ADHD and Procrastination | Is Procrastination Part of ADHD? Plus 10 ADHD Procrastination Tips
Is procrastination part of ADHD?
Well…yes and no.
See procrastination is a result of a bunch of executive functions deciding to short circuit making progress difficult.
And you know if it involves executive function, us ADHDers just might struggle with it a bit. When it comes to task initiation we need executive functions to
Decide where to start.
Break the task down into manageable pieces.
Organize & Prioritize steps.
And sustain interest.
On top of all these steps we have to overcome just to get started, there’s the nagging fear in the back of our brains that we don’t have time to make it good enough or that if we can’t make it perfect, we should just wait until we can.
But luckily, we don’t have to just sit back and accept that we’re always going to be flying by the seat of our pants to finish a task or project because we have ADHD.
That’s why I wanted to discuss why many of us with ADHD struggle with procrastination as well as some strategies to over it.
Can ADHD Cause Procrastination?
So I mentioned in the intro how our ADHD executive function can impact our motivation and cause procrastination. But that’s just one part of your biology making it hard to motivate yourself.
You also have the tug of war going on between your limbic system, which controls behaviorial response, and your pre-frontal cortex, which controls your executive function.
Your brain is pre-wired for the “Fight or Flight” response which comes from your limbic system.
And this tendency towards self-preservation has your brain saying things like “see danger? Run!” Or “That seems hard? Let’s put it off or find an easier way.”
Couple your limbic system telling you “let’s just wait a bit and see how things pan out” with your already erractic dopamine levels and you’ve got quite the motivation quandry on your hands.
Did you think I was going to miss an opportunity to bring up dopamine when talking about ADHD and your brain???
See Dopamine’s role is to jumpstart executive function so you can focus, plan, organize, follow through, etc.
And if you’ve got a day where you’re struggling to uptake dopamine and jump start your executive function coupled with your limbic system telling your “hey man, we should just chill out until the danger passes”, it is no wonder many of us with ADHD struggle with procrastination on a regular basis.
But it doesn’t have to be that way.
How to Deal with ADHD Procrastination
Let’s wrap up to day by discussing 10 tips you can incorporate to help you overcome procrastination if you’re finding it is interfering with your life as an ADHD entrepreneur or ADHD Mom.
ADHD Procrastination Tips: Break Tasks Down
One reason it can be hard to tackle a task is because it feels so big. And that limbic system is like “we don’t have the energy for that!”
But if you can break the task or project down into smaller pieces or chunks, it can be easier to overcome these messages because what you need to be doing doesn’t feel as hard.
You can create these smaller tasks by working backwards from the end result to determine the steps needed, you could verbally process the steps you need to take with someone taking notes, or you could try mind mapping which I personally find incredibly helpful.
In fact, I was thinking about doing a mindmapping episode so be sure to comment down below if you’d like that.
ADHD Procrastination Tips: DIFF It – Do It for Five Minutes
Along with breaking your tasks down to make them feel less overwhelming, you can also hack your Limbic system by limiting the amount of time you say you’re going to work on something. Because the limbic system is by nature going to be like “hmm, it’s going to take like 5 hours for you to clean out this closet, let’s just put it off for a bit”.
Instead, you either take your list of tiny tasks and decide to tackle just one of them OR set a timer for 5 minutes and just work for 5 minutes. You may find that once you’re in the groove, you can actually stay in it and make more progress.
Or if you’re just not feeling it after 5 minutes, at least you made some progress which is better than no progress, right?
ADHD Procrastination Tips: Prioritize Your To-Do List
I also think we can look at our to-do lists and feel overwhelmed by the sheer number of items staring back at us. But here’s the thing…our ADHD brains aren’t real great at determining which things actually need to be done NOW and which things are less of a priority.
Instead, we gravitate towards what we FEEL like doing (thank you limbic system) which can really feed into a cycle of procrastination.
I like to share with my community my TRIM method for determining priorities which is “Is the task time sensitive, meaning it has an approaching due date, required, meaning it needs to be completed in order for you or someone else to move forward, impact driven, meaning it will make a positive impact if you do it or a negative impact if you don’t, and finally money related, meaning it could make you money if you do it or cost you money if you don’t.
You can pick up a copy of my TRIM Your To-Do List Flowchart by clicking below.
Prioritize what you NEED to do by determining if it’s Time Sensitive, Required, Impact Driven, or Money Related.
ADHD Procrastination Tips: Schedule Your Deadlines or Timelines
And speaking of deadlines, if you’re struggling with starting or working on a task or project because there isn’t a scheduled deadline or project timeline, make one.
You could tell a team member that you want them to review upcoming social media posts on Friday, meaning you need to follow through and get them finished for them to review by the due date.
Or you could use an upcoming family visit to your home as a deadline for a home project you’ve been putting off.
