Hi guys and welcome back to my channel. If you are new here, my name is Kimberly and I have ADHD. So today I wanted to chat with you guys a little bit about why you need a functional plan if you have ADHD. I'm going to apologize in advance, there is a dog barking next door and Luna, my dog, is in doggy detention because she will bark at that dog.
And it will just be a back and forth dog barking situation. So also excuse my nail. So she, I was taking her for a walk the other day and she accidentally got the leash wrapped around my finger. And so it was like, it's, I mean, it's still pretty purple.
It's purple and it took some of the skin off. So I didn't think you guys wanted to see that. So I put a bandaid over it, figured that would be fine.
But yeah, it's good enough. I waited a couple of days to even film because it was hurting so bad. My finger has been. has been so swollen and it's just been killing me.
So what I wanted to talk to you guys today about what, see, was functional planning and pretty planning. So I am gonna throw that out there that I used to be a pretty planner, kind of. I didn't fully commit, just use a whole sticker kit and.
Throw everything into a page and really lay it out I was never like that, but I would put in stickers and put in different things that may not have been useful for my ADHD so I found that when I was func-or excuse me, when I was pretty planning, as I like to call it, that I wasn't being very functional with my setup and I wasn't getting things done. Which again, if you've ever watched any of my other videos, which is why I created this, which is the ADH Done Planner and it is listed on my website panashplanner.com. And so that's why I kind of created this is because there are so many different options out there and we get caught up in the pretty planning sometimes and if you have ADHD you've no doubt copied someone else's spread or saying you know that's beautiful and I'm going to make my spread look just like that too but what I found is number one that stickers can be very distracting so if you have a spread that let's just flip to a day here um Let's see. Let's just go to a different page here.
So if you have stickers all over your, we'll just move some of this stuff out of the way. If you have stickers all over your spread, we, with our neurodivergent brains, we will see the sticker and then we'll start going on a tangent and we'll get distracted by a sticker. I don't know. Again, I don't know.
That's just me. This could be other people too, but I get so distracted and I'll start looking at the sticker or I'll look at the outline of the sticker and then I'll start. contemplating. I was like, I wonder who the designer was. Then I'll start looking up the designer of the sticker and then I'll look at the history of that person and then I'm in the biography.
And then I realized I was like, oh, I'm on their third grade teacher's website. Like just me, just me. So I can't use stickers. I mean, I can, but it has to be after the fact. Use stickers.
They are so distracting for me. I have to write things down. And I showed this last time.
So it's like, here's it. My planner is very functional. I use it for, you know, getting stuff done. Like this, like I tested a pen in here. I, this is not going on Instagram.
I swear I don't have a toddler. I don't have any kids, but it's just, that was me. I just scribbled because I couldn't get a pen working. So I use my planner like a workhorse and like this, I tested another marker in their Tombow.
I wanted to see which Tombow color I wanted and they look very similar, but they're different. Those two are different colors. If I highlight, it's usually after the fact or for me to differentiate what tasks are most important.
So let's see, where's one that was crazy? I think it was the 10th, 13th. So look at this. So this This is a, this is basically, I used my pages like a brain dump.
So I took everything out of my brain that I possibly needed to do. And I just threw it in here. So, and I didn't put it, there's a reason I didn't put it in my inboxes because I knew that I would kind of have little things that needed to be like bullet points or, um, like small other subtasks. So I just put it all in two pages and I just put out absolutely everything and it was all in black and it wasn't until.
Luna, was it wasn't until after that I was done that I actually color coded it where this says, you know, general work design, social, personal, top priority. So it wasn't until after that I did colors and did all these crazy, to me, this is like crazy. I look at this, I'm like, this is like, it helps my brain to see like where things are. And I will look, I looked at this list again and I was like, are these really top priority?
And so when I move it to the next day, I kind of get an idea. of what actually needs to be accomplished and not what is just, you know, random brain stuff stuff, brain dump stuff. So I think that tasks can really get lost in the decoration of like beautiful spreads.
So you will see a beautiful spread, but you see the spread first. You don't see the tasks that you have to like, like, you don't see the tasks that you have to accomplish. So I think that having just something that literally just like a list like this, this was the 15th. It was literally a list. I put where I needed to go.
And then I put errands. I ran orders that were coming towards needed to do dinner that we had and things I needed to buy. So yeah.
This was just, like I said, I used just straight up planning my boyfriend wrote in here. I had him test out a pen and paper. So again, small tangent, my boyfriend, I am so proud of him.
