Breakthrough Summer

Welcome to Breakthrough Summer

You’re here because you’ve decided this summer is going to be different. And I want to help you make that stick — not just for the next two weeks, but for the rest of the summer too.

Now, I know that for many ADHD writers, “goals” and “milestones” are dirty words. So bear with me for a second.

That might sound strange. But think about how many times you’ve worked hard on something, only to feel disappointed about your progress afterward. That disappointment is a signal. It means your brain had expectations — goals — that didn’t get met.

And if those expectations stay invisible, two things happen. First, it’s impossible to make a plan that actually helps you meet them. Second, you can’t check whether they’re realistic in the first place — which means you might be setting yourself up to fail before you’ve even started.

So that’s what this workbook is for: making your goals explicit, and then making sure that what you’re expecting from yourself over the next two weeks is actually doable.

Contents

Setting your goals

What does progress look like to you?

You signed up for this bootcamp because you wanted to make real progress on your project this summer. But let’s get specific: what does “real progress” actually mean for you?

What do you think you should have achieved by the end of this bootcamp?

Your writing windows

With your goal made explicit, let’s look very concretely at when you’ll have time to write over the next two weeks.

• ✦Our body doubling room will be open every day during the bootcamp — but some days you may have little or no time to write, and others you might want to add extra sessions. Tick the days you plan to write in the table below.
• ✦Days get away from you unless you pick a specific time block and remind yourself of it. For each writing day, go into your calendar, choose a time that works, and fill out the last columns.

With a clear picture of how much time you have to write, do you need to adjust your expectations of how much you’ll get done? Write down your (new or unchanged) goal below.

ADHD-proofing your goals

Now let’s look at whether that’s realistic. Most of us — ADHD brains especially — instinctively plan for a perfect-world scenario. One where every day is a good brain day. Where kids and pets don’t suddenly need something. Where the chore that was supposed to take twenty minutes doesn’t eat an entire afternoon.

We don’t live in that world. Most instinctive goals are actually estimations — what you could achieve if everything went perfectly. Which it won’t. And that’s not a you problem. That’s just life.

So: was what you just wrote down an estimation, or a goal?

If it was an estimation, what would your actual goal be once you apply the life-happens buffer?

(If you already wrote down a realistic goal, you can skip this box — you’re ahead of the game.)

Creating your milestones

Your two-week goal should now be relatively reality- and ADHD-proof. But for your time-blind ADHD brain, a 2-week goal can still feel far into the future and therefore vague. It doesn’t help you get started now. I’m sure you’ve had a two-week deadline before and didn’t start until the last minute. During Breakthrough Summer, we want to avoid that.

The best fix is to break your goal into smaller bits — milestones. That makes your goal less overwhelming and brings the “end date” close enough that your brain can actually oversee it. And so we can all see who’s on track and cheer each other on, let’s keep it simple and create 10 milestones.

Initial milestones

Write down your 10 key milestones. You can skip the Q1 · Q2 · Q3 columns for now — we’ll strengthen them next.

Right. Now let’s make these actually work for your brain.

Strengthening your milestones

Working milestones

Now, time to actually adjust. Look at the empty boxes above — do any milestones need to be more concrete, achievable, or ADHD-proof? Write the milestones you’ll go into your week with below. If nothing needed changing, just copy them over — re-writing them makes them easier to remember. This is the table you’ll use to track your progress.

The race to 10

As part of this bootcamp, I’m doing something I call a “race to 10.” Not every ADHDer is motivated by competition, but many are — and I wanted to pack in as many motivation levers as possible. That said, the Race to 10 is completely optional.

Here’s where it came from.

I wanted a competition, but for the longest time I couldn’t make it fair. Some kinds of writing are faster than others, so word count wasn’t fair. Some people have more time to write than others, so hours spent wasn’t fair either.

And that’s how the race to 10 was born. You’ve created your own ten milestones, based on your own expectations of your writing speed. So now we have something we can compete with — in a way that’s both fair and exciting.

Before you get started

You’ve done a lot of work in this workbook. You have a realistic goal, a clear picture of your writing windows, and ten concrete milestones to work towards. That’s more preparation than most writers give themselves. Seriously.

That’s your one job right now. Not milestone 2. Not the whole two weeks. Just: open the document.

What if you fall behind?

At some point during these two weeks, you’ll probably miss a milestone. A day will go sideways. A session won’t happen. A milestone will turn out bigger than you thought. That’s not a sign something has gone wrong. It’s just information.

That’s exactly why, at the start of week two, you’ll receive a second workbook: the Mid-Sprint Review. Not a catch-up exercise — a recalibration. A chance to look at what’s actually happened, adjust your remaining milestones, and head into week two with a plan that reflects reality rather than the one you made before things got started.

Passionate Writer Coaching