Unapologetically ADHD: The Planning Workbox
Join Pete and Nikki this week as they dive into the world of planning tools, focusing on the concepts of "inboxing" and "workboxing” from their new book, Unapologetically ADHD. They explore the challenges of managing the constant influx of information and tasks that come with ADHD, emphasizing the importance of a systematic approach.
Nikki and Pete discuss the common struggle of finding the "perfect" tool, acknowledging the allure of shiny new apps and planners. They encourage listeners to shift their focus from finding a magical solution to developing a personalized system that works for them. This involves viewing tools as part of a cohesive whole rather than isolated entities.
The conversation takes a turn as they explore the role of impulsivity in planning. They introduce the concept of strategically introducing "friction" to combat impulsive decision-making, particularly when it comes to adopting new tools or systems. This involves setting up personal commitments and boundaries to prevent ADHD tax-inducing purchases.
Tune in to discover practical strategies for managing inboxes, optimizing work time, and navigating the world of planning with ADHD. Pete and Nikki offer valuable insights and actionable advice to help listeners find a system that brings calm and control to busy lives.
Links & Notes
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Pete Wright:
(Music) Hello everybody, and welcome to Taking Control: The ADHD Podcast on TruStory FM. I'm Pete Wright and that there is my co-author, Nikki Kinzer.
Nikki Kinzer:
Ooh. That's fancy.
Pete Wright:
I know. So fancy.
Nikki Kinzer:
I like it. Hello, co-author, Pete Wright.
Pete Wright:
Well, hello, co-author. I'm loving this little miniseries that we're doing here, which is just illuminating some of our favorite pieces and concepts from our new book, Unapologetically ADHD, available September 4th, wherever books are sold. Available for pre-order right now. What am I saying? And this week we're talking about workboxing.
Nikki Kinzer:
Yes.
Pete Wright:
Planning workbox. And we have no other pitch than that. I'm not going to talk about anything else. My lips are sealed on anything else. I'm just going to tell you we're extremely excited about the book and we really hope that you will consider visiting Amazon or Barnes & Noble or Bookshop.org. And very soon I have it on great authority that the eBook version is available for sale about a week before the hardcover starts shipping. And that would be, I think today. At some point today, you should be able to refresh your page, but they did say about a week and about carries a lot of weight. So that's it, Unapologetically ADHD by us, and we're really excited about it.
Today we're talking about the planning workbox. First and foremost, can I give you a little history?
Nikki Kinzer:
Yes.
Pete Wright:
Do you remember the first time we talked about this concept?
Nikki Kinzer:
I know it was many, many, many years ago. And I also know that I didn't hold onto it when you talked about it. It made sense to me, but I didn't hold onto that and run with it like we did in the book or that we've done in the last couple of years.
Pete Wright:
I now think I know why.
Nikki Kinzer:
Why?
Pete Wright:
Because the concept has been pretty consistent, but the term has changed. The first time we talked about this was in a digital episode. Do you remember when we used to have bespoke digital episodes?
Nikki Kinzer:
Right, once a month.
Pete Wright:
And that episode was about digital distraction. And the word we used for it then was the toolbox. The inbox and the toolbox. And it evolved over the subsequent references to it in the podcast from toolbox to workbox, intentionally because toolbox felt amorphous, right? It felt like, oh, a toolbox has everything in it, but a workbox is where you get work done. But the first reference to it was over 10 years ago, and it was February 24th, 2014, and it was referred to as the toolbox, but it's the same thing, inbox toolbox, inbox workbox.
Nikki Kinzer:
So do you remember when you went from toolbox to workbox because this is definitely-
Pete Wright:
Almost immediately.
Nikki Kinzer:
Okay. And so my question to you then is this something that you just came up with? This is just something that you invented and worked with and made sense to you and you went on with it, or did you hear it somewhere? How did that transition? How did it get introduced to you?
Pete Wright:
In the transcript of the podcast, I say, "This is the concept that I'm working on. I don't know if it's original, it can't be original, but this is what I'm working with." So I already-
Nikki Kinzer:
You didn't even know back then. Yeah.
Pete Wright:
I didn't know if anybody had done anything with it. And even if it was original, I was so full of self-doubt and self-loathing that I decided to undercut it immediately.
