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Let's face it, our ADHD brains can be a bit like wild horses—energetic, creative, but often difficult to reign in. Thankfully, using our free printable ADHD daily planner can help!
It's like building a corral for your wild horse of a brain—it helps keep you focused and on track.
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Why You Need an ADHD Planner Printable
Why an ADHD planner specifically? Well, because our brains are unique, we need a unique tool. A regular planner is not going to cut it.
Research shows that people with ADHD often struggle with executive functions - things like managing time, organizing tasks, and maintaining attention.1Barkley, R. A. (2012). Executive Functions: What They Are, How They Work, and Why They Evolved. Guilford Press. A daily planner can provide a visual structure for your day, making these tasks much more manageable.
You see, managing ADHD is not just about tackling forgetfulness or inattention. It's about understanding the workings of the ADHD brain.2Tuckman, A. (2011). Integrative Treatment for Adult ADHD: A Practical, Easy-to-Use Guide for Clinicians. New Harbinger Publications.
With that knowledge, we can use tools like our printable daily planner to create a structure that helps us thrive.
Complete Your Goals "For Once"
If you're a student or an adult with ADHD, you know that managing daily tasks can feel overwhelming. Sometimes it feels like it's impossible to complete our goals.
Well, guess what? It probably is! At least, it is impossible in the time frame you are currently allotting for your goals. That's where this printable daily planner template can help.
We ADHDers tend to put way too much on our schedule in any given time period. We see the vision in our heads, but it's unrealistic.
This leads to an overwhelming to-do list, and when things inevitably don't get done, it can result in feelings of failure and self-doubt.
We beat ourselves up when we didn't complete our goals. This is silly, because it would have been physically impossible for anyone to achieve those goals, whether they have ADHD or not!
What makes this printable ADHD planner special?
This planner is specifically designed with the ADHD brain in mind. ADHD can often make you feel like you're in a race against time, and it's all too easy to overestimate what can be achieved in a day.
Here's the twist with our planner sheets: by providing only five slots for your daily goals, it forces you to really consider what's most important.
What are the tasks that will have the most impact? What really needs to get done today?
The limited slots for goals and tasks is an opportunity for you to prioritize what truly matters. The design is clean and simple to avoid unnecessary distractions, and the printable format means you can print off however many you need.
If you have a hard time deciding what tasks to put into these slots, first start with our free ADHD to-do list to help prioritize.
It's not about cramming as many tasks into the day as possible but about making consistent, meaningful, realistic progress. This can be especially helpful for people with ADHD who have trouble starting tasks.
Multiply Your Time
Next, we take it one step further by asking you to multiply your estimated time by two. Due to our time blindness, people with ADHD often underestimate how long something will take.
See what we mean in the example below:
You've got to trust the process of these daily planner sheets--and don't cheat! No changing your estimated time after seeing that you'll have to cross some goals out.
After you double your estimated time, any Goal you can't complete today will go in the "save for later" box. This is also a "brain dump" section to jot down any brilliant ideas that pop into your head (because we all know those happen a lot).
Writing these thoughts down for later will prevent you from working on something that is not important at the moment.
Then we divide our remaining goals into smaller tasks. Less overwhelming, easier-start tasks!
Last but not least, this planner template has you schedule a well-deserved reward at the end of the day. This can be something as simple as your favorite latte, a sweet treat, or an episode of your favorite show.
This is your moment to celebrate the hard work you've put in. Those of us with ADHD often beat ourselves up when we don't complete our goals, and then we forget to feel proud when we achieve our goals.
With this free printable planner, you set realistic, achievable goals, and you smashed them. So go ahead, pat yourself on the back, enjoy your reward, and bask in that feeling of accomplishment. You've earned it!
Another free Daily Planner Sheet we recommend is our free ADHD puzzle printable. Check it out if you need extra motivation when completing your goals!
Schedule Breaks and Self-Care
Breaks are essential for productivity and mental health. You will actually feel more energized and work more effectively after taking breaks!
A break in your day is also a good time to remember self-care. We need to schedule time for meals, breaks, and activities you enjoy. Taking care of your physical and mental health is just as important as any other task.
A 15-30 minute break every 1-3 hours is ideal. This will prevent you from hyper-focusing in a strange and uncomfortable position for too long.
During your break, you can do whatever you want! There are no rules! Take a quick shower, go on a walk, and scroll on social media without guilt. Just set a timer so that you remember to get back to work after your scheduled break.
