Every year I ask members what they loved about the ADHD Success Club.
Here’s what they said:
- The written well-structured materials with concrete steps that support the weekly subject are so helpful
- Realizing that I’m not alone in this and the different perspectives have highlighted ADHD in ways that I would have NEVER thought about without these personal “revelations.”
- Being with a group of people focused on taking consistent and persistent action
- Dana’s gift in making this information accessible and actionable by engaging members and personalizing what she teaches. <aw, blushing>
One of their favorite modules is about finding clarity on tasks and projects using the tip: Beginning, Middle and End. I realized that I’ve never shared this outside the ADHD Success Club so here’s a summary below!
Why Clarity Is Important
Clarity is an essential foundation of a successful ADHD life. We need to gain clarity in a lot of areas especially on our tasks and projects.
Why? Because vagueness about our tasks and projects mucks up our lives and we end up procrastinating, overwhelmed, confused, disorganized and unfinished.
Also, when we’re puzzled about what to do, we are more prone to distractions. We do everything and anything but what we need to do. Jump into the next shiny thing.
All this makes us feel bad about ourselves and we end up feeling like a failure.
Building clarity helps bring us out of this muddle. And there is a simple tool I use to help start and finish things.
The Beginning, Middle and End
We need to get clear on the beginning, middle, and end of all we do. Tiny tasks, daily habits, big projects.
Basically everything we do has a beginning, a middle, and an end. People with ADHD ignore this fact. We usually dive into things in the middle. We skim over the beginning and totally ignore the end.
Looking through the lens of the beginning, middle, and end exposes the source of many of our challenges: Why you’re late. Why you push deadlines. Why you’re disorganized. Why you lose your keys. Why your office is a mess. Why you can’t trust your calendar.
This idea is far reaching. And it has the ability to make a seismic shift in your life. Of course, it’s not the total answer to living easier with ADHD. But, it’s a big start.
Task Example: Eating a healthy dinner. The beginning of eating a healthy dinner is preparing the food. The middle is eating the healthy dinner. The end is washing the dishes.
What happens if you ignore the beginning – preparing the food? You end up eating whatever you can get your hands on which probably isn’t healthy.
It’s hard to ignore the middle step of eating since that’s what you’re up to.
But, what happens if you ignore the end? The dishes stay piled on the table or by the sink and the seeds of an overwhelming mess are sown. Ignoring the end of a meal is why so many people with ADHD struggle with kitchens full of dirty dishes.
Without the clarity of the beginning, middle, and end, your life gets much harder. You’ll be disorganized. You’ll procrastinate and waste time and energy and money. You won’t have a clean dish to eat the next healthy meal.
Just being aware of this doesn’t solve the problems. But if you don’t see it, you can’t fix it. Becoming clear on the beginning, middle, and end helps us see more clearly what habits and behaviors we need to adjust to take control of our lives.
Ready to put this tool to work? Pick an area of your life that is cluttered or chaotic. Break it down into the Beginning, Middle, and End. Can you pinpoint the sources of the clutter and chaos? Hit reply and let me know!
This is just one example of the tools that you’ll receive in the ADHD Success Club. Check out the details about this weekly live interactive podcast here and use the code SUCCESS to receive $10 off each month.
We begin the week of September 14th and end in July. The middle part is where you’ll learn how to succeed with ADHD! I hope to see you through all of it! (Register at any time – your beginning can start today!)
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