Anyone can be unmotivated to do something. But when you have attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, you are wired to have trouble getting things started or following through.
ADHD it’s a brain disorder where you struggle with attention, concentration, impulsivity, distractibility, and hyperactivity. You may not have all of these things but you can have some. With the inattentive type, you don’t have the hyperactivity and only have the focus and concentration problems.
But a symptom that’s not talked about much is impaired motivation. And this is a huge problem with ADHD. It’s a symptom that causes conflicts with others and can affect how you think about yourself. You can have something you need to get done and it just feels physically painful to break through the inertia to do it. And it may not even be that much that you need to do. But if your head isn’t in it, those five steps seem like a thousand. And the people in your life who are affected by your failure to follow through with something can conclude that you’re just lazy and unreliable.
But it’s not lazy. It’s a brain problem.
Researchers have seen through Positron Emission Tomography, which is a brain scan that people with ADHD have a disruption in the dopamine reward pathway in the brain.
Watch the video for more details on the dopamine reward pathway and how it affects you motivation. Here’s a summary of the tips:
Low motivation with ADHD is partly caused by inadequate dopamine in your brain’s reward pathway. To overcome this, you can do things to make tasks fun and interesting, make them more urgent or challenging and make them feel fresh and new. I gave you some examples of using a timer to create urgency, doing the task in a new location, working alongside a body double and breaking up the tasks into timed segments using the Pomodoro technique or some version of it.
Here’s a quick reference for Pomodoro technique.
Click here to download
Skills Training for ADHD
I am finding it very difficult to adapt the Pomodoro method. I might get through to work sessions, and then just become exhausted. And is can you provide a regimen build up the habit of increasing the number of successive Pomodoro‘s before the long break. I mean, should it be a matter of adding one Pomodoro per week per day? Per month?
I really appreciate the way you used technical language as well as layman’s definitions- it really helped me better understand what’s going on in my brain. The practical suggestions are so wonderful- on my own I learned to use some of these already and I look forward to trying out the others. So many videos on these topics are just novelty for relatability clicks or, seemingly, to try to convince everyone alive they have ADHD, without much substance in terms of actually trying to live a full life while experiencing these challenges. Thanks so much! I look forward to keeping up with your output- or at least trying my best through a coordinated effort of alarms and new environments ?
Thank you. Took me 30 years to figure out what’s wrong with me. Thanks to you I have hope to archive a decent life and goals. Growing up in a 3rd world country ADHD/ ADD has no place at all. you are just labeled lazy and severely (capital) punished for it. So much pain, suffering, and trauma not understanding what was goin on. Work life, family, relationships, personal organization. Sleep, eating omg the world. Needs to know about this.
Please organize your videos. My son has ADHD and your procrastination video talked of the need to find self motivation and 3 videos about self motivation. I found one of three. YouTube is random understandably but you website is no better. Please organize.
You’re right Jason, my website does need organizing. I guess I’ve been spending too much time making videos to get to it. I have it on my do list for 2022. Thanks for the reminder.
I am a professor of English who has so many students waiting until the last minute to begin major papers. Thank you for this tool, which I will ask them to consider using right away!
You’re welcome Marisa. I hope it helps them. Thanks for commenting. ?