How to Get the Most from the Glitch & Glow Day Planner

The Glitch & Glow Day Planner was engineered specifically to work with your ADHD brain, not against it. We created this handy guide to explain the thinking behind the planner and how you can get the most from it and bypass task paralysis, support working memory, and turn overwhelm into momentum.

The Philosophy Behind This Planner

Many people find day planners helpful, both neurotypical and neurodiverse. Sure, there are apps and digital products that can help you plan your day, but they don’t work for everyone. Especially when you consider that they have to be used on a device that is rife with notifications and distractions, this can be really counterintuitive for the neurodiverse. 

So, having a written planner away from those distractions can be ideal. But the challenge can be that traditional planners are often designed for people with steady baseline dopamine and predictable executive function. However, we know that an ADHD brain operates differently so often these don’t work so well. 

So we set about creating a Day Planner was designed to eliminate those cognitive friction points that can be a barrier for ADHD brains by moving away from putting time and/or  sequence first, and focusing more of energy and focus management by introducing flexible dopamine tiers, task deconstruction zones, time-blindness anchors and even an ever present reset/rescue section. 

In the next sections you’ll see a breakdown of the Glitch and Glow Day Planner, with some explanations of why each section is present and how they can be used for maximum effect. 

Section-by-Section Deep Dive Guide

1. Water Intake Tracker (Top Right Corner — 6 Glass Icons)

• Why it’s on the planner: Hydration can often be sacrificed when someone with ADHD enters hyperfocus or struggles with interoception (the brain's internal signal system for thirst or hunger). Additionally, common ADHD stimulant medications increase dehydration risk, leading to headache-induced brain fog that feels like executive exhaustion.

• How to use it: Visual tracking reduces working memory burden. Ticking off a physical glass icon provides an immediate mini-dopamine hit and serves as a passive visual prompt to take a sip without breaking your flow state.

2. Things That Matter Today? (Your Core Focus — Top Left)

• Why it’s on the planner: ADHD brains can suffer from priority blindness—where every task feels equally urgent, critical, and overwhelming. Facing a 20-item list triggers instantaneous decision fatigue.

• How to use it: This section acts as a strict priority fence. You can select 1 to 3 non-negotiables, (with plenty of space for a short description for each if that’s useful to you)  and acts as a north star for the day. Looking here and asking “is what I’m doing now related to my focus for today”  helps to re-enforce that you’re on the right track or highlight those moments of drift, so you can get back to what matters, with minimal disruption. In doing so, this protects limited executive bandwidth and prevents dopamine from being spread too thin across low-value busywork.
  
  

• Pro Tip: If an item isn't essential to complete today, it does not belong here; note it in Things for Tomorrow (more on this later)

3. Timebound Commitments (Deadlines don't have to be scary, set an alarm as a reminder)

• Why it’s on the planner: Time blindness can make it nearly impossible for those with ADHD to accurately gauge the passing of time or transition smoothly between tasks. Deadlines usually trigger panic and adrenaline spikes rather than calm productivity.

• How to use it: We can’t escape some time-bound commitments, so rather than an hour by hour layout, this section gives the ability to start the day noting things that are governed by time.
  
  

Simply write the events of your day and the times you have a commitment to. Be as specific or as vague as the event determines. The timebound commitments section can also be used for time blocking too, if that’s your preference. Simply add your time block and a quick from and to in the when section, and you can use this well-documented productivity strategy as part of your day.

•  Pro Tip:In the header of the Timebound commitments section, you see an ever-present reminder to use alarms to help avoid the pitfalls of time blindness. Set an alarm 10 or 20 minutes before your deadline or meeting, or even halfway through a timeblock. Whatever work for you! 

4. Small Tasks & Quick Wins (Good if your energy or focus dips — Top Middle)

• Why it’s on the planner: Not all tasks you’ll take on throughout your day require an equal level of focus. And for people with ADHD, we know that energy and dopamine levels can fluctuate unpredictably throughout the day. Forcing yourself to tackle a complex project during an afternoon crash can easily lead to procrastination, frustration and even shame. So having the ability to have different tasks lists based on their complexity and amount of mental focus make sense. 

