Monday morning. You open your laptop, check your calendar, and feel that familiar wave of dread. What did you commit to last week? What’s due this week? Where did you leave off on that project? The mental fog is thick, and you spend the first two hours just figuring out where you are.
Sound familiar? The weekly reset is the antidote. It’s a 30-minute routine, done once a week, that clears the backlog, organizes the week ahead, and gives your ADHD brain the structure it needs to actually function.
This isn’t a rigid productivity ritual. It’s an ADHD-friendly checklist designed to be done imperfectly, in any order, even with breaks in between. Let’s walk through it.
Why ADHD Brains Need a Weekly Reset
The Accumulation Problem
ADHD brains are great at generating tasks and terrible at tracking them. Without a regular reset, incomplete tasks, unprocessed ideas, and forgotten commitments pile up — creating a growing background anxiety that makes everything harder.
The “Where Was I?” Problem
ADHD working memory means you lose context fast. By Monday, you’ve forgotten what you were working on Friday. A weekly reset re-establishes context so you can hit the ground running instead of spending hours rebuilding your mental map.
The Drift Problem
Without weekly reflection, ADHD brains drift. You start the week intending to work on your big project, and by Friday you’ve spent 20 hours on things that felt urgent but weren’t important. The weekly reset catches drift before it becomes a lost month.
When to Do Your Weekly Reset
Best time: Sunday evening or Monday morning.
- Sunday evening works if you want to start Monday with a clear plan
- Monday morning works if Sunday is fully off-limits
Pick one and protect it. Block 30 minutes on your calendar. This is your most important meeting of the week — it’s with yourself.
Tip: Many ADHD people pair this with a ritual — a specific coffee shop, a favorite playlist, a candle. The environmental cue helps trigger the routine.
The ADHD Weekly Reset Checklist
Phase 1: Clear (10 Minutes) 🧹
The first phase is about emptying and processing. Get everything out before you plan anything new.
☐ Brain Dump
Do a thorough brain dump covering all life areas. Spend 5-7 minutes writing everything that’s on your mind — work, personal, health, relationships, finances, random ideas. Don’t filter.
☐ Process Inbox
Go through all your inboxes and process to zero (or close to it):
- Email inbox — Archive, reply (if < 2 min), or add to task list
- Phone notifications — Clear or act on them
- Notion brain dump — Process all unprocessed items
- Physical papers — File, trash, or add to task list
- Notes app — Transfer anything actionable to your task system
☐ Review Last Week’s Tasks
Open your task manager or daily planner from the past week:
- Mark completed tasks as done ✅ (celebrate them!)
- Move incomplete but still relevant tasks to this week
- Drop tasks that no longer matter (be ruthless — this is liberating)
- Note anything that’s been sitting for 3+ weeks without progress
Phase 2: Review (10 Minutes) 📊
Now look backward and inward. This is where self-awareness builds over time.
☐ Win Inventory
Write down 5 things you accomplished last week. Include small wins. “Replied to that email I’d been avoiding for a week” counts. This combats the ADHD negativity bias that focuses on what didn’t happen.
Your wins this week:
☐ Energy Pattern Check
If you’ve been tracking energy in your habit tracker, review the pattern:
- Which days had the most energy?
- What time of day were you most productive?
- Did sleep, exercise, or meals correlate with better days?
Use these patterns to schedule this week’s important work during high-energy windows.
☐ Stuck Point Identification
What’s stuck? What have you been avoiding? Write down 1-3 things that feel blocked. For each, identify the actual next step (not the whole project — just the very next physical action).
Stuck items tend to be vague. “Work on presentation” stays stuck. “Open slides and write the title for slide 1” gets done.
☐ Emotional Check-In
ADHD isn’t just about productivity. How are you feeling?
- Burned out? → Schedule more breaks this week
- Anxious? → What specifically? Add it to the brain dump
- Energized? → Ride the wave — schedule your hard tasks
- Numb? → Maybe this week is about basics: eat, sleep, move
Phase 3: Plan (10 Minutes) 📋
Now you’re clear and aware. Time to set up the week.
☐ Identify This Week’s Top 3 Outcomes
Not tasks — outcomes. What three things, if accomplished, would make this week a success?
