The task fraction: what has to come off a list before it can be prioritised

A list that holds wishes as well as tasks cannot be sorted by any priority method, because ranking treats them as comparable. The r/adhdwomen post where this comes up hardest, 157 points and 65 comments, says half the list is not tasks at all: things she should do, wants to do, would like to do.

She opens by saying her notes app would make you cry, and her therapist’s answer was the Eisenhower matrix.

Why does prioritising an ADHD to-do list fail?

Because a grid needs items of one kind, and this list holds three. A chore with a deadline, a duty nobody has scheduled and something she would like to do one day all sit in the same column, where ranking treats them as comparable.

As she puts it: “EVERYTHING on my list is urgent to me so how can I prioritise anything?”

The matrix works on lists whose every line is a task, and that assumption stays invisible until a list breaks it. So there is a number to take before any method arrives. Count the lines naming something a person could start today, divide by the length of the list, and call that share the task fraction.

A reply at 21 points reaches the same count from the other side. Her urgent-and-important box stays empty, because what needs doing now she is already doing, and the rest piles into important-but-not-urgent.

What do the top replies in those threads do instead?

They change what the list is allowed to hold. I went into these threads looking for the sort order that works, and the highest-voted reply, at 105 points, does not sort at all. It drops urgency and importance for a single question, how bad is it if this does not happen, and moves anything merely nice onto its own page.

Three more comments, three versions of the same move:

• 20 points, under the 484-point r/ADHD post: a deferred list, which the commenter used to call a not-going-to-do list.
• 12 points: paper rather than a phone, because paper is harder to add to, and any line moved three times gets crossed off or made easier.
• 11 points, in a second r/adhdwomen thread: a brain dump on one page, and a working list allowed three items.

None of these is a better sort order. Each one takes lines off the page, and one of them makes the page harder to add to.

How does a coach measure the task fraction?

Read the list with the client and mark every line: task, should, or want. If the tasks are a minority, the week’s work is taking things off, and a method can wait until there is something left to sort.

The client already knows what is on the page, which is why knowing was never the problem. The three-moves rule in that 12-point comment does the same job as the decay date: a line that keeps moving is reporting a bad fit, not a missing motive.

Cheryl Susman, an ADHD coach, tells clients that rest which waits for the list to be finished never arrives, because the list has no bottom.

Your client cannot reach the bottom of a page that also holds her wishes. Take those off, and what is left is short enough to finish.

Questions people ask next?

Is making lists a symptom of ADHD?

Nothing here is a diagnosis. Making lists is a coping move, and the complaint in these threads is about growth, not about making them: the 484-point r/ADHD post describes checking one thing off and finding two new things added.

Does the Eisenhower matrix work for an ADHD client?

It works on a list whose every line is a task. The 157-point poster’s therapist prescribed it and she could not run it, and a 21-point reply reports the important-but-not-urgent box swallowing everything. Count the task fraction first.

What belongs on a not-going-to-do list?

Anything the client wants to keep in view and will not start this month. The r/ADHD commenter at 20 points who keeps one says it helped with feeling less overwhelmed, and the item stays visible without competing with today.