I got him onto discs. I got him, I got him a notebook that, well, I made him a notebook that was disc bound and he uses it for work. And he is in a very professional setting where it's like no frills, but he uses his disc bound plan, like disc bound notebook. And I didn't know that he actually was using it until like last week. I was so excited.
I couldn't believe it. I was shocked because he sees me and he sees my planner and all this stuff and I'm like, yeah, I made you this, but it's just like, I didn't think that he was using it, but he said he uses it every day and he was running out of paper. And so that's how this started because he was like, hey, I'm running out of paper. Can you?
Can you get me some more? And I was like, yeah, absolutely. So I made him, I gave him this nice premium paper that I use for my planner, which is the premium Bristol vellum paper.
And he said, I really, really like this paper. So I was having him test a pen in here. And so he wrote all in there, but I was just so proud. I am still so proud.
I'm a proud girlfriend because he said that he was in a meeting and he was like, he did one of these. And he's left-handed, like I said, so he ripped it out so he could write over here. And again, like my hand looks ridiculous because I can't write with my left hand, but he said he pulled it out so he could write on the left side during a meeting.
And the person that was in the meeting with him was like, what is that? He's like, you just ripped out the page of your notebook. And he was like, oh no, watch this. And he like popped it back in. And I was like, that's so, oh, I'm so proud.
I'm so proud. Um, so yeah, you can, you can have a manly desk planner. Like you don't, it doesn't need to be pretty and girly, but yeah, he used it for his meetings and he showed me like some of his meeting notes and I was like, oh my gosh, I'm so proud. Uh, so anywho, uh, he wrote in here, but this is. It's just like running to-do lists usually.
So these are to bring. And that's one of the reasons why I really like this layout that I made for the dailies. Is that these boxes, which again, if you are new, they are just blank boxes.
And you get these, which are... Um, stickers that go in each one of these boxes for you to put your little check marks on, or put your tasks on, or your habits, or whatever you want to put on here. But obviously I use them.
So, uh, you, you just put your, whatever you want in here. And then I left left a little header row right here, so that way you can just write whatever it's for, because these boxes fit perfectly in this square. Well, I guess it's a rectangle.
I don't think, yeah, the outside, the whole thing is a square, the inside is a rectangle. Thanks, geometry. So the, I really like, like these because each day you can put different things here. It doesn't have to be a habit every day or cause that's one of my gripes with regular planners is that, you know, it says, you know, habit tracker, habit tracker, habit tracker every day.
And I'm like, I don't track certain things. And it's like one day, maybe I want to, yeah, put in, you know, what we ate or here's one that I had places to go and things I needed to bring to my boyfriend's house. Like just ridiculous things.
So every, every single day is going to be different like this. Um, dinner, food. It's just like every day can be different and you can put them in there. Whoops.
Oh, there we go. It didn't really work. Oh, well, you guys can see this. I don't really care. So it's just saying my brother's pants.
I thought I had something else in here, but apparently I don't. So I feel like the decor can also be very overwhelming for people. When you see that and you see those spreads and it's not just the seeing it on your own page, but also when you start to.
get into planning or you start using a planner and you look up inspiration, you can find, you will find most likely if you have ADHD like me, that the decor is so overwhelming that you don't even want to start, or you're worried about messing it up. That perfectionist mindset, which is disheartening when you feel like your spreads aren't as pretty as other, other people's or someone else's that you saw. Okay.
Had to take the dog out. I took her out. Because she was just being a little too crazy.
So, um, I don't remember where we were because then I had to do a couple other things. So, um, sorry if the frame is a little bit different. I had to shut my camera off.
Um, but yes. So I found that you, I guess I really liked these boxes. That's where I was going. Rectangle, geometry, got it. Um, but the other thing that I noticed with pretty spreads is that we end up focusing on the wrong thing.
We don't focus on the tasks we focus on and I am no shade to anyone who plant who who pretty plans and puts out these beautiful, beautiful spreads. I've seen some gorgeous ones. And if you have, the problem is that if you have ADHD, we end up focusing on making it pretty and not making it functional and useful for us and for our life, because our life and our brains are different than neurotypicals. So we focus on the spread and the decoration, and we don't focus on actually using the planner. So it's very difficult to explain to someone.
or if you've never struggled with, I guess, being neurodivergent and or having ADHD, then it's very difficult to explain that we need to have separate places where we unleash our creativity. And that could be in your planner, but you need to also have a place where you are being functional. So, again, someone else mentioned that. Actually, Laura, she's very nice.
