Nataliya Sorokina
writes for moinaki
Nataliya covers productivity and planning systems built to work with real attention and energy, not against them.
Articles
goblin.tools Is Great for Breaking Down Tasks — But Then What?
goblin.tools is one of the best free tools for breaking an overwhelming task into steps. But a list of steps isn't the same as doing them across a week. Here's the follow-through layer that closes the gap.
10 min readPlanning & ProductivityTodoist Alternative for ADHD: When You Keep Stopping
If you keep bouncing off Todoist, you probably don't have a Todoist problem — you have a starting problem, and a capture app isn't built to fix that. Here's where Todoist genuinely wins, where it breaks for a start-and-stop brain, and what fits better.
9 min readPlanning & ProductivityNotion for ADHD: When It Works (and When It Doesn't)
Notion can absolutely work as an ADHD system — but the same flexibility that makes it powerful is what makes it risky. Here's who it fits, who it quietly defeats, and how to keep it minimal enough to survive a bad week.
9 min readPlanning & ProductivityThe Best Apps for Adults With ADHD Who Keep Starting and Quitting
There's no single best ADHD app — only the one that fits the executive-function wall stopping you. A roundup by wall (starting, time, follow-through, emotion), with honest fit and free-tier notes, and why the app you keep beats the app that scored higher.
11 min readPlanning & ProductivityEarly Burnout Signals That Are Easy to Miss
Maslach: three-dimensional burnout precedes visible shutdown by months. Six early signals (taste-bud flattening, irritability, Sunday heaviness, narrative flatness, drop in caring, unrested sleep). Three-front response. Clinical-level signs → professional.
6 min readPlanning & ProductivityCues, Not Memory — Let Your Environment Remember for You
Wendy Wood: ~43% of daily behaviour is initiated by environmental cues. Six rules (cue at decision point, friction-free desired action, friction-added unwanted action, visual not app, anchor to routine, refresh quarterly). ADHD case: offload working memory to the room.
5 min readPlanning & ProductivityThe One-Pushup Habit — Why Minimum-Viable Beats 'An Hour Every Day'
Guise's Mini Habits: lower the threshold below where the brain can talk you out of it. Six rules (embarrassingly small, anchored cue, allow expansion, mark done at minimum, hold 60 days, do minimum on bad days). ADHD case: activation-energy sensitivity.
5 min readPlanning & ProductivityHow to Rest So You Actually Recover — Seven Types, Not One
Dalton-Smith's Sacred Rest: seven distinct rest types (physical, mental, emotional, sensory, creative, social, spiritual). Tired people default to one and wonder why nothing helps. Diagnose which is depleted; deliver specifically. ADHD case + FAQ on triage.
5 min readPlanning & ProductivityFinishing the Boring Tail — Why the Last 20% Is Hardest
Ericsson: the last 20% has different brain-economics than the first 80%. Six closing moves (public reveal date, named deliveries, reward boring parts, time-box the tail, do the hard avoided thing first, document as part of finishing). The ADHD case.
4 min readPlanning & ProductivitySaying No — Defending Your Time Without Guilt
McKeown's Essentialism: every yes is a hidden no. Scripts by relationship type, the three-bucket mental model, and why ADHD/RSD readers benefit doubly from externalising the trade-off rather than getting braver.
4 min readPlanning & ProductivityHow Many Projects Can You Run in Parallel and Still Finish?
Anderson's Kanban WIP-limit applied personally: three projects (primary/secondary/exploratory), different days not different hours, parking lot for new ideas. Why ADHD's high context-loading cost makes three nearly mandatory.
4 min readPlanning & ProductivityA Weekly Review That Doesn't Feel Like Bureaucracy
Allen's GTD without the 90-min monument: 15 minutes, 3 questions (what got done, what's drifting, what's the one thing for next week). The anchor + Friday-vs-Sunday call, the ADHD case, and three failure modes.
