Business Pivots, Entrepreneurship, Mindset, Online Business

Why a To Do List For ADHD Brains Looks Nothing Like a Normal One

October 19, 2026
By itssophiebiggerstaff.com

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My To Do List For My ADHD Brain Took Six Years to Get Right

A to do list for ADHD brains is not a neat, colour-coded, time-blocked schedule. It took me six and a half years of running my own online business to truly understand that – and about four of those years were spent fighting myself, burning out, and wondering why I couldn’t just function like everyone else seemed to. If you have neurodivergent tendencies, if time blocking makes your brain shut down, if you set yourself a deadline and then ignore it completely, I want you to know: that is not a character flaw. That is your brain telling you the system does not fit.

When I left a twelve-year career in fashion, managing a £380 million business, travelling the world, presenting to boards, I thought I was finally free. But what I actually did in those first two years of entrepreneurship was copy and paste every corporate habit I had into my own business. I built myself a job. I tried time blocking. I set alarms. I created rigid calendars. And I ignored all of it, every single time, and then felt terrible about myself for it. That cycle of trying to force my brain into a mould it did not fit nearly broke me. I burned out badly. And I knew something had to change.

What I have built now , a weekly to do list for ADHD tendencies, designed around energy rather than hours, is the single biggest shift I have made in how I run my business. And I want to share it with you, because I genuinely do not think enough people are talking about how to manage energy not time when you are building something for yourself.

Why Managing Energy Not Time Changes Everything For ADHD Business Owners

The core problem with time blocking for a neurodivergent brain is that it creates the illusion of structure while actually generating resistance. When I look at a calendar full of blocked slots, my brain reads it as restriction – and freedom is my number one value. So the blocks get ignored, the alarms go off and get dismissed, and then I spend the rest of the day feeling like I am failing at something I designed myself. That is not productivity. That is self-sabotage dressed up as a system.

Managing energy not time means something very different. It means starting the day by asking how much capacity I actually have, not assuming I have the same output available every single morning. As a woman running a business, my energy is not linear. It shifts. Some days I wake up ready to deep dive into strategy for five hours. Some days I have a flare-up of my health condition and I genuinely cannot show up in the same way. Neither of those days is a failure. They are just different levels of battery, and the system I work within has to accommodate both.

For me, mornings are not for working. I know that about myself. If I wake up and go straight to my laptop, I spiral into anxiety and overwhelm before I have even had breakfast. So I protect my mornings, I meditate, I journal on my reMarkable, I go for a walk or to a yoga class depending on my energy level that day, and I eat a proper breakfast early because my health condition means my energy crashes without it. By eleven or twelve, when I sit down to actually work, I am regulated, fuelled, and genuinely ready. That afternoon block – usually four to five hours – is where I get my best, most focused work done. That is what managing energy not time looks like in practice.

If you are just starting out and want to build a business that works around your energy from day one, the Freedom Method Foundations programme is exactly where that work begins. It is where I teach this method from the very first session. Enroll in the programme here.

How I Use a Task Prioritization Matrix

Here is what my actual weekly to do list for ADHD looks like, and why it works where everything else has failed.

Every Sunday, I sit down with my reMarkable and write out every single task that is currently sitting in my head, across my business and my life. Everything. Once it is on paper, I stop trying to hold it all in my brain. Then I apply what is effectively a task prioritization matrix, though I did not name it that. Here is how it works:

I sort every task into one of two categories: want to do or need to do
Want to do tasks are the ones that would be nice to get done but have no real urgency, they could happen this week, next week, or next month without any real consequence
Need to do tasks are the ones that are genuinely going to move the needle, they get me closer to a real goal, a real outcome, or meet a real commitment
I focus first on the needs to do list and prioritise them in order of urgency and needle-moving impact
I then go back to the wants list and pull a few over onto the weekly list that would complement the needs if energy allows
My final list is roughly ten tasks, enough to feel full but not so long that it triggers overwhelm
I number them from one to ten in strict priority order, number one is the most important, number ten can wait
I do not assign tasks to specific days – the list belongs to the whole week

This is my version of a task prioritization matrix, built for how my brain actually works, not for how productivity culture tells me it should work. It is also where prioritization skills become less about discipline and more about self-knowledge.

ADHD To Do List Templates and Apps - And Why I Ditch Them All For a Notebook

There are hundreds of ADHD to do list templates and ADHD to do list app options out there. I have tried a lot of them. The problem with most of them is that they are built on the same rigid logic as time blocking, they want you to assign tasks to time slots, to check in on a schedule, to follow a system that assumes your brain works the same way every day. Mine does not. And I suspect yours does not either.

What actually works for me is low-friction and physical. I use my reMarkable – a digital paper tablet – to write my weekly to do list for ADHD by hand. There is something about physically writing it out that helps my brain process it differently to typing. And because everything lives in one place that I carry with me, I am not bouncing between apps, losing context, or getting distracted by notifications.