Nikki Kinzer:
Right. Right. It may be an original idea, but...
Pete Wright:
Yeah. But I'm sure because I came up with it's not, that's where it was. It's impossible that I would've done it. And yet for me, it really stuck. And we started referring to it as the workbox almost immediately. And well, I should say I did, and once you cottoned onto it, it took off.
Nikki Kinzer:
Mm-hmm. Well-
Pete Wright:
You magnified it with enthusiasm.
Nikki Kinzer:
... for me personally, it took off when we had to write about it, right? Because it's one thing to talk in conversation and grasp this idea and oh, this really makes sense. And it's coming from someone who has ADHD and has sat on it for a while, and it's still resonating. It didn't ever stop getting shiny. But it wasn't really until we had to write these concepts into some kind of organized fashion in this book that when you started talking to me about it in one of our meetings, it was just like, that's it. That's it. That's what we have to coin here is how to bring this all together.
Pete Wright:
Something to define... Yeah. Right. Well, and so when I was thinking about the concept and how we write about it in the book, I went back to that original episode because I needed to refresh myself on how it evolved. And it evolved not necessarily as its own thing, but as an alternative to the other concept that we talk about in the book inboxing, inboxing versus workboxing. And I feel like we have to just talk a little bit about inboxing before we talk about work.
Nikki Kinzer:
Absolutely, I agree
Pete Wright:
Inboxing. Inboxing is being thoughtful and comprehensive in the way we approach all of the incoming signal into our lives. We know we have an email inbox. Most of us probably have multiple email inboxes. We also have voicemail inboxes. We have all of our messaging app inboxes, we have social media messaging inboxes notifications, we have the mail. If somebody sends you a letter, remember what that's like, you have it on paper. That's also an inbox. Anything that comes into your life as an external signal into your life gets into an inbox.
That even includes your mental inbox, your brain dump inbox, and capturing new ideas. That's also effectively an inbox. And so having a comprehensive method for making sure that you put all those things in one place that you need to act on, that's inboxing. And that takes practice. It really does take practice.
Nikki Kinzer:
I think it takes practice. I think it's awareness, identifying where your inboxes are, because it's not one place, it's several places. So then it's identifying that when you're checking for new information that are potential tasks or calendar events, that you're checking your email, that you're checking your voicemail, that you're checking the little scratch pad that's next to your desk. So it's being aware of what these things are for you.
Pete Wright:
Right. And that the neurotypical brain can compartmentalize and decompartmentalize much easier than we can, and that they can visualize all the inboxes and concatenate them in a way that I think makes more natural sense in a way that is very difficult for the ADHD brain.
Nikki Kinzer:
Yes, because the ADHD brain is scattered, it's all over the place. I think that for too long too, we also probably have had this idea that putting something on a sticky note isn't a good idea. That doesn't, but it actually does serve a purpose. If you're intentional with it and you know that it is going to go somewhere or something's going to happen with that sticky note. What I think we're saying is that use the sticky note. That's one of your inboxes.
Pete Wright:
That's one of your inboxes. The trick is making sure you acknowledge that.
Nikki Kinzer:
That you acknowledge it, you're aware of it. And I will tell clients and people from the GPS membership list these inboxes out so you know what they are, and you can check them without having to rely on memory. Because some of these things, for me personally, text messages get lost. But that is such an important inbox for me because that's how I communicate with clients. And so I have to somehow remember to always check the text messages.
Pete Wright:
And there probably a conversation at some point, not today, about how to get signal from all of those inboxes into your main inbox, how to get those into your system-
Nikki Kinzer:
Oh, that will be next week, Pete, right?
Pete Wright:
... to actually do the work. So I don't know when that's going to happen-
Nikki Kinzer:
Next week.
Pete Wright:
... but we'll put it on the list for someday. Someday-
Nikki Kinzer:
Someday, next week.
Pete Wright:
... we'll talk about that. I'm sure there'll be a plan. I'm sorry, you're breaking up. Your mic is breaking up. So that-
Nikki Kinzer:
We have a method here. We have a flow we're going on. Yeah, we know what we're doing.