ADHD Procrastination Tips: Find Accountability
It can also be incredibly helpful to involve others in the process. This could come in the form of an accountability partner like your spouse, friend, other family member, group, or coach, like me.
Stating what you’d like to do and when you’d like to do it to someone else and then asking you to check in on your progress can be a great motivator when you’re struggling to get going. You could also try body doubling either in person or online to help you stay accountable to your plan.
ADHD Procrastination Tips: Ask for Help
You could also involve others be literally asking them to help out. If you’ve broken the task or project down into smaller parts but you’re still struggling to make progress, determine if there are parts of the task someone else can help with so you can keep progress moving forward and so you don’t become a roadbloack.
ADHD Procrastination Tips: Reframe the Tasks You’re Struggling With
We also need to watch the negative messages we send ourselves about these tasks that we are struggling to work on. If we are saying things like “I hate writing weekly emails to my community” or “It’s stupid to waste time creating these social media posts when no one pays attention”, then that limbic system is gonna have an easy time convincing you to do something else.
It may be helpful to reframe tasks or projects we don’t enjoy to help reduce the friction it takes to initiate them. For instance, instead of “I hate writing weekly emails to my community”, reframe it to “Sharing my weekly email tips helps build my community”. Or replace “It’s stupid to waste time creating these social media posts when non one pays attention” with “Helping just 1 person with my social media post is 100% more people helped than 0 people.”
ADHD Procrastination Tips: Create a Range of Positive Outcomes
Another way to reframe the tasks is by creating a range of what done looks like. Because if your limbic system is looking at what you need to do and saying “ um, yeah, no. We’re not doing that today”, you may be able to finagle a bit of progress by working towards a version of completing the task that may look a little less “perfect” than what you envisioned but still would be considered done. I like to think of them as Good, Better, and Best.
Good is the bare minimum that needs to be done to call the task complete. Best would be the idealized version. The perfect version if you will. And Better would fall somewhere in between the Basic/Good version and the Perfect/Best Version.
Aim for the Good version and if you have the time and energy to finesse it a bit more, work towards the better or best versions.
ADHD Procrastination Tips: Celebrate Even the Small Stuff
And when you’ve completed your task, no matter which version you complete, remember to celebrate or reward yourself. Even for the smallest, most mundane tasks.
Because your brain doesn’t delineate between big tasks and small tasks. It just knows that you completed a task. And completing a task releases dopamine.
And, as we talked about earlier, we need dopamine in order to initiate tasks and stay motivated.
Not to mention, if we’ve broken our big task or project into smaller, bite-sized chunks, we have more opportunities to celebrate and release dopamine.
ADHD Procrastination Tips: Overcome Your Dopamine Trough
And speaking of releasing dopamine, my final tip is to do what you need to do to overcome the Dopamine trough.
Now I could do an entire episode on this but I’ll try to give a quick overview for the time being. Dopamine uptake is a lot like a sugar rush. If you eat cake and ice cream and drink a Coke, you’re going to have a lot of energy then a crash, which usually ends up lower than you were before the cake and ice cream. Therefore, it may take you a little time to get back to feeling “normal” after a sugar crash.
Dopamine works very similarly. Let’s say you just got back from an amazing vacation. Chances are, you were riding a dopamine high for most of the trip because you’re having fun or new experiences.
But alas, when you come back, not only do you struggle to motivate yourself, it may feel even harder than normal. And this is due to your dopamine levels not only dropping after the vacation, but going below your baseline level. Now you have even more ground to cover than normal in order to get your executive function up and running.
So how do you overcome this dopamine trough?
Dr. Andrew Huberman, a Stanford neurobiologist and host of the Huberman Labs podcast says
“The reality is, the dopamine system works according to what feels easy or hard in the moment. If you're feeling amotivated, you need to put yourself in a state that's harder than the state you're in. Put your body and mind into a state of discomfort, quickly.”
In other words, do something uncomfortable. Something you personally hate.
Dr. Huberman’s go to suggestion is a cold shower but really it comes down to what you find to be more uncomfortable than they state you are currently in.
It could be a really hard workout doing something you dislike. Eating really hot or sour food if you don’t normally enjoy it. Or maybe doing those chores you really hate (I’m looking at you dishes).
And it needs to be something you dislike because seeking the things you enjoy will bring diminished returns over time. You’ll notice it takes you more of that thing to get the desired effect and eventually you may no longer notice any sort of boost or positive effect.
And if you’re still struggling with getting over your procrastination hurdles, I’d love to help. Part of what I do as an executive function and accountability coach is to help you break tasks down, schedule when you’ll work on them, provide accountability that you’re following through, and celebrate all of your victories.
To hear how my ADHD coaching programs can support you, click below to book your free, no obligation 15 minute call.
