As we wrap up 2025, it seems like everywhere you look, it's all about reflection journals, vision boards, 90-day planners, and goal-setting frameworks.

If you're feeling absolutely nothing (or, let's be real, maybe a little guilty it's not working for you), I’m right there with you.

So, instead of one more system to make you feel “less than,” I’m serving something totally different—a simple, honest inventory. Just three lists: Energy, Money, Time. Here’s the breakdown:

Energy Inventory

1. What gave you energy this year? What absolutely drained you—even if it was profitable or “successful”?
2. Which tasks, clients, or projects left you jazzed up… and which made you want to flee the building?
3. Notice the patterns. Pattern recognition tends to be a skill that ADHD brains excel at.

Money Inventory

1. What actually made you money, versus what you thought should make you money?
2. Which offers did people really buy? Where did revenue flow in from? What’s gathering dust (subscriptions, courses, tech) in your digital library?
3. If most of your money came from one thing, but you spent all your time on everything else—this is info, not failure.

Time Inventory

1. When did you do your best work? Was it in performance windows that don’t match “normal” business hours?
2. Was your magic at 10 pm in the car, Friday mornings, or after a walk or shower?
3. This is about gathering intelligence, not shaming yourself. Design your days around your actual brain, not someone else’s ideal.

Subtraction is Strategy

Every time I let go of what wasn’t working, the good stuff got even better. So maybe your “stop doing” list is more important than any “to-do” list. Eliminate the clients, offers, or systems that drain you, no matter how much they pay. Permission granted to not start that newsletter, podcast, or YouTube channel you’ve been “planning” for two years.

Final step:

Commit to ONE thing that’s already working and carry it forward. Whether it’s sticking to your creative window or leaning into your night owl energy, just one thing that fits your brain. For me, it’s this podcast.

No pressure, no massive goals, no breakthroughs required. 2026 is happening no matter what. Go in knowing what energizes, pays, and fits your unique brain—and that’s your built-in advantage.

Mic Drop Moment:

“We're great at building these complex offers that we think people want. We spend months perfecting the positioning, creating the fancy framework, building out the whole fricking thing. And then we're genuinely shocked when that simple little thing we threw together in an afternoon is the one that actually makes more money.”

About the Host:

Diann Wingert (she/her) is a seasoned coach, consultant, and the creator/host of ADHD-ish. Drawing from her many years of experience as a former psychotherapist, business owner, and someone who thinks "outside the box," Diann is known for her straight-talking, no-nonsense approach to the intersection of neurodiversity and business ownership.

Enjoyed the Episode?

Have you been enjoying ADHD-ish in 2025? Leave a review and let Diann know what resonated, challenged, or inspired you. Your feedback helps ADHD-ish reach more listeners who need to hear more honest conversations about being a neurodivergent entrepreneur.

© 2025 ADHD-ish Podcast. Intro music by Ishan Dincer / Melody Loops / Outro music by Vladimir / Bobi Music / All rights reserved.

Okay, let's get real. Maybe you bought one of those planners last year, and maybe it's still sitting on your desk with the first three pages all filled out. Maybe you even made it to January 15th before the whole thing fell apart. But here's the thing that no one's telling you, it's not your fault. These tools, most of them, were designed for brains that work differently than ours. They were built for people who can set a goal on January 1st and steadily chip away at it for 12 long months. Ewwww.

For people whose interest and motivation stay consistent. For people who don't have 17 brilliant ideas on a random Tuesday but then can't remember why any of them mattered on Friday. Well, hey, trying to force yourself into that model doesn't make you more successful. It just makes you feel like shit. So instead of giving you one more thing that makes you feel inadequate, I'm sure you've got that covered all by yourself. I'm going to instead walk you through something different, an inventory.