She talked about bullet journaling. And I have... bullet journaled i just like probably you guys have and i like i said before there's a million videos out there about um you know adhd and why bullet journaling is the best and again i'll go into the different planners that i've used over the years and why they didn't work for me and it's just me it's just you know i need to have for myself something that has rings that i can take in and out of um because i change things i move things around and i have you know i have a i have a stylogy i bought one I don't know, a couple weeks ago, and you know, it's meant for journaling. It's not a planner per se.
I use it for just, you know, writing down things, and whenever I have an entry that's related to, I put a calendar on the sidebar. but did put a calendar in here just so I can keep track of things. If I'm holding this and I need to plan out something or if I need to look something up, but I use it for journaling.
So these, all these little tabs that are on my stology, they have to, they pertain to like, this would be a relationship journal entry and that's relationship journal entry. And that one's about, you know, I had some YouTube ideas. So this is kind of a, I would say kind of like a mix between a commonplace notebook and a journal.
So, I mean, it's very different and it's, you know, I don't need to move things around in there because I'm just journaling and getting things out of my brain long form where, you know, in a planner, I'm using this as, like I said, in my last video as a tool. It's here to serve my daily to-do list and my time. tasks and that's all it does. It doesn't need to be absolutely gorgeous.
Like I said, like, obviously I make mine pretty after the fact. And, you know, I think this is a very beautiful planner and I'm just, you know, tooting my own horn here, but I think it's a very beautiful functional planner. And, um, obviously you will get the discs that are these clear frosted ones.
When you get it, I just switched mine out to the metal ones, which will be on my site. Um, uh, here I would say kind of shortly, mildly shortly. Um, I... I have a couple more things I need to put on there before I put up the metal discs, but I put the metal discs in mind because I just, I don't know.
I, I just, I like gold. And, um, I found that if you have a bullet journal, there's a lot of barriers to entry or excuse me, there's no barriers to entry, but there's also no organization. So that is kind of frustrating for me. So this is purely for getting things out. And I, I mean, like I said, I have other creative outlets.
I pay paint, I draw, I sketch, I sew, I do all kinds of things. I scrapbook. Do people still do that?
I remember going to a creative memories party when I was like a child and I fell in love with it. It was like, I was like a duck and it like imprinted on me was like crafting. So it's so funny because I think, and I'm like, why do I love crafting so much?
And I think I was like, oh my God, it was that creative memories party when I was like five or six, maybe. I don't know. Those of you who are younger that are watching my channel, you will have no idea what I'm talking about.
but I remember going with my mom and my mom is super crafty. Everyone on my mom's side is very crafty. My aunt's crafty. She makes cards. My grandma used to hand make cards, like hand make cards, like paper and all.
My mom paints, my mom sculpts. So it's just like, it's funny because to me, I need to have those things separated. I can't do super creative things in here and make it artsy.
I need to have like all art or I need to have like all tasks and all function. And that's what this is. I do keep memories in here. My relationship tab that's down here. I do keep some memories in there, but that's like what we did during the day.
Mostly for me to remember what we ate and just like cute pictures. If I see something and I don't want to put it in my stology, that's just where it goes. So it goes in here and I will, I'll write because I won't always have my stology with me, but I'll always have my planner with me. So if I don't remember something about the relationship, about, you know, something funny my boyfriend said, or, you know, him, the fact.
that he wrote in my planner, I wrote that in here. So it's just something that always comes with me. So for me, art is a separate area for my life.
It's not in my planner. My planner is a, it serves one purpose, just helping me get stuff done. The other thing that I think...
Really, I found that benefits my ADHD is that all my tasks have a home. They live here. They don't live in my stology.
They don't live in my journal. They don't live in my, you know, micro TN pocket size. that I have.
It doesn't, they live here. My tasks live here. They don't live in like three places. And you know what?
I think that also our tasks need to be written out personally because I'm a paper planner. I believe in paper planning, that it really solidifies your tasks and what you have to do. And It gives you accountability. Honestly, it does.
It gives you an accountability that you wrote it down and you have to physically see it or you have to physically migrate it to the next page or the next day. It gives you that sense of I have to get this done. I wrote it down. It's just a almost like a like an unconscious.
feeling, I suppose, that we feel obligated to do the tasks because we wrote them down. We put ink to paper. So the thing that about digital planning that I, because I've digital planned before, and I find that it, you can just delete it.
If you don't want to do the tasks, you can just click backspace, or you can just circle. If you're in good notes, you can just circle the text and click delete, and it's gone. Here is... it's more permanent and it gives you more of a, like I said, accountability and really makes it real almost.
It makes it less abstract. To me, digital is very abstract. It's a very, I don't feel like I own my tasks, which is kind of my next point.
