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Do This, Then That! How to Model Planning & Prioritizing for Students with ADHD

Help students improve their executive function skills and get vital work done by following these four strategies.

By Beverley Holden Johns, Updated on May 9, 2025
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It’s a common scenario: Students with ADHD resist working on daunting class assignments in favor of easier or more enjoyable tasks, grumbling to the teacher in class or the parent at home about busy schedules, unclear directions, or the pointlessness of it all.

Arguing and pleading with your student will not work. Giving them a voice in the process of prioritizing tasks and managing time will be more effective. To help build your child’s executive function skills, follow these steps.

1. Be a model.

Show your child how to plan and prioritize by working on a fun task together. For example, plan a trip to the ice cream shop: Walk or take the car, choose the route, take money with you, decide what flavor you want, and place the order. Model the planning of a desirable task so your child can see it in action and engage in the process.

[Get This Free Checklist: Common Executive Function Challenges — and Solutions]

2. Let your child plan.

Have your child plan an activity, breaking down all the steps from start to finish, and estimating how much time each step will take. Time estimation is an important life skill that seldom comes easily. At home and in the classroom, challenge your child to write down how long they think it will take to do various tasks and then record how long it actually takes.

3. Anticipate roadblocks.

As we teach children to plan, we must also help them to anticipate roadblocks that may interfere with their schedule. College students, I observed, would often plan to get to class with just enough time to print out an assignment, only to find that the network was down.

4. Apply the Premack Principle.

When students prefer one important task over another, use the Premack Principle: Have your student do the less preferred activity first to increase the odds that they’ll finish it to get to the preferred activity.

Here are other proven strategies for getting things done in class and at home:

[Read: How to Stack Habits to Improve Executive Functioning]

  • Productivity gurus agree that the Eisenhower Matrix is a simple yet powerful way to set priorities and to focus your time and energy on what matters most. The matrix is divided into four quadrants according to two attributes: urgency and importance. Finishing a big work presentation for your boss that’s due tomorrow is both highly urgent and highly important. Washing your car is neither. Assigning each task to a quadrant helps students break up their to-do lists and truly see priorities.
  • Getting started is often the hardest part of any assignment. The parent or educator can do the first step or two with a student, then have them continue the work alone. You can also alternate steps: the adult does one step, then the child does one, and so on.
  • Play “beat the clock,” a game that can kickstart students with and without ADHD. One of my students would procrastinate by putting his head down on the desk. I learned to say, “Andrew, I bet that this will take you 10 minutes to do.” Guess what? He would get it done in five minutes to prove me wrong. This strategy may, however, be too stressful for students who have anxiety.
  • Buddy systems, or doing a task with another person, can help motivate a student and keep them accountable.
  • Charts and self-monitoring help students see their progress when completing a task with multiple parts. Crossing off items gives everyone a feeling of accomplishment.

How to Prioritize: Next Steps

Beverley Holden Johns is an author and learning and behavior consultant. She has worked with students with learning differences for more than 30 years.

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