Not a plan, not a goal setting session, just an honest freakin look at what actually happened this year. It consists of three simple lists. No journaling, no vision boarding, just real data about what worked and what didn't. And if you're already thinking, oh God, Diann, please don't make me look back at this year, I get it, but stick with me. Because this is not about judging yourself or comparing yourself to where you thought you'd be, or if we hadn't all just had the year we've actually had where you should have been.

This is about gathering intelligence. It's about letting your business tell you what it needs instead of forcing it to be something it's not so let's do this. All right, I'm going to walk you through the three inventories, here's how it goes. Now, if you can grab your phone, open up a notes app, or just grab a piece of paper, and a pen whatever. We're going to do this together right now.

Now, if you happen to be driving or walking the dog or folding the laundry, just make mental notes. Your brain will remember what matters, I promise. We're only looking at three things. Energy, money, and time. And we are going to be brutally honest about all of them, starting with inventory. Number one, let's start with energy. Because here's what I know about brains like ours.

Energy is currency. It is more valuable than time. It is more valuable than money. Because if something drains your energy, it really doesn't matter how profitable it is or how air quotes successful it looks from the outside. It's costing you big time. So, first question, what gave you energy this year and what absolutely drained you even if it was profitable, even if it was successful. Think about your clients, that one client who paid really well but left you so completely depleted for days after every single call, write it down.

That project you procrastinated on for weeks. You know, the one where you would rather reorganize your sock drawer than actually start working on it, that's data. That's not failure. That's your brain telling you something important. Now, on the flip side, what could you do for hours without even noticing that time was passing? What did you look forward to and what made you think, oh, great, I get to do this today? For me, it's podcast interviews. I could record three in a row and actually feel more energized at the end than I did at the beginning. But writing emails, I'd rather fake my own death.

So think about this, content that flowed versus content that felt forced. Client calls that energized you versus the ones that truly felt like emotional labor and admin tasks. Which ones were fine and which ones made you want to burn your business down? Because let's be honest, when it comes to admin, none of them are going to make you jump up and click your heels together right? Now, the format or medium that felt easiest, was it writing? Was it speaking? Was it video? Was it one on one? Or was it group? Just notice, don't judge, don't try to fix it, at least not yet.

Just write it down, that's it. And yes, I know some of the most draining stuff probably made you good money. We're going to deal with that in a minute, for now, just notice the pattern. And by the way, pattern recognition is something that you and I are typically quite good at. So let's put that ADHD advantage to good use. Now, inventory number two, money, honey, let's talk about money. And I want you to be honest here, because this is where entrepreneurs with ADHD get really creative about lying to themselves. There, I said it.

Now the question is this what actually made you money this year versus what you thought should make you money? Because here's what I see all the time. We're great at building these complex offers that we think people want. We spend months perfecting the positioning, creating the fancy framework, building out the whole fricking thing. And then we're genuinely shocked when that simple little thing we threw together in an afternoon is the one that actually makes more money, the hell? Or when people keep buying the so called wrong package.

Or when someone hires you for something that you haven't even mentioned on your website. Your business is trying to tell you something, friend, but are you listening? So, here's what you're going to look at. Which offers actually sold? Not the ones you spent months perfecting, the ones people actually bought. Where did money actually come from? Was it referrals? Was it your podcast? Was it speaking social media? Or that random DM from someone who found you three years ago and has sent you a whole bunch of other people who've worked with you too? What was your revenue per effort ratio?

What gave you a high payoff with low drama versus low payoff with high maintenance? What did you spend money on that you're still using versus what's really gathering digital dust in your course library or tech stack? Honest talk, friends. Now here's a real moment, if 80% of your revenue came from one thing, but you spent 80% of your time on everything else, that's not failure, that's information. Your business is basically screaming at you in all caps. Hey, do more of this thing.

And maybe you're ignoring it because that thing just seems too simple or too niche or not impressive enough. Not what you went to school for, not what you signed up for. All these courses and coaching programs to show you how to do your business does not care. Your bank account most certainly does not care. And the clients who want to pay you, they don't care either. So what made money? Write it down. And third, inventory number three, time and this is where it gets really interesting for ADHD brains.

