How To Deal With An Unpredictable Work Schedule: 6 Tips 

Is your work schedule intense right now? Does it seem to prevent you from getting ahead or making progress on your goals? Believe me, you’re not alone. When it comes to navigating an unpredictable work schedule, as a fellow ADHD brain, I know how challenging this can be.

While it may seem impossible to stay organized and productive with an unpredictable schedule, thankfully, it’s not. 

And that’s what we’re talking about in episode 222 of the I’m Busy Being Awesome podcast.

Tune in below for practical strategies to navigate a chaotic work schedule, effective ways to create structure and routine within an unpredictable environment, and simple mindset shifts to help you feel more in control when your schedule varies. 

Are you ready? Let’s dive in! 

Listen to the Podcast Here!

You can listen to the episode above or stream it on your favorite podcasting app here. 

Or, if you prefer to read, keep scrolling for the full transcript. 

In Episode #222, You Will Discover

• Why many people think an irregular work schedule is challenging for an ADHD brain
• How to challenge this belief and work with an unpredictable schedule
• 6 practical tips for embracing your schedule
• How to continue working toward your goals regardless of your schedule

Episode 222: How To Deal With An Unpredictable Work Schedule: 6 Tips (Transcript)

Hey, there! Welcome back to the podcast. What’s happening? Thank you so much for pressing play on your podcast player today. I know there is no shortage of podcasts out there to listen to, and I genuinely appreciate your time. Thanks for being here. 

Today, we’re exploring the topic of unpredictable work schedules, and, more specifically, how we can create some order and peace amidst them. 

Lately, I’ve heard from several listeners and a few of my clients that unpredictable schedules have been a challenge recently.

They seem to be navigating them more often during this busier part of the year. Often when I hear a theme from a handful of people, it’s usually a safe bet that others in our busy-awesome community have been dealing with it, too.

So that’s exactly why we’re diving in today. 

How do we navigate an unpredictable schedule or disruptions in our routines?

What Is an Unpredictable Work Schedule? 

It’s important to note that this inconsistency can show up in a lot of different ways. 

An unpredictable work schedule may consist of:

• Irregular hours or tasks from week to week, day to day, or even hour to hour.
• Disruptions from your usual routine, like last-minute meetings or unexpected deadlines.
• Maybe you’re a substitute teacher, and you’re waiting for last-minute calls from the school district to fill in at the various schools throughout your town.
• Perhaps you work freelance as a writer, and your clients have varying requests all the time.
• You might have young kids or kids who require additional support, and they’re not super interested in following a routine even though you have reports due for your boss by Friday at 3:00.

Regardless of the specific situation, these kinds of unpredictable work schedules show up in many different ways.

When we’re juggling many commitments, whether that’s time with our family, our health, extracurricular activities, etc. and we combine that with an ADHD brain (which could already benefit from some additional structure) this unpredictability can seem like an even taller order. 

As you’ve likely heard me say several times in the past; our ADHD brains crave some level of structure in our lives. It’s not the same level of structure for everyone, but we all benefit from some kind of structure. 

So with that in mind, many of us facing unpredictable schedules or constant shifts in our routine may notice some all-or-nothing sneak in. 

We may find our brains thinking things like,

“Why even bother planning in the first place? I can’t possibly plan for anything. I don’t have predictable hours, I don’t have regular assignments, and I never have consistent projects, so planning would be a complete waste of time. Plus, I’m totally overwhelmed because I have no idea what I can get done because I can’t plan for anything.”

Does this sound familiar to anyone? I have a feeling it might. 

Unpredictable Schedules & ADHD

Here’s the deal. Unpredictable or irregular work schedules CAN indeed be challenging for our brains, but also, the opposite can be true.

As I mentioned, unpredictable schedules can actually work quite well for an ADHD brain as long as we have the proper supports in place.

The first support to start with is how we’re thinking about the schedule itself. 

While it’s true that there are obstacles when it comes to having unpredictable schedules, it’s also true that a consistent schedule presents challenges.

I can confidently say most of you have been in a situation where you’re locked in some kind of scenario reminiscent of the movie Groundhog Day when you’re doing the same thing – during the same hours – day in and day out. And for many of our brains, we start getting a bit…bored. It becomes such a slog to even get started.

Scheduling is a 50/50 Situation

Yes, having a regular schedule is awesome because it allows for predictability. But at the same time, the beauty of the predictability can get dull.

In other words, the story you’re telling yourself matters a lot – not only because it shapes how you look at the experience, but also it can inform what kind of supports you put in place to make the experience more enjoyable or manageable overall. 

Keeping this mind, today we’re going to look at three perspectives to consider, followed by three tactical strategies to put in place, all of which are intended to help you navigate any unpredictability or inconsistency in your schedules and routines this season.

3 Perspectives On Unpredictable Schedules

1. What Can I Learn From This? 

The first perspective we’ll consider comes from a place of curiosity, and the overarching question is, what can I learn from this?

So whether you’re navigating a lot of unpredictability with your kids at home and you don’t know when you’ll have time to finish your slide deck, or you work freelance, and it often seems like the work is feast or famine, there is something to learn from these experiences.

To help uncover these lessons, think about your current schedule and ask yourself: 

• What’s going well? Why?
• What’s challenging, and why? 
• What can I learn from these observations about my current schedule to inform how I schedule tomorrow or next week? 

By taking time to reflect and learn, you’ll gain valuable insight into how to move forward with wisdom and clarity. And it’ll help you stay proactive, feeling greater control over your situation.

2. Look for evidence 

Our brains naturally have something called a frequency illusion or a frequency bias.