Pete Wright:
That's inboxing. And the idea, and I think this is why, so the toolbox workbox concept came up because we spent so much time with ADHD figuring out how to manage our inboxes. I have so many, I'm bombarded by signal, how do I make sense of it all? And often the planning stops there. We get so happy with the actual tools that we have to manage all of the incoming signal and be on top of the quick messages and things like that, that we stop when it comes time to actually do the work. And that's what workboxing is.
Workboxing is the comprehensive approach to the time and tools that you use to actually do the work that is in your inbox. And the most important thing about workboxing is what you're not doing when you are in workboxing mode. And that is checking your inboxes. All you're doing there is working on the work. So as we wrap up the whole concept of inboxing, just think about it in terms of our three key principles.
First, make it a practice. It's not just check your voicemail. It's like manage your inboxes. Make sure you know, as Nikki said, write down your inboxes on a list and make sure that you're checking all of them and considering all of them because if you have signal. And if you don't want an inbox to be an inbox, tell people that, right?
Nikki Kinzer:
Oh, you're so good at that. With voicemail, you did that years, years and years and years ago.
Pete Wright:
Yep. Years ago. And it actually broke. I need to figure out how to fix it. When Apple changed their voicemail on the iPhone, and I broke my voicemail box, but it said for years, "Thank you so much for calling. I don't check my voicemail. Please text at the same number you just called." I just don't, it's not an inbox that I welcome signal. And as a result, I sometimes look at it once a year and I get voicemail from people saying, "Pete, I know you'll never get this but..." And they leave me messages. It's like a time capsule.
So yeah, definitely that becomes an issue of boundaries. Tell people when you don't want an inbox, turn that off. But otherwise, if it's on, make sure you're considering it. Remember that writing it down, the thing that you're adding to your inbox is not a commitment to do it. Just because you capture this incoming signal, this task, it doesn't obligate you to do it. It just makes sure you won't forget it. That's the important part. Don't stop and think, will I do this thing when you're inboxing? That's not the time.
Nikki Kinzer:
Right, you're just capturing it.
Pete Wright:
Just get it down. And that is summarized in focus on capturing and not completing. The goal is to get everything out of your head into a system and not to address every item on the list. Okay? So inboxing.
Workboxing then is the time that you dedicate to working on the stuff that's on your various lists and your consideration of the tools that you use to get your work done. Now, I add all those things together because I think that came out of GTD a long time ago, which is this idea of context. And David Allen had this whole thing about making sure that you had the tasks that you needed to work on in the right place at the right time. So tag things as calls when you're by a phone. Now we're always by a phone, so calls may mean something different to you today. But for him it was when I'm at my office, at my desk, and next to my phone, I need to make phone calls. I'm going to do the tasks that are tagged as calls, that sort of a thing.
If there are design tasks, then you need to be in a place where you have your design tools. And for David Allen, it would've been a drafting table and a T-square, right? So I look at that and think, what are the tools that are in my workbox that are context-specific? So for me, it's most days, Logic Pro Studio, Overcast, Obsidian, Whisper, Drafts, Transistor and Coda, and probably something to drink. Now, I just named off the apps that are in my workbox open most of the day. And what is missing from that list?
Nikki Kinzer:
Well, your calendar and your task manager.
Pete Wright:
Yeah-
Nikki Kinzer:
Which-
Pete Wright:
... to do it's fantastica.
Nikki Kinzer:
Are really important tools when it comes to planning.
Pete Wright:
What happens when I open to-do list and leave it open while I'm working?
Nikki Kinzer:
Well, I'm hoping that if you open up to-do list and you're working, that you are looking at to-do list to tell you what to work on.
Pete Wright:
I would hope that too Nikki, but you poor fool. That's not what happens at all.
Nikki Kinzer:
Oh, well then tell me what happens.
Pete Wright:
In order to be in full workboxing mode. I do open to-do list or I open my calendar and I have it with me on a separate screen and I look at the next task, and then I close it and I have the information about the next task that I need to work on. And then I come back into my workbox mode and I actually do the work. Because what I know about myself is that when I leave my time and planning tools open in front of me in too easy reach, it will not take long before I switch back into inboxing mode. And I need to have a better boundary than that, or I get stuff done.
Nikki Kinzer:
Okay, that's a great, great point.
