Reduce procrastination to unlock your full writing potential!
If you have ADHD, procrastination will play a huge role in your life. Procrastination can be entirely subconscious, meaning you might feel like there’s nothing you can do about it. But that’s not true! You can absolutely reduce procrastination, as I’ve seen time and again in my ADHD writer coaching practice. All you have to do is take these five steps.
1. Get curious!
Often, procrastination for ADHD writers is the result of either over-or underwhelm. So when you get the urge to procrastinate (or catch yourself doing it) get curious about why you’re wanting to procrastinate right now! Is your primary task too boring, or too overwhelming? If it’s boring: think of ways to make it more interesting for yourself. If it’s overwhelming, break it down into more manageable chunks.
2. Prioritize and schedule
If you’re working on your main task and another thought, idea or question comes up: don’t try to suppress it! Simply accept that it’s valuable but not a priority right now, and put it on your list or schedule to deal with later. If you don’t write it down, it will keep plaguing your mind because you will not want to forget. If you start doing it immediately, you’ll lose the productive time you had planned to spend on your main task. So this is the perfect middle ground!
Once writing it down becomes a habit, you’ll save a lot of time in all your writing projects.
3. Create reminders
Keep reminding yourself of the thing you are supposed to be working on. Make sure it’s in your field of vision or pops up after a certain amount of time. Some of my favorite strategies are:
- putting a sticky note on your computer or phone screen
- putting a sticky note on your timer
- creating digital reminders that keep you on task. A half-hour reminder, in my experience, can be incredibly helpful here. That way, you won’t lose an entire day to procrastination, but maximum 30 minutes
4. Seek accountability
Share your goals and progress with someone, like a friend, social media, or a writing coach (hi! 👋). If you know someone will ask you about your progress, it’s easier to stay on-task.
5. Practice self-compassion to reduce procrastination
Every single person in the world procrastinates, and people with ADHD doubly so. What’s more, sometimes the unplanned procrastination time can actually be incredibly productive — even if you weren’t working on what you were supposed to. So be kind with yourself, acknowledge your achievements, and then go back to the task at hand.
(learn more about self-compassion as a productivity tool in this earlier blog post.)
In conclusion
Though it eats up a lot of your time, all hope is not lost! You can reduce procrastination by developing new skills and habits, and putting systems in place to hold you accountable.
If you found this helpful but would like some personal support, schedule a free video call now!