This is a cognitive bias in which, after noticing something for the first time, there is a tendency to notice it more often, which makes us think that it’s happening more often than it actually does.

So, if we believe we can’t navigate such an unpredictable schedule, we’ll find plenty of evidence for why it’s impossible.

We’ll become a self-fulfilling prophecy.

Rather than going down that path, I instead invite you to challenge your brain to find evidence of how you HAVE already handled having unpredictable schedules or disruptions in your routine. I promise you, you have.

To make this shift, I encourage you to intentionally think about the times you: 

• Successfully navigated the unpredictability 
• Put supports in place to help you succeed
• Crushed it – even with an inconsistent schedule

When we start looking for evidence that proves we are capable, I promise you’ll find it! 

3. Embrace Good Enough

If you’re anything like me, you may notice that in uncertain or unpredictable situations, our quest for perfectionism and control becomes even stronger, and often more detrimental. 

We start worrying about getting everything perfectly planned. We want to make sure we have our day optimized for peak productivity at every moment, but then we spin in worry that that perfectly planned day might get interrupted if we have to pick up our kiddo from school or our boss pulls one project and gives you another instead.

So rather than getting started on SOMETHING, we get stuck in analysis paralysis, spinning as we look for the best place to start or the most efficient way to organize our schedule, and we start missing deadlines, we leave projects incomplete, and we face so much unnecessary stress. 

Now, believe me. I know that releasing the need for perfection isn’t an easy task, but it is necessary for navigating a more unpredictable season of life with less stress and overwhelm.

Simply having a simple reminder or two in your back pocket can be really empowering in helping you step into the belief that enough is enough. 

It might be as simple as B+ work. Afterall, perfect is the enemy of good.

My favorite Steinbeck quote – Now that you don’t have to be perfect, you can be good.

(In fact, I have a whole episode on that quote specifically – it’s episode 126, in case you want to check it out.) 

As often as possible, encourage yourself to embrace that good enough is good enough.

More Tips To Make The Most of An Unpredictable Work Schedule

We’ve talked a bit about the mindset component and how we might shift our thinking a bit. Now let’s talk a bit about strategy. How can we make that unpredictable schedule more manageable? 

I’m going to share three practical strategies to help you take back control of your time. Some of these are very simple, but please remember that simple is effective. Simple makes it easy to remember and also repeat.

So if your brain hears these and thinks, “duh – I know this already…” challenge yourself to stay open by asking, “How might this help me in my situation right now?”

4. Write It All Down

Keeping all the details and deadlines and meetings and one-off projects up in our heads is tempting, and it may feel easier because it’s annoying to have to slow down and map things out.

But also, writing everything down IN ONE PLACE is essential when we have so many things in the air – especially when our routines get disrupted, and schedules change at the flip of a switch. 

As I often encourage you to do, pick one organizational approach that works for you, whether it’s a spiral notebook, the notes app on your phone, my I’m Busy Being Awesome planning system. Pick one and commit to it for the next 3 months. 

So that way, if you’re subbing all over your city, you can write down that you’re at the high school on Tuesday and across town at the elementary school on Thursday and help ensure you don’t show up to the wrong school on the wrong day. 

Writing things down gives your overloaded brain a break. It allows you to look at what’s on the agenda for any given day, which allows you to take a step back and get some perspective on your time. 

5. Identify Your Priorities 

Perhaps one of the things our brains love to fight with the most is that we can’t do it all, all the time. I know – rude. But it’s true. So where are you choosing to focus your energy and attention this season? And how do you want to prioritize those key things over the other “busy” that’s bound to pop up? 

If you know you have a particularly unpredictable week on the horizon, get clear on one or two non-negotiables. Identify those at the beginning of the week, and then anytime you have an open pocket of time, you’ll already know exactly what to work on. 

This way, you won’t spend any extra executive functions or energy deciding what to do next. 

Also, do yourself a favor and write down your priorities! Otherwise, you may reach the point where your overworked brain can’t remember what was important this week.

6. Create an “Ideal” Schedule

Writing down an ideal schedule can help keep you on track. To do this, I encourage you to create a macro view of your ideal week without getting into the tiny details of the specific tasks you want to complete. 

Instead, your goal is to create a basic framework that you can use to help you structure your days. It’ll let you see which days tend to be busier than others and when you might have a little extra time for resting and play. 

I know this might sound abstract, I’ll give you an idea of how my ideal week is.

Generally, I start my days at 8:00. 

• Mondays are podcast day – everything related to the podcast happens that day.
• Tuesdays are my CEO day. I get all my coaching on Tuesdays, I do the admin and content creation, and I also hold a body double session for my clients to get work done.
• Wednesdays – Fridays are client days.
• If I have open pockets of time between clients, I work on social media posts, writing my newsletter, checking in with clients in Voxer and my private Facebook group, that kind of thing.
• And weekends are for rest and play.

That’s it. That’s the overarching structure. 

Now, you’ll notice that this schedule isn’t detailed – we’re not talking about the specific podcast episode or what social media I’ll make on Friday.

Rather, I’m creating clarity around my regular rhythms throughout the week, so if something changes – if I have an interview and need to move  something for my podcast to another day, or one of my clients needs to change their schedule for the week, it’s not a problem.

I can navigate the shifts within the regular rhythm I’ve established. 

Alright. That is what I have for you today.

If you want to explore this work further, join us in We’re Busy Being Awesome where we not only learn the tools, but we apply them to our lives and as we work with our brains. 👉 Head to imbusybeingawesome.com/group to learn more and sign up.