t’s a beautiful fall day. There’s just enough chill in the air to make a walk sound lovely.
Instead of having a shower and heading outside before my 3 p.m. meeting, I’m sitting here at the computer while overwhelm creeps up behind me.
This is what ADHD business overwhelm can look like for me. It doesn’t always arrive with a crash. Sometimes it quietly settles in while I’m trying to do twelve perfectly reasonable things at the same time.
I’ve been completely revamping my website and, really, my entire business. I’m dealing with redirects, indexing problems and SEO issues. Rather than start over, I chose to keep my years of blogging. Some of it is unindexed while I decide what still belongs on the new site, but it’s mine. I’m not willing to throw it all away because starting fresh might be tidier.
At the same time, I’m preparing for my first serious social media campaign. I’m adding three new Canadian platforms, experimenting, watching the analytics and learning what works and what doesn’t.
Of course, that means writing a lot of content.
But I don’t want to churn out a pile of AI crap. Pardon the expression.
I want to share what I know, what I’ve learned and what I’m learning while I’m still in the middle of it. I want my content to come from somewhere real, even when I use AI to help me organize the words.
And one thing I’ve learned, often the hard way, is to watch for the signs.
I Recognized the Signs
The horsemen of the apocalypse, so to speak. Those familiar signs that I’m heading toward overwhelm and misdirection, the same path that has pulled me off course many times before.
I was standing on the balcony earlier, berating myself.
This is what you help people with! You had better smarten up and put your money where your mouth is!
You know, all those deeply motivating things we say to ourselves when we’re already struggling.
If I had a shame jar in my home, I would owe myself a lot of money.
Then my senses kicked in. I knew what was happening. More importantly, I’d noticed it in time to get myself back on course.
That matters.
The Win Is Noticing
The win isn’t that I never become overwhelmed. The win is recognizing the signs sooner and interrupting the pattern before it carries me too far off course.
Compared with everything I’ve already built, these last few steps aren’t enormous. If they feel this heavy, something else is going on.
I think I’m stressed both online and off. I’m overloaded. My brain is trying to carry too many open loops at once, and every unfinished thing is shouting for attention at the same volume.
This isn’t the moment to shame myself into working harder. It’s the moment to assess.
What’s taking energy? What’s adding pressure? What can wait? What am I treating as urgent simply because it’s making noise?
It’s time for an energy audit.
Breadcrumbs for Future Me
I need to tell myself where I left off and what I plan to do when I return. Every evening, and every time I walk away from my work, I need to leave breadcrumbs.
That way, if my low-energy self is the one who returns, she doesn’t have to reconstruct the entire forest before she can take one step.
A breadcrumb can be one sentence telling me what I finished, where to begin next or what can safely wait. That tiny note saves future me from reopening every mental tab just to get started.
As a neurodivergent business owner, I can’t expect my brain to hold every bit of context indefinitely. I need my business to hold some of it for me.
Five Tasks, Different Energy Levels
Now I’m going to choose five tasks that need to be addressed next.
It doesn’t have to be five. I like five because it gives me some choice, and choice helps me work with the energy I actually have.
The trick is to include tasks for different energy levels. One might require clear thinking. Another might be small and mechanical. One might take an hour, while another takes ten minutes.
I can choose the one that fits the brain and body I have at that moment.
Once those five are finished, I can stop and decide what comes next. I don’t need to map the entire journey today.
My reward is usually the satisfaction of knowing I completed them, but you do you. Stickers, chocolate, a cup of something lovely or dramatically crossing things off with a thick marker are all valid options.
So, I’m going to turn off the television that’s making noise in the background. I’m going to have a shower, take that walk and come back ready for my meeting and the next small thing.
And while I’ve been sitting here, writing down what I noticed and how I feel, I’ve completed another task on my list.
Funny how that works.
In the words of the famous fish Dory: just keep swimming.
But maybe leave yourself a few breadcrumbs along the way.
Until next time Friends...