Project management is a requisite of day-to-day living. Life never seems to come at us in bite-sized pieces. For a woman with ADHD,  two major areas create challenges with project management: not starting and not finishing.

Not Starting

This one is pretty common for a lot of women with ADHD. Any project or task that seems overwhelming because of its size or perceived complexity can send us into ADHD Paralysis - we simply don’t start a project because we can’t find a manageable entry point.

Not Finishing

One of the hallmarks of ADHD is the ability to focus on what fascinates us - referred to in this article in Psychology Today an “Interest-Based Nervous System”. This is great, we can learn a lot of things about a lot of things. (Hello, Google!)

The problem arises when the things we need to focus on don’t necessarily fascinate us - think quarterly reports at work, actually cooking the recipe you bought all the ingredients for, folding a load of laundry - some of these things are interesting in the beginning… at least the recipe one is… but even interesting projects run into that, “This isn’t much fun anymore, let’s do something else” point. Our intention follows our attention.

Project Management Strategies That Work For Me

Break everything down into the smallest possible parts - then start with the easiest ones first. So, if you’re planting a garden, don’t jump in and start buying seeds and plants and then uncover the box of seeds at the back of a closet three years later because you ran out of steam… ahem, guilty.

Start with something simple - like vegetables or flowers? Then decide what you like - squash, tomatoes, daisies, marigolds, pink flowers, blue flowers… Once you take that first step, it will allow you to do one of two things - move forward with the project, or decide that you really don’t want to move forward with the project. And if you decide you don’t want to pursue this particular project, don’t beat yourself up over it!

If it’s a mandatory project like those quarterly reports at work, again, break it down into simple steps. I find it useful to write down the requirements of the project. Usually, this will be decided by whoever you submit the report to when it’s completed. If you don’t have clear expectations - ask for them! It’s easier to find the data in specified segments than to try to figure out which segments need to be included, which should have the most prominence, and whether to use a list or a pie chart or a presentation complete with video and a killer soundtrack. (See how easily these things can get out of hand??)

Use a project management app or program - As I mentioned HERE, using a project management program like Asana saves me a lot of time and anguish about finishing projects on time because I build in deadlines into each step of the project. For one thing, women with ADHD tend to struggle with time blindness. If it doesn’t need to happen “now” we can lose sight of the fact that it is going to be due at some time in the future. For instance, if your quarterly report is due July 1, you might wake up on June 30 with a sickening realization that you have 24 hours to get the job done (which is better than waking up on July 1 and realizing you have 3 hours, but still…)

Time blindness also shows up as an inability to gauge how much time any task takes. I don’t know about you, but my to-do list on any given day holds enough tasks to fill a week, never mind a day. I’m getting better about prioritizing and learning as I go how long things really do take, but I still have a challenge when it comes to my concept of time versus actual time. So when I set up deadlines for each of the tasks I try to build in a cushion.

Set deadlines - So, back to the infamous quarterly report - the first thing that needs to be done is to figure out exactly what the report needs to include. Give yourself a few days to nail that down with your boss, so put the due date 4 days from today. Once you know what you need to include, you need to be able to find the information. Then you’ll need to import the data into one document so you have an easier time compiling it into the final report. (Hint - Asana is great for this, too - you can add links, attachments, and notes for everything).

Go through step-by-step to add in all the baby steps you’ll need to complete before submitting your report with due dates, and put the date of submission at least a few days before the actual deadline - when issues crop up, you’ll be grateful for those extra few days.

You can also work backward from the due date. What’s the last step that needs to be completed before you submit the document, and what needs to be completed right before that, and right before that, and so on.

Hopefully, these tips will help you conquer that next big item on your to-do list. In the meantime, share your best project management strategies in the comments!