After an unplanned but much-needed break this summer, I’m finally easing back into the rhythm of writing, creating, and sharing. Between a week in Greece and wrestling with the messy first draft of my middle-grade novel, I’ve been recalibrating—not just my work, but how I approach it.
I've been trying to be more compassionate with myself.
Traditional productivity advice often fails when your brain thrives on novelty. I find mysel doing all kinds of things to resist monotony, which unfortunately means that I often feel like I'm wilting under the weight of an endless to-do list.
I've decided that instead of forcing myself to "just push through," I’ve going to focus on two simple rules to keep moving forward without the burning out.
First, make it fun. For those of us with ADHD (or ADHD-adjacent brains), boredom is the ultimate enemy. The moment a task feels like drudgery, motivation evaporates. So I’ve stopped trying to "do the hard thing first" and started hacking my own engagement. Sometimes that means combining tasks—like recording a voice note while designing a social media post, or listening to an inspiring soundtrack while doing line edits. Other times, it’s hiding "cookies" in my work (a trick I learned from Susan Dennard), little scenes or details I’m excited to write, which make the tedious parts more bearable. And when all else fails …