ADHD Feature #3: Why We don't Always get Things done
Updated: 5 days ago
In this mini-series, we explore the 10 most common, yet still often misunderstood features of our ADHD brains. Each article aims to reframe the "obvious" and "what you see from the outside" with an explanation on why the feature is challenging, as well as helpful tools and ways to embrace the beauty of our ADHD brain, rather than looking at them as if something is "broken" or "not right".
Have you ever spent six hours learning everything there is to know about a topic you suddenly found fascinating...
...but somehow couldn't reply to one email that would've taken three minutes?
If so: welcome to one of the biggest challenges of our ADHD.
How it Presents Itself
From the outside, it can look inconsistent. One day we are incredibly productive, creative, and unstoppable. The next day, starting even the simplest task feels like trying to push a car uphill with the handbrake on.
And although the struggle is real and probably one of the most common features of our ADHD brains, this challenge is still one of the most misunderstood parts of our life with ADHD. Instead of realising that this is, in fact, a well known and also probably the most "established" ADHD characteristics, it is still often assumed that it's just about laziness, a lack of motivation or poor time management. Well: it isn't.
What it Actually is
People with ADHD can achieve incredible things - especially when something is interesting, meaningful, urgent or presents a challenge. In those moments, the brain switches into auto drive, and it seems that nothing can stop it. Focus becomes effortless and hours can disappear without noticing.
But when a task feels repetitive, routine or simply uninteresting, the opposite can happen. Getting started suddenly feels impossible. The brain is stuck, and it seems there’s nothing we can do about it.
Not because we don't care. Not because we are not capable. It’s because our ADHD brain does in fact rely heavily on passion, interest, novelty, urgency or a challenges to activate its attention system - and this is what is generally referred to as an interest-based nervous system.
The Challenge
We know we're capable of getting things done, because we've experienced those amazing days where everything just clicks. Which is why the difficult days can feel so confusing and exceptionally frustrating. The really hard part is that we never quite seem to know when our brain will actually cooperate...
Unfortunately, many people with ADHD start questioning themselves. "Why can I do difficult things but not simple ones?" "Why do I keep letting people down?" "Why can't I just get started?". Over time, these questions can slowly turn into shame. Not because people with ADHD lack ability - but because they begin to doubt whether they can rely on themselves or not.
The Way Forward
The biggest challenge of such an interest-based nervous system is its seeming lack of consistency. Understanding that this lack of consistency does have an underlying and defined reason can make significant changes in how we see ourselves as well as on how we manage our resources and energy. Instead of asking, "what's wrong with me?", we can start asking, "what does my brain need to get started?"
Maybe it's about making the task more interesting by adding a special location. Maybe it's body doubling. Maybe it's breaking the first step down until it feels doable, even if this step looks almost ridiculously small. In any case though, you will find that your brain is most likely to switch itself on as soon as it has been hit with dopamine from one of your favourite dopamine sources - because it's the right sparks that make all the difference.
Once the engine starts.... there's consistently nothing to stop it until it’s done doing what needs to be done.
✨ Reframing your ADHD Brain
Your ability has never been the problem. Your brain simply doesn't run on pressure and willpower alone - it also runs on passion, interest, meaning, curiosity and connection.
Understanding your brain and its high maintenance wiring can help you find sustainable and helpful ways to work with it, rather than against it. And by doing so, getting things done can become less about forcing yourself and more about finding the right spark!
Coming next...
Have you ever walked into a busy café and felt exhausted before you'd even ordered your coffee? In the next article, we'll explore how our brain is constantly taking in information - and how this often makes the world around us feel too loud.
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If you are looking for support for yourself and your adhd brain, get in contact and find out what we can do for you. We also have a constantly growing network of great experts for different subjects, and we are happy to point you in the right direction if we cannot provide you with what you need. A simple e-mail to welcome@its-all-about-you.ch is all it takes to reach out for support.
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