Maintaining Weekly Routines

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What’s my best advice for making your weekly schedule more manageable? Stop making one. Schedules and to-do lists work best when they cover only a single day. If you try to map out every hour of every week, you’ll only wind up feeling overwhelmed.

Instead of a written weekly schedule, rely on a weekly routine. For example, do household chores on Saturday mornings, set aside Tuesday and Thursday afternoons for going to the gym, and keep Wednesday evenings open for outings with friends. Once the routine is established, you won’t have to write “personal trainer, Tuesday at 5” into a schedule. You’ll head to the gym out of habit.

A pioneer in the field of coaching people with Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD), Ms. Maynard was instrumental in the development of The National Attention Deficit Disorder Association's Coaching Guidelines and a founding board member for the Institute for the Advancement of AD/HD Coaching (IAAC). She is a certified Master Practitioner of Neuro-Linguistic Programming (NLP) and utilizes a holistic health and wellness approach with her clients. Ms. Maynard lives in Washington, DC where she operates Catalytic Coaching. Sandy lectures internationally and is a regular contributor to ADDitude magazine.