• How You Can Use It: Think of this box as your productivity safety net. Take a moment to write out those tasks that are relatively simple and not a component part of a bigger task. Start with a small number (whatever you become comfortable with), and let this section evolve with the day. Simply add a simple task when one becomes apparent.
  Then, when or if energy dips or you feel focus wandering, you don’t have to fight it. You have a separate list of tasks before you that take much less effort to address (e.g. replying to a simple message, filing a document, watering a plant). Ticking off these bite-sized items kickstarts your brain’s reward circuitry and restores momentum.

5. Notes & Brain Dump

• Why it’s on the planner: ADHD working memory can be notoriously fragile and easily hijacked. A sudden brilliant idea or stray thought ("did I pay the electric bill?") can instantly pull you off track.

• How To Use It: Not everything on an ADHD focused planner needs to be markedly different from a regular day planner. So an open notes section doesn’t need extensive instruction on how to use it - It’s a notes section! Except to say that the space functions as an external cognitive cache. When an intrusive thought or side idea pops up while working, park it in the Notes section immediately. Knowing it is safely written down frees your working memory to return to the core task. Additionally, writing brain dumps can be helpful, but unresolved thoughts can have a habit of nagging away, so try writing an action you plan to take against that thought, rather than leave it hanging as a potential focus disruptor. 

6. Larger Task Overview & Step Breakdown Blocks (Break them down here — Right Column)

• Why it’s on the planner: A big cause of ADHD-driven procrastination is Task Overwhelm. When a project is broad or vague (e.g., "Prepare Client Presentation"), the ADHD brain interprets it as an insurmountable obstacle and can easily trigger avoidance.

• How To Use It: Deconstructing a task is the gold standard intervention for task paralysis.

• Larger Task Overview Box: Write out the titles of your larger tasks (the ones that will have multiple steps involved in completing them. It might be only be one, or as many as 5 large-ish tasks. 

• Task Breakdowns(Lightning Bolt Icons): Now you have some options. We included a variety of task breakdown boxes with a varying numbers of action steps in them. So if you’re working on something with 5 action steps, the planner has you covered. If you have 4 tasks for the day, and each one has 3 action steps, you have enough breakdown boxes for them too and tickboxes to use, so you can see your progress if you want to get a little reward for each item completed. 

You can even use it without ticking off the steps to just to give mental clarity as you think about the tasks you need to complete.

Ultimately, slicing projects into steps eliminates ambiguity, bypasses cognitive inertia, and delivers continuous dopamine rewards with every checkmark ticked. 

7. Things for Tomorrow? (These things can wait — Bottom Left)

• Why it’s on the planner: Cognitive anxiety, from those nagging thoughts of things we need to do, but don’t have a plan for can easily derail and erode focus. This is true for anyone, but even more so for the ADHD brain so it’s important to have a plan for this.

• How To Use It: This block gives your brain psychological permission to ignore a task today, because there is a plan for it. Transferring tomorrow's obligations onto paper offloads them from your active mental queue today, reassuring you that nothing is lost and giving your nervous system permission to focus on what is important. It also acts as a reference point for the next day, when planning activity, the Things For Tomorrow helps to fill the next day’s action points. 

8. Today's Achievements (Let's celebrate what we've done — Bottom Center)

• Why it’s on the planner: A written reminder of todays accomplishments is a great way to remind the ADHD brain that progress is being made.

• How to use it: Celebrating wins rewires your internal reward structure. Documenting accomplishments - no matter how small - provides positive reinforcement, combats burnout, and builds self-efficacy.

9. The Reset Bar (Bottom Footer)

• Why it’s on the planner: This is perhaps one of the stand-out inclusions that makes a Glitch and Glow planner different. Even with an opportunity to document and organise your day, it’s still possible to encounter overwhelm, confusion, mental exhaustion and a lack of clarity. And when that happens you don’t need a planner. You need a grounding procedure. 

• How to use it: The footer provides a simple 3-step grounding protocol to reset your nervous system that you can use in isolation or in combination, depending on how the day is going:
  
  1. Regulate
  
  Body and Mind are intrinsically linked, so when you feel stuck, overwhelmed or a little lost, calming your mind through your body can be an ideal reset.
  
