Case Study
While Sarah was a great business strategist, consulting on millions of dollars, when it came to Thanksgiving, she dreaded even the thought of having to host.
The Problem

There was so much to do. Cook, prep, clean… hold that emotional space for people. Never mind for herself.
She invited everyone for 3pm. In her mind, that gave her "plenty of time" to get everything ready.

Except the turkey took longer than she thought. The potatoes needed more prep than she remembered. Her daughter needed help with her outfit. Someone called about last-minute dietary restrictions. The kitchen was a mess and there was still so much to do.
By 2pm, Sarah would be in full panic mode. Hair not done. Still in her cooking clothes. Half the food wasn't ready. She'd be sweating, stressed, snapping at her husband and kids.

Guests would arrive at 3pm to find Sarah frantically finishing everything, clearly not ready, barely holding it together.

Dinner wouldn't actually happen until close to 6pm. By then, Sarah was too exhausted and resentful to enjoy it. She'd sit at the table she'd worked so hard to create, feeling nothing but relief that it was almost over.

Every year, she'd tell herself: "Next year will be different. I'll start earlier. I'll be more organized."

But every year the same process repeated itself.

This wasn't just about Thanksgiving.

Sarah dreaded any event that had too many details that had to happen at once. Her daughter’s birthday parties. Redoing her kitchen. Or planning the month-long summer trip in Europe.
Every time, she'd underestimate how long things took, not work systematically and end up having to redo things because her brain just couldn’t handle it all.

In order to host or deal with a big project, you need to use the 28 thinking skills.
These thinking skills are happening in the background, whether you realize it or not.
When your thinking skills are strong, you’re able to do what you want easily,
When there’s even one thinking skill that’s weak, it can make the whole situation more difficult.


In Sarah’s case, she had a weak thinking skill of understanding time, specifically, how long things actually take and what order they need to happen in.

Once we improved how Sarah's brain processed time, Sarah began enjoying hosting. The prep was actually fun and Sarah was able to relax with her company.


Understanding Time
Understanding time isn't just knowing what time it is.

It's your brain's ability to accurately estimate how long tasks take and understand sequence - what needs to happen first, second, third etc.

Sarah struggled with both.
She'd think "turkey takes 4 hours" but not factor in thawing time, prep time, or resting time. She'd think "mashed potatoes are quick" but forget about peeling, boiling, mashing, and timing it so they're hot when dinner's ready.

And she had no sense of sequencing. She'd start tasks in whatever order felt right without thinking about what needed to be done before other things could start.

This combination meant Sarah was constantly surprised by how behind she was, even though the same thing happened every year.


Here are 5 strategies we used that helped Sarah improve her understanding time during Thanksgiving.
You can use these strategies with any project no matter how big or small.

Strategy 1: Time the task
First step is to show your brain how long tasks take.
If you don’t have the information, your working based on assumptions that were made with brain that doesn’t understand time.
So, you’ll want to time all the tasks you need to do.

And don’t forget to include the elements around the task.

For example to make turkey Sarah needed to
Prep turkey: 30 minutes
Cook turkey: 4 hours
Make gravy: 20 minutes

Or if you’re going to the gym, it’s not just the 45 minutes you’re in the gym.
It’s the 10 minute drive to the gym.
The 30 min shower and dress.

We skip out the elements around the task and then wonder why we don’t have enough time.

So, right now, think of all the elements you need to do for a project.
Then as you do those tasks, time how long they actually take.
This exercise alone was eye-opening for Sarah. "I had no idea setting the table takes 15 minutes. I always think it's like 5."


Strategy 2: Identify Dependencies
This one solved Sarah's sequencing problem.
Some tasks can happen anytime. Others can only happen after something else is done.

You can't mash the potatoes till the potatoes have been boiled. You can't shower and get dressed while you're in the middle of cooking something that needs constant attention.

Sarah would try to do all of these things simultaneously and would end up feeling pulled in 100 different directions.

What I had Sarah do was split her tasks in 3 groups:
1. Things that can happen in advance
2. Things that need to happen last minute
3. Things that need to happen the day of

Then, within each group, Sarah marked which items depend on other items. Like the mashing mashing the potatoes can only happen afte they are boiled.


Since the items were already split into 3 groups, there was less information to deal with, making it easier for Sarah to see what was depent on something else,


Think of project, split it into groups. Though your timeline of groups may be different depending what your project is. For example, if you’re planning a trip to Europe, your groups maybe

Things that can happen a month in advance
Things that need to happen the week of
Things that need to happen the day of

Then within each group see what is depent on each other.
Maybe you can’t book your hotel, until you know you have flights to that city etc.


Strategy 3: Plan Backwards

Instead of starting to plan with "I'll wake up at 8am and start cooking," she started with "guests arrive at 3pm, I’d like to eat at 4:00pm."

Then she worked backwards.
Your turn. Now plan backwards for your project.


Strategy 4: Add Buffer Time
Sarah's original timeline had zero margin for error.
If one thing took 5 minutes longer than expected, everything else was thrown off.

In the days leading up to Thanksgiving and on the day itself, we added buffers between major tasks. Not because we thought we'd need them. Because we knew we would.

One of the most common problems I hear from ADHDish business owners who struggle with timeblindness is that they tried planning ahead but they ended up having to stay up late the night before anyways.

This is caused either because they don’t realize how long the task actually tasks (strategy 1) Or because they plan for life to go perfectly. Life NEVER does. You’ve got to take into consideration, for life to happen so that way you’ll be ready for it.

Then, if for some magically reason everything goes faster then expected, you have extra time to use how you please.
So go back to your schedule and add in buffer space.


Strategy 5: Factor in Energy

For some reason, energy always gets forgotten about. Then people wonder why they crash out and go down a shame spiral for needing recovery time.

This is where you need to be self-aware (And if you don’t know yet, observe yourself for patterns) What situation drain my energy? What type of tasks work better when I do them in the morning instead of the afternoon? Etc

Then, you’ll make to adjust your schedule accordingly.

Also, it’s a really good space to practice growth mindset and challenge yourself. KNOW what your baseline is now, then instead of getting fixed in I can’t do it because it doesn’t match your energy, work with it, so you can grow.

A personal example that comes to mind, is when I went to Israel for a few weeks, it’s a 7 hour time defirence and it meant that some of my calls where at midnight. As someone who's a morning person and usually whose sleeping by 10 pm, this was not matching my energy.
But instead of saying I can’t do this because I’m a morning person, I simply adjusted and quickly adapted.
However, if I wasn’t prepared for it, it could have been a disaster.

So be understanding and work with it.

Sarah knew she her emotional bucket drained after spending time with people, so she planned a chilled morning the day after Thanksgiving to give herself what she needed.

Though she told me after, since the whole prep went so much smoother, that chilled morning ended up as a complete bonus more than a need.



While Sarah’s Thanksgiving was a success, it was when she told me “For the first time in my life, I wasn’t up by midnight wrapping Christmas presents” that I knew this work had worked.

She had improved the thinking skills required to host and do big projects that it happened easily.


Cheers to Peak Brain Performance!