Start a more important task so you can neglect that and work on the other things you were supposed to do. A sacrificial task, if you will.
post
Newton's first law of motion. Body in motion remains in motion
So cant get stuck if i never sit down, keep on moving. Start in the morning and drop dead in the evening, never sit down too long in the meanwhile.
Though yeah probably not that helpful in getting into motion again once stuck. Body in rest remains at rest
Warning: not the healthiest approach
Yeah, my husband is always trying to get me to eat, and I'm like if this train slows down one bit, I'm done for the day. Do you want the laundry folded or not?
My fiance also can't stop or they lose momentum, so I hand feed them snacks periodically throughout the day so they can keep going and not starve. Dino nuggies, carrot sticks with ranch, diagonally cut sandwich with the crust removed; the works.
This is how I do it. As soon as I sit down, it's over. Really annoying when I am working with friends/family who always want to take a lunch break, because they insist I join them and I lose all my steam if I do.
I definitely have this but it falls apart when working on my computer unless theres one really urgent task or a work call. The fact I'm sitting or the waiting for something to load or something gets in the way stops my motion. Do you have any solutions for computer work?
Watch a show with confident and or flat out deranged (but still motivated/functional) characters.
Wait for code-switching or whatever it is to kick in so you can easily start thinking and acting like said character.
Do the action the way you think they would.
You might have executive dysfunction but Hannibal Lecter sure doesn’t. (Bad example but I’ll leave it because it’s funny)
No joke I would do this to write essays in high school. It made my scores go up if I decided I would write the essay as though I was Cave Johnson
For completing household tasks, I’d recommend deranged characters like from Hazbin Hotel
For completing tasks that might make you anxious, I highly recommend someone who would be bored doing the task but still do it, so go watch The Witcher and then say under your breath “fuck” before doing the now more tedious than anxious task lol
I also really do recommend you choose humorously chaotic or satirical characters for most boring/tedious tasks btw because it makes life so much more entertaining to imagine their commentary about the action or your life in general.
Imagining that a character is talking to you (rather than… possessing you… being played by you?) can also be fun, like hearing Johnny Silverhand give you patronizing and cuss-word riddled but still somewhat motivating pep talk for going outside or writing an email lol
Do the action the way you think they would.
Wait. Are you suggesting that I just role-play or "play pretend" my way out of distraction by just pretending I'm someone else?
You son of a bitch, I'm in.
You might have executive dysfunction but Hannibal Lecter sure doesn’t.
I mean, he's got other problems though. This idea has the right spirit but I'm not trading my cards in for that.
I pretend I’m two hours away from having to be at the airport to take a flight and I haven’t even started packing. Once I’m in that mindset, all the fog lifts, and I can see clearly. Every task is done to completion. I remember where I put (almost) everything. It feels like I’m flying.
I've had too many dreams where I was in that situation, and no matter how many times I did the math in my head I just couldn't work it out to where I could get to the airport on time.
In real life, I'm neurotic about flights. Like I'll show up four hours early and still have anxiety until I'm on the plane. So those dreams are just cruel and unnecessary.
Reading your "advice" makes me sick to my stomach, recalling experiences that I never even had and only dreamed of having.
Like it was so bad, it burnt out my anxiety about deadlines and I became so dysfunctional because I just couldn't care about doing anything on time anymore, the anxiety was so bad that it broke my ability to even care in the first place...
Dang that sucks man. And pretty crazy that it has the opposite effect on you! It’s not intended as any sort of “advice” though. This is just one of the things I do to trick myself into hyper productive mode. It’s amazing what I can accomplish once that last-minute-panic inspiration hits. The hard part for me is breaking through the barriers where that inspiration lies.
Weaponized procrastination. Avoid doing the thing you want to do by doing something else.
Just the other day I cleaned most of my apartment because I was not in the headspace to write lore.
Another day I really needed to do laundry, most productive writing day I had in a while.
We call that “productive procrastination.” But I like how you call it weaponized.
I read this as "weaponized prostitution" at first and was ready to hear how it works for some people, because it sure as hell didn't work for me.
I have to have a sacrificial task at work. I can juggle dozens of different projects, but only if I have an annoying one that sits and festers. The only way it will get done is if a different, more annoying, task takes its place.
Putting on my playlist of pirate music.