It's about creating a realistic daily schedule that works with your ADHD, not against it.
Remember, folks, having ADHD doesn't mean you're doomed to a life of chaos. With the right tools—like this free printable daily planner—you can harness your ADHD superpowers and conquer your day.
Below we're offering a free printable daily planner template created for the ADHD brain. Just click the download button, print, and you're all set.
Free Printable
🖨️ Under the purple heading below, click on the image or the title to download your free PDF(s).
*Free printables by Honestly ADHD are for personal, non-commercial use only. See our FAQ page for more details.*
👇 Click the Image or Title Below to Download
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References:
- 1Barkley, R. A. (2012). Executive Functions: What They Are, How They Work, and Why They Evolved. Guilford Press.
- 2Tuckman, A. (2011). Integrative Treatment for Adult ADHD: A Practical, Easy-to-Use Guide for Clinicians. New Harbinger Publications.
Anonymous says
Hi there, just became aware of your blog through web search, and found that it is truly informative. I'm going to watch out for updates. I will be grateful if you continue this in future. Many people will be benefited from your writing. Cheers!
Honestly ADHD team says
Thank you so much, glad you found it helpful. 🙂
amanda meara says
I am unable to download the free printable planner
Honestly ADHD team says
Thanks for letting us know, and I'm sorry that you've had issues with that! The free planner download is likely opening in a new window, so if you have a pop-up blocker active that could be causing it to not open.
The pdf download can be found at the bottom of the article--you can find it directly here: https://honestlyadhd.com/printable-adhd-daily-planner-template/#free-printable. Once you click on that link, you'll see a purple box that says "⬇️ CLICK TO DOWNLOAD." (If you are on mobile you may have to scroll down to see that purple box).
Right under that arrow is an clickable image of the printable and the text "Free Printable ADHD Planner". You can click on either the image or the text which will automatically download the planner sheet.
Please contact us if you are still having issues in getting it to download! And for future reference, we have a table of contents at the beginning of each article, so you can also click on "Free Printable" on our table of contents to reach our free downloads quickly. Hope that helps!
Krista says
I really enjoy a lot of your content. I just came across this site and am really happy I did. I am having a bit of confusion with this planner. When we are adding up the AVAILABLE TIME and the REALISTIC time, and the available time is less, it says to put something in the SAVE FOR LATER area until the time matches. But in the sample planner provided with the areas filled in, I see some tasks had the ESTIMATED TIME modified. I'm confused because the article mentions to not cheat and change it. Could you clarify? I could be overthinking it. Thanks in advance!
Honestly ADHD team says
Hi Krista, great question! In our example planner sheet , what we were trying to show is that originally "clean out the fridge" and "clean the house" were both written in for 1 hour (2 hours when multiplied). Because the Available and Realistic times didn't match, the writer moved those to the "Save for Later" and replaced them with much shorter options (Clean out One Shelf in Fridge instead of the whole fridge, and Clean the Kitchen instead of the whole house, and decreased the estimated times to 15 min and 30 minutes before multiplying). So it's ok to adjust the estimated time if you first decrease the task to something much shorter. Hopefully that makes sense, and hope you enjoy the printable! Let us know if you have any other questions. 🙂
Marcy Patterson says
ty for this!
Honestly ADHD team says
So happy to hear that our planner sheet was helpful! 🙂
Molly says
How many printables are out there? All of them. How many can see into our ADHD brains? Only this one.
The genius is the "SAVE FOR LATER/Brain Dump". You mean, I don't have to open more tabs in my brain to hang on to everything I 'need to look up' or 'wonder if there's info on" or "should check to see if" or anything else? I can brain barf and look at it later when I actually have a free moment (instead of using it to avoid what I need to do immediately)?
Why this clicked with me so much I'll never know. Planners galore have this same little box labelled "Notes". But "Brain Dump" gets it done and "Save for Later" makes it okay to dump. Why this works for me instead of "Notes" I can't figure out. I'm sure you guys have an idea, though...
THANK YOU!
Honestly ADHD team says
Yay! Thanks for making us smile, we love hearing that these printables that work for us work for other ADHDers! 🙂
Seann says
I loved all of this but I'm more confused now. LOL.
Honestly ADHD team says
Thank you, we know what that's like and we're happy to answer any questions you may have. 🙂