Yes, I can already hear the jokes from the other side of the internet—how can I read this long procrastination article when I can’t even fold laundry? This post is meant to be scanned and for you to read what catches your eye. I also have some videos to watch if that’s more your speed. But it’s all about procrastination and getting stuff done.

There are countless books written about procrastination, the idea of putting off important tasks to get unimportant tasks done or choosing the frivolous instead of the vital. We probably became aware of our procrastination habits when we were in high school, putting off that paper or studying for that test, filled with regret when 3:00 AM showed up on our clock with many pages to go.

I’ve been there. I’ve written that 15 page paper overnight. In graduate school, I shut myself down in the basement over three days and wrote 52 pages because I’d procrastinated for so long. I remember printing the last page after my final edit and thought, “This can’t be right. I’ve got to figure something else out.”

Yes, our ADHD amps up when we are in crisis and it can be helpful to put off stuff to get our “best”. I hear it all the time—I’m best when I procrastinate. I get that. I’m the same way. When I need to crank out my word count of the day, and the clock is ticking down, my fingers fly across the keyboard.

But I also believe we don’t have to procrastinate on everything. I believe by planning ahead and developing systems, we can keep our “overdrive ability” for the things that matter most to us. If we are using our best fuel to simply clean that bathroom, I’d offer that we can find better ways to use our ADHD superpowers.

Why What You Feel Impacts What You Do: Procrastination Basics

Procrastinating on Small Things.

What are small things? Anything you can execute in 0-90 minutes is what I would label: a small thing. For example:

Making a doctor’s appointment

Cleaning your bathroom

Ordering that one thing from Amazon you’ve put off

Flossing

Setting out your clothes the night before

Laundry

Calling back your friend. Your dear friend who you keep forgetting to call

We have a problem with small things because of mainly two failures on our part: a failure to understand that urgency of what we need to do and a failure to capture that information.

When I say “failure to capture” I’m talking about failing to write down and gather all the small things you need to do in one place. Many of us have great intentions and we believe the lie that we will remember it later.

One of the greatest lies that our brain shoots out consistently (besides, “it’s just one brownie”) is that we will remember something later. Our ADHD brain was born with bulletin boards just like everyone else. We just didn’t get any pins. We think that we will remember to execute a task, but instead we attempt to put it on the bulletin board of our minds and it soon falls on the floor. It’s gone. We forget. We are frustrated again.

I use two primary ways to capture information: tiny notebooks and my smartphone.

When I think of something, I jot it down and most of that is in a tiny notebook like my Field Notes one I carry with me all the time. Once it’s there, I can forget about it and move on. If I don’t start writing this stuff down, my brain goes into clutter mode. I can’t think creatively and I can’t plan accordingly.

When I take a look back at the scrawling in my notebook, I will transfer any appointments or commitments to my calendar on my smartphone. If it’s a one time thing, then I just have it in my to do list (and I break down how I do my to-do list into NOW, SOON and LATER, and you can find that info here.)

Now when it comes to completing those tasks, I simply group into categories. Maybe I have PHONE CALLS, SHOPPING, PAYING BILLS, EMAILS and FITNESS.

Then I batch the living crap out of them.

What I mean by batch is that I’ll get all the phone calls out of the way—I’ll just get on the phone and bang them out. And while I’m on the phone I’ll be doing something else: dishes, making the bed, whatever is mindless and takes no decisions. And I tick them off, bam, bam, bam.

If I’m paying bills, and I don’t have to think about it, I’ll put on Netflix and get it done while enjoying something mindless. Maybe the show is Top Chef. Maybe. If I look away I don’t lose my place. If I’m watching something I need to track then that won’t work.

And my Netflix strategy also goes for anything that I’m doing that is a bit mindless—cleaning the bathroom, folding laundry, etc. I will literally walk around the house carrying my tablet and getting stuff done. If that doesn’t work, I’ll fire up a podcast and have something to listen to while I do the mindless work.

