Breadcrumbs

How to find your way back to yourself

ADHD topics covered: task initiation, hyperfocus, demand avoidance, visual cues

Photo by Joanna Kosinska on Unsplash

My ADHD brain sometimes seems to operate at only two speeds: 0 or 60. I’m either all-in on something, or I can’t get myself to get started. Motherhood has amplified that inability to modulate, and reduced my capacity for task initiation. I figure, I’m going to be interrupted in 3 seconds, so I may as well not do anything.

I’ve found myself frustrated that I can’t make progress on anything in my life—that is, anything beyond the lower levels of Maslow’s hierarchy.

or Wi-Fi, or decent coffee

One tip that has helped me navigate this challenge is “laying out breadcrumbs¹.” Think Hansel and Gretel, who left a trail of breadcrumbs so they could find their way home. I vacillate between having a million great ideas and not being able to think of any one single idea. I can’t do everything in this one second when the ideas are coming, but if I don’t capture some of it, I will feel later like I have nothing to do.

Breadcrumbs are a great trick for balancing out those opposing energies.

One simple example of breadcrumbs is putting out a puzzle on a cozy winter day. My 5-year-old is in school for only a couple hours a week, so we have lots of time together. She loves puzzles and her dedication and skill has inspired me to get into it as well. She has the stamina to work on a 500 piece puzzle over the course of a few days! 

Photo by Hans-Peter Gauster on Unsplash

“Home” is doing something calming together. The “breadcrumb” is the puzzle: its pieces dumped out, maybe even flipped right-side up.

The laid-out puzzle pieces are a gentle suggestion of what we could do with our time, a visual guide. We can walk away and do other things, but there’s something there to ground us when we want to come back home.

An example of breadcrumbs for writers is jotting down ideas as titles. For example, when I think of a topic I might want to write about, I write it at the top of the page in my Morning Pages Moleskine², and leave three blank pages for myself before the next thing I write. I don’t need to write on the topic at that exact moment (though I may); it’ll be there when I need a prompt. Often, my ideas come two or three at a time (this is an ADHD thing, right?), so I can list each subject, one at a time, leaving pages in between each.

Photo by Hope House Press - Leather Diary Studio on Unsplash

I’m basically creating myself one of those beautiful Barnes and Nobles journals with prompts, but with prompts I’m actually interested in. (And bonus, I don’t have to feel bad WRITING IN A BOOK because it’s already a journal full of my scribble-scrabble.)

Photo by Prophsee Journals on Unsplash

Similarly, if I think of a subject I want to sketch, I can lightly pencil in the title on the top of a blank page in my sketchbook. I often feel inspired to draw or sketch when I’m reading children’s books with beautiful illustrations (The Snail’s Spell and The Wind Blew and Peggy are examples that come to mind). Often this impulse arises at a time that’s not well suited for drawing or painting. But if I pencil in the clue in my sketchbook, it can provide an idea for when I need inspiration.

Copied from Peggy.

I realized as I was writing this, that my ADHD muffin recipe post is all about breadcrumbs as well. I don’t have the mental stamina to make zucchini muffins in one sitting, so by separating the prep and baking, I’m leaving myself breadcrumbs.

It’s a gentle hint, which is fabulous for people with demand avoidance.

I don’t always want to finish a task, but if I can find a point where it can be paused, it turns into a breadcrumb, rather than an unfinished project. 

Breadcrumbs work well for kids, too. When they are at school or in bed, you can set out a toy they haven’t seen for a while, or start a blanket fort or block tower.

You’re not telling them what to do, at least not verbally.

Here are a few more examples of breadcrumbs:

• books laid out in multiple spots (nightstand, living room, car, bathroom, kitchen, purse)

• a basket of yarn and a crochet hook 

• a tray of paper with some pencils

• workout shoes by your bed

  

  Photo by rocknwool on Unsplash

I’d love to hear from you!

1. What are some examples of breadcrumbs you have set up in your own life without realizing they are breadcrumbs? 

2. What is something you want to do more of, but find yourself ill-prepared to start when you have a pocket of time? What “breadcrumbs” could help you with this?

3. What are some breadcrumbs you could set up for yourself today or tomorrow?

   

   I put this sketchbook in my purse and was able to sketch while the kids were swinging at the playground. I came home to add a few splashes of color.

1. My friend

Leslie A. Banks

once mentioned this in a conversation; others have used this metaphor, but I’d like to give her credit for coining the term in this context.

2. Obviously, this works digitally as well. You can start separate Word (or Google) docs, with just a single subject line.