I recently published a webinar on my YouTube Channel, Passionate Writer Coaching, explaining how to set up a lasting writing routine. In the video, I spent some time talking about three ways to make your writing routine ADHD friendly. You can watch the full webinar by clicking this link. But today, I thought I’d talk to you specifically about those three strategies that will help you upgrade your writing routine as part of my ADHD writing routines blog series. I do have more to say about it after all!
Is it possible to have a writing routine with ADHD?
Now, the first question I often get asked is: is it even possible to have a writing routine (or an anything-routine) with ADHD? To many of us, it doesn’t seem possible at all! We’ve tried so hard, so many times, to be consistent, to be reliable, to be robots… And it’s never worked before!
But as an ADHD writing coach, I’ve seen hundreds of ADHD writers over the past five years make constant progress on their writing projects – going on to finish screenplays, books, theater plays, academic articles… So I know it absolutely IS possible, even though it doesn’t feel that way.
The only reason why you haven’t been able to manage it yet, is that for us ADHDers, routine always looks a little bit different than it does for neurotypical people.
Now, if you still need to build a routine, I suggest you check out this blog post first, in which I talk to you about how to establish a writing routine. But once your writing routine is established, this blog post you’re reading now is just what you need. It will help you make 3 upgrades to make your writing routine ADHD-friendly (and, dare I say it, ADHD-proof?).
So let’s dive right in with number one!
1. Book-end your writing sessions
Every time you sit down to write, what do you do? Do you just immediately expect yourself to fall right into your writing flow? Because if that is your expectation, you’re setting yourself up to fail. This failure brings stress, shame and guilt. So, let’s change that.
Instead, I’d like you to book-end your writing sessions. Every writing session can start with a pre-writing habit and end with a post-writing habit. That way, you no longer expect yourself to switch your writing flow on, instead you allow yourself to transition and ease in and out of your session.
Pre-writing habits
Your pre-writing habit is the most important one. This will help you get into the writing spirit before you even touch your project! But I hear you wonder: what could that look like?
So, here are some examples that clients have shared with me:
- One of my academic clients uses what he calls ramp-up time to go through his references and just do some admin stuff. And before he knows it, he is ready to start writing.
- Someone else I work with starts every writing session by first reading a piece of writing by someone else, which will trigger his brain into thinking, which he then uses to write.
- And many of my clients start every writing session by first journaling.
I’m a big fan of this latter approach, as journaling helps get the creative juices flowing. Then, it’s only a small step from journaling to writing for your actual project.
Whatever starting habit you choose, make sure that instead of expecting yourself to just jump into writing, you set yourself up for success by giving yourself the tools that you need to actually get productive writing done – whether that is by triggering your focus, your ideas, or your writing flow.
Whatever you choose, the main thing is to not expect yourself to just be productive from the very second that you start, because our ADHD brains can’t switch tasks very well. What we can do, however, is transition.
Post-writing habits
With your pre-writing habit, instead of expecting yourself to switch to a writing sprint, we’re now transitioning INTO it. And we can do the same when we’re transitioning out.
After you stop writing, what do you do to get back to the real world?
This is the perfect opportunity to set yourself up for success next time. Usually, we stop writing and step away. Instead, I want you to see this final part of your writing routine, as an opportunity to help your future self. So, what I would like you to do is when you stop writing, to not simply walk away. Instead give yourself what I call stitch marks.
Here are some ideas.
Post-writing routine examples
Either keep a change log, in which you keep track of what it is that you have done today, or put a note down for yourself that tells your future self where to start off next. Bonus points if you do both!
Another good idea can be to write down the answer to this question: “What is the first thing you need to do when you get back to writing on this project?”
Let’s be honest, our memories are pretty faulty. So, the next time you get back to your writing, you might not remember where you should pick up – especially if you are still starting to create a writing routine and consistency is an issue for you. So, do a favor to your future self by leaving yourself a note about where to pick up next.
