To Do or Not To Do: Procrastination with ADHD 🧠

You know that thing you need to do?

The thing you’ve been thinking about doing?

The thing you have reminded yourself to do approximately eleven times today?

Yeah.

You still haven’t done it.

Welcome to the strange little circus of procrastination with ADHD.

And before anyone says, “Just make a list!”

Oh, we have lists.

We have lists of lists.

We have lists that started with the best of intentions and are now buried beneath seventeen other lists, three receipts, and a pen that doesn’t work.

The problem isn’t always that we don’t want to get things done.

Sometimes our brains just don’t seem particularly interested in cooperating.

📝 TO DO: Make a List

Lists can be incredibly helpful. Just try not to overwhelm it

The trick is not making a list that contains every task you’ve ever thought about doing since 1998.

Try picking three things.

That’s it.

Not thirty.

Not “clean the entire house.”

Try:

• Put one load of laundry in the washer and set a timer 🙂 https://amzn.to/4hmrGNj Not the exact one I use but it’s close.
• Answer one email
• Take trash to the curb (watch out for squirrels. we have enough in our heads we don’t need anymore)

Three things feel much less intimidating than a giant wall of doom.

And once those three are done, you can always add more.

🚫 NOT TO DO: Make the Perfect List (even though it’s fun)

Color coding.

Special notebooks.

Different categories.

Cute stickers.

A new productivity app.

Another productivity app because the first productivity app wasn’t productive enough.

Suddenly you’ve spent two hours organizing your system for doing the things you were supposed to be doing.

There is nothing wrong with enjoying a pretty planner.

Just don’t let planning become the task.

🧠 TO DO: Make the First Step Ridiculously Small

“Clean the kitchen” sounds like a project.

“Put five things away” sounds doable. Even if it’s only one that’s progress. You’ve got this.

“Do the laundry” sounds like a commitment.

“Put clothes in the washer” is one tiny action. And if you have to wash them again after you forget them they’ll just be extra clean.

Sometimes your brain needs a doorway instead of a destination.

Once you’re moving, the next step often becomes easier.

And if you only do the tiny step?

That’s still a step.

🚫 NOT TO DO: Wait Until You Feel Like It

If we waited until we felt like doing everything we needed to do, we’d have some very interesting homes.

The laundry pile would become structural. Though we all know we’re probably sleeping on some clean clothes that have needed to be put away 2 weeks ago.

The dishes would achieve sentience. I named mine Fred.

And somewhere underneath the couch would be a fossilized snack.

Motivation doesn’t always come first.

Sometimes action creates motivation.

Start badly.

Start reluctantly.

Start for five minutes.

Just start.

⏰ TO DO: Use the “Five-Minute Trick”

Tell yourself:

“I’m only doing this for five minutes.”

Set a timer.

Do the thing.

When the timer goes off, you can stop.

No guilt.

No negotiating.

No “well, since I’m already doing it, I guess I’ll reorganize the garage.”

Unless you want to. But if you start it don’t beat yourself up if you don’t finish it today. Life doesn’t give out time limits on this stuff. And throwing out all those cardboard boxes finally is huge.

Sometimes five minutes is enough to get momentum going.

Sometimes five minutes is exactly five minutes.

Both count.

🐿️ NOT TO DO: Follow Every Random Thought

This one is dangerous.

You’re cleaning the kitchen and those squirrels in your brain that had been behaving are now going in different directions.

You notice the cabinet needs organizing.

You open the cabinet.

You find an old coffee mug.

That reminds you that you need coffee.

You go make coffee.

You see your phone. It’s a trap.

You check one notification.

Forty-five minutes later you’re watching a video about raccoons stealing dog food. Hahaha that one was hilarious. Or the one with the cat in water saying it’s cold…….umm yeah.

The kitchen remains exactly as it was.

The squirrels have won.

Not Today Squirrels. Not today.

When a random thought pops into your head, write it down instead of immediately following it.

Future You can deal with it.

Future You is very busy, but apparently that’s their problem.

🎧 TO DO: Make Boring Things Less Boring

If your brain is refusing to cooperate, add stimulation.

Try:

• Music
• A podcast
• An audiobook
• A favorite TV show playing in the background. Sometimes I’ll put on YouTube stories. Right now I keep listening to the I died and woke up before whatever main tradegy derailed my life. Hint it’s usually boyfriend cheating or best friend is jealous or both.
• A fun drink. Right now it’s sweet tea with some Pinapple Fanta mixed in. Yummy. https://amzn.to/4xoLS6b and they have Halloween design on the cans right now.
• A reward afterward. This one’s a little hard for me personally but I know it works for some people.

