When a Task Isn’t a Task: Understanding Procrastination with ADHD

Why do we procrastinate the tasks we mean to do — especially with ADHD? Well, the reasons are highly varied. But there’s one reason that is perhaps a little easier to predict and prevent than some of its trickier brethren: when that task is not a task. 

It’s well known amongst ADHDers that ambiguity and overwhelm can shut us down faster than you can text your partner, “Have you seen my phone?” The more clearly we can envision ourselves starting and finishing a task, the better our odds of doing it.

For instance, if I asked you to fill out a 5-minute questionnaire, you could probably tackle it without too much trouble… but compare that to how you’d feel about something like starting and completing a degree program. Try it: envision yourself doing a brief survey, versus getting another degree. 

If you have ADHD, there’s a good chance your feelings fall into one of two categories when I suggest getting a degree. One set of you are lit up by learning — you envision the many curiosities that you could pursue and the interests you could nurture. Your brain may skip past many details and focus on the possibilities. Another set of you will be overwhelmed by the sheer scale of it — the administrative hurdles, the deadlines, assignments, and readings, and… 

Obviously, learning and school have additional layers, but if you step away (and perhaps substitute your own metaphor), you’ll notice that both groups are actually responding with a big emotional response. One is positive, and the other negative, but as humans, we make predictions based on our emotions, and it’s amplified for us ADHDers as our executive functions take a back seat to other parts of our brain.

As a passionate, creative person with ADHD, I love to collect hobbies. And it may have happened (once, or maybe twice) that a creative task got a little bigger than I anticipated. There’s a phrase for this sort of thing: scope creep. I might believe that a task is a doable singular thing, such as “do a watercolor painting.” But before I can do this task, I need to find supplies.

Then I might need to buy brushes… but first I have to research which ones, and I’ll also need to figure out what subject to paint and in order to do that it would be great to look into what the benefits are of practicing different types of paintings and also and also and also…  if you’ve ever read If You Give a Mouse a Cookie, a children’s book by Laura Numeroff, then you’re familiar with what I’m talking about. Perhaps you have witnessed this in your own life (once, or maybe twice). 

This, my friends, was not a task. 

So what do I mean by a “task”?  

I mean a job that doesn’t have a lot of pieces and doesn’t require multiple sessions or a lot of task-switching. An example would be “put my slippers back beside my bed” or “brush my teeth.”

Tasks are great for to-do lists because we can see them from start to finish.

What’s a project?

My painting example above was not a task — it’s what I like to call a “whole heckin’ project.” That required research, leaving the house, setting up, and cleaning up… that’s many, many tasks rolled into one thing.

Projects are often terrible for to-do lists. They don’t tell us where to stop or how to get to the end. They’re too big and complex for us to clearly predict and too likely to throw us under the overwhelm-bus. 

In Between

There’s also a middle ground — a “collection of tasks.”

A great example that Coach Riley likes to use is showering. Showering isn’t just showering. It might also be picking out clothes, transitioning into the bathroom, doing other bathroom stuff, showering, drying off, and maybe even additional steps like doing hair or makeup.

If you regularly perform a set of tasks together and you don’t get thrown off by them, you can group them for brevity and convenience. However, if you find you’re putting off a collection or feeling resistance, try breaking it into a few tasks instead of thinking of it as one. 

So the next time you find yourself pushing back something you’ve been meaning to do, a great first question is always, “Why is this hard?” If an answer proves elusive, a great next question might very well be, “Is this a task, a collection of tasks, or a whole heckin’ project?”

If you’re finding yourself stuck, overwhelmed, or unsure where to start, ADHD coaching can help you break things down into something your brain can actually work with.

Schedule a complimentary get-acquainted session, and let’s talk about what’s feeling hard right now.