Sequin, Sing! (is way better than sequencing)

I managed to translate a recipe tonight.

It wasn't in another language and it wasn't really a recipe but I managed to follow the directions on a packet of pasta.  I added the stuff and mixed the stuff and heated the stuff and it was edible!  Tonight I accomplished what other people do easily some time before they start going to school.  I think I'm pretty awesome for nailing it before I turn 30.  I've only got 10 days to go so it was a close one.  Actually, I'm pretty sure I've mastered it previously but it's still an achievement because I bought the packet months ago and I've finally used it.

Surely I've made a single snack pasta pack thingo before.  Then again, I remember going on a hike with scouts when I was about 12 and I was trying to read the instructions I'd written onto a cup-a-soup sachet in the dark.  I mean, I wrote the instructions with the light on.  I wasn't challenging myself to read something I scrawled onto the sachet in a blackout.  I couldn't see the writing and one of the scouts taunted me a bit saying "It's gonna be the same making it on a hike as it is making it at home."  That would have been useful advice if I'd ever made anything at home but I took it as an insult because I didn't know how to make it at home OR on a hike.

I think my problem is the order of doing things.

If you heated up a saucepan and tipped powdered soup into it, I think it would burn.
If you poured cold water onto powdered soup or powdered soup into cold water, it would go lumpy.

There is a set way that it has to be done and I assume that is to heat up the water while putting powdered soup in a cup then pour the heated water into the cup and mix the powdered soup through the water.

I'm pretty sure the bit I have trouble with is doing one thing WHILE doing another thing.  However, just reading all those steps makes me feel overwhelmed so perhaps the problem lies with having to do more than one thing.

I've been trying to figure out how I deciphered the directions tonight when normally I would get freaked out by all the numbers.  I think it comes from being able to block out the irrelevant information and from managing to re-order the sequence of steps in my head without confusing myself.

I always find that recipes tell you to do stuff backwards.

Let's say step 1 is to add the diced potatoes to the boiling water.
Where did the boiling water come from?

Surely you should have told me to FIRST boil water, THEN cut potatoes, THEN add potatoes to water or FIRST cut potatoes, THEN boil water, THEN add potatoes to water.

You have to tell me these things!  
I don't know which way is right!
Am I the only person in the world who has trouble with this?

I had a similar issue in maths when the textbooks stopped listing all the steps and I had to guess how they got from one step to the next.  At least with equations I wouldn't have turned a fried egg into a charcoal pancake because suddenly I had to add a mix of marinated mushrooms and artichokes.

Here is what I was working with tonight:

I have made a flow chart of the steps I go through before I can follow the directions.  I have only been in a situation where I could progress past the very first step in the last few days because my friend went to the supermarket for me.  Also, before I can even qualify to think about the first step I have to be awake and have energy.

Prerequisites: BE AWAKE & HAVE ENERGY
Materials Needed:

The Directions on the Packet

This is my revised order of directions according to how I think I re-wrote it in my head:

It makes me feel quite retarded that I have to put in so much effort to re-write simple directions on a packet of pasta but it's good to know what's confusing me.