Pete Wright:
When I'm workboxing, I'm not planning. That's how the context is different. And that's super important.
Nikki Kinzer:
So what you're important, it's super important because I think that what happens, what I see so many times with the GPS members is they get overwhelmed with everything that they're seeing. And so even if they've prioritized, and this is not just GPS members, this is just my experience with working with specific clients. Let's take that all out because that doesn't make sense. So we're going to pause.
So when I'm working with my clients, what I see is they get very overwhelmed by looking at the whole list. And so what you're saying is, I'm going to open it up. I'm going to take the thing I'm working on, and then I'm closing it up so that I don't get distracted by every single thing that you're seeing.
And you're also, I think, building trust in yourself and confidence that you've chosen the right thing to work on. Because if you have it open all the time, then it does distract you and you could easily second guess if you're working on the right thing.
So is really interesting to me because now that we're talking about this, this is an important concept and it's one that I haven't always talked about because I will always encourage people to be looking at their lists all day long, but really it's to look at the list, get what you need, get rid of the list, go back when you need that next step. So yeah, I'm glad that you've pointed this out. This is really
Pete Wright:
Good. It's really important because there is a real power in do you know what to do next? And if you've been inboxing thoroughly, and we're not talking necessarily about inboxing right now, and as you said, we're going to talk about more of these practical concepts next week. But if you've been doing that process right and prioritizing as you teach, then you know what to do next. And you don't need to have the list of all your tasks open at any given time. Once you know what you're working on,
While I'm editing a podcast or writing show notes, I don't need to have to-do is open next to that. I know what I'm doing. I know I have all the signals in place in front of me to actually edit the show. I'm not going to get distracted because logic is right there. I can't miss it. I mean, I can get distracted pretty easily, but what I'm saying is that's what I'm working on now. I don't need to be distracted by future work because that just causes anxiety.
Nikki Kinzer:
For sure. Well, and this is also I think a good way of incorporating how to work with a digital and a paper system, because-
Pete Wright:
Sure.
Nikki Kinzer:
... this is something that I definitely have talked a lot about in the membership is, you can have a digital task manager that's almost, it's like, I mean, it's a project manager, right? For you to be able to put this project in place and start breaking it down, but then you can take your top three priorities or focuses for the day and put that into a planner or put that into some kind of paper form. And again, close that task manager so you know exactly what you're focused on.
So yeah, no, now that we're saying that, I do encourage that. That's so interesting. I love it. A great way to really distinguish what's going on and you focusing to do the work, getting the work done.
Pete Wright:
Yes. Right. Right. And this goes into a concept, another concept I want to talk about today in a minute, which is on managing impulsivity and the relationship of impulsivity to friction when you're in workboxing mode, which is important.
Nikki Kinzer:
This is what happens, almost every single presentation I've ever done on time management, planning, scheduling, time blocking, avoiding tasks, whatever it may be, there's always a question that comes up into the chat, "What are the best tools for ADHD?" And it's always a question that I have to answer, and I just expect it because it's just... of course, you want to know, right? There's got to be this perfect tool that works perfectly for the ADHD mind. And people are frustrated because they've tried so many and they have every system out there downloaded or they've tried every kind of paper planner. I mean, I've seen boxes of paper planners collected all of these things. And the trend is that it works for a little while until it doesn't work anymore.
And it's usually a couple of weeks, maybe a month we'll get if we're really good. But then it's frustrating. Of course it's frustrating. It's a cycle that you just keep doing, but there's always this little belief that, "Oh, this next thing, it will be the thing that will make life easier."
So in the book, we have this whole section talking about is it the tool or is it something else? And assumptions are easily made that it's the tool or it's just me. So it's kind of both. It's like, well, this tool doesn't work because I don't ever look at it, but I also know that I'm the problem as well. So it's confusing. It's confusing.
So the reality is there is no perfect tool for ADHD because really any tool can work with ADHD. And I've seen them all from very basic note cards to these are the next three things I'm doing today to really complex notion, Obsidian, things that are just so complex that I don't understand them. So it can be anything.