The question is, when did you actually do your best work? Because I'm willing to bet it wasn't when you thought you should have been working. ADHD brains have specific performance windows, certain conditions where things just click. And most of us spend years, let's be honest, decades, trying to force ourselves to work during whatever normal business hours are or in a professional environment or appropriate times. And then we wonder why everything feels so fucking hard, ask yourself this when did things flow?

When were you in that state where you looked up and realized three hours had passed and you produce something you were actually proud of? Here's what to think about. Time of day, are you an early morning person or does your brain come to life after 10pm? Is your best thinking in that weird window when everybody else feels like taking a nap or having a double espresso? You know the one I'm talking about between 2 and 4 in the afternoon? How about your environment? Home office, coffee shop, public library? That one specific chair in the spare bedroom of your home, your car even. And then how about before and after patterns? Do you do your best work right before a deadline right?

ADHD right after a vacation? First thing Monday mornings, never on a Monday ever. And what worked with your ADHD versus what you kept trying to force because you thought you were supposed to do? So I'm going to give you some examples from some of my clients. One records all of her best podcast episodes at 10 o' clock at night in her car in her driveway, because that's when she can find the time and the space and the quiet. Another one writes all of her client proposals in a two-hour sprint on Friday mornings because she literally can't get herself to do it at any other time and Friday mornings work for her consistently well.

I had a client who realized he could never focus after a full day of client calls, so he stopped scheduling anything that required deep thinking on days when he also had clients. This is one of the clients who loves my focus days formula. So here's mine, you know when my best ideas come, it's when I'm supposed to be doing something else. I literally cannot force creative thinking. Trust me, I've tried. But if I go for a walk or take a shower or drive somewhere, boom. Everything I need just shows up so this isn't about fixing anything. This is about designing your business around how your brain actually works instead of what some productivity guru says should happen.

So again, write it down, when did you do your best work? What were the conditions and what patterns do you notice? All right, now here's where it gets really good, so stay with me. Based on everything you just inventoried, the energy stuff, the money stuff, and the time stuff. What needs to stop, not improve, not optimize, not get better with time, actually freaking stop. And I listen, I know this feels scary. Like if you stop doing things like what'll be left? But here's what I've learned after 20 years in business working with hundreds of entrepreneurs with ADHD. Subtraction is strategy, because brains like ours tend to keep adding and multiplying.

Every single time I have eliminated something that wasn't working, the good stuff got even better every time. So let's break this down, stop offering things you hate. That service you're supposed to provide, but you can't stand it. The package that's so complex you can't even explain it or deliver it. That low ticket thing that attracts high maintenance clients who need way more handholding than you ever want to provide. Stop. Stop working with people who drain your energy, regardless of how much they pay you, regardless of what industry or niche that you used to love.

If it bores you senseless, stop. Clients who need you to be someone else, you're not hard. Stop pretending you're going to start that newsletter or that podcast or that YouTube channel or that group program you've been fluffing the pillows on for two years. If you haven't started it by now, just accept you're not going to and that is so okay. Permission granted to let it go. Stop forcing systems that don't fit your brain. Content formulas that make you miserable. Business models that require you to be someone you really just aren't.

Think of it like pruning a plant. You're not killing it, you're redirecting energy to what actually wants to grow. And yeah, some of this might mean less money in the short term. It might mean fewer clients for a little while. It might mean your business looks smaller or simpler or more streamlined than you thought it should be. But here's the trade off, you get your energy back.

You get to do work that doesn't make you want to quit every other week. You get to build something sustainable instead of something that is slowly crushing your soul and burning you out. So what is going to go on your stop doing list? What are you giving yourself permission to just quit? Okay, one last thing. We're not setting goals. We are not making promises to your future self. We're not committing to some massive transformation or breakthrough year or any of that shit. We're doing something simpler based on everything you just looked at. Your energy inventory, your money inventory, and your time inventory.