If you've been waiting to feel motivated before you start, I have some bad news. It's not coming.
Hi Reader,
You know it matters. You know the deadline. Neither one moves you. Your ADHD brain does not run on importance. It runs on an interest-based nervous system, and it needs the right lever to get going.
Dr. Thomas Brown, an ADHD researcher at Yale, calls this a brain-based inability to focus on uninteresting tasks an -
"Erectile dysfunction of the mind."
When a task does not engage you, willpower will not switch your focus on, no matter how much you want to finish
If you read the missing motivation as a personal flaw, and shame follows, that drops dopamine even lower and makes it worse.
So stop waiting to feel motivated. Build the trigger instead.
Here are 4 options:
- Urgency. Set a short deadline, better yet promise it to another person.
- Interest. Pair the boring task with music or something your brain likes.
- Novelty. Move somewhere new, like a coffee shop, or work beside someone.
- Challenge. Set a ten minute timer and race the clock. Make it a game.
Pick one and build it into the task in front of you. None of these ask you to feel ready. Each one hands your brain the dopamine hit it needs to get started.
You already know this works. How many of us wait until the last minute to get the task done? Pulled a late night to get the report finished? What you used in those moments was “urgency”, and urgency is a lever.
Instead of waiting for a deadline to scare it out of you, pull it sooner, on purpose. Better yet, try some different levers.
Your brain runs on a different fuel, and no amount of caring turns importance into dopamine.
If you’re exhausted by the urgency, late nights, and anxiety inducing panic, let’s talk. Coaching builds awareness on how your brain and circumstances can work together so you can find more levers to pull and feel more empowered.
All the best,
Heidi
