The Switch Cost Ramp Planner
Paired worksheet. When the Plan Changes and You Freeze: Cognitive Rigidity for AuDHD Founders
1Which recurring change freezes you the most?
Name one specific pivot your business hands you again and again: the reschedule, the scope creep, the tool that breaks mid-task.
2Add up the bill.
For that change, rate each cost from low to high: energy you have to discard, new decisions waiting, emotional weight, lost predictability. The highest one is why you lock up.
3Check your gauge.
On the days this change flattens you, what was already low (sleep, food, pain, stimulation)? Same change, less fuel, tighter grip.
4Pick your ramp.
Match the biggest cost to one ramp: Warning, Finish, Map, or Anchor. Which one lowers that specific number?
5Design it into the business.
Where can you build that ramp so the change stops ambushing you: a buffer, a client comms window, one fixed first task that never moves?
Your next moves
- Choose one anchor that stays fixed tomorrow no matter what else moves
- Rate the cost components of your most common change and circle the highest one
- Add one buffer between two things that usually collide
- Write a one-line “where I was” note the next time you have to set a task down mid-stream
- Decide your reschedule policy once, while calm, and write it down
What surfaced for you?
What would a normal day feel like if the changes still came but stopped taking the whole day down with them?
You are not rigid. You are not difficult. You froze because your brain got handed a bill it could not pay in that moment. Lower the cost, borrow a little capacity, and the same change stops flattening you.