i relate to almost everything u said, i was unable to do anything until literally an hour before the due date. one thing iāve learned over the years is that normal advice like āmake a scheduleā and ādevelop habitsā do not work at all for adhd ppl, bc our brains are not made to do those things. this makes things difficult, but it doesnāt mean achieving our goals is impossible. here are some things that have helped me personally:
- pomodoro method (there are timers on youtube). sitting down and actually timing myself has helped me a lot. also it helps me feel better with just how fast time goes by. working very hard and getting the notification that 15 minutes has passed, helps me to remember that sometimes small steps are easier than they feel like.
- my therapist told me that instead of worrying so much about how much work i could be doing all the time, i should just work on it when i actually feel like doing it. so if i only have motivation an hour before, thatās when i would do it. the stress i used to feel a month before an assignment was due, significantly decreased bc of this new mindset, and it actually felt like my ability to do things increased. itās not a good long term solution, but when ur in a tough spot, allowing urself to sacrifice some late time in order to not feel as much mental stress is worth it for ur mental health.
- realizing that a lot of my motivation was based on what i thought would please others. i feel like this isnāt commonly talked about among ADHD circles, but once i learned about it, it kind of changed my life (fr). i realized that i couldnāt work the most productive way i could, if i was being watched or within someoneās sight. i also procrastinate a lot in order to avoid being judged by others for how slow or disorganized i work. even then, procrastinating causes me to feel more judged by others bc im scared they are thinking im being lazy. so to avoid this, i try my best to work alone or ask someone to do parallel play instead of help me directly. however, i know some ppl benefit from the opposite, having someone around to keep them accountable. it all just comes down to personal preference.
- making sure my needs are met. did i get enough sleep? have i eaten recently within the last 4 hrs? have i drank enough water? did i take my medicine? do i feel too overstimulated; if so, how can i change my environment? do i need headphones? do i need to wash my face or take a shower? do i need to change the lighting? is the temperature too hot or too cold? are my clothes too overwhelming / scratchy? these are some of the things that can keep me from working productively, so i have to keep track of these questions whenever i feel distracted.
- donāt beat urself up. giving into shame and causing urself mental distress will only increase ur anxiety and make u more unable to work. remind urself that ur just now figuring urself out and u are trying ur best. plus, u have good intentions. ur just trying to figure out how to work better and more productively! i think thats all anyone can ask for.
anyways i hope this helps maybe. everyone has a different way of getting things done, so not all things will help or apply to u (which doesnt mean somethingās wrong with u, just that the advice wasnāt meant for u!). also seeking specifically adhd related forums / groups / blogs / youtube channels / etc. helps a lot when trying to find different types of advice other than āwork harderā lol.
good luck and u r not alone! š«¶š
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Thank you so so so much, youāre the 3rd person whoās told me about how their therapist recommends they just work the way they work (even if it involves leaving things last minute) because it works for them! I think I had a hard time accepting that this might just be my reality but the truth is I do work best when the deadline is super close for something! I love all your advice, thank you so much š«¶š¼
absolutely second all of this advice!!!! i know so many fellow ADHDers who have things that work for them, but those same things donāt work for me which can be a struggle when youāre trying to find what works best to fight executive dysfunction
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ADHDer here who has tried so many different methods (and medications) over the years. what works for me doesnāt always work for my friends who also have ADHD, which means itās kind of a treasure hunt to figure out what works best for you. i especially struggled a lot with executive dysfunction in college and had trouble forgetting basic homework and turning in writing assignments days or weeks (and, once, two months) late.
there are a lot of simple tips that non-ADHD people will try to give you that can potentially help, but itās not a cure-all for executive dysfunction. the big ones are planners (i have like 3-5 planners/calendars and todo lists which can help me keep on track at my current job, but that hasnāt always worked for me) and āhave better time managementā (and of course they never expand on that supposed advice). iāve been diagnosed with ADHD since i was 7 years old, so iāve heard and tried it allā¦
hereās what works for me now as someone who works 40 hours/week and when i was in school:
ā¢ BREAK DOWN TASKS INTO SMALLER BITS. this is my #1 go-to for any work or assignments involving writing. outlining, Extremely Rough drafts that i can tinker for a few minutes at a time when iām feeling motivated, messy bullet points and half-baked opening paragraph sentences. even if iām scribbling stuff that wonāt end up in the final product, but youāre getting your brain in the habit of thinking about and planning your writing earlier in the assignment process.
