ADHD: How To Avoid Procrastination & Prioritize Goals

We all procrastinate. The tendency of delaying the tasks for tomorrow may help calming down the overwhelming feeling that surrounds most of us. It is also possible that you want to gather more energy for a specific task and wish to store it within a few days. Everything is fine unless you don’t put efforts into the task and keep on extending it for indefinite ‘tomorrow’.

When talking about ADHD and procrastination, a person dealing with ADHD may want to extend the simplest task and shows signs of chronic procrastination. This lets the person face difficulties in time management and completing the assigned tasks in set duration. This relation with ADHD and procrastination creates a number of problems in personal, professional and financial lives.

Also Read: Signs Of Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) In Children & Treatment

There are some factors that play a major role in defining ADHD and procrastination including:

• It is tough for a person to begin his own work due to easy distraction and continuous internal thought processes.
• An individual gets distracted to something more interesting that he has been doing in between the work and procrastinates.
• People with ADHD put off their work at an emergency point so that they get the necessary push at the end of the deadline.
• ADHD makes it difficult for a person to understand required time to complete the assigned task and they lose the track of time very easily.
• The fear of failure, problems in prioritizing tasks and forgetfulness always keeps aligned with the thoughts.

Considering everything above in mind, you must have a question about how to avoid procrastination and prioritize goals as required. Let’s figure out the answer!

ADHD Time Management Tips & How To Prioritize Your Goals

Although there are some time management strategies for ADHD explained below, we also expect you to keep a regular checkup with a therapist. A therapist guides you through ADHD with behavioral and emotional approaches for productivity and explains the implementation approaches according to personal conditions.

Other tips are:

1. Reframe Own Discomfort Towards Positivity:

This emotional approach says that a person can feel some level of discomfort in completing the task and must not look for the appropriate mood or right time to do it. Some tasks do not depend upon the person’s own comfort level and shall be done in any manner.

Also Read: Debunking These Common Myths About ADHD Is An Absolute Urgency!

2. Define Time To Start & End:

When a bounded time is associated with completion of tasks, a person tries to figure out his way to complete it. It is also because when time duration is not decided, the person feels overwhelmed and couldn’t judge the course of action easily.

3. Form A Behavioral Manual:

Individuals who tend to lose the track of steps they had to follow can make a manual which could be followed conditionally. For example, a person can make a ‘Everyday To-Do List’ on their phone where steps like ‘prepare your breakfast’, ‘email to office admin’, ‘attend meeting at 4.00pm’ and ‘consume your medications’ could be enlisted.

4. One Step At A Time:

Whenever a person is flourished by a number of tasks at a time, there are high chances for procrastination to take place. In such cases, breaking down the task into smaller chores is one of the most apt solutions. For example, if a long blog of 3000 words is assigned to you, you can write 500 words everyday by setting the time limit in advance.

5. Give Yourself A Right Work Environment:

It is a known fact that people with ADHD are most creative and can do work wonders when they put in their efforts. However, the conventional work environment may not be able to help them and they feel distracted during the work hours. This needs them to find a suitable solution.

6. Don’t Beat Yourself Up:

There is no need to talk negative about yourself or think that there hasn’t been any progress. Although when you finish a task on time, it is a huge motivation to avoid any future procrastination. However, the pace of improvement differs from person to person. So, keep going by picking small slices of big productive tasks and make yourself better than today.

Also Read: How ADHD Affects Relationship and How to make it work

Keep Your Progress In Check

These powerful tips for working with ADHD may help you all through the case only when you note the progress alongside. When you see yourself in a better state, the confidence and courage to perform better comes. You can even look at a role model for inspiration and keep moving ahead with their ideas and valuable lessons.

Remember, you are not alone! We are here to help you.