We avoid that stuff because it doesn’t get our brain active enough. We see it as a drudgery, so we need to turn up the input and get all the parts of our brain to fire—then we can get to the task.

I’m also a Pomodero fan. That’s when you set a clock for a certain amount of time and crank hard on getting all the stuff done. Then when the timer goes off, you’re on a break for 10-20 minutes. Work for 30 minutes. Take a break for 10. Repeat. But during that “work” time is actual work time—no Facebook or anything like that.

You see, our ADHD brain, is like taking four year olds on a road trip when we want to accomplish a task. The four year olds are going to chant, “Are we there yet?” over and over. If you tell them that the trip is only 30 minutes, the span of a Disney cartoon, then they settle in. They have a concept that this task isn’t going to take forever and your brain will settle down. If you don’t set a time limit, your brain will rage against the boring task.

How do you capture all of that information?

Use Points and Game-ify Your Life.

Sometimes when I’m feeling in a gaming mood, I’ll assign points to my tasks and set a goal of how many points I need. So if I took the above list and gave the points, it would look like this:

Making a doctor’s appointment (10 points.)

Cleaning your bathroom (30 points)

Ordering that one thing from Amazon you’ve put off (5 points)

Flossing (10 points.)

Setting out your clothes the night before (20 points)

Laundry (35 points)

Calling back your friend. Your dear friend who you keep forgetting to call (20 points)

The point system is my likelihood to complete the task with the difficulty of the task. It’s not perfect, but if I have a goal of 100 points, I’m more likely to get it done. I need this little system sometimes (and the danger is overanalyze this, taking up too much time to figure out the right point system. Error on the side of fast, my brothers and sisters.) (For more information on this, check out the great book: SUPERBETTER by Jane McGonigal.)

Using Mindfulness To Get in Motion

That word “mindfulness” is flying across the internet. It took me a bit to understand what exactly mindfulness was—the best definition I can think of is: paying attention in the moment on how you are feeling and what you are thinking.

When I am finding that I’m procrastinating on something for a long time, maybe it’s calling a friend or a project that has been on the back burner for way too long, I’ll ask myself the following questions:

How do I feel about this project? Am I feeling dread or am I overall blasé about the project?

Am I afraid of getting started? Why am I afraid? Where does this fear dwell?

Who are the biggest nay-sayers about what I’m trying to do? Does their opinion matter (fun fact: nope.)?

Does this project matter? Can I delegate it out?

Usually I get to the bottom of why I’m procrastinating when I go through that list. It’s being mindful about what we are delaying.

For example, I could not get my house as clean as I wanted. I kept putting it off and putting it off. Once I went through that list, I realized that I wanted to put more energy into writing and creating. I was in that mode to put words on the paper and grabbing a vacuum and a bottle of glass cleaner was nearly impossible. I wanted to really put my energy to making stuff.

So I simply called a housecleaner, shelled out the $70 and she arrived two days later. I was able to check off a ton of things on the list. I found that it gave me even more energy. (I don’t do this every month. This is like a twice a year thing. Yes, I clean my house more than that!)

Something that we delay, that we consciously know we delay, drains us of energy. Putting something in stasis, on hold, still takes effort. That drains you and it needs to end.

How do you start with a mindfulness practice? Like any habit, start small. Set your phone to chime on the hour and use that to check in with yourself. Use a certain object in your house to remind you. Find something that nudges you to ask some great questions around procrastination:

What could you be doing right now that will make you feel better?

Do you have a nagging thought about having to remember something that you should write down?

Give yourself a second and look over your calendar—anything you need to add?

This doesn’t have to be something that you do every hour of the day, but developing a habit of mindfulness helps you catch what you are missing.

How Do You Develop a Strong Reading Habit

Why We Procrastinate With the Big Things.

There might be larger things you haven’t gotten around to working on, year after year they have eluded you.

Maybe you have wanted to finally lose that weight and get fit. Maybe you’ve always wanted to open a little side business (which we ADHD people are great at.) Perhaps it’s a career change and you’ve just been too drained to start climbing that mountain.