Examples:
- “Finish the client proposal” (not “work on proposal”)
- “Exercise 3 times” (not “exercise more”)
- “Have the difficult conversation with [person]”
This week’s Top 3:
☐ Time Block the Big Rocks
Open your calendar. Block time for each Top 3 outcome. Be specific:
- Which day?
- Which time block? (Use your energy patterns from the review)
- How long? (Overestimate by 50% — ADHD time estimation is notoriously optimistic)
Don’t schedule every hour. Leave at least 30% of your week unscheduled for the unexpected, spontaneous tasks, and recovery.
☐ Set Up Daily Planners
If you use a printable daily planner, print or prepare pages for the week. Pre-fill any known appointments or deadlines. Having the physical planner ready removes a friction point from your mornings.
☐ Prep Your Environment
ADHD brains are highly influenced by environment. Spend 5 minutes on physical prep:
- Clear your desk
- Charge devices
- Set out tomorrow’s clothes/bag
- Put your planner where you’ll see it
- Queue up your focus playlist
☐ Set One “Joy” Item
Schedule something you genuinely look forward to this week. A coffee date, a movie night, a new restaurant, a long walk. ADHD brains need anticipated dopamine to sustain motivation. Don’t skip this — it’s not a luxury, it’s fuel.
The Complete Checklist (Printable Version)
Here’s the full checklist condensed:
🧹 CLEAR (10 min)
- Brain dump (all life areas)
- Process email inbox
- Process phone notifications
- Process Notion/digital inbox
- Process physical papers
- Review last week’s tasks (complete/move/drop)
📊 REVIEW (10 min)
- List 5 wins from last week
- Check energy patterns
- Identify stuck points + next actions
- Emotional check-in
📋 PLAN (10 min)
- Set 3 weekly outcomes
- Time block big rocks on calendar
- Prep daily planners
- Quick environment prep
- Schedule one joy item
Download the printable weekly reset checklist →
Tips for Making the Weekly Reset Stick
Start Smaller
If 30 minutes feels like too much, start with just Phase 1 (Clear) for the first two weeks. Add Review the next two weeks. Then add Plan. Layering prevents overwhelm.
Use Body Doubling
Do your weekly reset during a Focusmate session or at a coffee shop. The social accountability helps with initiation, and the environment change signals “this is different from regular work.”
Make It Sensory
Light a specific candle. Play a specific playlist. Make a specific drink. ADHD brains respond to sensory anchors. When your brain smells that candle, it knows: it’s reset time.
Track Your Streak
In your habit tracker, add “Weekly Reset” as a habit. Seeing the streak builds momentum. If you miss a week, just do the next one — don’t try to “catch up.”
Pair With a Partner
Find an accountability partner (friend, partner, online buddy) and do your weekly resets at the same time. Text each other when you’re done. Social commitment is one of the most powerful ADHD motivation tools.
What to Do When You Fall Off
You will miss resets. Maybe for weeks. That’s okay. Here’s the comeback protocol:
- Don’t do a mega-reset — Just do a normal one for the current week
- Add 5 extra minutes to Clear — Your inboxes will be fuller, so give yourself a bit more processing time
- Skip Review if needed — If you’ve been off for weeks, reviewing the past isn’t helpful. Focus on Clear and Plan
- Forgive yourself — Guilt about missed resets defeats the purpose. The system is designed to survive interruptions
The Weekly Reset in Your ADHD Toolkit
The weekly reset connects all your other tools:
- Your brain dumps generate raw material → The weekly reset processes it
- Your daily planner handles today → The weekly reset sets up the week
- Your Notion system stores everything → The weekly reset keeps it current
- Your time management tools help you execute → The weekly reset decides what to execute
Without the weekly reset, these tools are disconnected. With it, they become a system.
Get the Full ADHD Productivity System
Ready to build a complete ADHD productivity system? Our bundle includes:
- ✅ Daily planner template (printable)
- ✅ Weekly reset checklist (printable)
- ✅ Brain dump worksheets
- ✅ Notion ADHD template
- ✅ Quick-start guide
- ✅ Video walkthroughs
Get the ADHD Productivity Bundle →
Your Next Step
Don’t wait until Sunday. Do a mini-reset right now:
- Brain dump for 5 minutes
- Pick your Top 3 for this week
- Block time for one of them on your calendar
That’s it. Three actions, five minutes, and your week just got measurably better.