One Simple Tip That Can Help ADHD Writers Stay On Task

Screenshot of Substack’s editing tool, with “TK” highlighted several times.

This week I wanted to share a quick writing tip I find myself using all the time, that is especially helpful with ADHD.

It helps me stay “in flow” when writing and not get distracted every time I don’t know an exact detail when writing.

If you aren’t using it already, I highly recommend it!

Avoid Getting Stuck on Details

Often when writing, you get stumped on some tricky detail that you need to look up or figure out.

With nonfiction writing, maybe it’s a specific quote and you need to find the source, or you want to make sure you’re referencing the right article or study.

With fiction writing, maybe you’ve just invented a new character but you don’t have a good name for them yet, or you want to describe something in a way that sparks curiosity in the reader, but you aren’t sure what that mystery might be yet.

These little distractions or tangents can sometimes derail us completely. Suddenly, we find ourselves in an hours-long wikipedia deep-dive, learning about the origins of coffee roasting. All we really wanted was to look something up “real quick” but we got lost along the way.

This allows you to quickly make note of something… then move past it.

The quick trick for solving this is to use the letters “tk” which stands for “to come” but with an intentional misspelling to make it stand out. It’s a quick shorthand way to leave a note to yourself—“more to come later”—and you’ll come back to this later and fill in the missing information.

This allows you to quickly make note of something you need to research or brainstorm later, and then move past it and not slow down your current writing.

You might write something like:

• One researcher estimates that kids with ADHD hear TK more negative messages by the age of TK than their peers.

• The door opened, and out walked Swaggery Sidecharacter TK.

• It’s like that saying, [tk quote about fish climbing trees].

• It reminded him of Mysterious Backstory Hint TK.

And then just keep on writing without needing to stop and solve your problem in the moment (and get sucked down a distraction wormhole).

Later, you can search through your document for “tk” (a conveniently rare combination of letters in English) and take the time to research or brainstorm so you can fill the gaps.

I think it makes the most sense to treat Research and Brainstorming as entirely different tasks than writing, so you can get into the groove of whichever thing you’re focused on without constantly changing modes.

As a bonus, some writing apps (including Substack’s editing tool) automatically highlight your TKs, making it even easier to see them later when it’s time to brainstorm or research and fill in those gaps. Substack’s editing tool even warns you when you try to publish while you still have floating TK reminders in your post.

Substack’s editing tool, warning about existing TK reminders in the post.

Another great tip to help you stay focused? Body doubling!

This is when you pair up with someone else and both focus on getting stuff done at the same time, and it can be a really effective way to stay on task and get stuff done. There’s some sort of secret magic in telling someone your intentions, and then stay in each other’s presence (virtually or otherwise) while you both work on your chosen task.

For our paid subscribers, we’ll be body doubling next week so you can focus on whatever writing project you may have been avoiding! 😅

Hope to see you there!

Do you use TK or any similar tricks for your writing? We’d love to hear them!

Leave them in the comments below.