I know you want to stop procrastinating. If you are like most adults with ADHD, I bet procrastination ranks right up there in the top 3 behaviors you would like to change. I am guessing you have tried many different techniques to do so. But you have not had enough success, yet.
You may even have gotten to the point where you often voicing concerns such as
- “I am always finding something else to work on instead of what is important.”
- “I said I was going to do it and I didn’t. I can’t believe I keep doing this!”
- “Maybe I’m just lazy and I need someone to force me to work.”
You might even think the solution is to have someone watching over you, making you to do what you need to do. Of course that is not possible, and you likely wouldn’t like it, if it were possible.
So now you’re reading another article to see if this might help. I hope it will.
The first step is to understand why you procrastinate. So you can craft the right solution.
I Don’t Want To Fail
I know you’ve heard plenty of times that failing is just part of life. Maybe more times than you care to.
Despite knowing this, fear of failing is one of the top reasons you may procrastinate as a way to delay a possible failure. Because, for example, if you don’t write the report, you don’t have to worry about doing poorly on it, failing, right?
Instead, you may do something else that makes you feel competent. Rather than writing the report that you’re not sure you can handle.
Of course, you know putting off the report can lead to potential failure. Because, while you may eventually do it at the last minute, it might not be your best work.
What are you putting off because you just don’t think you can cut it?
What if I Succeed?
Another reason you may procrastinate is because you are afraid of succeeding. Really. This is one of the top three reasons, along with fear of failing, that people procrastinate.
You know that one of the hallmarks of ADHD is inconsistent performance. And because of a history of inconsistent performance, you may be reticent to tackle a task because:
- you are afraid you will not be able to replicate your initial success.
- the pressure to keep doing better and better may feel too daunting.
- you do not think you can sustain the necessary effort to perform at the new level.
Where are you playing small because of your fear of succeeding?
YOU CAN’T MAKE ME!
The last of the top three reasons people procrastinate is because of resistance.
This happens when you resist doing a task because you are hurt, angry, or resentful. This can also be magnified by your ADHD-related challenges with managing your frustration level. When your emotions hijack your brain you may have these thoughts swirling about in your head:
- I already have too much work to do! I can not believe he is asking me to do more!
- It is not my job to do that.
- I just want to relax.
- When I needed help she didn’t help me.
What are other reasons you resist doing particular tasks? Can you think of a recent instance where you resisted doing a task because you were hurt, angry, or resentful?
I’LL DO THAT… SOME TIME
Beyond the above top three reasons that you may procrastinate another one is because of your ADHD challenge with time blindness.
You may say to yourself, while writing down a task on a sticky next to your computer, “I don’t need to do that right now. But I should do it soon. I’ll get to it.” You don’t really have an idea about when you’re going to do it. If asked, you might just say, ”I don’t know.”
In part, this is because as an adult with ADHD your sense of time is often binary. So that either you’re doing it now or you’re not doing it now. Yet you keep thinking that you should do it soon. Then, as you are attending to something else, not now turns into whenever – a key ingredient for procrastination
Not Sure How To to A Task
You may also procrastinate when you’re not clear about how to do some aspect of a task. It may be that you don’t know where to start or what the next action might be. This lack of clarity may be what it will look like when you’re done. Then again you might not be sure about the criteria for making decisions about the task along the way.
Your ADHD challenges related to planning and prioritizing likely contribute to your difficulties with adding specificity and clarity to your tasks.
So, whenever the task comes to mind you think, “I need to do that…” Yet, because of the lack of clarity, you continue to gloss over it in the moment and procrastinate.
There Goes The Squirrel
No doubt, lack of clarity can lead to procrastination. But internal and external distractions can also make it worse.
It might be thoughts, emails, phone calls, other tasks etc. Whatever it is it pulls at you. So you’d end up not doing what you set out to do, what you said was important. Instead you do whatever crosses your path.
There goes the squirrel… and there goes whatever it was you said you were going to do.
Lack of Interest
Of course, if the task lacks interest for you it’s going to be harder to start. Sounds like an obvious reason for procrastination, right? And, sure, lack of interest could be a reason anyone might resist doing something.
But remember the ADHD nervous system is interest-based versus the neurotypical importance-based nervous system. This means you’re going to be more motivated to do a task when there’s some element of interest, challenge, urgency or novelty. And when this is lacking it’s going to be harder to start, even if it’s important.
Since lack of interest makes it so much more difficult it really needs to be highlighted and addressed when it comes to procrastination for ADHD adults.
Running on Empty
The last reason I’ll mention for procrastinating may be when your body and brain aren’t up to the task. This could be because of lack of sleep, nutrition, water, meds, exercise, etc.
You may not think of running on empty as a reason for procrastinating. But you should. Just as a car isn’t going to move what it’s out of gas neither are you, right? You won’t be able to move at least not very efficiently when you’re running low on fuel.
Next Steps For You
Here is what you can do now.
- As you go about your daily tasks, notice when you are not doing something you said you were going to do.
- Refer back to this list, and try to figure what is getting in your way.
- Keep a procrastination journal, listing what you put off and why.
Then stay tuned for the next post where I’ll offer you solutions.