So what I think is important is to understand that the tool, yes, it's important, but it's not as important as you probably think it is. It's more important on how you use the tool and the purpose of it and how it works with all of your other tools, all your inboxes and all of the other workbox tools that you have, because it's all like this system that is complete. If we look at our tools as just individual, then they start to break. If we don't see how the calendar is connected to the task manager. If we don't see how... Do you put your meeting notes in Obsidian or Evernote or do you keep it in the task manager? If you're not clear, then that's when things start to really get messed up. That's the elephant in the room is that there is not a perfect tool. You just have to find one that works for you and stay patient and keep working in it.
There's a lot of different reasons why tools break and we talk about those, but I think for the sake of the show, it's just important to look at what you're doing right now and start there. What are you using right now and what's working and what's not? And then you can start looking for maybe some other alternatives. But I think the key is really looking at it as a complete system and not just individual.
Pete Wright:
Absolutely. And that's why I think that having these two concepts of inbox and workbox are so important because it allows us to see these as systems, not as individual products. And they're not just one tool. They are a system of tools that work together to help you manage your brain. And that's why it's important.
Now the other piece we're talking about is managing impulsivity, which goes hand in hand with all of this, right? Yes. Which is this idea of impulsive decision making because we are in the heat of the moment and we want to buy a new planner and we want to try a new system and we want to subscribe to a different app because we think it's going to be the end all be all. And the allure of shiny new things is super strong, which is something we've talked about as the ADHD tax for a long time. You buy something and never use it, you've paid the ADHD tax.
So, you know what we're talking about in this idea of managing impulsivity is to introduce the thing we try to reduce in every other aspect of our lives, and that's friction. Every time we talk about friction, usually you'll hear me say, "I want to reduce friction because the time between having an idea and writing down an idea or capturing an idea, I can get distracted and miss it and lose it. It's gone. So I want to reduce friction. The fewer steps I can have between having an idea and getting an idea documented or getting something easy done, I want to reduce the friction so I can get it done." We love that settled science.
But what happens when impulsivity is the problem, then you have to strategically introduce friction, introduce steps that prevent you from taking impulsive action in a way that feels natural and not shameful. So I like to think of it as a way of making personal commitments to yourself in an easy way. For example, I do have my phone beside my bed. And that's my clock. It's my alarm clock. It wakes me up. When I'm going to bed I listen to audiobooks and it's all run on my phone. And normally I don't have a problem with that.
But when I'm in impulsive brain, fireworks brain, I could pick up that phone and not open the audiobook app or open the audiobook app and find an audiobook that I really want that's not available for free in Libby. And my first instinct is to go over to Amazon and buy the audio version of it. Well, I don't want to spend money all the time whenever I'm impulsive on audiobooks.
So how do I introduce that, sort of introduce friction? Well, one easy way is to make sure that I put the phone in a different room when I'm in impulsive mode, leave it on my desk, forget it. Leave it on my desk. I'll get it in the morning, rely on my wife's alarm to wake me up because she wakes up early. It's fine. I can do that.
Somebody tells me about a new restaurant. I'm the kind of person who will get in the car and go to that restaurant and eat my next meal there. What if I commit to a certain number of home meals before I get to try a new restaurant? What if the game is I just need to eat every eight meals at home before I get to eat out? And that becomes the game.
Nikki Kinzer:
That's actually a really good idea, right?
Pete Wright:
Right. Yeah, that's friction. And it's not about this one restaurant that I've just been introduced to. It's about the mindful pattern of committing to the friction game, which is I haven't eaten eight meals at home yet. I can't try that yet because I've gamified that. And for me, that works really well. I love to keep score on stuff. I love to track points.
So the goal is not about restriction, it's about informed decision making. It's about giving yourself time to not make the impulsive purchase, the impulsive commitment or the impulsive commitment with your time and making change too fast, like hastily. So I don't know, how does that fit?
Nikki Kinzer:
I like it. And I really like the idea of eating in, and I only say that because we eat out way too much. And so that's a nice way to make sure you're saving money too.
Pete Wright:
Yeah, a little bit.
Nikki Kinzer:
Extra tip.
