The Priority Triage Template

ADHDers often struggle to filter tasks by urgency or importance. When everything feels equally pressing, it’s hard to make decisions — which leads to overwhelm, paralysis, or impulsive choices that don't reflect true priorities.

This isn’t just poor planning. It’s a failure of the internal triage system — something executive function usually handles quietly in the background.

Without a clear way to triage, we:

• Start too many things at once

• Procrastinate on what matters

• Stay in motion without momentum

By the end of the day, we’re exhausted and still unsure whether we did anything that mattered.

This template turns a cluttered brain dump into an actionable, values-aligned triage list.

“Here’s everything I’m juggling right now: [List of tasks, obligations, or ideas] Can you sort them into:

• Do Now

• Do Later

• Let Go or Delegate?”

Clear and Focused:

“Sort these by importance and urgency — I need help seeing what matters now.”

Emotionally Supportive:

“I’m overwhelmed. Can you help me figure out what deserves my focus, what can wait, and what I can release without guilt?”

Simple and Direct:

“Help me divide this list into: urgent, later, and drop.”

Curio types:

“Here’s what I’m juggling:

• Prep Thursday’s meeting

• Check in with Dex

• Finish reading that research article

• Clean workspace

• Respond to two coaching emails

• Organize Airtable

Can you help me triage?”

AI replies:

Do Now: Prep Thursday’s meeting, Respond to coaching emails
Do Later: Check in with Dex, Finish reading article
Let Go: Clean workspace, Organize Airtable (unless you need it for the meeting)

She smiles. Finally, something clear enough to act on.

• Add a timeframe: “Triage this just for today” or “This week”

• Add constraints: “Assume I have 2 hours of energy”

• Ask to align with goals: “Sort by what moves me toward my business priorities”

• Ask for emotional guidance: “Tell me which ones I’m avoiding out of fear vs low importance”

• Your to-do list feels like a crisis menu

• You keep working on easy tasks instead of important ones

• You need to clear decision fog fast

• You have no tasks defined — do a brainstorm or dump first

• You’re too dysregulated to choose anything — ground yourself first

“Now that we’ve triaged, can you help me block time for the ‘Do Now’ list across the next 3 days?”

“Here’s everything I’m juggling right now: [Paste your tasks] Can you sort them into: Do Now, Do Later, and Let Go or Delegate?”