Broke: "Ugh, I need to sweep, mop, and do the dishes."
Woke: "ARRR, IT BE TIME TO BE SWABBIN' THE DECK, YE SCURVY BILGE RAT!! AN' WASH ALL O' THE DISHES IN THE GALLEY, OR YE'LL BE WALKIN' THE PLANK!!"
Edit: Ye asked fer the map to me hidden treasure. Here it be, me hearties!
Unavoidable timers. For example:
- Devices with low battery and the charger is out of reach.
- Drinking a bunch of water.
- Playing an album with nothing queued afterwards.
Along the same lines: incidental timeboxing. My toaster takes 2 mins, and leaving the kitchen means I'm likely to end up with sad cold toast, so I better stay and deal with some of the kitchen mess in those two minutes. The phrase "if you have time to lean, you have time to clean" has been strangely useful to me.
Allowing things to be partially done, but not in a state where is going to be a big problem. For example, the above kitchen mess.
- A cup and bowl with food left in it will be hard to clean and attracts bugs and grows mold, and that's a problem.
- An empty but dirty cup and bowl is better but still harder to clean.
- A rinsed cup and bowl filled with water left in the sink is easiest to clean, so that's the least problematic state to leave it in, and it's not much harder to do that than it is leaving the food-filled cup and bowl there to begin with.
Chugging a quad shot espresso while saying 'get up trinity. Get. Up.' in my head
If you time it right, the anxiety from the caffeine hitting really sells the feeling that a matrix agent is coming to kill you so better get moving.
Sit perfectly still and actively refuse to engage with any tempting distractions until you give up out of boredom and do the thing you need to do
I tried this a few times, but I usually just ended up staring at the wall for several hours
I read someone say they sit and state at the white ceiling. Just the thought of doing that is enough to get me started.
this is why my game updates on the community are the same game only slightly further along
Although it might work, this would burn so mich mental energy for me

I knowingly pick a new side project / fascination to focus on. I'm always forcing myself not to pickup side projects so I can actually finish something, but when struggling to motivate myself at all to get unstuck, I engage in the guilty pleasure of a new sideproject for a day or so to get going.
Intentionally start spiraling to have a panic attack to get me off my ass to do the thing.
Literally just start smacking myself in the face until I do the thing
Uh yeah, I was once far less mentally well than I currently am…
Brain wants to shut down and not execute? Well let's make a motherfucking day of it then, no more voluntary muscle control, I'll let this bitch flop and slither right off the sofa til we bang our head on the coffee table.
Usually shocks the system back into action for a minute, during which I am de Captain now.
Ooh, this one is interesting! Sounds like a reboot. "Have you tried turning yourself off and on again?"
Problem is i would fall asleep from the lack of sleep i get from... not doing stuff and instead staying up late...
This one gave me a laugh, what happens if someone walks in before you de captain now?
I have autism but not ADHD. In my case it's "wait until 1 a.m., take advantage of the night owl super boost".
For some reason I can't concentrate during the day. It's only after sunset when I can really focus. I wrote all of my master's thesis after 1:00 a.m.
Oh yeah that's real, I got all my best writing done between midnight and 3am.
This is me too, I don't really understand why it's like that but I'm SO productive at night.
Maybe it's about having eaten a really good meal or something? Or just all the other distractions disappearing?
I feel like there must be some a more scientific reason!
I'm the same way, except my body insists upon going to sleep at 10PM. I can push past that, but insomnia awaits me after midnight.
I can't explain what the underlying mechanism is, only that your brain and body just function differently in conjunction with your circadian rhythm. Provided you have a good rhythm, that is (not all neurodivergent types have that). In the worst cases, like dementia patients, this is called 'sundowning' and is a real shit-show. For high-functioning types, it's where your body prepares for sleep and your brain shifts gears.
As for what that has to do with ADHD, I'm not sure - it's probably been studied. My best guess is that melatonin helps, and maybe the brain is more receptive to dopamine at night? You may have fewer environmental distractions at night too; I know I do.
Remember that I'm going to die
Why would I get anything done then? When I'm dead idgaf.
Can't tell if you're joking, but to me this line of reasoning (which I've also subscribed to in the past) is kind of like saying "what's the point in choosing to eat this delicious food over this gross food, when by tomorrow I won't be tasting either of them anyways?"
