3 Scheduling Strategies for Irregular + Unpredictable ADHD Days

You built a solid plan for your Monday. By 10am, the day has completely rearranged itself. A client needs something immediately. A meeting moved. Your kiddo is home sick. And the schedule you made starts to feel like it was written for someone else’s life.

A lot of us with ADHD have tried multiple planning approaches that promise to solve this. And while many of them work well, a lot were designed for relatively predictable days, and often for neurotypical brains. For many of us, predictability isn’t really the reality.

This episode covers three ADHD strategies for irregular schedules, built specifically for the kind of day that shifts on you. We’ll look at all three, and then talk about which one might be the most useful place for you to start.

Listen to the episode above or stream it on your favorite podcasting app. Prefer to read? No problem. Keep scrolling for a summary of key takeaways.

In Episode 361 we’re exploring:

• Why most planning systems struggle with irregular schedules, and what to do instead
• Three specific strategies for building a schedule that bends rather than breaks
• How to figure out which approach is the right starting point for your brain

When the Schedule You Built Stops Fitting

As I write this, it’s the tail end of June, right as summer really ramps up. And at least in the northern hemisphere, that tends to mean schedules have shifted, and we hit that point in the year when the planning approach that worked really well in February starts to feel like it no longer quite fits.

For our ADHD brains, a shift in structure can sometimes feel more disorienting than we expect. When the routine we’ve built starts to loosen, it’s easy for many of our brains to slide into all-or-nothing thinking. We believe our brains when they offer some version of the thought: “I can’t use a schedule right now, it just doesn’t work.”

And that might sometimes be true. But the all-or-nothing approach also limits how we think about irregular schedule ADHD planning. We find ourselves entertaining only the one approach we’ve been practicing over the last few months, as if that’s the only option. And when I slip into that all-or-nothing thinking, I find the summer, or the unpredictable stretch, or whatever season my brain is narrating, goes by in a blur.

This post is for the space between those two extremes. The gray between the black and white. We’re talking about how to design a scheduling approach that works with the unpredictability, rather than pretending it isn’t there.

And just to name it clearly: irregular schedules aren’t just a summer thing. A lot of us navigate this year-round. Some people work in fields where the unexpected is just built in. Others are caregivers for people of all ages whose days can pivot at any moment. Summer just tends to surface this reality a little more often for a little more of us.

Strategy 1: Anchor to One Priority and Keep a Running List

When a schedule is irregular, one thing that tends to happen is ADHD decision fatigue. Time opens up unexpectedly, and our brains freeze trying to figure out what to do with it. We scan the list, feel overwhelmed by all of it, and end up either doing something low-stakes or not doing much at all.

Having one anchor priority is a way to solve for that.

The idea is to identify one task (and really just one) that would move the needle most if you got it done today. Don’t worry. You can still do other things. Tell your brain to take a beat.

This is the task that, even if everything else got rearranged, when you complete it you can think: I moved the needle. I’m glad I made this happen. Whenever a window of time opens up, that’s the first place your attention goes. And the beauty here (especially for brains that deal with decision fatigue) is that there’s no deciding in the moment, because you already know.

Once the anchor task is done, you move to a running list. This is a pre-made list of tasks that matter and need to be done, but don’t require a specific time window. When space opens up and the anchor is handled, you drop into the list. The next task is already right there waiting for you.

One of my clients works in IT, handling security and systems work for a company. Part of what makes scheduling so difficult in that role is that when something goes wrong with the system (a bug surfaces, a security issue comes up), that becomes the immediate priority. Everything else waits.

What the anchor priority approach offers in that situation is clarity on both sides of the disruption. Before things go sideways, there’s a clear anchor: the most important non-urgent task. Then a disruption happens. He stops what he’s doing and dives right in, knowing that when the problem settles and a window opens again, the anchor is waiting for him. Or, if he already finished it that day, he moves down the running list that’s also ready to go. No energy spent trying to figure out where to pick back up. The list is right there.

Strategy 1 is especially useful for people navigating irregular schedules and decision fatigue. Choose your one anchor task, and have your running task list ready to go after.

Strategy 2: Clock Time vs. Event Time for ADHD Scheduling

This one starts with a concept I first heard from author and time researcher Laura Vanderkam, which I find incredibly useful for thinking about flexible ADHD planning. She talks about the difference between clock time and event time.

Clock time is the way most of us default to planning. The meeting is at 2:00. The call is at 10:00. I’ll work on this from 9 to 11. Clock time is anchored to specific hours, and for many things, that structure is exactly what we need.

Event time is different. Instead of anchoring a task to a time on the clock, we anchor it to something that’s already happening in the day. I’ll work on the proposal after the showing wraps up. I’ll answer emails when my daughter goes down for her nap. We’ll take a walk after dinner. The task still gets done. The structure is still there. And also, it’s built around the actual shape of the day (the events of the day) rather than an ideal version of it.

For people whose schedules are more irregular, event time can carry a lot more of the load than we might expect. I want to highlight this as a really effective option that often gets overlooked, because it’s not how we traditionally talk about scheduling. But for some of us, and for some kinds of work, event time is actually the more supportive and more sustainable structure.

One of my clients is a real estate agent. The nature of that work means showings, inspections, offers, and client availability can all shift quickly and often without much notice. If a deal is closing, things need to move fast.

Some things are clearly clock-time items: a showing at 10:30, a client call on Thursday at 4:00. Those stay on the clock.