  Breathe
  Using your favourite breathing exercise can be much more beneficial than staring at a task list with a busy, anxious, occupied, overstimulated, wandering (delete as appropriate!) mind. So a great first step can be to take a moment to calm the body and the mind by bringing breathing, something that happens subconsciously, to the front of mind. We don’t detail a specific breathing exercise, as there are different methods, and finding the one that suits you is its own task. But once you have it, the Reset Bar on your planner acts as a simple, visible reminder to use this tried, tested and well documented approach to calming the mind and body. 

Fluid
Taking on board fluids is another one of the body’s fundamental requirements, but bringing that into focus is important, especially during a moment where clarity and focus is lacking. Taking a moment to drink is the ideal reason to stop and re-hydrate. Focusing only on the intake of fluids, the feeling of water in your mouth, how it feels as you swallow, the cooling sensation as is flows to your stomach can be a great way to combine rehydration and mindfulness too.

In short, drink because your body needs it, and if you can, drink mindfully and deliberately for a mental refresh too. 

Move

Changing your scene can be a great way to put the body and mind in a different space, away from the previous distractions and thoughts. When you return to your task, you can find that the mind is clearer and more able to begin making progress, rather than persevering through mentally tiring thought loops that are inefficient.

Additionally, and just as importantly, getting up and moving gives the chance to get in some much needed daily steps. Depending on your working life, it can be 5 minutes away from your desk and a leg/muscle stretch  or a brisk 20 minute walk to get the blood pumping a little. Either way, giving yourself a physical restart can be a great way to get the day going again.

Better still, you can combine all three and benefit from a deep combination of tried and tested regulation methods! 

2. Clear

Gaining some clarity can be a crucial step in getting your day back on track. So we included some prompts to help people to do just that. It can be used in isolation, or as a next step after a regulation exercise. 

Tidying your workspace

Tidying your workspace can be an ideal distraction in a mentally tiring period of the day. It is actually a productivity task in its own right, but it can also lead to more productivity when clutter and mess are nagging away at your conscious and sub conscious thoughts. Further still, if tidying your workspace is a quick win on your list, you get to tick off another task and keeps the days momentum moving too! 

Reframe Thoughts 

When you’re feeling a little overwhelmed, with thoughts, now can be the ideal time to go through a thought reframing exercise. How you can think about things differently? Try saying “ If I decided to thinking about this differently I would think this” and allow yourself the opportunity to reframe it. There are many strategies to reframing thoughts, and finding one that works well for you can be a great way to flip the script on unhelpful thoughts.  

Gratitude 

When you encounter less than ideal, or even downright negative experiences, whether that’s thoughts or events, then gratitude can be an excellent way to counteract them.  Whether it’s people in your life, circumstances that you feel grateful for, maybe even special possessions, taking a moment to reflect and remember them can help to build perspective in a moment where things are negatively impacting your thoughts. Even if you initially don’t feel very grateful because, spending a few moments thinking of the things you are grateful for can be a great way to reset, clear the mind and regain perspective.  

3. Restart 

When you are ready to begin restarting after a tricky part of the day, you can use the Restart exercises, which can be the ramp up you need to regaining some momentum and progress. 

Small Next Step. 

This can be used in conjunction with your quick wins list, and essentially serves as a visual reminder and prompt, that sometimes focusing on what the smallest next thing you can do as part of the task in front of you is an exercise that reduced stress whilst maintaining progress. So, if you want to remain on the task you were working on - even if its a simple task in itself - then jotting out smallest next small step is a good way to maintain some progress. You can do this as many times as is needed until you have some momentum and clarity again.

Switch To A Small Task 

If the task at hand has gotten problematic, then switching to a small task can help to keep the day productive. This can be used in conjunction with the Small Tasks & Quick Wins list, so you can hop over here and jump onto a task that doesn’t take a lot of mental energy to start or complete. It also acts as a resetting exercise that is also productive.  

Key Takeaway’s

So, that was a peek behind the curtain on what drove the design of the Glitch and Glow day planner.  

Ultimately, you can use a Glitch and Glow planner in whatever way works well for you. if you find one section of it works for you as intended, but have a creative way to use the rest of it, then that’s music to our ears too. Because If it makes the workplace for just one person with ADHD that bit more happy, less stressful and more productive, then our goal has been accomplished! 

Happy Day Planning!