regulation burden. When you schedule demanding tasks during naturally higher-capacity periods, you need less willpower to maintain focus and motivation.

Recovery and Renewal Planning: The Missing Element

A critical element of time management that traditional approaches often neglect is the intentional planning of recovery and renewal periods. In my clinical practice, I've observed that many highly productive individuals manage to be productive without working constantly, instead strategically switching back and forth between focused work and deliberate recovery.

Sophia, a nonprofit director I worked with, initially scheduled her days as solid blocks of work from 8am until 6pm. She was perpetually exhausted and found her effectiveness declining as each day progressed. When we examined her patterns, we realized she was ignoring her body's natural need for recovery cycles throughout the day.

We restructured her schedule to include three types of renewal:

1. Micro-recoveries: Brief 2-5 minute breaks between tasks for stretching, breathing, or simply shifting attention

2. Ultradian breaks: Longer 15-20 minute recovery periods roughly every 90 minutes of focused work

3. Full recharge blocks: 30-60 minute periods during her natural energy dips for complete mental shifts (walking, meditation, social connection)

This approach didn't reduce Sophia's productive output. Instead, it actually increased her output by ensuring she began each work period from a place of renewed energy and focus. It also dramatically reduced her stress and improved her subjective experience of work.

My clinical observations have consistently helped me to understand that recovery cycles aren't just mental preferences, but instead reflect fundamental physiological needs. Your nervous system, attention networks, and glucose metabolism all operate optimally when you allow yourself appropriate recovery periods. Ignoring your recovery needs is similar to driving a car without ever stopping for gas, which is to say, eventually you'll run out of gas if you don't stop to refresh yourself.

External Constraints: Navigating the Reality of Commitments

One of the more challenging aspects of time management involves navigating the tension between externally imposed time constraints (like meetings, deadlines and commitments to others) and your internal work rhythms. This tension creates significant stress for many of my clients, particularly those with executive function challenges.

James, a marketing manager, found himself constantly torn between his organization's meeting-heavy culture and his need for blocks of focused time that aligned with his energy peaks. The tension left him feeling perpetually out of sync, with him missing his optimal work windows due to meetings he couldn't opt out of, and struggling to participate effectively in meetings scheduled at times his energy had dipped.

I worked with James to develop several strategies for managing external constraints during planning:

1. Protected blocks: I encouraged him to identify his normal peak energy windows and then to assertively advocate to keep those times as meeting-free as possible

2. Strategic attendance: We analyzed which meetings truly required his real-time participation and which he could contribute to asynchronously

3. Preparation shifts: To help manage immovable meetings occuring at non-ideal times, we encouraged James to develop pre-meeting routines to help himself shift his energy state to one more in sync with the meeting

4. Recovery buffers: I encouraged him to schedule a brief buffer for himself after draining meetings to help him reset before attempting focused work

5. Transparent communication: We selectively shared James' work pattern needs with key colleagues, encouraging him to seek out mutually beneficial adjustments

One noteworthy aspect of this tension is how it often manifests physically, for instance in symptoms like headaches, digestive issues, or sleep disturbances. These physical signals are more than just stress responses; they also offer you important feedback about misalignment between external demands and internal rhythms that you would be best off addressing in your time management system.

Implementation Intention Planning: Bridging Plan to Action

One powerful strategy that bridges time management planning and execution involves setting "implementation intentions", which are specific if-then plans for when, where, and how you'll complete tasks. Creating these detailed plans during the planning phase significantly increases the likelihood that you will successfully complete those plans.

Rather than just scheduling "Work on presentation" from 2:00-4:00pm, an implementation intention would specify: "At 2:00pm, I will go to the quiet corner desk, close my email, put on my focus playlist, and open PowerPoint to continue working on the sales presentation outline."

Lisa, a researcher with significant task-initiation difficulties, would schedule appropriate work blocks but then struggle to actually begin the planned tasks. We discovered that the transition from seeing a task on her calendar to actually starting the work involved numerous small decisions (where to sit, which materials to use, how to set up her environment) that created enough friction to stall her momentum.

By developing detailed implementation intentions during planning, Lisa dramatically improved her follow-through. The specificity of her implementation intentions helped protect Lisa from having to make decisions during the vulnerable task initiation phase, reducing the "friction" Lisa experienced when moving from intention to action.

A useful feature of implementation intentions is that they can include physical state considerations, conecting your physical state to your tasks. For instance, you might create the following implementation intention to help you manage stress associated with executing a task: "If I notice myself getting tense while writing, then I will take three deep breaths and roll my shoulders before continuing." Physical components of implementation intentions can help you better manage the regulatory aspects of task execution that threaten to derail your productivity.

