I started to write an entry on how ADHD and anxiety intermingle. But there were issues raised that I need to address before I dive into that topic. First, we need to talk about prioritization. Prioritization is an aspect of task management. I don’t write blog posts on my system for task management because I like to save that for my clients, and I’m working on a book on topic. One of my favorite prioritization models is William Covey’s Covey quadrants. Check it out here. I don’t really like to think of this quadrants. I just think of categories. And the bottom line is, that for those of us with ADHD, we only want to concern ourselves with the first two categories. If it is not important we shouldn’t waste our time with it. I think my next post will be about what is important. So put a pin in that for later.
So really we are dealing with things that are important and urgent and things that are important but not urgent. But I recently had an epiphany that importance and urgency both exist on a spectrum. They’re not black-and-white concepts. So for everything you need to do you need to assess both importance and urgency. I visualize mapping points on an X and Y axis. But reality is much squishier. I think we really only get in trouble with prioritization when we are anxious and try to overthink it.
The reality Is that there isn’t a magical perfect order to do things in. As long as you’re not avoiding the elephant at the top of your list, it largely doesn’t matter what order you do things in. Everything you get done is a victory, as long as it is inherently important. There’s that word important again. Keep that pin for later.
Decision-making is not an executive function. But it is executive function adjacent. (I’m sure I’ve written on decision-making. Feel free to check out other entries on that topic.) But prioritization is just decision-making. Think about that for a second. For me this was a pretty big revelation. In the context of my clients, at least 75% of people tell me in the first session or in the consultation that prioritization is one of the things they want to work on. Over the years I’ve noticed that either they know what to work on but they’re avoiding it because of poor attention or anxiety, or they struggle with decision-making. I’m starting to think that prioritization actually isn’t its own standalone skill.
I would suggest no longer thinking about prioritization. I would suggest thinking about decision-making and execution. I’d be willing to bet if you think you struggle with prioritization, you actually struggle with one or both of those particular things. And feel free to email me if you find this to be the case… or if you find out I’m full of it. Either way, I’d appreciate the data.