How to Break Down Big Projects with ADHD | ADHD Task Management, Motivation & Follow Through Tips for Mom Entrepreneurs
What does a peanut butter sandwich have to do with you cleaning out your garage this spring?
Well, more than you might think.
Now that spring has officially sprung in the northern hemisphere, our plants and our to-do lists are growing. So I figured it was a good time to discuss the process of breaking big, overwhelming tasks down into smaller, more manageable chunks so you can understand why it’s helpful for our ADHD brains and it can make progress on your projects easier.
You’ve probably heard or read the phrase “break big tasks down” about a million times on ADHD podcasts, blogs, and books.
Maybe closer to 2 million if you’ve been following me for awhile.
But what does it actually mean to break large, overwhelming projects down into smaller, more manageable chunks? And how do you do it?
Well, let’s go back to our peanut butter sandwich.
The Peanut Butter Sandwich Process
As a second grader, one of my son’s had an assignment to write down all the steps for making a peanut butter sandwich.
And nearly every student started their essay by saying “The first thing you do is put the peanut butter on the bread.” To which the teacher replied, “Actually the first step is to get out the plate, knife, peanut butter, and bread.”
I love this example when it comes to tackling projects as an ADHDer because so often, we want to dive right into spreading the peanut butter on the bread before we’ve set ourselves up to be able to spread the peanut butter on the bread.
Those early steps like getting out the items we need to make the sandwich might feel obvious or small, but they’re the foundation that sets us up for the rest of the process.
And when we can ease our way into our goals and projects, we can build our confidence, momentum, and dopamine to keep us going to see the project through.
Why Breaking Big Tasks Down Helps with ADHD
Looking at our to-do list and seeing a big project like “clean out the garage” can feel a bit overwhelming compared to seeing “take yard waste bags from last fall to the curb for pick up.”
Seeing a smaller, clearly defined task with a beginning and ending point helps to lower the barrier to entry and helps us know where to start. Or at least a place we can start from.
And while breaking tasks down into smaller steps will grow the length of your overall to-do list, think of those extra tasks as additional chances for you to cross things off your list and get a little hit of dopamine.
How to Break Down Big, Overwhelming Projects
So, how do we go about breaking down a big, overwhelming project into smaller, more manageable chunks that help us get started and keep making progress?
It all comes down to knowing…First, you need to…
1. Know Your Steps
You can start by making a brain dump of all the steps involved in your task if you’re familiar with the process or it’s something you’ve done before.
Or Google the task or project to find a checklist or breakdown that someone else has made that you can adapt for yours.
Once you’ve got a list of the steps, continue to break each step down into the smallest possible step so you have the lowest barrier to entry when you finally get to work.
For example, your big overall project of cleaning the garage may have a smaller step of clearing a shelving unit. While clearing and organizing the entire unit might feel overwhelming because it’s a mishmash of every project you’ve started in the past decade combined with random outgrown sport equipment, it might feel a bit less overwhelming if you think of smaller steps as group like items together, put items away if they have another home, or clear trash or unneeded items.
Once we know what steps it takes to do the thing, you need to…
2. Know Your Order
In all projects there, will be some steps that can be done at any time. And others that need to be done in a specific order or before we can move on.
For instance, if we had planned to relocate the shelf we discussed earlier, we know we need to clear it off before we can move it.
Just like we need to grab the plate, knife, peanut butter, and bread before we make our sandwich, there will likely be steps you need to take first to streamline your process and prevent extra work later on.
After you have an idea of what needs done and what order things need to go in, it helps if you know the speed bumps that might slow you down.
3. Know Your Speed Bumps
When we hit a speed bump while driving, it typically slows us down. And for many ADHDers, once we slow down and lose momentum on a project, we also lose interest and motivation.
Knowing what might be a speed bump in your project in advance can help us pre-problem solve so you don’t get stuck or give up. You might encounter…
Physical Speed Bumps might include objects that are too heavy to move or too high for you to retrieve. For instance, if you’ve got an old couch taking up space in the garage, you might hit a physical speed bump because it’s too big for you to move yourself.
Logistical Speed Bumps include things like lack of knowledge, not having the right equipment or tools, needing additional help, or weather that doesn’t cooperate. Back to our garage couch, if we see “get rid of garage couch” on our task list, we may want to ask for help from family or friends to move it or schedule a bulk trash pick up to prevent that couch from slowing our progress.
Energy, Emotional, & Executive Function Speed Bumps may include feeling burned out or overwhelmed by the task and lack of progress. Or your ADHD brain may just decide it’s ready to move on to something different. When we start to lose momentum due to energy or emotional speed bumps, we may be able to re-motivate ourselves if we focus on how excited we are about our end goal or vision…like what we’re going to do with the new space in the garage when we get that stanky old couch out versus the dread of having to move it.
It can also help to find ways to make it fun when you start to lose interest is another way to keep the moment going. Make a playlist with songs that pump you up while working. Gather friends and family to help. And figuring out a reward for when you meet milestones can be incredibly motivating. Which means it’s important to…
4. Know Your Milestones
While I am a big proponent of celebrating any and all progress, (because who doesn’t love the little hit of dopamine we get from crossing things off a to-do list), it can help to keep you motivated to have little celebratory markers to indicate the progress you’ve made.
Plan in advance a way to celebrate and reward yourself for how far you’ve come. For instance, once you’ve cleared the couch and moved the shelving unit, you can celebrate by ordering the bins you wanted to organize all your gardening supplies that are taking up space on the garage floor.
Many of the steps we’ve discussed so far happen during the planning phase, i.e. before any actual work even gets started. Which I realize can be really hard for our impulsive ADHD brains that just want to do the darn thing. But once we know the steps, know the order, know the speed bumps, and know the milestones, then we need to…
5. Know When You’ll Work
The time for you to work on your project is not going to magically appear.
And since our ADHD brains love to tell us we can get way more done than we actually can in an allotted time, not planning specific time for specific steps can mean half the items stored in your garage are left on the driveway or quickly shoved back in because you thought you could sort and organize seven cabinets in the 2 hours before today’s soccer game.
Luckily, since we made a list broken down into small tasks that typically have a beginning and end (take yard waste to curb, sort sports equipment from the shelf, etc), we can work during our allotted time on those smaller tasks and continue to make progress without getting overwhelmed. Or taking one step forward, two steps back because we bit off more than we could chew.
And if you have a due date for your project, it’s even more important to block specific time to work. That way you don’t wait until the last minute and end up spending the entire night before your kid’s birthday party cleaning the garage because that’s where you planned to host the party.
If you know your due date, work backwards from the date and schedule several work sessions so you can make steady progress.
So in review, tackling the big spring projects comes down to knowing. Knowing the steps, the order, the speed bumps, the milestones, and when we’ll work can help get our ADHD brains on board to start, stay motivated, and hopefully, finish those projects.
And if those projects still feel big and overwhelming, I’m here to help. My ADHD coaching programs work with you each week to break down the tasks and projects in your home and business and discuss when you’ll work. Then I follow up to see how you’re progressing and make sure you stay accountable.
To learn more about my ADHD coaching programs or discuss how I could help you, book your free, no-obligation 15-minute clarity call by clicking the button below.
