An ADHD-er's Guide to Successfully Following Through an Online Writing Course
Good intentions are not enough friends. But planning and kindness go a long way.
I recently shared (future self please put a link here) about how my ADHD has historically had some decidedly negative side effects around my creative process: shame and guilt about unfinished projects being a recurring issue.
So when I recently finished, Beth Kempton’s online writing course, Ink and Flame, I looked back on what I took which allowed me to follow through with an entire seven week course.
I should say that the focus of this class was to help new or “stuck” writers get out of their heads and their words onto the page. Some of the tips below are most suited for that type of class, but most of them are relevant regardless of the subject matter.
Secondly, I defined “finished” as “consistently participated throughout the entire seven weeks.” For this specific course: That meant I did all the writing exercises, and most of the editing exercises. There was also a section which focused on SubStack growth: some of which I did, some of which I plan to do, and some of which, I probably won’t make time for. Which leads me to my list:
Realistic Expectations
This is obviously a mindset thing, but please don’t skip it.
I listen to a lot of Lazy Genius and she talks a lot about Living in Your Season. «That link will lead you to a podcast all about it.
I mention it, because being upfront with yourself about where you are and what you have going on in your life is essential to having the most realistic expectations around this creative commitment. A season is going to look different for a person with toddlers vs high schoolers, help vs no help, illness vs health, etc. Let this be a judgement-free zone and see if your season and your expectations match.
Calenderize Everything
This is huge for me as a visual person.
From my experience, a course worth your time and money will explicitly tell you what it’s going to cover and give you some time expectations. Before you commit, look at your calendar see what it would look like with time estimations. Is that going to make your commute to work tight? Is this something that you could do during your lunch break? Might your partner be willing to make the commitment to make dinner/ watch children/ clean the house/ insert your thing here so that you can fully commit to it?
Knowing that the time exists ahead of time because it’s already plugged into my calendar, instead of falling into overwhelm two weeks in because it’s not in there was a game changer for me.
First thing in the Morning, Consistency
Look: I’m not a morning person. While I did experiment with the timing of my caffeine intake so that I could attempt to get up earlier for this commitment (to surprising effect), I know this isn’t the case for everyone.
So erase the clock. Focus on implementing it during a similar time, similar place, or similar head space.
The biggest thing about a commitment like this is that you don’t want to use your creative energy deciding when or where you’re going to make things happen. You want to be able to use that creative energy on “the thing”, not the logistics.
“I will listen to the audio portion of the lesson the day they come out, while I’m getting ready every morning.”
“I will do the initial exercise while sitting in my yellow chair, while my coffee cools down.”
“I will do the initial exercise on Tuesday afternoon because I have a weird break there and always fill it with mindless scrolling.”
Find something that makes sense with your current schedule and consistently anchor this new thing to that. If your body remembers, your brain doesn’t have to.
Structure, But Make it Chill
Looking back over these last three things I realize that I’m basically asking you to give yourself as much structure as possible. As I’ve mentioned before, my brain works best with parameters.
How many times have I thought, “Oh, I don’t have to watch this right now. It’s available for the next 6 months!”… only to totally forget about that lesson / tutorial/ problem set until that issue comes up two years later and you wish you had made time for it back when you had paid for it. So yeah - yay parameters.
HOWEVER, lets be honest:
Parameters are awesome until you can’t go to sleep because even though you put in all the pre-work of setting realistic expectations, putting stuff in your calendar, and figuring out the logistics life still happened, and now you’re struggling to fit everything in.
This is your long lost chill calling you to Let. It. Go.
This past seven weeks, I was on a total of 2 out of state trips which added up to 10 plane rides and a schedule that was now where as boring consistent as it normally is. All that pre-planning got a big shuffle. Some stuff got done later in the session and some stuff simply got put aside. Nothing exploded (including my sanity) and I still got a lot out of the class.
Quantity over quality
Beth has both a method and a personality that allows you to be gentle with yourself and, more importantly, not worry about editing yourself between the time a thought comes to your head and the time it comes out of your pencil, pen, laptop.
It’s what she calls “spilling.” Even that mental image is messy isn’t it? And that’s the point: allowing yourself to be a little raucous, a little random, a little weird… that’s the beauty of my neurodivergent brain. I can see connections where others see randomness. But in order to make those connections, it helps to “spill” them out on the screen or notepad so that, after you’re done with the initial writing you can go back and really craft your words into thoughts which are not just legible but beautiful.
It’s something that, now that I’ve done it, I may never be able to work a different way again.
I spent a lot of time as a teenager/ young adult stressing out over grades.
“Being the best” was some sort of artificial marker that I put out in front of myself: Imaginary laurels for winning an impossible race.
My most recent season has come alongside a new set of expectations, which are Softer and more gentle for myself.
And yet. While my inner puritan who argues that to spare the {hypothetical/mental} rod, spoils the {creative} child, I have been able to “succeed / make progress” in ways that I haven’t been when I was harder, less loving toward myself. Seeing results, not fancy awards or shiny stars, but seeds of work that look like possibility is the very best sort of reward.
And because I’m a nerd, it will surprise no one that I plan on taking more writing classes. Check out my list below and please let me know if you decide to join as well. Maybe we can get matching Lisa Frank Locker Keepers?!?!