PICK FUN: 7 hacks for ADHD motivation

PICK FUN: 7 hacks for ADHD motivation

You’re fine - fix the task instead

What I have for you today is a really awesome motivation hack in 7 parts. You can ‘get motivated’. Or you can make the task itself more motivating! 

I highly recommend this approach, because we only have a certain amount of motivation or self-direction energy in a day when we have ADHD. This is a way of changing the task, instead of trying to change yourself.

You may have seen parts of this on the ADHD support web (aka the internet). I took the different parts, added a new letter, and came up with this:

P - Passion

I - Interest

C - Challenge

K -Keen

F - Fun

U - Urgent

N - New

So: PICK FUN! These are all things that you could apply to a task to make it more doable. 

About motivation and ADHD

First, some general thoughts about how this can help beat procrastination with ADHD. This is based on the idea that those of us with ADHD have an ‘interest-based nervous system’. What that means is that it's not about how important a task is, or how much you value it: if you can get interested in it, you're much more likely to be able to do it.

This technique allows you to use your ADHD superpowers of brainstorming and idea generation. We want to turn it into an interesting problem-solving puzzle, so that you get a bit excited about the question: How am I going to make this task more motivating?

We want to try different things, remember what works, and use those things again. We also want to be thinking about what's worked in the past. If something has worked in the past, something like it is probably going to work now. Note: sometimes a strategy works for a while and stops working. We may rely heavily on a strategy for a while, and wear it out. But that doesn't mean it will never work again. Sometimes we just need to give it a rest and try it again later, and it works again. 

I'd also like you to stop doing some things. I'd like you to stop using pressure, negative emotions or self bullying to get yourself to do stuff. All of those things can create discomfort, emotional negativity, frustration and dread, which then gets associated with the task, reinforcing the idea that you can’t get yourself to do things.

It’s usually a good idea to stop doing anything that's not working. Just because a strategy works for someone else doesn't mean it has to work for you. If it doesn't work, we can treat that as useful information, and pay attention to that. For example, accountability doesn't work for me, much as I’d love it to (true story). If a strategy doesn't work for you now, it may not ever work, so you’re better off putting energy into finding something else.

Curiosity can help keep us out of shame and frustration. That’s a key reason I want to encourage you to be bringing the PICK FUN! attitude to a task. If we can catch ourselves in the midst of ADHD procrastination, then we can actually get curious about what's going to help. That can then lift us into an entirely different, quite excited and interested emotional state, and move us towards what we want.

It's very helpful in this process to know: What do you find pleasurable, stimulating, or satisfying? That is the stuff that we can add in some way into the task, and I'll talk about how to do that in a bit.

This is a matter of trial and error. We want to research for ideas (hello, Tiktok!) We want to experiment on ourselves and try things out. And I want you to become an expert in yourself, and what works for you. Finally, we want to be ready to pivot: if something's not working, we try something else. We don't just assume that nothing's going to work, because the chances are, something will.

We want in the big picture to have an emotional shift from overwhelm to empowerment, because autonomy is so important for people with neurodiverse brains. I want you to feel like you actually can choose to do things, and have the tools to do them. That emotional shift in itself can have a huge impact on how much you can actually do things.

So let's talk through each letter, with examples.

P - Add passion

A passion is what you might call a special interest area or something you really enjoy. It could also be a sensory thing like soft materials, or a joy in drawing pictures, or being outside. You will have a bunch of things that can fit in the category of passions. We want to be combining these with the task at hand in some way.

You could do it at the same time as something you enjoy, like doing the task while listening to music. For example, sometimes I might do cooking, and in the time when I set the oven timer, I might rush off and do a boring task till the alarm goes off. I'm keeping my emotions positive with my passion for cooking, and I can borrow some of that happy energy to organise my receipts.

You could reimagine the task in the context of one of your passions. So you could say: I'm trying to learn this maths, how can I apply my special interest and add it into that situation? Or if you're doing a budget, you could reimagine your budget with each dollar as a chocolate bar, and it might make your brain a little bit more absorbed in what's going on.

You can make an excel spreadsheet of the task, if that's the kind of thing that you like to do. (I’m often surprised by how many of us enjoy putting things in order!) You could hang out the laundry in a colour wheel if colour is your latest interest. You could read out your tax forms in a French accent as you go, if you have a passion for language.

I - Add interest

You love being interested! So, how can you make the task more interesting?

You could start by watching Youtube videos about it. This wakes your brain up and wakes up your interest in the task. While you’re doing that, you can ask yourself a question about it: I wonder...This engages your curiosity, which is a powerful force! And you can form opinions about the task. Then it can actually make you be more open, and go towards that subject.

Something I find magical is to do whatever bit of the task seems most interesting right now. I think that's very useful and we often resist doing this, because we think things ‘should’ to be done in a certain way.

You could pair the task with something that wakes your brain up, so you could be doing it while walking around, or while you watch a favourite episode. You could try a new ingredient, if you're having trouble motivating yourself to cook.

C - Add challenge

You can make the task more challenging. You wouldn't think that making something more challenging would make it more doable. But often you find it does! We can sometimes make a task more difficult, and that makes us more engaged. (I suspect this is how many people end up running marathons - they only intended to exercise a bit more!) The key to a challenge is that you’re not sure if you can do it, but you think you may be able to…

We can make the doing of the task competitive in some way. So we can actually be racing ourselves, or mentally competing against others, or actually entering into a competition.

You can make the task into a project, which means putting in all these extra parts. For example, maybe you're wanting to learn how to use a specific app like Canva, but then you turn it into a project that involves making a huge poster for the wall of your house. Learning the new skill becomes a small part of a bigger project that you're challenged and engaged by.

