96. When You Keep Starting the Same Thing — And It Never Gets Finished

96. When You Keep Starting the Same Thing — And It Never Gets Finished

From ADHD Mums by Jane McFadden

April 6, 2026 · 15 min · Season 3 · Episode 95

About this episode

This episode explores the challenges of completing tasks amidst interruptions and the mental load experienced by ADHD mums.

In this episode, we unpack the invisible load of trying to do something simple inside a day that won’t hold it. The interruptions, the split attention, the constant restarting — and how quickly that gets turned into ‘I’m the problem.’ From the outside, it looks like nothing happened. But inside it? You were doing that one task over and over again. 🧠 What We Cover in This Episode: Why ‘simple tasks’ don’t stay simple in real life What constant interruptions actually do to your brain How restarting a task repeatedly drains more than doing it once Why your brain doesn’t register effort — only completion The invisible load of managing kids, conflict, and tasks at the same time What happens when attention keeps getting split before anything finishes Why it feels like ‘I did nothing today’ when you were actually working all day How small tasks turn into identity stories like ‘I can’t follow through’ The difference between a task not getting done… and never having the conditions to be done Why school holidays amplify this pattern 💭 This episode is for you if: You start the same task multiple times and never finish it You feel exhausted but can’t point to what you actually completed…

People in this episode

Host: Jane McFadden

Topics covered

  • task management
  • ADHD
  • parenting
  • mental load
  • interruptions
  • completion
  • identity

Keywords

  • ADHD
  • task completion
  • mental load
  • parenting
  • interruptions
  • identity stories
  • self-organization

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