Why Checklists are Important for ADHD Productivity | ADHD and Checklists
Are you an ADHD mom or ADHD entrepreneur looking to improve your productivity, feel more organized, and make fewer mistakes?
✋✋✋"Um, yes, please! That's me! I want that!" ✋✋✋
Drumroll please…
I give you the humble checklist...
While it may seem like a mere list of tasks that you repeat so often it would be hard to believe anyone would need it, I can tell you from personal experience that I personally need to reference my checklists on a daily basis.
And that is why we are going to talk about why checklists can be a crucial key to ADHD productivity and keeping your head above water as an ADHD mom and ADHD business owner.
ADHD Executive Function and Difficulty Completing Tasks
Have you ever sent out an email newsletter only to realize you forgot to add the links to the product you’re promoting? Or posted on social media and realized you forgot to add hashtags (are hashtags still a thing…I’m so out of it on social media?) Or maybe you’re driving your kids to school and they realize they forgot their lunch on the counter.
There are many executive functions involved with completing a task…
You have to remember you want to do said task.
You have to decide the steps.
You have to remember all the steps you’ve decided are necessary.
You have initiate action on those steps.
AND you have to remember where you left off if you happen to get distracted or change tasks before the first task is complete.
Let’s just say, completing a task, even a small one, can feel very overwhelming for someone with executive function challenges.
I like to think of a checklist as a recipe...If you make the recipe 50x you would most likely remember all the ingredients and steps.
But what happens when you do miss a key ingredient? Or forget a step?
If a friend or family member asked you for the recipe, could you guarantee you would remember all the ingredients and measurements and steps?
A checklist is like a recipe for your regularly executed tasks in your business and home life.
5 Benefits of Checklists for ADHD Moms and ADHD Entrepreneurs
You may have read in a blog or seen in a YouTube video or heard from your coach or therapist that checklists are an important tool for those of use with ADHD. But why? How can they help make our lives easier?
Here are just a few of the ways checklists can benefit ADHD moms and ADHD business owners…
1. Checklists help you forget fewer steps because you won’t rely on your memory to remember all the steps or what the next move is. I cannot tell you the number of times I’ve left out a crucial step in a task I regularly for myself, my clients, or my family. It’s so easy to just focus on getting something done that we might skip over a step that could result in our marketing reaching fewer potential customers, our clients not receiving the benefits they paid for in our services, or cost us valuable time re-doing a task because we forgot a step. Which brings us to reason number 2 why checklists help improve our ADHD productivity…
2. Checklists help you make fewer mistakes. When all of the steps you need to complete the task are written down and you use that list as a guide, no matter how many times you’ve done this task in the past, you are much less likely to make a costly mistake. And when I talk costs, I’m not just referring to money, which isn’t great to lose. Mistakes can also cost you time, which I don’t know about your work and home life, but I don’t exactly have a lot of time for rework between running a business and running kids to school and soccer and swimming and friend’s houses. Mistakes can also cost you clout or expertise points. For instance, if I don’t follow my post client checklist, I may forget to schedule a follow up message we discussed on our call which could cause them to forget an important task I was supposed to support them in. That’s not going to look real great for me as an accountability coach.
3. Checklists improve your productivity because you don’t waste time recreating the wheel for tasks you regularly repeat. Rather than trying to remember all the different steps to take in order to invoice a client, write a blog post, or package an order for shipment, you simply review and check off the steps as you go along or see where you left off if you stopped before you completed a task.
4. Checklists make it easier for you to initiate tasks because you won’t need to expend precious executive function energy deciding what the next move is on a task or which step you need to do first. Decision making and prioritization are both energy draining executive functions that can make task initiation even harder. That’s why already knowing the steps you need to take or which step comes next can make task initiation easier for us ADHDers.
5. Checklists make it easier to delegate tasks to someone else in your business or home life. It will show someone the exact steps they need to take to complete the task from start to finish. Or take over from where you left off. You may have heard the business term “SOP” which stands for Standard Operating Procedure. And SOP is a standardized checklist so that anyone in your organization can follow the necessary steps to complete tasks and achieve consistent results. SOPs aren’t just for your business…you can standardize how you clean the bathroom or pay the bills so that your spouse or kids can easily help out and complete tasks.
How to Grab My Customizable Checklists for ADHD Mom Entrepreneurs
I use checklists all over my home and business to help act as my brain.
We have checklists by the front door so that we don’t forget anything for school or soccer practice. My boys have them in their room to remember the steps to clean their room or get dressed in the morning.
I use them for my business daily to remember all the steps for creating a podcast or YouTube video, sending an email to my community, or post on social media.
I'm amazed at how offloading these simple, everyday tasks frees me up for more focused work and creative thinking.
And I want you to use all your big, beautiful brainpower to build the business and family life you know deep down is possible. Creating and using checklists helps you make fewer decisions about what to do, make fewer mistakes in the process, and complete essential tasks while freeing up bandwidth to create something amazing!
You can easily create your own checklists by writing down all the steps in a process the next time you do it.
OR, if you’re an ADHD mom business owner, you can grab my FREE and customizable 11 Essential Checklists for ADHD Mompreneurs by clicking here.
And if you don’t have a business but you want the benefits of checklists in your home and personal life too, you can grab my 20 Home and Personal Checklists for just $17 by clicking here. (Bonus tip: they’re only $7 if you sign up for my email list by grabbing my checklists for ADHD mompreneurs. 👍) These checklists are also customizable and come with a video explaining how to make them fit your family’s needs.
In this ADHD-friendly checklist collection, I’ve included 11 customizable checklists for your home and personal life covering everything from housecleaning to daily routines to tax prep and 9 customizable checklists for your kids including daily routines and out the door lists for school, sports, or lessons.
And if you’re thinking you want to create your own systems and checklists but you’re struggling with where to start or what to do, I would like to help! As part of my ADHD coaching program, I meet with my clients weekly to discuss what they need to do to get them closer to their goals as well as any challenging areas where they need to develop better coping skills. Then I follow up with them throughout the week to see how things are going or if they need any additional help.
To see if I’m the ADHD coach for you, click the button below to schedule your free, no-obligation call with me…