ā¢ LETTING GO OF IDEAL PRODUCTIVITY AND PERFECTION. this is more of a personal tip, but i think some of my procrastination and executive dysfunction when it came to assignments came from anxiety around how i was expected to perform productivity in a neurotypical fashion and my own crippling anxiety around perfectionism. this may not apply to you, but i think itās always helpful to remember that you do not have to adhere to societyās ideas about what productivity āshouldā look like. this is also why the tip of trying to manufacture urgency or deadlines doesnāt work for me.
ā¢ PAY ATTENTION TO YOUR BRAIN. learn what cues you to feel motivated. adjust your environment to incorporate those cues even more and reduce distractions or executive dysfunction. (for me, that includes having a clean workspace and some headphone or earbuds in even if nothing is playing. if i am playing something, itās usually non-lyrical music at a low volume or a video essay iāve already listened to 200+ times.)
ā¢ TAKE A WALK. this is something that i started doing recently and iāve found that it helps me feel more alert and my brain less muddled/unable to focus.
ā¢ finally: TAKE CARE OF YOURSELF. i definitely made my executive dysfunction worse in college by not eating well orāmore specificallyānot sleeping enough. speaking from experience, the psychological connection between your brain and body is critical in how effective these tips for dealing with executive dysfunction can be.
this may not be as simple as youāre hoping for, but i do hope that this helps. ā¤ļø
Mar 23, 2025
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hi from another lifelong ADHD insomniac!! I still have nights where it's hard but here's what works for me:
āļø no caffeine in the afternoon/night! sucks but it will really help if you can stick to it
šµ pick a time to stop looking at screens! an hour before you need to sleep, start reading a book, journaling, skin care, etc...but no screens
š short meditation! if my brain won't turn off, I try to do deep-breathing and practice a meditation. calms my busy brain down but also helps me in other areas of my life. there are lots of short 3-5min ones on YT
š§ earplugs or rain noise! I'm really sensitive to sound at night...soft foam earplugs put me in the sleep zone
š medication! ask your doctor about sleep meds, esp if you take daily ADHD meds. I struggled for so long before I asked a dr for help and idk why! you can also try: magnesium gummies/CALM powder, zzzquil, melatonin
āļø daydream...in bed! take your mind somewhere nice: a bucket list place, a nostalgic memory, a fantasy world, a cozy room...and hopefully fall into a real dream
ADHD-specific Tips:
āļø Just try one new thing at a time and commit to trying it every night for a few days or a week and see what sticks!
āļø keep a list next to your bed of what works so you can remind yourself if you forget
āļø remember to always be gentle and kind to yourself!!
May 7, 2024
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Ok essay incoming but Iām the same way and this advice is assuming that you have tried various ways to remind yourself of things (physical notes, reminders, alarms, schedules, to-do lists, whiteboards, etc) and struggled to respond consistently to this kind of stimuli. If youāre not already reminder-maxxing I recommend seeking out the most effective method for you to be unable to ignore the reminders. Might have to change over time as you become desensitized to one kind.
Once youāre seeing the reminders daily, the struggle is then acting on them. Seems obvious but sometimes when Iām struggling to complete a task or to do it regularly/form a routine, it helps to zoom in on my reasons for wanting to do it at all. Sure, running every day will make me burn fat and improve my cardiovascular health etc etc etc but sometimes for me with my neurodivergence those long term goals are too lofty and too postponable. Instead it really helps me to think about what kind of immediate reward I will get for completing a task or repeating a taskāsometimes the immediate reward is just an immediate reward (āif I go for a 15 min run Iāll feel endorphin release ā) and sometimes itās the removal of a punishing factor (āif I go for a 15 min run Iāll avoid the shame and anxiety of not doing the thing I said I was going to do todayā. thereās a term for this in operant conditioning but I forget what it is). This is why for the really important stuff, I opt for a loud annoying alarm because one can only handle so much snoozing or postponing before it becomes easier to just do the thing.
Another piece of advice would be to harness the initial anxiety that a reminder prompts and act on it as quickly as possible, before the anxiety turns from motivating to crippling and before you can think of excuses/justifications for avoiding rather than acting.
I hope this helps! Iām far from perfect with this stuff and always having to adapt to my own ability to fall back but this has been the most consistently useful approach for me.
Nov 8, 2024
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