You can also, as a final example, keep a list of achievements, and this is yet another way to bring joy into your writing process. When you specifically focus on writing down a list of achievements – things that you have achieved during this writing session – you will start associating your writing with joy and satisfaction, which is a much better place than shame and guilt. This will make it easier for you to motivate yourself to come back to writing next time, because you know that every writing session ends with a moment of triumph.
2. Set goals to make your writing routine ADHD friendly
The second way that you can upgrade your routine for your ADHD brain, is to set goals.
Yes, yes, I know you don’t like goals, but I’d like to change your mind!
The thing about a goal is that it can really help with your brain’s motivation and reward system, which is one of the big issues of ADHD. Dopamine is a chemical in your brain that is released both when you anticipate an achievement and when you actually achieve it. The problem for ADHD brains is that they need more of dopamine for it to have the same effect as it has on neurotypicals. So, it can be super useful to hack this reward system, by using goals.
How to work with your brain’s reward system
To make the best use of this reward system, set very small, achievable goals.
These goals are ideally something that you can achieve within your writing sprint, whether that writing sprint is going to be 10 minutes, 30 minutes or an hour. If you have a whole day to write, break the day up into smaller chunks, each with their own goal.
If you tell yourself that your goal is to write a book, you will not anticipate achieving that goal today. And that means you will not get a big boost of dopamine, which would motivate you to write. However, if you set yourself a goal you think you can achieve, like writing 200 words or writing up a character profile, the motivation will come.
What I’d like you to do is to grab a sticky note and write down a small, achievable goal.
- Now this goal can be input-based, how much time am I going to put into my writing? So, writing for 10 minutes without getting distracted by other stuff can be a very good, strong, achievable input goal.
- Or alternatively, you can set a traditional output goal like achieving a word count, but make this goal small again.
If your goal is small, then you can anticipate achieving this goal, and you will feel more motivated to continue on to the next tiny goal. Tiny’s where it’s at!
3. Track your progress to build confidence
If you’re anything like me, your brain keeps telling you you’re not doing enough. You continue to feel like you’re not making any progress at all. But this feeling can be caused by a lot of things that have nothing to do with your actual progress, for example:
- you didn’t sleep enough.
- you’ve just received what you perceive to be a rejection from someone.
- the weather has turned and you’re not getting enough sunlight.
You cannot rely on your negative feelings about your progress.
To counteract this feeling and disappointment you need to keep track of your progress. Make your progress visible and clear to see. This can be achieved with habit trackers and beautiful graphs. If there’s one thing I’ve learned, it’s that if you make it pretty, your brain will want to come back to it.
However you choose to track your progress, make it colorful and visible, in order to show the negative voice in your head that you actually are making progress. That is how you’re going to override the shame and guilt, and you’re actually going to experience joy and satisfaction in your writing process.
Final points on writing routines and ADHD
Building a writing routine with ADHD can be hard, but the real trick is sustaining it. These three upgrades for your writing routine, however, can help.
- Book-ending your writing sessions will make it easier for you to ease in and go back to your writing – meaning you’re less likely to ignore your writing project for months on end;
- Setting goals can help you build the motivation you need to actually sit down and write, and stay down until you’re done.
- Tracking your progress will make your success visible to you, which will help you build a more positive and joyful relationship with your writing practice.
By implementing these strategies, you will be able to build a relationship with your writing from a source of stress into a source of joy and satisfaction. Remember: you are absolutely capable of joyful and productive writing! You just need some strategies to get there.
To help you further on this journey, I’ve created a workbook called “10 Simple Steps to Create a Writing Routine with ADHD.” Just fill out the form below to grab it for free!
Talk to you soon.
– Susanne
Kick-start your writing routine for free!
In this free workbook, I’ll teach you the 10 simple steps you need to take if you want to create a sustainable writing routine with ADHD. Fill out the form below and I’ll send it to your inbox!
