Procrastination and ADHD

How To Tame Your Procrastination Struggles

Procrastination is a common struggle for people with ADHD.  For many years I would dread income tax season. Due to my challenges with time doing something once a year is particularly daunting as the deadline dread started creeping in around RRSP season and stayed with me until the day I sent them off.

Sound familiar?

Over the years I have learned the hard way that I need to have strategies in place to track my expenses monthly and have a file for the Current Year Taxes that I add to as information comes in throughout the year. This prevents me from scrambling around trying to find or organize twelve months worth of information when tax season arrives. I also purchase my RRSPs at the beginning of the year, which is easy to remember and saves me from trying to book a last minute appointment with my financial advisor. Breaking things down into manageable tasks in all areas of my life helps reduce anxiety and prevents me from getting overwhelmed.

Nobody likes paying or filing taxes nor do we like having looming deadlines hanging over us. In fact many of us leave uninteresting tasks to the last minute all the time and then beat ourselves up for not getting started earlier. 

However for some ADDers, chronic procrastination can have a devastating impact on their ability to accomplish their goals. You may be the greatest accountant in the world but if you are late filing your client’s taxes you are not going to be in business for very long.

So how can we limit procrastination so that it does not interfere with our lives? Here’s one trick that has helped me with this struggle.  Try making the uninteresting tasks interesting in other words develop a habit of delaying gratification. Make the things that you enjoy doing, the rewards for completing less desirable tasks. It is easier to get started and feel motivated to do the less desirable tasks when you have something to look forward to. You will quickly realize that the reward is more enjoyable when you feel that you have earned it. There is also a sense of freedom in being able to enjoy yourself instead of feeling dread about the undesirable tasks and looming deadlines that await you. 

Still Struggling?

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