You grew up with an ADHD brain in a neurotypical world – whether you knew it at the time or not. Nine out of ten times, this meant constant criticism: for being late, having messy handwriting, and making “stupid mistakes.” If everyone else could do it, why couldn’t you? You have so much potential. You just need to try harder.
Those messages hit hard and you ended up internalizing them. And now, as an adult writer, they still affect your life on a daily basis!Â
You tell yourself, “If I am going to deliver this report late, it had better be brilliant.” “If I can’t catch all the typos, my story needs to be mindblowing.” “If I’m doing this differently than anyone else, I have to do it perfectly or they’ll say the whole approach was wrong.
You feel you need to work twice as hard and be twice as good, just to compensate for your ADHDness.Â
But at Basecamp to Brilliance (the ADHD & writing summit that took place in October 2025), many speakers who’d actually finished their projects and built amazing careers for themselves said something different: practice self-care, make accommodations, give yourself rest. Stop trying to compensate for who you are and start embracing it.
Both of these stances feel true and important. But they also feel mutually exclusive.Â
So which is it? Do you push harder or ease up?Â
Here’s what surprised me: the summit revealed it’s not either/or. The answer lies in understanding what KIND of hard work actually works for ADHD brains – and what doesn’t. Especially when we look at ADHD motivation.Â
The problem with urgency for ADHD motivation
Most high-performing ADHD writers I know have learned to rely on urgency as their main source of ADHD motivation. The deadline is tomorrow, so suddenly they can focus. The pressure is intense, so suddenly they can write.Â
And here’s the problem: urgency works. That’s why we keep using it. The adrenaline kicks in, the focus sharpens, we produce. But it comes at a cost.
Urgency creates output, but it also creates ADHD burnout. It’s not sustainable. And what’s more, it keeps you locked in that “compensate by working harder” mindset.
At the summit, this came up in my Q&A with Charles Daly, a ghostwriter who spoke about creating a project-based work-life. Charles stays motivated with ADHD on big, sweeping projects – and gets bored the day AFTER they’re done, not before.
How does he do it?
While most ADHDers rely either on urgency (resulting in burnout) or novelty (resulting in thousands of abandoned projects), Charles has found different fuel sources: interest/passion and challenge as his main sources of ADHD motivation.
This is the kind of motivation that’s actually sustainable for ADHD brains. He’s not pushing harder or easing up – he’s tapping into what genuinely energizes him. And that’s how he delivers high-quality work on long projects without burning out or losing interest.
Challenge and passion for ADHD motivation
As sources of ADHD motivation, challenge and passion feel different than urgency does.
- Urgency says: “I have to do this, or I’ll fail.”Â
- Passion says: “This matters to me deeply and I keep thinking about it even when I’m not working on it.Â
- Challenge says: “Let’s see if I can do this,” or even, “I will show everyone that I can!”
Urgency keeps you in a constant state of fight-or-flight. You’re using fear and adrenaline as fuel, and that’s why it drains you so completely.
Passion and challenge are more positive experiences when you use them for ADHD motivation.
I think about ADHD and writing every single day. When I get to talk about my work, I light up, feel more energetic, and start itching to get back to my desk. That is passion in action, and even after years, it still hasn’t burned me out yet. This is my passion, it’s my mission, my calling. I feel a drive on the deepest levels of my being to keep engaging with this.Â
Challenge is a more short-term source of ADHD motivation, but equally energizing. And the beauty of challenge is that whereas you can’t simulate interest and passion (you either feel it or you don’t), challenge is a lever you can pull any time you need more motivation.Â
If you rely on passion and challenge, you’ll be able to do the kind of “hard work” that actually works for our ADHD brains. Not the fear-inspired compensation, but the “I can’t stop thinking about this,” hard work instead.Â
You’re allowed to work hard on things you’re passionate about. That’s not the same as compensating. That’s using joy as a productivity tool.Â
But wait... Is it passion or just novelty?
Now, here’s where it gets tricky for ADHDers: everything feels like your new passion in the first two weeks. Our need for constant novelty gives us huge boosts of excitement and ADHD motivation. This is IT. This is THE project.Â
But when the novelty fuel runs out, it starts to get boring or hard or both. And suddenly you’re not sure anymore: was this real passion or just another shiny new thing? If you can’t trust your enthusiasm, how do you know what’s worth investing in?Â
Luckily, another speaker at Basecamp had an answer to that. Let me tell you about Sam Parsley.Â
Sam's marinating method
If you can’t tell the difference between novelty and passion as sources for ADHD motivation, what do you do?Â
At the summit, professor and writing coach for research-led writers Sam Parsley offered a brilliantly simple solution: Plan it for later and let it marinate!Â
I know what you’re thinking: “But if I don’t do it NOW, I’ll forget about it forever!”
Don’t worry though. That, your planning systems can help with. (If you remember to use them, that is!)
Actually, letting it marinate separates passion from novelty by introducing time. You wait until the novelty dissipates and see if the passion and excitement remain.Â
How to make marinating work for ADHD brains:
- Capture the idea completely. Don’t just write “book idea.” Dump everything – the concept, why it excites you, what you’d want to explore, potential chapter ideas. Get it ALL out of your head and into a note.
- Set a specific review date. Not “someday” – an actual date in your calendar. Two weeks from now. A month from now. “On [date], review this idea and decide.”
- Trust your future self. When that review date comes, you’ll know. If you open the note and feel a spark – “oh yeah, I still want to do this” – that’s probably real. If you open it and feel… nothing? That was novelty.
Marinating makes it a lot easier to see whether your new project is worth investing time and money in. If it’s still calling to you after the newness wears off, it’s worth your energy.Â
Navigating the paradox
So how does that all fit together?Â
Well, what I’ve been trying to say is that you don’t have to choose between working harder and being more gentle with yourself. You can use gentle, ADHD-aware strategies to help you do your best work instead.Â
The real choice is: what are you using as your main source of ADHD motivation?Â
If you’re running on urgency, shame and compensation – yes, you need to be gentler. This is not going to work for you in the long run. It won’t make you better, it’ll make you smaller.Â
But if you’re running on genuine passion and challenge – if something has marinated and it still matters to you, you can’t stop thinking about it – then work hard. Allow yourself to pour everything you have into it. You’re not compensating, you’re aligning with your best self.Â
Give yourself permission to work hard on the things that light you up. Passion-fueled work is sustainable in a way that urgency-fueled work never is.Â
Give yourself permission to give sparingly on everything else. If it’s only getting done because of urgency and deadline pressure, it might not be the right thing for you.Â
The paradox resolves when you stop asking “work harder or be gentler?” and start asking “what kind of work actually feeds my brain?”
Conclusion: You belong here
You’re not broken for needing to work differently. You’re not lazy for needing more rest. You’re not undisciplined for struggling with urgency-based systems.
You’re an ADHD writer learning to work with your brain instead of against it.
That means sometimes working intensely hard on things that light you up. And sometimes resting, even when neurotypical writers seem to be grinding away.
Both can be true. Both can coexist.
You don’t have to compensate for being who you are. You just have to find the fuel that actually sustains you.
Do you want to learn more about writing with your ADHD brain? Make sure to sign up using the form below, to be the first to hear when I’m organizing the next summit about writing and ADHD. And in the meantime, you’ll receive my monthly newsletters that will help you become the best ADHD writer you can be.
Talk to you soon!
– Susanne
Learn to write WITH your ADHD brain
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