But deep work (mapping out a marketing plan for the month, following up with leads, handling admin) doesn’t all need a specific clock-time slot. It just needs to happen. For people with irregular schedules, if someone runs late or something runs long, assigning those tasks to event time (“I’ll work on my outreach calls after the 10:30 showing”) means the structure moves with the day rather than fighting it. When a showing runs long, or an offer comes in unexpectedly (an excellent problem to have!), the event-time task shifts to the next anchor point. The work still happens.

Clock time and event time work together as a both-and approach. Some tasks need clock time. Others can live in event time. And for people with more irregular schedules, tilting more of the day toward event time can be a really supportive shift.

Strategy 3: Build Overflow Time Into Your ADHD Schedule on Purpose

This one can sound counterintuitive at first, especially when you have so much to do and don’t know when you’ll have time to do it all. I thought the same thing for a long time, until I finally realized I was constantly overscheduling myself, and clearly my current approach wasn’t working. My brain fought the idea of building in overflow time for a really long time, but each time it threw a tantrum about leaving some open space in the day or the week, I kept coming back to: “Well… how is the alternative working out?” Turns out it’s not.

Overflow time is planned openness. A pocket of the day or week that exists specifically to absorb whatever didn’t fit or got bumped. It might look like keeping Friday lighter so anything that shifted earlier in the week has a place to land. Or leaving afternoons open and scheduling specific tasks in the mornings. Or protecting one week per month as a lower-commitment week. You can approach this at any scale, depending on the type of work you’re doing this season.

The key is that the overflow window is already built in. When something shifts, there’s a place for it to go. The alternative, which a lot of us know well, is trying to cram the displaced task back into a week that’s already full. Which usually means either dropping it entirely or working way later than we planned trying to do it all.

I work with several project managers, and one of the patterns they often describe is something we’ve probably all faced at some point: hurry up and wait… and then race the deadline. Other people’s delays suddenly become a scheduling puzzle to solve fast. A vendor is late. A stakeholder goes quiet. A deliverable comes in two weeks behind schedule. When this happens and every hour is already spoken for, there’s nowhere for that scramble to land except on top of everything else.

Building in overflow time changes the math. When something spills or shifts, it moves into the overflow window instead of colliding with everything else on the calendar. And since they’re quite certain they’ll need that overflow at some point in the week, just not exactly when, the practice of scheduling it in works really well. For the once-in-a-blue-moon-on-a-Tuesday when it doesn’t happen and things run on schedule? They have some extra time. And you know what? That’s amazing. No one’s ever mad about having extra time.

If it doesn’t get filled, I’d label that a bonus feature, not a bug. That open space is doing exactly what it was designed to do, which is give us breathing room. And I’ve personally found that open pocket of margin to be such a gift for our ADHD brains.

Strategy 3 is especially helpful for those of us who are time-blind, tend to underestimate how long things take, and/or work with a lot of people and a lot of moving parts.

How to Start Practicing These Strategies

We’ve covered three ADHD strategies for irregular schedules: anchor to one priority and keep a running list, use clock time and event time based on what the task actually needs, and build overflow time on purpose.

If you have a more irregular schedule right now, the invitation is to try just one of these. Here are a few prompts to help you figure out where to start:

• If you often stare at an unexpected window of time and get that blank, overwhelmed feeling about what to do with it, Strategy 1 is a great place to start. This week, you might try identifying your anchor task before anything else. Just one task. Write it down somewhere you’ll see it. When time opens up, that’s the first place you go.
• If you have recurring tasks in your day but the times often shift (maybe you work from home with young kids and know there will be a nap at some point, but not exactly when; or like my real estate client, you know there will be showings most days but not precisely when), Strategy 2 is worth exploring. You might take one category of recurring tasks and experiment with assigning it to event time instead of a clock time. Give it a few days and notice how it works for you.
• If you find yourself migrating the same tasks from one day’s list to the next because something keeps coming up, Strategy 3 is a good place to try first. Look at your week and identify one window to protect as overflow. Even half a day. Leave it open on purpose and notice whether having that buffer changes how you move through the rest of the week.

Now, I hesitate to say this part because I think it’s really important to start with just one. But I also want to offer a look ahead at how these three approaches can layer together really well. The anchor priority gives you clarity on what matters most. Clock and event time give you flexibility in how you structure the work. And the overflow window gives you somewhere to put that anchor if your original plans shift. Start with just one first. Practice it. See what works. Then, if you want to start weaving in the others, they’re all here to help you create a flexible scheduling approach that bends rather than breaks when unpredictability rises.

And as a loving reminder, as we talked about in episode 357, we’re not performing these strategies; we’re practicing them. We’re looking for reps, not perfect execution. Each time we try one of these and notice something that works or doesn’t, heck yes. You put in a rep. And we get stronger with each one.

Ready to Build Something That Actually Fits Your Brain?

If you’re listening to this podcast, there’s a good chance you already know a fair amount about ADHD. You’ve done some reading, listened to the episodes, tried countless planners and apps. You understand yourself better than you used to, but there’s still this gap between what you’ve learned and what’s actually happening day-to-day. The gap between knowing and doing.

That gap is exactly what private coaching is for.

When we work together one-on-one, we build something specifically for you: your brain, your patterns, your life. We look at what’s underneath the procrastination, the overwhelm, and the perfectionism, and we figure out the supports your brain needs to show up in a way that feels aligned and sustainable.

I work with a small number of private clients at a time, and if you’re ready to build systems that actually work for your brain, I’d love to have a conversation. You can book a free consultation at imbusybeingawesome.com/coaching. No pressure, just a relaxed space to talk about where you are and whether working together makes sense.

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