5 min readPlanning & ProductivityHabits Through Identity — Not Through Force
Clear's Atomic Habits central thesis: durable change is identity-based, not outcome-based. Five identity-led moves (write the sentence first, smallest action, edit environment, gentle narration, slips as human). Why ADHD pays double, and three failure modes.
5 min readPlanning & ProductivityA Chaos-Free Morning for People Who Hate Routines
Fogg's B=MAP says rigid routines fail on hard days. The lighter shape — two anchors, tonight-decide, 5-min version, escape hatches, protect one thing. Five moves, the ADHD case, and what kills it.
5 min readPlanning & ProductivityTemptation Bundling: Glue the 'Should' to the 'Want'
Milkman 2014: restricting addictive audiobooks to gym-only sessions produced 51% more gym attendance. Four conditions for a bundle to work, six concrete bundles, and why ADHD's interest-based motivation makes this technique uniquely well-suited.
5 min readPlanning & ProductivityDeadlines That Actually Work
Ariely's MIT experiment: external evenly-spaced deadlines beat self-set or end-only. Self-imposed structure helps a bit; external structure helps a lot. Five ways to engineer real teeth (witness, book next step, financial stake, real-audience pre-announce, milestones). The ADHD time-blindness case.
5 min readPlanning & ProductivityDigital Detox Without Going Full Monk
Newport's Digital Minimalism: defaults beat abstinence. Six default changes (off home screen, kill badges, greyscale, log-out, docking station, replace not remove) move real outcomes without a detox week. ADHD pays double; three failure modes.
6 min readPlanning & ProductivityThe Done List Beats the To-Do List
Amabile's Progress Principle (12,000 diary entries): small daily wins are the biggest motivational lever in knowledge work. To-do lists are monuments to undone; done lists invert the felt experience. Five rules, the ADHD memory case, and why the technique pays off on bad days.
6 min readPlanning & ProductivityWhy Habits Fall Apart on Week Three — and How to Come Back
Lally 2010 (UCL): median habit time is 66 days, not 21. The folklore mis-trains you to read week 3 as failure when it's the middle of the actual curve. Five moves to get past the dip, why ADHD pays double, and what kills it.
7 min readPlanning & ProductivityADHD and Money: Behaviour Design Beats Budgets
Budgets assume you'll remember the plan at the moment of decision — ADHD doesn't. Thaler & Sunstein's 'Nudge': defaults beat willpower. Six behaviour-design moves (automation, account fences, 24h delay, weekly glance, fun money, witness) — not financial advice, design only.
6 min readPlanning & ProductivityLow-Battery Days: How to Work When You Can't
BJ Fogg's B=MAP: when Motivation is gone, the lever is Ability — shrink the action. Tiny mode as protocol: smallest visible move, presence-not-output bar, no new commitments. Five moves, why ADHD pays double, and the critical distinction between a low-battery day and burnout.
6 min readPlanning & ProductivityPerfectionism Is Procrastination Wearing a Suit
Sirois 2017 meta-analysis: perfectionistic concerns (fear of judgement) drive procrastination; high standards alone don't. The mechanism is never-finishing as protection from a verdict. Five upstream moves, why ADHD+RSD pays double, and what 'just lower your standards' gets wrong.
6 min readPlanning & ProductivityPlan by Energy, Not by the Hour
Forty years of chronobiology says you run a peak/trough/recovery arc, with 90-min cycles inside it. A schedule that ignores both is making decisions for a person who doesn't exist. The five-move energy-planning method, why ADHD pays double, and where it fails.
6 min readPlanning & ProductivityThe Zeigarnik Effect: Why Unfinished Things Won't Let You Think
Zeigarnik 1927: interrupted tasks are remembered ~twice as well as completed ones — because the brain holds open loops active, and the holding costs attention. The four-move close-the-loops technique, why ADHD pays the tax double, and what kills the practice.
