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Procrastination
From Procrastination to Productivity in the New Year
Practical motivation strategies that really work for adults with ADHD.
Posted December 26, 2023 Reviewed by Jessica Schrader
Key points
- Shift your perspective on motivation and reduce negative, judgmental self-talk.
- Put the "have-to" task before the "want-to" task and use incentives that matter.
- Transform procrastination into performance with chunking and gamifying tasks.
Do you see a pile of unfolded laundry, turn around, and run away? Are you feeling like your get-up-and-go took off and left for Bermuda?
If so, you share something in common with many other adults with ADHD: avoiding unpleasant activities in which you lack interest. Yet there comes a time when a task can’t be avoided any longer. Worried and possibly panicked, adrenaline may kick in and light a fire of motivation under you to get started. But this last-minute "let’s get started or else" produces huge amounts of unhealthy stress for your mind, body, and emotions.
As we head into 2024, you may be considering some new resolutions to live by. Sadly, most of us aren't able to stick with our resolutions and then we judge ourselves negatively for abandoning them.
This year, I encourage you to do something different. What about focusing only on motivation? It's such a huge issue for so many adults with ADHD. Let's decrease procrastination, avoidance, and excuses and learn how to tackle the tough stuff.
Shift Your Perspective and Use Incentives That Matter
It's so much easier and more fun for folks to do the "want-to" task before the "have-to" business, to stick with something pleasurable rather than stop and do a task that you don't enjoy. But that is setting yourself up for frustration and possible failure. It's much more efficient to put a "have-to" task before the "want-to" task, get it over with, and reward yourself with incentives like going out to dinner with friends, gaming, or watching a favorite show.
The problem is that sometimes you just don’t feel like doing the "have-to" thing. You’re tired; the task seems insurmountable; it’s boring to stop what’s fun. Whatever the reasons are, many adults with ADHD struggle with productivity. Here are some organizing tips for ADHD adults who are ready to energize their potential and pivot to more productivity in 2024.
While procrastination can be debilitating, the negative self-talk about your lack of motivation, organization, and planning can be downright toxic. When your inner critic rages at you for all of the things you aren’t doing, and all of the ways that you don’t measure up, overwhelm sets in. It’s easy to feel hopeless, stuck, and unable to gather up whatever strength you have to initiate anything.
Here’s the good news: You can change your circumstances by shifting your perspective. Instead of repeating what’s wrong with you, or what you can’t do, what would it be like to think about something that you are good at? Something that you like to do? What’s one small action that you could take to begin your path toward productivity?
Start by making a list of incentives. These will be your rewards for your efforts. Incentives are critical to productivity. Build incentives into your process to hone your motivation to address the task at hand. After a preset period of work (anywhere from 45 to 90 minutes), you can choose to take a timed break, get a coffee and a snack, FaceTime with a friend, chat with a colleague at lunch, take a walk, or whatever floats your boat. You know yourself best, so choose the incentives that are right for you. (Remember to leave yourself a note to get back into what you were doing when you return!)
Incentives are not bribes. You earn the desired activity after completing something, not before. To identify incentives that will increase your motivation, ask yourself:
- What do I love to do that feels special and nurturing? (Write down big and small things.)
- How long can I focus before I need a break? Which of these incentives makes sense for a short break and which ones work for a longer one?
Transform Procrastination Into Performance
Procrastination typically interferes with motivation and completion. It can be debilitating for folks with ADHD, affecting work, intimate relationships, and friendships as well as self-esteem. Procrastination can lead you down a slippery slope of avoidance and postponement until you feel like there is no way back but to give up. You then write yourself off as a failure before even trying.
But if you don't try something—any small step, any tiny component of a task—then you ensure failure. If you attempt anything, you risk success. This year, let's aim to risk success more than you have previously. Here are some ways that you can tackle procrastination:
1. Reflect on your own patterns of procrastination.
There are three types of procrastination:
- Perfectionism: “I have to get it right or I won’t do it."
- Avoidance: “I hate doing this thing, it seems impossible, so why bother trying?”
- Productive: “I’m going to do other things that need to get done and feel good but stay away from the bigger thing that I don’t like.”
Take some time to consider the ways that you procrastinate. Do any of the three types of procrastination resonate with you in particular? Does more than one? Which thoughts or beliefs come up for you when you think about why you might procrastinate? When you understand your patterns of procrastination, you’ll feel more empowered and prepared to decrease your delay tactics.
2. Break big tasks into smaller, more manageable tasks
Procrastination is often related to anxiety and a failure mentality. The best way to combat procrastination is to break things down into small, doable chunks that seem more manageable. Breaking things down into parts makes them more manageable to attempt because you are asking yourself to do a smaller task. This facilitates a sense of progress and encourages you to keep going.
Think of something that you are putting off. How can you break this down into little parts and which one piece can you start with? If you still can’t initiate, the part isn’t small enough. Instead of putting all of the socks together, what about just folding one shirt? You might think this is ridiculous; that’s OK, it’s just your inner critic trying to thwart you again. Activate your inner coach instead, and tell that voice to take a seat and zip it while you experiment. This trial approach builds your confidence one step at a time because you are performing something instead of avoiding it.
3. Gamify boring things to do them.
It’s tough for unmotivated ADHD brains to get started on something that seems tedious. What can you do to liven things up a bit?
Keep yourself engaged in a task by adding something fun to it—music, talking with a friend, or co-working. Change the order of tasks, switch locations for working, find an accountability buddy, and take those timed movement and snack breaks.
Creating realistic goals—ones that you can actually meet and want to achieve—also improves engagement. If you have a big project, report presentation, or research paper, chunk it down. Put the main task at the top of the list and underneath write down categories related to that task. Then break each of those down into smaller, easier components.
To get started, play some brown noise or instrumental music on your earbuds and select one of these pieces to begin. Stay away from judging what you've done and stick with noticing that you've completed something.
Acknowledge Your Achievements
We are looking for progress and a sense of pride in your accomplishment. Motivation benefits from encouragement, so focus on what is going well not what isn't working. Instead of saying to yourself "I'll never finish this on time" or "It won't be very good anyway," try acknowledging what you have accomplished with, “I’ve gotten started. I found a credible source for my group project, I read the article and took notes." That's forward motion regardless of whether it met your goal. You did something. Lean into your inner coach to keep trying and growing.
When you acknowledge your efforts, the more specific you can be, the better. Motivation grows with validation to promote the process of change and to shift from a negative outlook to a positive one. You shift "I can't" into "let me begin, no matter how small, and notice that I can." You're promoting the change you desire.
The ideal positivity ratio should be around three positives for every negative statement. Is this how you regularly speak to yourself? Start today by catching yourself doing something you’re proud of, notice it, and give yourself a pat on the back. This is how you pivot from disengagement to productivity.
References
Fredrickson, B. L. (2009). Positivity (pp. 32). New York: Three Rivers Press.
Smith, Z.R. and Langberg J.M. (2018). Review of the Evidence for Motivation Deficits in Youth with ADHD and Their Association with Functional Outcomes. Clinical Child Family Psychology Review. 21(4):500-526. doi: 10.1007/s10567-018-0268-3.
Volkow, N. D., et al. (2011). Motivation deficit in ADHD is associated with dysfunction of the dopamine reward pathway. Molecular Psychiatry, 16(11), 1147–1154.
