Start the Dreaded Task
How I Get Over The "But I Don't WANT TO" of Daily, Worn-Out ADHD Life
These are the kinds of tasks I dread:
Meaningless yet unfortunately necessary administrative tasks (timesheets, budget projections, project updates)
Communicating with someone I’m behind on communicating with (I have a question for them but never responded to their text from 3 weeks ago asking if I have a juicer they could borrow)
Emptying the dishwasher
Here are some things I do to make myself do things when the “I don’t WANT TO” is strong:
Look at a picture of my kids and/or dog and imagine they are asking me to do the thing
I can’t let them down! My dog really needs me to get that timesheet in TODAY.
Do just one thing, like the tiniest imaginable step
Open the dishwasher. That’s all I’m going to do. I’m allowed to close the dishwasher and not empty anything, but I’m at least going to open it.
Put one cup away.
Put more cups away.
I’m going to empty the whole thing now and no one can stop me!!!
Lay on the floor, or, even better, upside-down off a couch with your head hanging down for a minute or two
I don’t know why, it just makes me feel weird? And the absolute best way I know how to escape burnout paralysis is to do something that makes me feel weird/not trapped in the trajectory of a bad habit. Especially by doing something I feel like I’m really not supposed to be doing, like laying facedown on my office floor for 2 minutes in the middle of the day.
Eat an ice cube
Cold. Weird. Good.
Watch/do a short tapping video
Tap With Brad, seriously, thank you Brad, you are basically the reason I still have a job.
I don’t know why (or care how) it works, and I’m not discounting it’s simply the power of suggestion.
Write ON PAPER for 5 minutes
I guess you could swap this out with an enjoyable task of your choosing. My job is to do stuff with computers so the act of doing something NOT on a computer makes me, paradoxically, ready to use a computer again.
Listen to binaural beats with over-ear headphones
Best done with eyes closed and hood up or wrapped in a blanket super tightly. It’s like getting a hug without having to ask your coworker for a hug (don’t ask your coworker for a hug).
Level up by doing this while laying on the floor (don’t fall asleep).
Most of these are sensory-related, and useful to get started on something that has no real physical component (e.g., is mostly mind-work).
I generally feel like I’m basically just a mind having to drag a body around (or, more accurately my body drags my mind around).
When I feel disconnected from the physical world, I feel very stuck. Like I just want to float mindlessly and just…not. Just not move. Just not get things done. Just not think. Or maybe just absorb information without acting on it (doom-scrolling, reading and re-reading email, etc.)
But there’s something about reminding my brain that I exist in the physical world that helps me pop out of that inertia.
I'm feeling all these posts, and want to cram and rant in response. But... Time? Focus? So know that I want to, and join these living dots up with other adhd posts and bits. Cause what I/we need are adhd missives from the trenches - your office floor, the yawning evil door of the dishwasher, cackling in a sudsy chemical kind of way. Poping up distress flags from different trenches - I'm partly in the hoarding trench, but also the parenting, schooling support from home, and other moments from a hilarious game of twister in the mud. I had 5 more trains of thought but someone just walked into the kitchen and started talking I'm still typing making tea for people planning dinner need to be helping with homework feed the pony who's standing in literal mud keep the thoughts running for creative ideas cause that's my hope to sanity and health start another shopping list recap what bills are where and If I leave this to come back, substack will erase it. So here you are, sorry that's all, thanks for sharing, super helpful.