Writing With ADHD - Hyper Focus
In February of 2025 I was clinically diagnosed with ADHD Inattentive Presentation, Anxiety Disorder, and Major Depressive Disorder. I write to process my feelings, struggles, and lessons. I shared more of my initial diagnosis in THIS article.
In this series, WRITING WITH ADHD, I share some of the processes and coping strategies that keep me productive and focused.Superpowers
Let’s talk about ADHD hyper focus. If I were going to chose an ADHD symptom that has the potential to be a superpower, hyper focus is it!
There are downsides to it. I can get locked in on the smallest detail, chasing links and doing deep dives for hours into a problem or project that doesn’t move my business or my writing forward in a meaningful way. Sometimes, the focus causes me to be irrationally angry when I’m interrupted, miss deadlines, or get tangled up in details that don’t matter.
Other times, I can learn a new skill or create a piece of work in a few hours that would normally take days or weeks.
Where my hyper focus really shines is on the days I dedicate to content creation. When I have a day I’ve committed to creating and scheduling my articles, book reviews, and social media graphics, I can plan, design and schedule two full months at a time.
Be Intentional
For a long time, I did not have a content plan or a consistent pipeline. What ended up happening is I would have two wonderful consistent months of content done and scheduled, then I would coast for those two months and do nothing to prepare for what came after.
I think they call that being Time Blind.
The solution I’ve come up with is to schedule my hyper focus days rather than follow a content calendar.
A content calendar is generally designed to preschedule what, where, and how often you will be posting. But - I already know what that schedule looks like:
Long Content once a week
Three Meta posts per week
Daily, organic, unscheduled interactive notes and posts
This is a rhythm. I don’t need to put these details on a calendar ahead of time. In the past, I would sit down with a calendar and write down what I was posting and when. I quickly realized that was a waste of time and focus. By knowing what my posting rhythm is, I don’t need to track it on a calendar. I create the long content, break it down into the short content for Meta and Pinterest, create the graphics, schedule the posts and then move on to creating the next long content.
I don’t need to spend time creating a calendar that tells me I need to publish the long content on Monday, post images to Meta on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, and share notes three times a day on the Substack Feed. I already know that is my rhythm.
Organize the Long Content First
What I needed to create is a pipeline of long content that can be organized and scheduled for the upcoming months. By eliminating the time I was wasting filling out a calendar I usually didn’t even stick to, I spend the majority of my days writing articles, stories, and devotionals to create the base content first. I then decide which of the long form content I will refine and break down on my hyper focus day.
Once I figured that out, I realized I had no cohesive way to organize the blog posts, articles, and newsletter content. I had different folders for all of them, and if your ADHD is like mine, once it goes in a folder, I may never see it again!
For my books, both fiction and devotionals, I use Scrivener and keep the files in traditional folders on my hard drive or in the cloud. I am drafting a separate series about how I create and organize my fiction files, but for the sake of this series, I’ll be talking about content for Meta, Substack, articles, and other serial publications.
One of the places I spent A LOT of hyper focus time, like several days worth, was learning Notion. I now use it to organize almost everything except fiction writing. I tested Asana, Apple Notes, and Notion. It truly doesn’t matter what platform you use. Pick one that you like and go with it. Notion works for me because it is so completely customizable, and there are tons of premade templates out there for free that are plug and play.
I downloaded a template that was specifically designed for content creation. It has space to track engagement, platforms, status and stats, and much more. But the page I use the most is simply labeled CONTENT. It took me a while to land on this particular way of organizing the articles.
It is nothing more than a table that lists all the potential content ideas, the status (working, editing, scheduled, published, etc), and what platform it is designed for. It gives me a quick visual of where I am in any given series. At first, I created a new page for each individual post. When I only had a few, it was easy, but as I’ve started writing series of posts, the list got out of hand and disorganized.
One of the reasons I love Notion is that you can create pages inside of pages. It allows me to nest all the individual long posts into one spot.
It then allows me to create one main page for the series, and inside that page lives all the individual posts.
By keeping all the posts together this way, it is easy to work on individual posts and move quickly between them. The individual posts also don’t get buried amongst all the other content I’m working on.
What I’ve learned (the hard way!) is that because of my hyper focus tendency to post for two months ahead of time then coast until I’m behind, I write all the long content for the ENTIRE SERIES before I start to schedule the posts.
Then, I can let my hyper focus take over and spend a day or two creating the graphics and scheduling each post.
Setting Boundaries
Another difficulty I run into with my hyper focus is when I am researching a topic. I can find myself 300 pages deep on Wiki without writing a single thing! I’ve spent an entire morning, afternoon, or a full day clicking from one article to another, one YouTube video to another without putting a single word into the document I was researching for!
To combat this, I’ve given myself the freedom to do it - with boundaries! If I end up in a research hole for an entire day, I don’t let myself feel as if I’ve lost control of the day completely. Instead, I pick up the next day, or hour and write about what I researched. I don’t go back to the sites, and I don’t dig any further. I turn the time I spent into a bullet list, a journal entry, or a story scene based on what I found. If I don’t remember it correctly, or if I mash information together it doesn’t matter at this point. I am simply getting the data out of my head to see if it is something I actually want to use. If it is, I go back through my search history, verify the information I want to use, and create the story or content with verified data.
Nine times out of ten, I don’t end up using much of what I researched, but the act of writing out what I remember makes it feel less wasteful of my time.
Timers for Time Blocking
The last thing that helps me, especially when I know I might get interrupted is setting a timer. The rage that comes over me when I am in the zone and get interrupted is very real. If my hyper focus is in full gear and I keep working until my husband comes home, it is very likely I am going to resent having to stop when he comes in the door. Or if I am working while he is home, I have been known to get full on angry with him when he asks me a question or even comes into the room!
By setting a timer, I know when the interruption is coming. If I do decide to work up until my husband gets home, I set a timer for 10-15 minutes before he comes in the door. When he is home, I usually work in 45 minute or hour blocks at a time. This way I am in control of the stops and starts, and by letting him know what that time frame is, we can avoid the resentment that comes when I get frustrated. If you have kids, this might be harder, but setting a timer you can still help keep hyper focus from taking full control of your time.
Takeaways
What all of this boils down to is finding a system that works for you. Take a few days or a week to track how you currently go through your day. Make note of what’s working and build on the positive rather than trying to fix what’s broken. By figuring out what works for you, you’ll be able to apply those ideas and principles to the areas you struggle in. It is possible to turn your ADHD into a super power!
Next week we’ll talk about my nemesis: The dreaded TASK LIST!!
Things to Think About:
What kind of rhythms do you naturally follow when creating? If none, how can you begin to create one?
Do you have a good system for keeping track of projects? Is it too complex? How can you simplify it?
How can you guard your time when hyper focus distracts you from the things you most need to do?
If you find value in the free content I create and you want to help me create more would you buy me a coffee?
It is an easy way to make a one time donation of any amount.
Even a couple dollars goes a long way toward helping me do what I love.