It really helps you own your tasks and what you have to do because it's not something that can be. I don't know how to describe it other than digital planning feels very disconnected to me. I feel very personal in my planner. I feel very connected to my planner. But when I write things out on a to-do list or type it out on a Word document, it's very abstract to me.
I don't feel like I'm doing those tasks. They're just me kind of typing things out. But when I write it down, it really solidifies it in my brain. gives it a place to live and I don't know, makes it very...
I've got a connection with paper planning and I'll probably do a video on why I paper plan over digital just for the why nots. But I think that paper planning is... I wouldn't say a lost art form, but I think that planning things out in a very analog way is a little bit of a lost art form in a way.
Because, or I guess a lost art, not really an art form. It's a lost art because we have so many things. We're connected to our phones.
And I can't remember who said it, but it was like, if I have to pick up my phone the first thing in the morning, I'm already screwed, basically. Because if I have to look at my phone. phone to do my to-do list.
There's so many other ways that I can get distracted. I can't get distracted really in my planner. Like the furthest I could do is start journaling, which I'd be like, oh, this doesn't belong here because everything needs a home in our ADHD brains. So I think that if I were to go back to digital planning or like when I write in like to-do lists in my phone, I'll do it if like short form, if I'm standing in line or something, and then I'll set a reminder. So I make sure I put it in my planner because otherwise that just goes into the cyber.
It goes into the cyber cybersphere and I never see it again. And I'll never remember to check my notes unless it's in my planner. If it's in my planner, it's real, it exists. And I think that it also helps us sort and prioritize what's actually kind of like what I touched on before. Like what's actually, you know, the things that we have to get done because we, it's easy to just write down a very long to-do list.
But like on a computer, but if you see it and you have everything kind of at a glance as an overview that you wrote it down, you're like, as you're writing it, you could be thinking, you know, this, this is not as. important as I thought it was going to be, or maybe vice versa. You're like, this is probably more important than I'm, you know, I need to give this more weight.
So those were kind of just my topics that I wanted to talk about. Um, I just started trying the, I, you know, finally gave in and I tried the Zebra Sarasa Dry and I think it's fantastic. I got in the 0.7. I don't know if I'm going to get in a smaller nib or size, I guess, if it comes in that. I don't know, but I just grabbed this one and it just came today.
So then I was testing it out and I really like it it's it's nice and then i got the uniball i used the uniball one and i was using it in the points 0.7 like i've mentioned before and it was having a lot of trouble i'll just kind of show you let's see if i have one here okay so this is the 0.7 in the uniball one and um Of course it's going to write like perfectly, but I've noticed that it has the tendency to skip sometimes. Of course, like it's writing like absolutely beautifully right now. But if you see the top of that S on skip, it tends to do that. So I was like, you know what? I don't know what it is.
And I think it's because you write really fast. I write really fast and I just scribble things down. has ADHD.
And so I noticed that, I don't know if it's the, the gel is a little bit thicker, but with this paper, it skips a little bit. So I got the 0.5 and this, writes so well on this paper. So I'm much more impressed with the 0.5 than the 0.7, just at least on this paper.
0.7 writes beautifully in my Stology. It writes beautifully in my, what else do I have? That's like it.
I don't know. It writes well on other paper, like more smooth paper, but because this is a little bit toothier, the, it's just, it doesn't catch as quickly. Um, than a smaller nib. Quiet. So I found that this is just one of the better pens that works with this paper.
And I will do a video about some of the better pens that work with this type of paper that's in the planner. So I'm gonna do that because it's a different kind. of paper because it's like I said it's a little bit toothier so it's has a little bit more grip than some papers that are very smooth like a an HP premium paper so I will do that but I think that's everything and I You know, I hope that you guys find value in these videos and it means so much whenever you do comment and give me feedback or suggestions or tell me just that you enjoyed watching the video. It means so much to me, guys.
I appreciate it so much. I appreciate every single one of you that watch my videos, that subscribe, that follow me, follow me on Instagram, which, yeah, if you wanna come follow me, it's adh underscore done at... I was going to say at gmail.com.
No, on Instagram. And so it's ADH underscore done. You can go follow me there.
And then panache planner, I also have on there, but that's mostly for shop updates. So ADH done is going to have, it has a lot more of my personal stuff and just kind of my day-to-day planning. Junk.
So again, thank you guys so much for watching. Please like, subscribe. I just want to be able to reach more people.
So the more you interact, the higher it gets pushed in the YouTube algorithm. And it shows that people actually care about this kind of content. So I appreciate it. Thank you guys so much for watching. And I will see you next time.
Bye, guys.