5 min readPlanning & ProductivityImplementation Intentions: "If X, Then Y" Beats "I Will"
Gollwitzer's 1999 finding plus the 2006 meta-analysis (94 studies, d = 0.65): pre-setting 'when X arises, I will Y' roughly doubles the chance the behaviour actually happens. How to write one that fires, why it pays double for ADHD, and the relationship to habit-stacking.
5 min readPlanning & ProductivityEnvironment Design: Make the Right Move the Easy Move
James Clear's framing in one line: change your surroundings, put a hurdle in front of bad behaviour, remove the barrier to good. Six concrete moves, three pitfalls, and why the ADHD brain gets the biggest payoff (both initiation and working memory get routed out of your head into the room).
5 min readPlanning & ProductivityHabit Stacking: Anchor New Habits to Habits You Already Do
Habit stacking is one sentence: 'After [current habit], I will [new habit].' James Clear named the formula, BJ Fogg called the same thing 'anchoring'. Why it works neurally, the two-slot formula, three worked stacks by part of day, and the specific reason it pays double for ADHD brains.
5 min readPlanning & ProductivityWhy Productivity Systems Keep Failing You (When You Have ADHD)
Every system works for two weeks, then collapses into evidence against you. Here's the real mechanism — the executive-function tax classic systems silently charge — and what an ADHD-friendly system looks like instead.
11 min readPlanning & ProductivityWhy Willpower Is a Bad Strategy (and What Actually Works Instead)
The 'willpower is a muscle' science failed to replicate twice. Here's why betting your goals on willpower keeps backfiring — and the cue-driven environment design and if-then plans that do the work instead.
10 min readPlanning & ProductivityADHD and Object Permanence: Why It's Out of Sight, Out of Mind
"If I can't see it, it doesn't exist" feels true from the inside — but it isn't object permanence. Here's the real mechanism (working memory and attention) and how to build an environment that remembers for you.
10 min readPlanning & ProductivityThe Switch Cost: Why Moving Between Tasks Drains You
Every time you stop one task and start another, your brain pays a hidden switch cost — in time, working memory and emotional effort. Here's the mechanism, the honest ADHD nuance, and the changes that lower the bill.
10 min readFocus & AttentionWhy Cognitive Load, Not Work Itself, Leaves You Drained
Cognitive load explains why small tasks can exhaust you faster than hard work, especially when attention keeps being forced to reset.
11 min readPlanning & ProductivityThe SMART Method for Goals You Might Actually Finish
SMART goals can help, but only when they survive real calendars, low-energy afternoons, and vague ambitions. Here is the method with anti-examples.
10 min readPlanning & ProductivityBuild a WBS That Your Week Can Actually Carry
WBS helps turn a large goal into workable parts, with task sizes and timing that hold up in a real week.
10 min readPlanning & ProductivityA Gantt Chart for a Personal Project, Without the Corporate Fog
A practical guide to using a Gantt chart for a personal project, with realistic time estimates, dependencies, and energy-aware planning.
10 min readADHD & LearningWhy Course Knowledge So Rarely Survives Contact With Real Life
Knowledge application gap explains why most course learning fades before it reaches real work, and what helps adults use ideas under pressure.
12 min readFocus & AttentionThe Pomodoro Method, Without the Mythology
Pomodoro method: who benefits, who gets derailed, and how to adapt the timer to real attention, fatigue, and messy adult work.
12 min readFocus & AttentionWhen the Pomodoro Method Helps—and When It Gets in the Way
Pomodoro method can sharpen focus or fracture it. Here is how to tell which one is happening and how to adapt the timer to your brain.
10 min readMotivation & EmotionsThe Student Syndrome: Why Smart People Leave Everything Until the End
Student syndrome explains why capable adults delay important work until the deadline turns abstract intention into urgent action.
11 min readPlanning & ProductivityWhen Scope Creep Kills a Personal Project
Scope creep in personal projects turns ambition into delay. How to keep a project small enough to launch without losing its point.
11 min read