loops + levels

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Loops.

The idea

It’s not you, it’s your brain by design.

A Loop is a brain pattern with a name. Terrain is where it shows up. Loops + Levels teaches adults with ADHD to map one Loop at a time, so you can see what sets it off and where it goes quiet. If you have ADHD, or strongly suspect it, you’re in the right place.

Why it feels like you, and why it isn’t.

The feeling

The pattern

What it feels like

It feels random.

Out of nowhere, every time.

“Couldn’t start that email on Tuesday. Or last Thursday.”

What’s actually going on

It repeats.

The same shape, again and again, which is what makes it possible to learn.

“Any email that needs a careful reply sits for days.”

What it feels like

It’s hard to explain.

Even to yourself, so it’s hard to plan around.

“Ugh, I’m just off today.”

What’s actually going on

It has a name.

So you can talk about it, plan around it and stop arguing with yourself about it.

“Oh, that’s Task Paralysis again.”

What it feels like

It feels like it’s you.

Any room, any people, same result.

“I’m just bad at email.”

What’s actually going on

It changes with the Terrain.

The room, the schedule, the people. Loud in one place, quiet in another.

“At the library, I clear three in an hour.”

The first Loop

Task Paralysis

You just met it in that email. Here’s the first Loop we’re mapping together.

Task Paralysis

Loop example

When experiencing Task Paralysis, you know what the task is and how to do it, and you may even want to. You still can’t start, so you circle it.

Today

The task

Tidy the desk

Answer an easier email

The desk has never been cleaner.

The longer the task sits, the heavier it gets, and so does the story you tell yourself.

Task Paralysis

Terrain example

Task Paralysis doesn’t look the same everywhere. Pick a Terrain and see what changes.

Where were you the last time a task wouldn’t start?

At the kitchen table, the form won’t open. At the library, with the same laptop and the same form, it’s done in twenty minutes. Or it’s the other way round for you. Either way, the room is doing something.

What did the day look like around it?

A free afternoon with nothing booked, and the task sits there all day. Forty minutes before you have to leave, and somehow it gets done. Or the open day is the only time you can start anything. The shape of the day is doing something.

Who was nearby, and who was waiting on it?

Alone in the house, you circle the task for hours. With someone working quietly across the table, you start. Or company is exactly what makes it impossible. Who is around is doing something.

Where were you the last time a task wouldn’t start?

At the kitchen table, the form won’t open. At the library, with the same laptop and the same form, it’s done in twenty minutes. Or it’s the other way round for you. Either way, the room is doing something.

What did the day look like around it?

A free afternoon with nothing booked, and the task sits there all day. Forty minutes before you have to leave, and somehow it gets done. Or the open day is the only time you can start anything. The shape of the day is doing something.

Who was nearby, and who was waiting on it?

Alone in the house, you circle the task for hours. With someone working quietly across the table, you start. Or company is exactly what makes it impossible. Who is around is doing something.

More Loops in the works

In the works

Hyperfocus

You sink into one thing so fully that time, hunger and everything else on the list go quiet. Sometimes it’s the thing that needed doing. Sometimes it’s three hours on how lighthouses work.

In the works

Context Switching

You get pulled off one thing and onto another, and it feels like part of you is still back there. By the third switch, you’re not fully anywhere.

Levels

A Level is how well you know your way around a Loop.

Spot

Map

Navigate

See how each Level works

Evan smiling on the water, in sunglasses and a life jacket

Note from the founder

I’m in the Loops too.

I’m Evan. I have ADHD, and I teach from my own experience of it. Task Paralysis is the Loop I run into most. Once it had a name, I could spot it while it was happening. Now I can work with it most days. The other days, the spice rack gets alphabetized.

I’m not an expert handing down answers. I’m working through my own Loops and writing down what I find.

Evan

Still mapping. Follow along.

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