Creating implementation intentions during planning saves your cognitive resources during execution, when your ability to make decisions might be compromised by stress or fatigue. This approach applies the "Zoom Out, Zoom In Dance" we discussed earlier where you make detailed decisions during planning mode so that your execution model can proceed more smoothly.

Culminating Application: Backwards Planning from Deadlines

Now that we've explored the foundational elements of time management for planning, let's look at how they come together in perhaps their most powerful application: backwards planning from deadlines. This approach combines task breakdown, estimation, calendar integration, and energy alignment to create realistic timelines for complex, deadline-driven projects.

Backwards planning involves starting with your end goal and deadline, then working backwards to determine when each component task needs to be completed. This creates a roadmap that distributes work intelligently across the available time rather than leaving everything to the last minute.

Amanda, a writer with ADHD, struggled with meeting book chapter deadlines. She would either start too late and face impossible time pressure, or begin too early and lose focus on more immediately pressing tasks. Using backwards planning transformed her approach:

1. Starting point clarity: We identified her final deadline and specific deliverable requirements

2. Milestone identification: We broke the chapter into logical and sequenced work components (research, outlining, drafting, revising, final editing)

3. Duration estimation: For each component, Amanda estimated how much time she needed to get it done, applying her known adjustment factors while doing this (she typically underestimated writing time by 60%)

4. Buffer allocation: We added appropriate buffer time between milestones, with more buffer for higher-uncertainty tasks

5. Energy alignment: We scheduled first drafts during her creative peak times and editing during her analytical periods

6. Recovery planning: We explicitly included recovery periods following intense writing sessions

7. Calendar integration: All milestones and working sessions were added to her calendar, with implementation intentions

8. Visualization: Amanda created a visual timeline showing the complete path from start to deadline

What made this approach powerful was that it transformed the deadline from a distant pressure point to a series of manageable steps with clear starting points. It also allowed Amanda to confidently focus on other work when chapter tasks weren't scheduled, knowing she had a realistic plan in place.

One of the most significant benefits of backwards planning is how it redistributes deadline anxiety. Rather than procrastinating while your deadline remains far off, experiencing mounting dread as it approaches and finally getting to work at the last minute, the backwards planning method spreads out the emotional energy associated with the deadline across multiple smaller milestone deadlines which are closer in time than the final deadline. Each milestone you complete provides you a sense of progress and relief, creating momentum that helps you avoid procrastination.

The execution aspects of managing deadline anxiety will be covered in a future post. For now, know that taking the time to create this distributed milestone structure during your planning creates the conditions for you to experience better emotional regulation later on as you execute. For many of my clients, especially those prone to procrastination, this method for deliberately managing and spreading out deadline anxiety is a motivational lifesaver.

The backwards planning approach requires all the skills we've discussed: task breakdown, realistic estimation, calendar-task integration, energy alignment, and creation of detailed implementation intentions. It represents the culmination of effective planning-phase time management.

Integration with the Daily Aiming Ritual

Time management planning doesn't exist in isolation, but instead integrates directly with the Daily Aiming Ritual you read about in Post #5. During your morning planning session, time management becomes a key component of deciding what to work on and when.

The Daily Aiming Ritual provides the daily reflection point where you can:

• Review your calendar to see the day's commitments

• Check your energy level and adjust task selection accordingly

• Identify priority tasks and assign them to appropriate time blocks

• Create implementation intentions for key transitions

• Ensure recovery periods are acknowledged and protected

• Make adjustments based on the previous day's learnings

This regular practice helps your time management skills shift from a very effortful theoretical exercise to a spontaneous and embodied daily habit. Over time and with practice, the approaches I've shared become more intuitive and require less of your conscious effort. The Daily Aiming Ritual provides the structured space to maintain and refine these planning practices.

Implementing Your Personalized System

Bringing these concepts together will require you to experiment and personalize. The most effective time management system is one you create to best align with your unique patterns and needs. I encourage my clients to approach building your system more as a continuous practice and ongoing process and less like a static solution.

Start with awareness of your patterns: your time perception tendencies, estimation accuracy, energy fluctuations, and transition needs. Use this awareness to design a preliminary system, then refine it as you use it so that it improves over time.

Remember that the purpose of a time management system isn't to guarantee your perfect adherence to a plan. Instead it is about creating the supportive structure that helps you best direct your energy toward what you think matters most. Some days will go according to plan but many won't. That's normal and okay. The goal is for you to build a system resilient enough to adapt to reality as you find it while still providing you helpful guidance.

In my next post, I'll introduce a new concept that builds on everything we've explored so far: "The Rhythm of Productivity" – a framework for understanding the different types of transitions needed during productive work. This will begin our exploration of the transition rituals that can help you navigate smoothly between different modes of work.

This is the seventh in a series exploring executive function and productivity. In my next post, I'll introduce "The Rhythm of Productivity" – a framework for understanding the different types of transitions needed during productive work.