Few things are more intimidating than a blank page. Whether it’s an empty ticket in Jira, a fresh Google Doc, or even a half-written email, the void can feel like it’s staring back at you. For ADHD minds, this isn’t just an annoyance — it can trigger full-blown paralysis. Thoughts scatter, options multiply, and momentum collapses before a single word is even written.
The good news? Structure can disarm the blank page. The tool we’ll explore here is the Context Pack — a lightweight bundle of scaffolding that helps you start, shape, and share your ideas without the weight of perfection.
Scenario: The Blinking Cursor
Picture this: a product professional sits at their desk, surrounded by research notes, user feedback, competitor slides, and backlog priorities. They know the feature that needs to move forward. They even have a sense of why it matters. Yet the ticket field is empty, the cursor blinks, and the overwhelm builds.
The problem isn’t a lack of information — it’s that there’s too much of it. The challenge is compression: turning a sea of context into an actionable artefact.
This is where the Context Pack comes in.
Four Lenses for Context
The first step in building a Context Pack is to organise the chaos. One way to do this is by looking at the problem through four complementary lenses: behavioural, relational, strategic, and tactical. These aren’t abstract categories — they’re practical frames that reduce intimidation and bring clarity.
Ask: How does this affect the user’s experience or behaviour?
This lens grounds you in the human perspective. If you’re writing a product ticket, it might mean clarifying what frustration is being solved or what flow is being improved. If you’re drafting an article, it could be the emotional or cognitive shift you want the reader to experience.
Behavioural cues remind you that clarity starts with the end user, not the artefact itself.
Ask: Who else is involved, and what are their perspectives?
For a ticket, this may include engineers, designers, testers, or even external stakeholders. For other forms of writing, it might be collaborators, audiences, or critics.
Mapping the relational field prevents you from writing in a vacuum and highlights dependencies that shape the work.
Ask: Where does this fit in the bigger picture?
In product, that could mean backlog priority, release cadence, or business objectives. In other contexts, it might be long-term goals, brand positioning, or project timelines.
The strategic lens prevents you from treating the task as an isolated unit — it reminds you of the “why now?”
Ask: What’s the immediate step or output required?
This isn’t about solving everything, but about defining the next tangible move. For a ticket, it’s identifying what the team needs to know to start work. For an essay, it could be deciding on the first subheading or opening argument.
Tactical cues keep you grounded in the here and now, turning ideas into momentum.
By capturing even a bullet or two under each lens, you’ve transformed the blank page into a scaffold. The void is no longer empty; it’s structured enough to start.
Knowledge Types as Springboards
Once you’ve compartmentalised your thoughts through the lenses, the next challenge is how to express them. This is where different knowledge types provide springboards. They don’t all need to be used — just choose the one that fits the material in front of you.
When your ideas are fuzzy, start by articulating why this matters or how it works.
Writing a short, plain-language explanation forces coherence and is often enough to spark momentum.
If you’re drowning in raw data — numbers, quotes, or snippets — log them as references.
This creates a factual anchor that you and others can return to.
Even a list of links or notes adds substance to the Context Pack.
If the challenge is process-heavy, sketch a step-by-step outline.
This could be a quick journey map for a feature, or a workflow diagram for a report.
The “how-to” brings immediacy, giving your colleagues (or future self) something tangible to act on.
Sometimes the most useful tactic is to write a mini walkthrough of how something might actually play out.
For a product ticket, this could mean imagining the user clicking through the flow.
For other writing, it might be simulating the reader’s experience.
Tutorials are pressure-tests: if the walkthrough feels clunky, the work itself might be too.
The beauty of these formats is that you don’t need to build all four. Just pick the springboard that feels natural. Whether you write an explanation, jot references, outline a how-to, or draft a tutorial, you’re no longer staring at an empty page — you’re shaping context into momentum.
Keep it Lean, Keep it Shared
Here’s the risk: ADHD brains love to over-engineer. With four lenses and four knowledge types, it’s tempting to spiral into building a full-blown encyclopaedia. Resist the urge. The Context Pack is scaffolding, not a finished cathedral.
Think of it as a safety net rather than an audit trail. For solo professionals, this means you can trace back missteps later. If a paragraph or ticket drifts off course, you can revisit your context pack and see exactly where the assumption or framing went wrong. It’s not paperwork — it’s protection.
For teams, the context pack is a courtesy anchor. Attach it to your ticket, share it in your repository, and invite feedback. You’re not saying, “I don’t know what I’m doing.” You’re saying, “Here’s my structured take — is this aligned?” That shift turns vulnerability into professionalism.
Whether you’re solo or in a squad, the Context Pack evolves through refinement. It doesn’t need to be perfect. It just needs to exist — because once it does, momentum is back on your side.
Conclusion
Blank page paralysis doesn’t have to win. For ADHD minds, the key is recognising that structure isn’t the enemy — it’s the starting block. A Context Pack built on simple lenses and springboards turns emptiness into scaffolding.
And while it might not be a formal Agile artefact, the Context Pack is a tool anyone can use — product managers, consultants, creatives, parents, students. Because at the end of the day, the battle isn’t against the blank page. It’s against the fear of starting. And with a Context Pack, you’ve already started.
Tactical Takeaways
Context Before Words
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Start with scaffolding
Build a lightweight Context Pack instead of forcing perfect prose -
Use four lenses
Behavioural, relational, strategic, and tactical perspectives to reduce chaos in your ideas -
Pick a springboard
Explanation, reference, how-to, or tutorial — choose the format that gets words flowing -
Keep it lean
Context Packs aren’t encyclopaedias; they’re designed to spark momentum, not stall it -
Share or self-check
With a team, use the Pack as a courtesy anchor. Solo, treat it as a safety net to trace missteps -
Momentum beats perfection
The act of writing something — anything — creates material to refine, challenge, and improve
