adhd · sheet

The external toolbox

This isn't another person being there (you already have that in your ebook): it's 3 different kinds of external scaffolding that don't depend on someone being next to you. Mark which ones you already have and which you're missing.

1 · Structured metacognitive training

A brief, guided programme that teaches you to plan and review your own work process — not one-off support, a skill trained through regular sessions.

Do you have a fixed weekly moment to review what worked and what didn't in your own planning?Could you name the specific part of the process (starting, sustaining, finishing) where a task usually gets stuck for you?

Work-MAP (Grinblat & Rosenblum, 2023, OTJR), a randomised controlled trial of an 11-week telehealth programme based on this approach, found significant improvements maintained at 3-month follow-up.

2 · External memory and time systems

Not trusting working memory to your head: putting it outside, somewhere fixed and always visible, so you don't depend on remembering.

Do you have a single place (not three different apps) where you write down everything you can't forget?Are your time blocks in a visible calendar, or just in your head as an intention?

Reviews of ADHD coaching research find consistent improvements in executive functioning when external capture-and-review systems are used, versus relying on memory alone.

3 · Executive function coaching

A regular accountability system with another specialised person — not to do the work for you, but so the external structure doesn't rely only on your own discipline.

Do you have someone (coach, therapist, mentor) to review your progress with regularly, not just when something goes wrong?Does that review have a fixed date on the calendar, or does it depend on you remembering to ask for it?

The same ADHD coaching literature finds that regular, scheduled accountability — not spontaneous — is what sustains long-term change, above and beyond the specific content of each session.

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