You can raise the stakes. One way is to say: If I don't do this thing, then I'm going to have to give $5 to my child. You could even shorten the time frame, making it more challenging by giving yourself a shorter deadline.

You can also be saying to yourself: I wonder if I can…? When you were a kid, you probably often used to say: I wonder if I can climb up that tree? That was a challenge that you would set for yourself. So we're having that kind of mentality. And if you don’t end up succeeding in the challenge itself, you may have ended up finishing the task anyway.

K - Get keen

Keenness is an emotional state. Emotions are super important for helping us with ADHD, and a lot of our challenges are to do with negative emotions. We want to be shifting our feelings about the task from a negative emotion into a positive one, whenever we can.

It helps to keep an eye out for ghost emotions. Ghost emotions are what I call emotions that we associate with an ADHD-related experience. This could look like: I'm starting to procrastinate, because it's really hard for me to do my homework, and now I feel shame and frustration.

Nowadays when you want to do something and you procrastinate, you may ahave a whole lot of tools to be able to do the task. But you may still feel shame and frustration, because of a lifetime of associations. It helps to remember that those emotions may not actually be a realistic response to actual powerlessness in the present moment: they may be almost a habit that we have.

We also want to take the pressure off and not give ourselves any demands, and that is really important in terms of neurodiverse brains. (At the same time, we want to make sure we have a wealth of other strategies, so that we're not just taking the pressure off and collapsing.)

You want to add a positive emotion to the task. You can visualise the outcome that you want. Or you could be visualising the big picture WHY. This is what that might look like: “Here's the dishes. I don't feel like doing the dishes so I’m putting it off. Deep down, why do I want to do the dishes? Oh, imagine how amazing my house is going to feel when the dishes are clear, and I'll be able to cook dinner, and that will be so good.”

You can connect this with your values. If fairness is one of your values, you could say to yourself: “It’s really important to me that everybody takes part in doing the dishes, and I haven't done them for ages. And so out of fairness, I'm going to go and do them.” This reframing can help you feel like you’re choosing this for yourself, which can make you more keen.

F - Add fun

Make the task more fun! You're probably pretty good at making things fun. So we want to be intentionally using it in this case.

You can shape the task so it’s more like a game. You can add little silly rules. It can help to make some aspect of the task a bit ridiculous, to make it sort of a humorous activity. I remember once mowing the lawn while wearing a pair of high-heeled jelly shoes, because it made it more fun, so it got me motivated. (Not so great from a health and safety perspective, though!)

I highly recommend what I call a three-song tidying frenzy. That's where you (and anyone else involved) select three songs and cue them up. Then from the moment the 1st song starts till the end of the 3rd song, you just tidy, tidy, tidy… and then when the music stops, you stop. It's a super effective way of lifting the space a few levels without too much emotional effort.

Another way to make the task fun is to do it with or alongside someone else. You could even go to someone's house, and sit beside them while you do whatever the task is that you're avoiding.

U - Add urgency

Urgency is something that wakes the ADHD brain up. This is why the classic strategy of setting a timer often works so well. Another example is inviting someone over if you want to clean the house or cook yourself some dinner, because that gives a great sense of urgency. 

You can create mini-deadlines. This means taking a big deadline and breaking it into a bunch of smaller deadlines, which are between a day and a week in length. Some people are motivated by their own deadlines, and others not. You will know for yourself whether you need to involve someone else in a mini-deadline. Asking someone else to help you with accountability can help for some people. If you know it works for you, then it creates a sense of urgency.

Using the famous ‘last minute’ makes a lot of people feel guilty, but it is actually a great thing, so long as you block out that last minute in your calendar. You also need to know which parts of the task need to be done before the last minute, so you have those in your calendar and you can do them on the right day. I love using the last minute. It's something that I actually can trust. And then the rest of the time, because I know I've blocked that time out and done the other little tasks, I can relax, and I don't need to stress out…because I’m not procrastinating!

N - Add newness

Here's some ways to add newness, or novelty. You go to a cafe to work, because it’s a new environment and that just wakes the brain up a little bit. Another way of adding newness is to shift between tasks, so that you’re changing the type of task often, while returning to each task, so you still make progress. It especially helps if you move between a physical task and a desk-based task.

Listening to podcasts while you're tidying is a great example of adding newness, putting something stimulating into your brain. You could also do the activity in a new way. You could find a new approach to a boring task, like hanging out the laundry with a different pattern, going sideways instead of along the washing line.

You could get a new book, pen or soundtrack. It's not the same as just going and getting another new notebook, which is obviously a risk for some of us, because we don't want a whole lot of half-used, or even one-page-used notebooks lying around. It's more like: “I want to get going on this task, I'll buy a new notebook for it, and then that's going to help me be motivated, and I'll enjoy it.”

ADHD hack: PICK FUN!

Often by the time I’ve made a task more motivating, it doesn’t look much like the "proper adult" way of doing it. I accept that I'm not going to turn into a person who finds doing most stuff easy, so I treat myself like I'm a four-year-old - and that works. Along with fixing the task so that it feels okay or even awesome, you can talk to yourself in a kind, encouraging and loving way. Guess what!? You won’t spoil yourself rotten. You will probably feel more relaxed and positive.

To recap: You can ‘get motivated’. Or you can make the task itself more motivating! To do this, we can add: Passion, Interest, Challenge, Keenness, Fun, Urgency, or Newness. This helps us to be more attracted to the task, and that makes the task easier to do.

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