I'm not kidding and I've been (literally) dead. So yeah, I didn't care much about anything at that time.
What I'm getting at is that is not related. You're right you should try to get most out of life you can and treating yourself and others well. But as a motivation the perspective of life ending in general does not matter (to me) at all.
Yeah this has the opposite effect on me.
I try to see my eventual death as a good thing. The impermanence of all things helps make sure that the universe and all its particulars (like humanity) continually have the opportunity to reinvent themselves. It's like the ultimate failsafe against our world becoming locked into some kind of permanent hellish state. There's always the moments of instability caused when elements decay and vanish.
Of course its silly to try to pretend like there's nothing sad or bad about death either. But I can think about it as a hard sacrifice that I'm ultimately happy to make. There are other reasons too but this is the one on my mind today.
Yeah, but you got to witness the demonically destructive decline of society in real time tho, that's something.
Convince myself that I have the most perfect plan in the world.
Get out of bed and put on socks? I will move my duvet to the right in a fast tug with my right arm. Flashy! Swing both feet down to the floor simultaneously and get up in one smooth motion. Strong! Then grab the first pair of socks I can find blindly. Brave!
Do you have a designated dish and pleasure hands?
Scrubber handle insertion no doubt.
"Did you do the dishes?"

I'll bet porn of this already exists. I'm not going to let you know, but I 1000% will look later.
Do you mean that or are you just procrastinating?
Somehow i can't wrap my head around number 3, do you wash the dishes with just one hand ?
Something my therapist told me and that works more often than not. Set out to do the task for a very small time, like 3 minutes. After 3 minutes, you may find that you are absorbed in that task, but if not, just stop doing it.
The idea I think is to get over the difficulty in starting a task.
Yeah we want to know how to get out of the catatonic "I can't move" mode.
Interstitial Journal
Write down:
- current time
- current activity
- optional: how you feel
- next activity
Example:
- 13:02
- standing on balcony scrolling Lemmy
- tense and energetic
- next: flash fedora image to USB drive
Yeah, that method addresses that.
Often the catatonic ADHD can't move. Mode is related to resistance, starting a task.
Giving yourself an easy out that you know you can use after 3 minutes is an easy way to trick your brain into deciding that test starting a task isn't such a big deal.
Therefore allowing you to move.
If you can't move because depression then that's different.
Ok so have you seen the Dropout show Dimension 20? The Mentopolis season has a character (played by Hank Green) called The Fix, whose job is to go around this 1930s-coded brain city and literally mob-enforcer style "take care of" distractions.
So I just chat with my The Fix in my head. It is starting to work a bit more all the time.
Much love for the brothers Green
That actually just reminded me of another unhinged coping skill: how John Green is (or at least was) actively hostile toward the coping skills he was effectively using. "My stupid mental health walk for my stupid mental health" is a phrase that still runs through my head sometimes.
I have a simple 5-step plan I've used to do this.
- Get old and have a family that always has needs
- Get a shitton of pets too that always have needs
- Go look at the shower plumbing I need to fix
- Go look at my car hovering on jack stands as I wait for parts to come in for the brakes
- I think there's an old overdue bill sitting somewhere too--
Heyyy today seems like the perfect time to go do that yard work that it's been too cold for!

are...are you literally me?
Haha I might have ADHD myself but growing up with ADHD parents must be something else
It really is.
I'm 99% positive that my mother has ADHD and my dad is AuDHD. Looking back the clues were... abundant.
Drink a lot of water and get up because you really need to pee
Put all the shit i have to do on my calendar back to back to back and start the moment I get it if need to create a false sense of "oh shit" and it works for me.
Getting it out bed isn't always the easiest so I rub one out, well I gotta get up to clean that mess, that a shower, and get in it.
My cat motivated me this morning in a similar way by vomiting on my bed
I’ll cautiously second the first part with a variation. Using the calendar as “oh shit” dates only seems to work for us for things that have burned us before and we apply the “oh shit” factor to that date. Like a payment due and we have it marked to post it 5 days earlier, the panic has to be about getting it out on the dssignated day.
Second part…whatever works.
the problem here is putting things in my cal is a task I have a hard time motivatiing or finishing if it had to be everything like this.
top 100 comments