Maybe it’s a figurative mountain. Maybe it’s a literal one.

But year after year it goes undone and that dream you have, that big project you want to set your sights on gets lost in the flotsam of what we have to do today.

Here’s how you kill a big project—you have to break it down.

Let’s say you want to write your family memoirs. You want to have a book on the shelf at your local bookstore that you wrote. That’s your goal.

So you have a goal of: writing a memoir by the end of 2016 that is 120,000 words.

That’s a lot of words. And right now you might be sweating it—how could you possibly do that?

Well, I’m no memoir expert, but I’ve written some books and none as long as 120,000 words. But let’s try and figure this out:

You’ll obviously need to sit and write the book—and you can’t chuck out a lot of words in one sitting if this is your first go around.

So we are going to break down that 120,000 into a manageable task. If you write 4 days a week for 48 weeks in the year, that’s—(4 x 48) 192 times you are going to sit down and write. That’s manageable. Sure you could sit down more, but at the minimum you are sitting down to write that many times.

How many words do you have to get on the page each time? You have to get 625 words down on the page. Your butt doesn’t leave the seat and your fingers don’t leave the keyboard until you have 625 words down. Sure you’ll have days where you get more on the page, but you never want to get less. You’ll have that book done in a year. (My personal goal for writing my books and blogs is 500 words a day. )

You’ll also need research for your book and that’s where your ADHD is going to be a villain in this area. It is going to try and convince you that you can’t write a word without research.

Get started writing and then do the research. While I write and I know I need a quote, I’ll write the following word in the place I need to verify or quote [##RESEARCH]. This way with my search function, I can find that easily and put the correct information in its place. It doesn’t slow me down—I can avoid going down the rabbit hole.

On and on you will need to break down the task. But what about after you finish the book, what then? I’d figure that out when you’re finished. You’ll need an editor and probably an agent, but none of that matters until you have the book complete.

Don’t focus on that stuff that doesn’t matter—it’s a fool’s game. You’ll figure out the next piece after your book is complete. I guarantee you someone on the internet has figured out something about getting your book published.

And this goes for any other big goal.

I’ve just started getting into shape and so I just hit the gym 3 times a week and do some light exercise and I can hear you say, “Shouldn’t you do XYZ and maximize your time?”, “What about Crossfit?”, “What about this new thing that I heard about?”

3 times a week I exercise. When that’s a habit, I’ll add on to it. I broke down the task into something manageable so I can have small victories that matter to me.

But whatever project you are attempting to tackle—break it down into manageable tasks. If one of them isn’t manageable yet, break it down again. You want to reduce it into component parts.

Also, you want to remove any obstacles. I have the luxury of rearranging my work schedule so that I work 12-9 PM instead of 9-6 PM. This way I can write, workout and read in the morning. When I come home from work, I’m toast—I’m just exhausted and there’s no way I want to do anything creative. I might be able to read, but even that is pushing it.

If you hate working out and you can find any excuse not to do it, set up everything the night before—your workout clothes, any toiletries you need, and the plan of what you’re going to do. Put your shoes by your bed.

If you want to write more, outline everything you want to write, set up a great writing program like Evernote or Scrivener, and block out the time. And I might I suggest leaving your house to get the discipline going. I do most of my writing from a local coffee shop in a certain seat.

Whatever it is, take some time and figure out the obstacles and move them out of the way before you start the task. I usually do this when I have low energy—moving shoes to my bed doesn’t take much decision making energy. Keep moving the obstacles. Soon, after more and more success, you’ll find that you naturally move the obstacles out of the way—you will have your own mis en place for what you want to do.

How Do You Make Room for Your Goals and Dreams?

Bring Your Friends Into the Mix (But Choose Carefully)

Sometimes when I’m stuck, I have a couple of friends that I can talk to about my goals. We are all writers so we speak the same language (word count, publishing, etc) so when I need a boot in my ass, I’ll send them a text that says, “800 words today or I die.” I know that I have until the end of the day to let them know I accomplished my goal.

