For the neurodivergent creative who has seventeen half-finished ideas and a very guilty conscience about it all
Okay, can we just be honest for a second? You have a folder, maybe on your desktop, maybe in your Notes app, maybe just living rent-free in your head; full of projects you started with so much excitement and then quietly ghosted. A novel that made it to chapter three. A Substack with two posts. A collection of paintings that’s missing its last three pieces. An Etsy shop that’s been “almost ready” for eight months.
If that hits a little close to home, hi, you’re in the right place. And more importantly? There is absolutely nothing wrong with you.
The thing is, a lot of advice about finishing creative projects is written for people whose brains work in a very linear, structured way. Start thing. Do thing. Finish thing. But if you’re a creative, neurodivergent woman, your brain probably doesn’t work like that, and pretending it does is exactly why those projects keep getting abandoned. So let’s talk about what actually works!
First, let’s figure out why you’re abandoning things
Not all project abandonment is the same, and the fix depends a lot on the cause. Here are the most common culprits:
The excitement crash. Your brain is basically a dopamine-seeking gremlin, and nothing delivers dopamine quite like a brand new idea. The planning phase, the daydreaming, the “what if this became something amazing” phase… But somewhere around the middle, when the novelty wears off and it starts to feel like actual work? The dopamine dries up and suddenly a new idea is looking very, very tempting.
Perfectionism paralysis. You got far enough into the project to realize it’s not going to be as good as the vision in your head, and now finishing it feels pointless. Why complete something that could be a disappointment?
Life just… happened. You missed a few days, lost momentum, and now the project feels foreign and overwhelming to return to. The gap created a wall.
You genuinely outgrew it. Sometimes a project doesn’t get finished because you’ve grown and it no longer fits. This one is actually fine, for the record!
Knowing which one is happening for you makes a huge difference. So before we get into solutions, take a minute and think about the last project you abandoned. Which one feels true?
The thing nobody tells you: finishing projects is a skill you can actually build
Here’s the mindset shift that changed everything for me: finishing projects isn’t just about willpower or discipline. It’s a skill. And like any skill, it gets easier the more you practice it — and harder if you never train it.
Every time you abandon a project, your brain gets a little more comfortable with abandoning projects. Every time you finish one, even a small, imperfect one, your brain gets more comfortable with finishing. You’re literally rewiring how you operate. So the goal isn’t to suddenly become someone who completes everything. The goal is to gently start building the muscle.
What actually helps (from someone who’s tried all the things)
Make your projects smaller than you think they need to be. Seriously. Whatever scope you have in your head, cut it in half. Then cut it in half again. The goal is to create something completable. A zine instead of a book. A single illustration instead of a full series. A five-email sequence instead of an entire content strategy. Small wins build momentum, and momentum is everything for our kind of brain.
Create a “return ritual.” One of the biggest barriers to picking a project back up is the activation energy it takes to remember where you were and get back into the headspace. So create a ritual that makes returning easy; a specific playlist, a designated notebook page where you always write your “last left off” notes, a little document that lives at the top of your project folder called “start here.” The easier you make it to re-enter, the less likely you are to stay away.
Separate the making from the judging. Perfectionism thrives when you’re trying to create and critique at the same time. Give your inner critic a specific, limited job: it gets to show up during editing, revision, or the final polish phase, not during the creation phase! When you’re in making mode, your only job is to make the thing, not to evaluate whether it’s good enough.
Use “good enough for now” as a complete sentence. Done and imperfect beats perfect and unfinished every single time. The world can’t receive something you haven’t released! Your audience can’t benefit from something sitting in a drafts folder! Finishing, even if it’s not exactly what you expected, is an act of generosity toward the people your work is meant for.
Build in a “messy middle” plan. The middle of a creative project is universally the hardest part. It’s not shiny and new anymore, but it’s also not close enough to the end to feel exciting. Knowing this is coming means you can plan for it. Schedule a fun “middle of project” treat. Find an accountability buddy to check in with. Plan a little creative date for yourself at the halfway mark. Whatever it takes to get you through the valley!
Decide what “done” actually means before you start. Vague projects are easy to abandon because there’s no clear finish line. Before you start your next creative project, write down specifically what done looks like. Not “finished my website” but “website has a homepage, about page, and three portfolio pieces and is published.” Clear finish lines give your brain something concrete to aim for!
A note on the projects you’ve already left behind
You don’t have to go back to all of them. You really, truly don’t. Some projects served their purpose by existing in the process; they taught you something, got something out of your system, or were just never meant to be finished. Give yourself permission to officially let those go.
But if there’s one that’s been quietly tugging at you, the one that comes to mind when you read posts like this one? Maybe that’s worth dusting off. Not to do it perfectly. Just to do it.
You have so many beautiful ideas!! Let’s get some of them out into the world. 🌸
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