This School Year, Turn Procrastination into Activation

It’s that time of year again when our upstairs hallway becomes filled with all the items my son needs to take back to college. Despite gathering up some of his things a week or so before he was to leave, my son’s procrastination and constant underestimation of how long a task will take contributed to the tornado of emotion and disorganization that was roaring through our house on the morning of his departure.

Intentions are Different Than Actions

I understand that my son knows what needs to be done, but it’s his execution that needs some work. Good intentions don’t lead to task completion. Taking action, or task initiation, is an executive function skill that is lagging in people with ADHD. Although my son had good intentions and was motivated to get his things packed up, like many ADHD kids and adults, he often gets derailed by more interesting, and at times productive, activities. There is a term for this behavior: Procrastivity, or doing something else productive instead of doing what needs to be done. As a former high school marching band member, my son volunteered eight hours a day at the band camp for current marching band students the week leading up to his departure for college; a productive way to spend his time, and a lot more fun than packing.

I am proud of my son for his commitment, but at the same time, he cannot balance his time efficiently. I have come to learn that pointing this out to him is futile. Typical of individuals with ADHD, he has plenty of defeating thoughts and negative self-talk, and he already knew it wasn’t the most efficient use of his time. Mentioning to my son that choosing to go to marching band practice all day instead of packing would have led to an emotional outburst. A hallmark symptom of ADHD is the inability to self-regulate emotions. ADHD expert Dr. Thomas E. Brown has described how emotions and unconscious memories are linked to motivation and behavior.

“Emotions, positive and negative, play a critical role in executive functions: initiating and prioritizing tasks, sustaining or shifting interest or effort, holding thoughts in active memory, and choosing to avoid a task or situation.”

Interestingly, emotions play a role in procrastination and the resulting consequences.

From Procrastination to Activation

My son is a self-professed master of procrastination. He can jump into action, hyperfocus, and get things done when a deadline or a crisis looms. I have witnessed my son do this with missing school assignments he was allowed to turn in at the end of the semester, preparing for a hurricane while at college in Florida, and in the eleventh hour when he kicked it into high gear to get the rest of his college things packed up and loaded into the car. As parents, we must always keep in mind that we may need to change our expectations of what our ADHD children are capable of at the time. I know my son is a procrastinator, so I knew we weren’t going to get out the door as early as I would have liked to begin the drive back to his college, and telling my son he should have had everything packed up the night before would have been counterproductive. My job wasn’t to make my son feel guilty, but to remain calm and offer help if he needed it.

The mindset for individuals with ADHD is that things need to get done now or not now, and procrastination becomes a way to get them to turn their motivation into activation. Waiting until the last minute, or being in a crisis, causes a surge in the neurotransmitter dopamine. Lower levels of dopamine are associated with ADHD symptoms, and the increased levels that occur during panic mode intensify focus and concentration, pushing you to stick with it until the end. As we dive into a new school year, how can we help our ADHD children to use their procrastination to their advantage? By creating a false sense of urgency, we can come out of the chaos and not be consumed by the tornado.

• Break large assignments/tasks down into smaller ones and assign the smaller assignments/tasks a due date. You can do this by working backwards on a calendar from the date the final assignment/task is due to set due dates for the smaller assignments/tasks. This can work for school assignments or chores. In addition, it can help your child to feel less overwhelmed while boosting their confidence when they complete the smaller task.
• Use a timer and challenge yourself to see how much work you can get done in a limited amount of time.
• Be accountable to someone else. Tell a friend or a parent when you are going to have a homework assignment or a chore completed. You can even ask them to check in with you to make sure your task is complete.
• Reward yourself along the way. A smaller reward now often appeals to kids with ADHD rather than a larger reward later. Since our ADHD kids live in the here and now, a reward too far out in the future has little value.