Cleaning while listening to your favorite podcast can feel completely different from standing in silence staring at a pile of laundry like it personally offended you.

Sometimes the trick isn’t making the task easier.

It’s making it more interesting.

🚫 NOT TO DO: Turn One Missed Day Into a Failed Week

You didn’t do what you planned today.

Okay.

Tomorrow exists.

You missed your workout.

You can go tomorrow.

The house didn’t get cleaned.

Pick one thing up and put it where it needs to be.

You forgot to send the email.

Send it late.

You ate the snack instead of making the healthy dinner. And no food is bad food as I’m now learning. Just try to add one thing healthy to it.

Congratulations, you are still a human being.

Don’t let “I messed up today” become “I always mess everything up.”

Those are two very different statements.

🧺 TO DO: Use Visible Reminders

Out of sight can sometimes mean completely erased from the mental hard drive.

If something needs to happen, put the reminder somewhere you’re going to see it. Set an alarm for it. I know stressful but that’s life and some stress is apart of it.

Need to take something with you?

Put it by the door. Mention it to someone. Put it by something you have to do before you go out the door.

Need to return something?

Put it in the car. Mention it to someone. Don’t cover it up and don’t put it in the trunk or back unless you open those often. Out of sight, out of mind.

Need to mail something?

Put it somewhere that makes it impossible to ignore. If you have a group of errands put it with that stuff. And mention it to someone. Sometimes just saying it aloud puts it closer to the front of the line of what you have to do. Not always but maybe the other person will remember it.

This is not laziness.

It’s designing your environment to work with your brain instead of constantly expecting your brain to work harder.

🚫 NOT TO DO: Shame Yourself Into Productivity

“You are so lazy.”

“You should have done this already.”

“Why can’t you just be normal?”

None of these statements magically make the dishes disappear.

Shame might produce a frantic burst of productivity once in a while, but it isn’t exactly a sustainable household management system.

Try replacing:

“Why can’t I do this?”

with:

“What is making this difficult right now?”

Are you overwhelmed?

Bored?

Distracted?

Tired?

Don’t know where to start?

Need something more stimulating?

The answer can tell you what strategy to try next.

🧩 TO DO: Work With Your Brain

Maybe mornings are terrible but evenings work.

Maybe you need music.

Maybe you need someone nearby.

Maybe you work better in 20-minute bursts.

Maybe you need to physically leave the room.

Maybe you need a reward.

Maybe you need to stop trying to accomplish twelve things at once.

There isn’t one magical productivity formula.

The goal isn’t to become a perfectly organized productivity robot.

The goal is to figure out what actually helps you get things done.

You’re not competing with anyone else. No one is keeping a scorecard. And God doesn’t grade you when you get to Heaven.

🌪️ NOT TO DO: Expect Every Day to Look the Same

Some days you’ll be unstoppable.

You’ll clean the kitchen, answer emails, do laundry, organize a drawer, and suddenly decide the pantry needs a complete inventory system.

Other days?

Getting dressed feels like a major project.

That’s okay.

Your capacity can change.

A productive day doesn’t have to mean doing everything.

Sometimes productivity is:

“I handled the one thing that absolutely needed to happen.”

That’s enough.

🏆 The ADHD To-Do List

Maybe the list doesn’t need to be:

☐ Clean the house
☐ Do laundry
☐ Grocery shop
☐ Answer emails
☐ Organize office
☐ Exercise
☐ Meal prep
☐ Become a better human being

Maybe it can be:

☐ Do one thing
☐ Do another thing if there’s enough brain juice
☐ Drink some water
☐ Stop beating myself up
☐ Try again tomorrow

Because procrastination isn’t always about not caring.

Sometimes it’s about an executive-function traffic jam where every task is honking and nobody knows who has the right-of-way.

So if you’ve been putting something off, don’t spend another hour feeling guilty about putting it off.

Make it smaller.

Make it easier.

Make it interesting.

Give yourself five minutes.

And if that doesn’t work?

Try again later.

To do or not to do?

Honestly, let’s just start with one thing.

The rest can wait its turn.

Probably.

Maybe.

We’ll see.

Now where did I put that list?

…Never mind.

I found another list.

-Head Guide Errant HQ- the squirrels will not always win.