Pete Wright:
A little bit. Yeah. Well, I think that this one, particularly for making decisions when you're moving into workbox mode, it's really important. Introducing friction when you're trying to get something done is key to getting that one thing done. And how are you going to introduce friction? Well, one of the ways to introduce friction to not plan while you're working is to keep all of your task and planning tools closed and out of the way because you'll get distracted and anxious and overwhelmed by the frankly, probably too many things that are in-
Nikki Kinzer:
That you have to do.
Pete Wright:
... your task list because you've done all the inboxing right, and that's okay. We're busy people and we have a lot to do and that that's okay. So I think that this is helpful, but you have to look at your workbox and determine where you need to maintain friction and not eliminate friction because that's a dance. It's a delicate dance. You want to break down some myths?
Nikki Kinzer:
Well, some of these things that we've already talked about, there is no one tool that is best for ADHD. Any tool can work. So you have to remember that. And it can be simple to complex. I think the best way to figure that out is to practice. You have to practice. And I think that a lot of times tools, especially task managers that are digital, and this happens to us a lot where somebody will hear what we're working in and then they'll download it, but they don't necessarily do anything with it. They just play around with it or they throw a couple of projects in there and then they don't go back to it.
So it's important to know that if you're going to try something, do commit to it and get it to be good enough where you can work in it to really see if it's going to be the right tool or not. So practice, that's the biggest thing, is you got to practice and see what works and tweak and adjust. And just because something has 500 features to it doesn't mean you have to use 500 features.
I think a good place to start if you are thinking about switching any of your tools, is to really think about what you do need as your own workbox and start here. And you can start to think about, well, I know I need a calendar. I know I need a task manager, but maybe I also need a place for my notes. Or I need a place for information that I have gathered from the internet that I want to keep for later, references.
I need something for, how am I going to remember what to do in six months? So I need something to remind me of long-term types of projects. So start thinking about what it is that you need and how does your ADHD impact how you use these tools? That is so much of what we talk about with the book is understanding how ADHD impacts you and how do you support your ADHD.
So if something is not innovative, if something seems clunky or complicated, you're never going to use it, so don't try to force it, right? If you really love paper and everybody's telling you to go digital, stay with paper. It's okay. You can make it work. You can do both. There is no right or wrong decision. And this goes back to there's not just one tool. You can do both. It's totally fine.
I do believe, and this is important, is that the calendar and the task manager are the must tools you have to have in your workbox if you want to do any kind of planning or scheduling, because the calendar is going to tell you where and when you need to be somewhere. We have to have that. We can't hold those things in our memory. You're going to forget or you're going to overbook yourself or be stressed all the time.
The task manager, again, whatever it is, whatever it looks like, organizes and tracks those projects and tasks. And so those are the two areas that I would really concentrate on first and then look at those other planning tools and how do they support these two main ones. It really will make a difference.
We definitely talk about this in the book. We hope that you check it out and can see how they work together. And then the workflow, which is something we're going to talk about next week, are the different routines and action steps you take to maintain these things so that they don't get dropped or forgotten. What do you think?
Pete Wright:
I love it.
Nikki Kinzer:
Yeah.
Pete Wright:
Work clothes are my favorite things in the world. They're shiny diamonds in my day.
Nikki Kinzer:
They are.
Pete Wright:
So check out the book takecontroladhd.com/ADHD book or just search for it in all the places. But if you go to ADHD book, you'll see some of the nice things that other professionals have said about the book who have read it, and it's really nice to read.
Nikki Kinzer:
So nice.
Pete Wright:
We also have it, I'll just say that I'm not fishing, but I'm sort of fishing. I did add to the website an automated Amazon API call, so that if and when people review the book and give it nice reviews, it will just up on the website and it's empty right now. And I know that some people have gotten the book, so if you happen to be focusing on the book and reading it real, real fast, it would be awesome if you would write a review and tell others what you think. I'd love to see it pop up if only to help me test. It's a real technical request more than anything else. Help me test the Amazon call on the website.
Nikki Kinzer:
The technical side [inaudible 00:33:05] of Amazon and website.
Pete Wright:
Exactly, exactly. Thank you everybody. We appreciate your time and your attention, and thanks for hanging out through this series as we explore Unapologetically ADHD. On behalf of Nikki Kinzer, I'm Pete Wright. We'll see you back here next week with the workflows on Taking Control: The ADHD Podcast. (Music)