Now, you don’t want to do this with everyone. A lot of your friends, who are very kind people, don’t have the investment to care if you worked out this morning or unloaded the dishes. But on a large project, you want to have some select friends who are going to cheer you on.

A text can read: “I’m working on this big goal of (INSERT GOAL HERE). Do you mind if I text you once in awhile to get a kick in the pants?” Find the ones that are coming aboard and set a reminder in your phone to let them know the progress. They don’t have to actually respond—you just have to shoot them a text.

Now, a rookie move would be to announce your big goal on Facebook. Do not do this.

People will chime in. Some will be negative. Some will tease you. And if you have 400 friends on Facebook, you will feel like you’re disappointing 400 people if you don’t follow through. Again, do not post it on Facebook. That is a rookie move.

Find three friends. Let them know your goal. Check in with them. Keep going.

Kill Something With Your Bare Hands

That title sounds a little dramatic, but I’m dead serious. Kill something with your bare hands that is getting in the way of you being more productive and happier.

Something is filling your time that you don’t like doing, an obligation that needs to go. Or it’s something that just fills you time when you feel directionless.

Here’s a list of things you can probably ditch and free up some time.

Late night Netflix.

Your television (I haven’t owned a television in 3 years. I watch what I choose on Netflix and Hulu. I read and write way more than my peers.)

Weekly church obligation (you might be fine if you went every other week.)

The book club you dread.

The club or sport your kid is not really into, but it’s probably good for your kid, but really it isn’t, who are we kidding?

The snooze button (park your alarm clock across the room).

Whatever it is, go through your calendar and just kill that obligation. I guarantee you, people will be disappointed. And I guarantee you, people will move on with their lives and it will become a very small memory.

The Hard Stuff Belongs in the Morning

I’m at my best in the morning, and I dare say, we all are. We are all at our best in the morning and that’s when we can do the hardest things. Our willpower tank is full and we have yet to make a mistake.

This is your prime time to do the hardest things, the things you loathe. If you can get stuff done in the morning, you’ll build up this little bit of motivation that fuels you through the day.

I try and pick three things for the morning: 500 words completed, a body workout, and the kitchen is cleaned. That’s it. (Granted, I shower, brush my teeth and such. I’m talking about above and beyond the social norms.) When i get those three things done, I feel energized. If I don’t get it done, I have to finish it before I go to bed—and I usually slog through it. I’m unmotivated, cranky and bitter that I have to do it at night. And sure, sometimes I just skip it, but if it’s done in the morning, it’s done.

Do what you can to get onboard—set your alarm, go to bed early and prep everything the night before.

A Clumsy Start is Better Than a Perfect Plan

Sometimes our procrastination is just waiting for the starter pistol to fire. We are waiting for someone to give us permission to get started on our big dreams. We are waiting to have all the information, all the ducks in a row and someday we will find the inspiration, timing and preparation to get started with that novel we’ve wanted to write forever.

I’m sorry to tell you—it’s not going to happen.

You need to just start—just move in the right direction no matter how clunky or imperfect it is. Pick a day and that’s your start day—just move on it. We have zero guarantee about tomorrow so we have to move. Even if we start horribly. Even if we write 500 words and they are the worst 500 words ever—success is more about a long obedience in the same direction. It’s more about continuing the practice. No one starts at an amateur level—everyone starts by just plain sucking at stuff. Whether it’s public speaking or quilting, to get good you have to keep going.

So just take a deep breath and start.

Bottom Line

We are not to be these producing people; it’s not a contest of who made the most art or the most money. Make sure whatever time you are investing that you are putting into what gives you significance and meaning. Everything else is minor league.

If you enjoyed this article, I send out content to my subscribers and you can sign up here to get great strategies, tactics and the occasional cat video. I’ll also send you a free book: Finding Focus with an ADHD Mind. If you are looking for books I’ve published, you can find those on Amazon or Gumroad. Thanks!