3 Steps to Maintaining Momentum on a Big Project

When I’m doing heavy deadlifts, I know that the first rep is always the hardest. If I can get the bar off the floor, I can hang on for at least 3 reps.

The same principle applies when it comes to most hard tasks: getting started is often the heaviest lift of all.

If you have ADHD, it can take a lot of effort to light the spark that fires up your motivation and task energy.

This can lead you to try to tackle every big project in a long burst of hyperfocus, The problem with that approach is that it’s like driving a car without brakes. You don’t stop with intention; you crash from exhaustion.

How to Maintain Momentum on Big Projects Without Crashing and Burning

So what do you do when have a big paper or article to write, and it feels like too much to complete in the time you have available? Or you have some other big project?

The common advice is to “break it up,” but that creates its own challenge.

Each time you come back to the piece, you have to work back up to your heavy lift and hope you can get the bar off the floor.

Here’s a 3-step process to make the project more manageable while avoiding the heavy lift of starting energy each time you return to it.

(1) Break Up the Project Into Work Packets

Whether you’re working on a creative project like an article, a website, or a design project, or something more tangible like cleaning your house or clearing your closets, break up the task in to discrete “work packets.”

A Work Packet is not the same as “do a little each day.” It is a clearly-defined segment of work that has an obvious completion point.

Whether it is a room in your house to be cleaned, a drawer in your dresser to be organized, or a section of a sales page to write, it has a beginning, middle, and end.

Work Packets are a brilliant solution for ADHD brains, but that’s just step one.

(2) Create a Map to Find Your Way Back

I love maps. When you have a map, you have a guide to get to where you want to go.

At the end of every weightlifting session, I log

• the weights l lifted: how many sets, how many reps, and the progression sequence;
• what I did to warm-up before my lifts; and
• how the session went.

That gives me a map to follow so I can repeat what worked or make adjustments based on what didn’t work.

When you block time for your Work Packets, leave yourself some buffer time to make some notes about your work session. This is a form of integration; it’s an opportunity to can celebrate and embody what you did and what worked, and to set up conditions for future you to have success.

Here’s the minimum of what you want to record:

• What you did or how far you got. Maybe you didn’t quite complete what you set out to do. Note what you did accomplish.
• Next steps. Where do you want to go from here? Give it some detail. For example, if you’re writing a long essay, don’t just write the name of the next section; add a few bullet points of what you want to write.
• Any ideas or insights that arose in your work session. Instead of following the trails of those ideas right now, write them down somewhere so you can come back to them. If they’re related to the current project, add them to your outline. If they’re related to something else, put them in a notebook or a note document.

(3) Leave Yourself a “Loaded Barbell”

Here’s a secret about deadlifting: the heaviest lift of all isn’t the lift itself, but loading the bar.

Loading the bar takes energy. It’s much easier to lift the bar when someone else puts the weights on.

One of the best gifts you can give yourself is the gift of momentum. Before you wrap up, take a small action or create something that will give you a head start when you come back to it.

Give yourself the equivalent of a loaded bar to start your next session.

For example, if you’re writing an article, write a paragraph for a section that you’re going to come back to. Or see what you can take out of what you’ve written in that session and use for the next session.

If you’re clearing your dresser drawers, take a few things out of the next drawer so the work is started.

It’s much easier to get back to something if you have clarity on your next steps and you’ve already done the heavy lift of setting up what you need.