Areas › Focus, starting, and ADHD › Structure and routine
A schedule tells you what to do now. It does not make you want to do it, and pretending otherwise sets you up to feel let down when three o'clock comes and you stay sitting.
Even so, knowing is a good half of the problem solved, and it is the half that is hard to fix any other way. The other half needs its own tools: shrinking the first step, working beside somebody, promising the result to a person, leaving the phone in another room. Expect to need both, and do not conclude that the calendar failed when it was the motivation that ran out.
Qur’an and Sunnah
Someone who worships devoutly during the night, bowing down, standing in prayer (Quran 39:9). The person described is the one who actually got up, which is the part no plan can do on your behalf.
أَمَّنۡ هُوَ قَٰنِتٌ ءَانَآءَ ٱلَّيۡلِ سَاجِدࣰ ا وَقَآئِمࣰ ا يَحۡذَرُ ٱلۡأٓخِرَةَ وَيَرۡجُواْ رَحۡمَةَ رَبِّهِۦۗ قُلۡ هَلۡ يَسۡتَوِي ٱلَّذِينَ يَعۡلَمُونَ وَٱلَّذِينَ لَا يَعۡلَمُونَۗ إِنَّمَا يَتَذَكَّرُ أُوْلُواْ ٱلۡأَلۡبَٰبِ
What about someone who worships devoutly during the night, bowing down, standing in prayer, ever mindful of the life to come, hoping for his Lord’s mercy? Say, ‘How can those who know be equal to those who do not know?’ Only those who have understanding will take heed
Qur’an 39:9read it in the library
Translation: M.A.S. Abdel Haleem, The Qur'an, Oxford University Press, 2004.
What the research says
An updated meta-analysis of randomised trials found behavioural activation, which reschedules what a person does rather than working on their thinking, is effective for depression against control conditions and against antidepressants. So a schedule is not merely administration, since what you do and when carries real weight. That evidence is about depression, and it involves doing the scheduled activity rather than only writing it down.
Ekers, D.; Webster, L.; Van Straten, A.; Cuijpers, P.; Richards, D.; Gilbody, S. (2014). Behavioural Activation for Depression; An Update of Meta-Analysis of Effectiveness and Sub Group Analysis. PLoS ONE doi
BA comparable to full CBT protocols.
Strength of evidence: one line of research. A single study, or a theoretical account.
Why it works
Knowing what to do and being willing to start are two different problems that need two different fixes.
This one is still a draft. It is waiting on a scholar and a clinician to read it before it is published.
Near this one
A child who cannot yet catch their own drifting needs somebody close enough to catch it for them. Where they sit does a lot of that work quietly.
When you book something, put everything into the entry there and then: the address, the phone number, what you have to bring. You will never have that information more easily to hand than at the moment of booking.
Bring a child back with the smallest signal that does the job. A tap on the desk, a hand on the shoulder, or simply standing beside them will usually be enough.