The Struggle is Real – Lack of Motivation

As a neurodiverse coach, I often have clients who want to talk about their lack of motivation for a task or many tasks that their job requires. Or even for activities outside of work that my clients want to do. To hear their voices talk about the struggle and lack of understanding about why they can’t do what they want to do would make anyone understand that they are not lazying or uncaring – lack of motivation is a true struggle. 

Rusell Barkley, Ph.D., says that ADHD is a disorder of doing or a motivation defect. ADHD brains know to want to do, and the intention is there when they say they want to do or will do something, but there is a chasm between intention and accomplishment. 

How do you get over that chasm? 

The answer in part is recognition of the chasm and understanding why it is there. The regular tricks – willpower and self-discipline – that neurotypicals use to get motivated aren’t going to work for the ADHD brain.  

ADHD brains find repetitive, boring, and lengthy tasks challenging to do. But urgency, novelty, and subjects of interest are motivating. 

Urgency – Waiting until the last minute before your boss wants a report or you need to give a pitch to a client is not the healthiest way to use this motivation. Here are some healthier ways: 

• Asking for check-in dates in between the assigned date and the actual deadline can be helpful. 
• Meeting with an accountability partner at the end of the workday 
• Using a count down timer like Time Timer or a Pomodoro timer- ADHD brains tend to procrastinate when you don’t know how long a task will take. You can get around this by working a task for a specific amount of time. With the Time Timer, you can gamify the task by seeing if you can beat the timer. With a Pomodoro time, you are just making progress during that 25-minute work block. You can move to a different task or continue with the original task depending on how you are feeling.  

Novelty – Your job may require you to do the same tasks daily, so you have trouble seeing how to make them new again. 

• Change your environment – If you are working at home right now, try working in a different room, backyard, or at a local park. If you are in the office, what other spaces are available for you to use. Do try to look for a place where you would be distracted. 
• Change the order of tasks if possible
• Change your position, stand, sit, can you walk and take notes about something? 
• Use fun or new pens, markers, apps, or software to complete a task when you can. 

Interests – ADHDers are interest-based learners. So you are going to be more successful if you can find something about your work that you like or enjoy. 

• Ask yourself what is interesting about my job or this task? 
• Short term rewards work better than long term rewards, so reward yourself. Celebrate with a walk around the block, a trip to the kitchen, or share an accomplishment with a friend or co-worker. 
• Randomly Remind Me – This app is probably designed to remind people to drink more water and move their bodies, and you should. I have a client who uses it to randomly remind herself why she loves and wants to do her job. 
• If you are an employer, praise your employees often.

Remembering at a relevant time – is not on the motivation list but is a challenge for the ADHD brains, so here are some tips and tools. 

• Checklists – A list of regular tasks in a sheet protector can help you not forget. Use a dry-erase marker to check them off, especially if you are not doing them in order, to mix up your day. 
• Visual Reminders that Change -Visual reminders are great but can quickly become part of your everyday landscape, making them lose their effectiveness. If your visual reminders change like stickie notes or a dry erase board, they will be more effective. 
• Send It Later – This app allows you to text someone in advance. You could use it to set up “Happy Birthday” text to everyone you know, but several of my clients use it to text themselves. For example, ever tell someone, “I’ll send you that report when I get back to my office.” and then forget. This app allows you to set-up a text that can be delivered when you are in your office next. I clients find this better because they always check a text notification but don’t always check reminder notifications. 

Motivation is going to be a challenge, but you can use these ideas to help figure out what helps you.