Caitlin ADHD Mentor
The cover of Waiting Mode, with the Harbour palette in five bands across the top, the counts 27 activities, 22 to colour and 5 to solve, and three example pages: a coloured waiting room full of animals, a corner of a maze, and a tulip on a shelf

Waiting Mode

An ADHD colouring and activity book for waiting rooms, queues and appointments

Cover palette, one of 10 in the book

  • Harbour
  • Sky
  • Navy
  • Cloud
  • Rust

Every design faces a guide page carrying five colours already chosen for it, and the book works through 10 different palettes, so no two pages hand you the same decision. They are suggestions. Ignoring them completely is a perfectly good way to use the book.

27
Pages
22
To colour
5
To solve
A5
Size
Choose your format

A PDF, by email, to the address you give at checkout.

Delivery and how long it takesReturns and refunds

Waiting is the bit nobody prepares you for. The wait for an assessment, the wait in the room with the posters you have already read twice, the wait for somebody to ring you back. It is time you cannot use for anything else, and it is worse when your brain will not settle into it.

This is a book for exactly that. Twenty two pages to colour and five to solve, at A5, coil bound so it lies flat on your knee. Nothing in it needs more than a pencil, and nothing in it needs you to finish.

Every page carries a badge before you begin: how many decisions it asks for, and roughly how many minutes it takes. You open the book at the page that matches today rather than starting at the front and stalling on page one.

And every left hand page is a guide to the design facing it: five colours already chosen for you with their names, one practical thing I actually say to people in mentoring sessions, and a line giving you permission to stop.

The reverse of every page is the useful bit

Colouring books are printed single sided so ink does not bleed through, and every other one on the shelf leaves that reverse side blank. This one uses it. Facing each design is its colour guide, an ADHD tip that belongs to that page, and a permission line.

You know what a page costs before you start it

Each design carries an effort level from one to five and a time in minutes. The levels count DECISIONS, not detail, so a level one page is not a page for beginners. It is the page for a day when choosing is the hard part.

Five colours, already chosen

Picking a palette is where most people stall before they have made a single mark. Each design arrives with five named colours, so the first decision is made for you. They are a suggestion and not a rule.

There are no finished examples, on purpose

Most colouring books print a perfectly coloured version near the front, and the moment you see it your page becomes a comparison. There isn't one here, and the front matter explains why.

Look inside

7 real pages out of 60, exactly as they print. Swipe, or use the arrows.

Drag across the shapes to colour them, or tap one to fill it and tap again to clear it. On the maze, drag to draw and the walls will stop you. Every page has its own five colours, so the same button is a different colour on a different page.

BEFORE YOU START There are no finished examples Most colouring books print a perfectly coloured version somewhere near the front. The moment you see it, your page becomes a comparison. There isn’t one here, and that is deliberate. The five colours on each left hand page are a suggestion that removes the first decision, which is usually the one that stops people starting. They are not a rule. Where a page draws a thing, the guide says what each colour is for; where it is a pattern, there is no right place for any of them. Whatever you make of a page is what that page was for. Pencils and gel pens suit this paper best. Alcohol markers will show through to the other side, and the other side is a guide page rather than a design, so nothing is ruined. Every printed copy comes with the PDF, so you can reprint any page you want to do again.
Page 3A guide page, which faces every design
Slate Mist Charcoal Pearl Moss PAGE 2 Three Doors Down 10 minutes One way in at the top, one way out at the bottom. A pencil is easier than a pen. Bring something with you. Not your phone, because your phone will take you somewhere stressful within ninety seconds. Something with a beginning and an end that lives in your bag and needs nothing but a pencil. If the maze beats you, draw straight through a wall. Nobody is checking.
Page 6A guide page, which faces every design
Page 7A maze, and you can draw through it
Honey Straw Treacle Cream Teal PAGE 3 Yesterday's Magazines 15 minutes Five colours that work together. There is no right place for any of them. If you’re early and it’s making you twitchy, that’s usually a good sign. Turning up early is a strategy that costs you a bit of boredom and saves you the panic of being late. The boredom is the price, and this page is what you do with it. Colour one magazine and shut the book. The pile is not a to do list.
Page 8A guide page, which faces every design
Page 9A page to colour
Slate Mist Charcoal Pearl Moss PAGE 9 Somebody's Cat 20 minutes Five colours that work together. There is no right place for any of them. Take somebody with you if you can. Not to speak for you, just to be a second memory. Half of what gets said in an appointment evaporates on the way to the car park, and two people remember more than one. Cats come in every colour in here. Make it one you would like to meet.
Page 20A guide page, which faces every design
Page 21A page to colour

7 pages previewed, from 60 in the book

What the levels mean

Every design carries one of these before you start it, so you can pick a page that matches today rather than starting at the front. The dots count decisions, not detail.

  • 5 min. Almost no choices. Big shapes, lots of air.
  • 10 min. A clear rhythm. You can stop mid row.
  • 15 min. Enough going on to hold your attention.
  • 25 min. A proper sit down page.
  • 40 min. For an evening when you have the capacity.

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Questions about Waiting Mode

Does colouring help ADHD?

Not as a treatment, and I would not sell it to you as one. There is one good trial of colouring in people waiting in an emergency department, and it found a meaningful drop in anxiety scores over two hours. That is a study of anxiety in people who are waiting, which is exactly what this book is for, and it is not a study of ADHD. What this book offers is something to do with your hands that has a defined end, does not need charging, and does not open an app.

What is actually in it?

Twenty seven pages. Twenty two to colour, all of them drawn scenes from the places you end up waiting in, and five to solve with just a pen: three mazes and two dot to dots. Plus front and back matter, so sixty printed pages in total.

Do I need special pens?

No. Coloured pencils and gel pens suit the paper best. Alcohol markers will show through to the reverse, and the reverse is a guide page rather than another design, so nothing is spoiled if they do.

What is the difference between the PDF and the printed book?

The artwork is identical. The printed book is A5 and coil bound so it lies flat, and it comes with the PDF at no extra cost, so you can reprint any page you want to do again. The PDF on its own is the cheaper option and arrives immediately.

Is this suitable for children?

It is written for adults and teenagers. The tips on the guide pages are about work, appointments and the things adults wait for. Plenty of the designs would suit a younger person, but the writing is not aimed at them.

Do I have to finish it?

No, and the book says so repeatedly. Twenty seven pages is deliberately short. A book you actually finish is worth more than a hundred page one you abandon at page nine.

The tips in this book come out of real sessions

Every guide page carries one thing I actually say to people I mentor. If they land, the sessions themselves go a great deal further, because a book cannot ask you a follow up question. The first call is free.

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