Here is how I manage the list during the week once it is written:

When I sit down to work in the afternoon, I go straight to task number one, no detours, no “just quickly checking” task seven first
I stay on task one until at least eighty percent of it is done, or until I am genuinely stuck waiting on someone else to move it forward
If I hit a wall with focus or my energy dips, I allow myself to drop down the list and pick up a lower-energy task from closer to eight, nine, or ten
I write “work in progress” next to anything I have started but not finished, so I always know where I am when I come back to it
I aim to complete around seventy-five percent of the weekly list, not one hundred percent, because I do not work every single day

This is not laziness. This is managing energy not time in a way that means I am productive on the days I show up, rather than half-present and overwhelmed every single day. Prioritization skills built around realistic capacity beat rigid time blocking every time, at least for a brain like mine.

If this resonates and you are ready to build your business the way that actually works for you, I would love for you to join me inside Freedom Method Foundations. It is a six-month programme where we build everything, including your energy-aligned workflow, from the ground up. Find out more and enroll here.

Frequently Asked Questions About To-Do Lists For ADHD Business Owners

Does a to do list for ADHD actually need to look different from a standard to do list?

Yes, significantly. A standard to do list assumes consistent daily energy, linear focus, and the ability to stick to time blocks. An ADHD to do list needs to be flexible, weekly rather than daily, and ordered by genuine priority rather than arbitrary deadlines. The goal is to reduce overwhelm while still making sure the needle-moving tasks get done first.

Why doesn’t time blocking work for ADHD and neurodivergent brains?

Time blocking creates an artificial sense of restriction that many ADHD and neurodivergent brains actively resist. When the brain reads a time block as a forced constraint, it triggers avoidance rather than action. Managing energy not time, and building a to do list for ADHD around what you are actually capable of on a given day, removes that resistance and makes deep work far more accessible.

What is the best ADHD to do list template for entrepreneurs?

The best ADHD to do list template for entrepreneurs is one you build yourself, based on honest self-knowledge. The framework I use, sorting tasks into needs and wants, then numbering them in priority order across a full week rather than by day, is a solid starting point. You can use an ADHD to do list app, but I genuinely find that a physical or handwritten list on something like a reMarkable creates less friction and fewer distractions.

How do I use a task prioritization matrix without overcomplicating it?

Keep it simple. A task prioritization matrix does not need to be a formal grid. Mine is just two questions: is this a need or a want, and within the needs, what is going to move the needle the most right now? From there, number your tasks by priority for the week and work through them in order. That is a functional task prioritization matrix that works for real business owners managing real ADHD tendencies.

How can I improve my prioritization skills as a neurodivergent founder?

Prioritization skills improve when you remove the pressure of perfectionism from the equation. Aiming for seventy-five per cent completion of a well-built to-do list for ADHD is far more effective than setting impossible daily targets and falling short of all of them. Check in with your energy daily, protect your best working hours, and use your weekly list as a guide rather than a sentence.

If you want to learn how to build these prioritization skills inside a supportive programme designed for founders starting from scratch, the Freedom Method Foundations programme is open now.

The Right To Do List For ADHD Makes Your Business Work For You

A to-do list for ADHD built around managing energy, not time, is not a workaround or a consolation prize, it is a smarter way to run a business. By separating tasks into needs and wants, using a simple task prioritization matrix, and working through a numbered weekly list without rigid time blocking, I have gone from burned out and overwhelmed to consistently productive in a way that actually feels good. If you have ADHD tendencies or neurodivergent qualities, you do not need a better ADHD to-do list app or a stricter schedule, you need a system that is built for your brain. Your prioritization skills will grow when the framework fits, and your whole business will start to reflect that. If you want to build those foundations properly from the very beginning, the Freedom Method Foundations programme is where we do exactly that.

meet the writer

I'm Sophie

Online business coach, podcast host, mental health advocate, speaker, founder of TINAH, community builder, full-time digital nomad, and general trailblazing, rule breaker…

I tried to live a “normal” life: I spent 11+ years working my way up in the fashion industry, working for brands like Ralph Lauren and Burberry. I had the apartment in the city, I lived for going out at the weekends, spent money on designer bags and holidays – until I realized this lifestyle DID NOT FULFIL ME – I was waking up with anxiety every day – surviving, but definitely not thriving.

So I quit. I left my 9-to-5 behind to start an online business that supported the lifestyle I actually wanted. Now that looks like slow mornings, daily beach walks, co-working with like-minded entrepreneurs, yoga, meditation, and lots of social connections.

Since 2020, I’ve built multiple online business offers – from online business coaching and consulting to online courses, digital products, and a mental health marketplace – all while travelling the world and living life, and earning money on my own terms.

Now… I’m on a mission to help more people break free from lives that don’t feel good for them and create more freedom through starting and growing an online business.