Have you ever gone into a free and open day or afternoon (even free from big household tasks) thinking “man, I’m going to do so many things!” But then you actually do none of them and instead go on a totally random side quest, rot in front of the TV, or completely underestimate how much time everything would take and spend the whole time on one thing?

That has happened to me, let’s see…*does math*…more times than I can count.

And I don’t have to have an entire open afternoon for it to happen. I might have an open 45 minutes, take the first 20 deciding what to do, then end up doing something else, anyway,

But, why?

People with ADHD can be more creative than our peers. Our brains work quickly, they’re hypercurious, and we love novelty. We see things, find them interesting, and then want to experience them or try them ourselves.

That’s one of the reasons why a lot of us have what’s colloquially referred to as “project graveyards” or “hobby graveyards.” We get super interested in something, try it for a while, then get less interested in it as the novelty wears off.

I definitely have a few of those (*gestures toward the basement where the sewing machine I had to have sits untouched*), but I also struggle with just having too many things that I truly enjoy doing. So when the time comes to choose from one of those things, my brain is so stuck on all the possibilities that I end up squandering my time in a way I didn’t want to.

Some of those things are:

So when I have time to myself to do something, my brain ping pongs off of all of those things and tries to prioritize quickly…which is also something ADHD brains can struggle with. Prioritizing is an executive function skill where you have to hold the options in your mind, weigh each one to decide its importance, pick one, and actually get started on it.

Typically it’s much harder for work or housework-related tasks, because I don’t necessarily want to do those. All the creative and interest-based things on the list above I want to do, but still struggle to pick the one that will make me feel the best in the moment.

And as a mom with an autoimmune condition trying to cultivate a full-time freelance career, run two side gigs, host a local book club chapter, and volunteer when I’m able…well, I don’t have that much time to get to all those things I love that make me feel creative and content.

That’s how things stand in my personal life/time, and the same problem persists into my work life.

I’ve hit a point in my freelance career building where I could definitely use some more paid work. The thing that keeps me from looking more seriously for that work is (you guessed it!) I can’t decide where I want to focus.

I’m deeply entrenched in the online marketing world. I keep up with news and trends, I’m interested in how everything is happening with AI (even though I’m super burned out on hearing about it every second of every day), and I have a background running marketing/content marketing campaigns for clients. So, I enjoy writing about marketing and it’s my work there that makes me most of my current income.

But thinking about all the potential other things I could be doing or writing about makes my head spin and my ADHD brain light up with possibilities.

Aaand, naturally, all the potential ways I could fail or am not good enough (yet).

Oof, that was kind of a diatribe. Anyway, you get the picture. Thinking about it all turns my brain into mush!

So, how can I finally get myself unstuck from this big jumble?

After months of sitting with this jumble, I’m ready to take action. I need to take action before I lose my last couple of marbles.

And maybe you’re sitting on some decisions like this you can try to make along with me?

When you want to do or try so many things, prioritizing feels like sacrificing…like killing your ideas. But we’re not getting rid of anything on the list—we’re just letting some take a break in the green room for now.

Try brain dumping everything that’s involved with each item on the list to get a better feel for what it’ll actually entail instead of just focusing on the dopamine rush of completing it.

Then, pick the first thing that’s igniting your curiosity, passion, or creativity the most, or feels the most doable. Put the rest of the items on a “Not now but hopefully soon” list.

I talked about tiny experiments in a previous newsletter, and we’re going to put one into practice here.

In order to lower the barrier to entry for my freelance possibilities, I’m going lower my anxiety about getting started with any of them by turning them into experiments. That way, I can sample them before really committing to any big change.

For example, if I want to try writing professional-sounding book reviews, I might spend a week taking any free time between paid freelance work to study online tutorials, read the reviews at publications I might want to review for, and research which ones take on review writers. At the end of the week, I’ll try writing a book review that’s a little more serious than what I typically write for my book blog.

That time constraint is the truly important part of the experiment for me. If I know I’m dipping my toe in it just for a week, that lowers my anxiety around spending a bunch of time on something that doesn’t end up working out.

At the end of the week, I’ll reassess. How did it go? Am I enjoying learning about book reviewing? How did writing the review feel? If I’m really into it and it feels like a good path to continue down, I can start another experiment in review writing for another week or move on to something else.

That’s my plan! If you’re trying this along with me for something in your own life, please respond or comment to let me know 🫶🏻.