ADHD Motivation Hacks
Kelly Anderson, PhD (with help from Dr. Anderson’s daughter)
You can’t train away executive dysfunction, as much as I wish that we could! When it comes to something like Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD), it’s important to keep in mind that it is neurodevelopmental, meaning the way you think and the way your brain operates has been developing this way since conception. Therefore, coping with ADHD symptoms, including lack of motivation, isn’t something you can “hack” your way out of. But you can learn tools and strategies to help offset (or compensate) for weaknesses in executive functioning, such as difficulty with gaining and keeping motivation.
Why Is Motivation Difficult to Find When You Have ADHD?
ADHD brains are motivated by interest: If something is interesting, you may be able to focus for hours at a time (hyperfocus), and when something isn’t interesting … it can feel almost physically impossible to get started.
ADHD brains have less dopamine: And they use the dopamine they do have less efficiently. Dopamine is crucial to our internal reward system, and so if you don’t have it, you don’t feel that reward for getting a task done. Over time, you learn that tasks are hard, and there’s no natural reward, so why do them?
ADHD Paralysis: Many people with ADHD have difficulty with decision-making due to executive dysfunction. This often shows up as procrastination (or sometimes even viewed by others as laziness, as observers aren’t aware of the internal struggle to get started).
Emotion Dysregulation: Because executive dysfunction is often focused on in ADHD, emotion dysregulation, a facet of the ADHD experience, is often overlooked. When a task is boring, this creates a negative emotion. All brains, but especially ADHD brains, avoid negative emotions. By avoiding the task, we avoid feelings of boredom and therefore there is no motivation.
Working With Your Brain to Build Motivation
Have a cheerleader (even your dog counts!) Your cheerleader doesn't need to be a person who fully understands your struggles; they just need to be able to celebrate with you. Tell your partner when you've completed a difficult phone call. Share your wins with a friend. Even explaining your accomplishment to your pet can activate reward circuits in your brain. The act of verbalizing your success reinforces the behavior and makes you more likely to repeat it.
Reward yourself for each goal step you achieve. External rewards work. The dopamine system, which is often dysregulated in conditions like ADHD, responds powerfully to anticipated rewards. The key is to match the reward to the effort. Finished a difficult task? Give yourself a favorite snack, a 20-minute episode of your show, or time with your hobby. Completed a week of consistent work? Plan something bigger, like a nice meal out, a new book, or an afternoon doing something you love. These might sound like bribes, but really, they’re neurological scaffolding. You're training your brain to associate task completion with positive feelings, making it easier to start next time.
Create urgency. Many people with executive dysfunction struggle with time blindness, a difficulty in perceiving or estimating time. This often leads to last-minute panic. While not ideal, this panicky feeling can help to create a feeling of urgency that can override paralysis. You can create this sense of urgency intentionally by:
Set artificial deadlines earlier than the real ones
Schedule accountability check-ins with someone
Use timers and time blocking to create mini-deadlines throughout your day
Commit publicly to completing something by a certain time
The goal isn't to live in constant crisis mode, but to create enough structure and stakes to help your brain prioritize action.
Make it interesting. Novelty and interest directly activate dopamine pathways, the same pathways that are often underactive in attention-related disorders. Curiosity and interest enhance learning and memory by priming the brain's reward system. You can't always make boring tasks inherently fascinating, but you can add interesting elements:
Gamify it: Track your progress, compete with yourself, earn points
Change your environment: Work in a café, library, or a different room
Add music or white noise: Some people work better with background sound
Alternate tasks: Switch between boring and interesting work
Make it a challenge: "Can I finish this in under 30 minutes?"
Body doubling. Working alongside another person, either in person or virtually, is one of the most effective strategies for people with executive dysfunction. Don’t be afraid to ask for help; body doubling is a great way to build motivation. Ask a friend or family member to body double with you to get started on a task.
Bonus Hack - The basics. Make sure you’re getting plenty of sleep, fueling your body/brain with high-quality food (and of course, a few dopamine snacks as well), moving your body to get rid of excess energy, and making time for your hyperfocus activity.
A Final Thought
The most important thing to remember is not to be too hard on yourself. Shame is the antithesis of motivation. When you’re struggling with executive dysfunction, things like motivation, staying on task, wrangling attention, and staying organized are hard. It’s easy to become self-critical and use harsh language toward yourself