ADHD and the Task Demon
Your brain will justify everything...plan for it.
A very real struggle with ADHD is in the interest wiring of the brain. Most adults with ADHD have read, watched, heard the data. Most know that we are wired for interest; this means things need to meet the criteria of novelty, urgency, or intrinsic interest in the task. Normies are wired for importance, meaning they can get started on a task that sucks in the moment because it’s important.
Pay your taxes on time is a project that is important. But very few human beings are ‘interested’ in it.
For those of us that manage to get our taxes paid on time, the deadline of April 15 gives us that needed urgency. But that means we put it off until that deadline gifts us with the motivation to get started.
Is that an ADHD strength? I don’t really herald that ability to hyperfocus when things are urgent as a strength. We aren’t out hunting with spears anymore. How are we supposed to ‘do or die’ while sitting at a computer? When Gary threatens to fire us? That sucks.
The issue that I experience with this brain of mine is that none of the big self-work matters in the moment of a shitty task. It doesn’t matter how much of the motivating and inspiring work I do, you know all the ‘what’s my purpose’, ‘what’s my why’, ‘what are my strengths’ homework. None of that matters when we sit down to do the taxes.
Taxes, in this case, is the metaphor for anything that is important but we are not interested in.
What we can absolutely rely on, and what I encourage everyone to expect, is that when the time comes that we scheduled for this shitty but important task, we will be met with a sinister task demon.
This demon… sorry, I should be more positive…this unique and beautiful brain wiring we’ve been blessed with will give us every possible loophole out of doing the important task.
And the kicker: it will all be justified!
We need to get a birthday present for that party tomorrow, and right now is the most convenient time to get in and out of the store. We should go now. Taxes was a bad idea for right now.
Dinner is going to suck if we don’t get a handle on these dishes, and I suddenly have a burst of motivation to go do that! I should really take advantage of that. Taxes can wait.
There is just too much resistance to this taxes crap, and it feels like it will take me an eternity of pain to get through it. Tomorrow I won’t feel this resistance, I’m sure of it.
Oooh, here’s an image of the task demon in action! Supplying Margaret with motivation for some other shitty task than the one she said she was going to do, which was work on her taxes with a fountain pen…
Here is an answer for battling the task demon
Don’t battle him. Expect him. Some days he will be loud. Some days he will be subtle. Some days, if we get lucky, he is a no show…and that’s great. But he has a ticket to your show, so he can show up whenever he likes.
If he is going to show, best to be prepared. Try this:
Know in advance what you are doing with your time. (Not all day, every day). When are you going to ‘work on taxes’? Wednesday at noon? Know it. Schedule it. Calendar it.
Be thoughtful about when you schedule that time. Don’t just randomly grab a time in the future because it sounds good…”I’ll do it sometime this weekend”…really? Saturday or Sunday? What usually happens on your weekends? Make a go of being specific for your important task.
Do not plan your task for completion. Plan it for putting in time on the task. When you cage a task inside a finite time window, it makes it easier to get started on.
Make the task visible to others. When we do this, we are more likely to get started on it. If you tell me that you are going to work on your taxes Wednesday at noon, then when noon rolls around and you are met with the task demon, you are also met with the idea that I might ask about this. Add a little bit of tension to the other side of the equation. We do that inside ADHDBB in our daily accountability club.
Bring somebody else into the mix. At ADHDBB we use our 24/7 body doubling room. I was in there working on this article. There are apps and websites you can use this and if you have supportive people in your life, you can have them body double with you as well.
This may seem like a lot of work/effort for doing a task, and it probably sounds a lot easier to practice the art of “sucking it up and just doing it.” It is a lot of work/effort.
But this is the journey of being a late diagnosed adult with ADHD. When has behavior change ever been easy? We can absolutely make it easier by surrounding ourselves with support while we practice and fail at this until we finally succeed. We can enjoy the process and complain about the process with others who are going through similar struggles with their skull spaghetti. That’s a core reason I built ADHDBB.
Final Thought/Summary
There is no ADHD world where we suddenly have the willpower to naturally get started on important tasks. We can journal our why and know how it all connects to our big purpose in life, but that will mean nothing when the moment comes and the task demon is in our ear.
Build your scaffolding. Come get your support. Practice the artform of doing stuff when it’s not urgent, one shitty task at a time.