Traditional productivity advice assumes we can simply decide to be disciplined and get things done. In reality, our brains are often a little more complicated than that.
If you’ve ever found yourself negotiating with your own thoughts just to start a simple task, you’re not alone. As someone navigating the world and my ADHD brain, I have come up with a few productivity hacks that lean into the chaos and reward my efforts.
Sneak up on tasks
This hack works really well if you’re someone with a very overactive inner monologue. Have you ever thought, “Oh, I really should get up and complete X task”, only to be immediately met with “Under absolutely no circumstances do I want to do that, thanks, bye,” from the other half of your brain? You could spend hours, rooted to the spot, stuck in this back and forth until you finally just give up and go to bed.
Now, I am pretty well acquainted with both sides of my brain, and so when this discourse fires up, instead of melting into the couch and focusing on the ping pong game going on inside my mind, I plan a sneak attack.
When I’m met with the “But I don’t wannaaaaaa” I’ll respond with something like “Mm, okay yep. I hear you. Why don’t you tell me all about that while I just open up this unrelated document on my computer?”
Sometimes the hardest part of getting started on something really is just getting started. Opening the textbook, firing up the laptop, and turning on the shower. It feels impossible until you’re actually doing it, and then you wonder why it took you so long.
I could tell you to just ignore the nagging inner thoughts, but as someone who deals with this very regularly, I just don’t find that works. They don’t want to be ignored; they want to be responded to, connected with, and validated. And so that’s what I do – I meet defiance with curiosity, rather than judgement. By the time I’m finished listening to myself explain why I didn’t want to do the task, it’s often already done.
Full disclosure, this doesn’t always work. If you’re someone who struggles with severe executive dysfunction, sometimes we just have to accept that some tasks aren’t going to happen when we think they should. Try to be kind to yourself. Sometimes, it’s actually going to be better all around to just lean into it, rest and try again tomorrow.
MOVE
If you’ve been stuck staring at the same assignment, textbook or pile of washing for hours, try moving the task somewhere completely different. Literally pick it up and take it into a new room. If you’re inside, go outside; if you’re studying in your bedroom, go and sit in your car - you get the idea.
There’s something about a change in location that seems to trick our brains into thinking we’re doing something new. A task that feels impossible at your desk might suddenly feel manageable at the kitchen table.
I tend to follow the 20-minute rule. If you’ve spent more than 20 minutes avoiding something, relocate it. Move rooms. Move buildings. Move surfaces. If you’re deep into writing an overdue essay and you physically can’t move yourself, close all your tabs, save your work, restart your computer and then copy and paste it all into a fresh document. Move yourself, move your work. Just move.
Pay yourself to clean your home
This one comes with a built-in reward. I’ve lost count of the number of times I’ve uttered the phrase “I wish I could just pay someone to keep my house clean”. Unfortunately, today’s cost of living doesn’t leave much room in the ol’ budget.
BUT, someone is cleaning the house, and it’s usually me, and I’m usually mad about it. Why? Because it’s boring and the payoff feels low. Although in reality there’s not a lot better than the feeling of a clean house, a ‘possible future good feeling’ just isn’t always enough incentive for me to break out the steam cleaner. Especially when I have to do it all over again the next day.
So what can we do about it? Well, we’re going to pay ourselves an hourly ‘wage’ for cleaning and tidying our spaces. Okay, sure, we might not be getting anything close to minimum wage, but hear me out.
Allocate a portion of your weekly spending money towards ‘paying your cleaner’. For example, if you normally have $100 per week to do with what you like, give yourself $70 instead, and put away that $30. Decide on an hourly rate for yourself. I personally go with $10 because it’s a nice round number, and book some time with yourself as the cleaner. This might be one big session on a Sunday afternoon to set you up for the week, or it might be half an hour each night after you finish up your studies.
There are a few reasons this hack works for me:
- I’m still giving myself some fun spending money outside of having to ‘work’ for it, so I’m not feeling deprived, or like I have to go without if I don’t get to my jobs that week.
- I’m actually valuing the time I spend looking after my home, which in and of itself is a win because so often these jobs get swept under the rug as ‘not important’, and so it feels really good to actually recognise the work you’re putting in.
- I give myself a ‘pay day’ that’s on a different day to when I actually get paid. So if my regular income comes in on a Monday, I might set Thursday up as my cleaning pay day. This means I get a nice little boost to get me through the rest of the week, whereas if I had just given myself the full amount straight up, I would likely spend it all before the next week, and I have no incentive to actually do my job.
- The other money is still there if I need it, so unlike actually trying to budget for a cleaner and coming up short for bills, etc., I know I can access it early if I have to.
Rewards that will actually motivate you
A problem I constantly come up against when trying to reward myself for completing tasks is that a lot of traditional rewards, like ‘have your favourite snack’ or ‘treat yourself to a new purchase’, don’t feel like rewards to me. They’re things I am already planning on doing, and I know I’ll get a dopamine rush from them regardless of whether or not they’re tied to my productivity. I’ve figured out, at least for myself, that a good reward is one that feels unexpected, which is why I put together my ‘surprise reward’ system.
This is exactly what it sounds like. Basically, I write down as many small rewards as I can think of and throw them all into a jar. When I complete my task, I’m allowed to pull one out. Because the actual reward is something I don’t often do (pulling out a lucky dip), it’s not something I feel compelled to do prior to finishing my tasks. The actual reward I pull out is probably still going to be something like ‘watch a TV show’ or ‘order takeaway’, but the dopamine comes from the system, not the reward itself.
