To End Procrastination, Boost Motivation

It’s one thing to procrastinate over big, intimidating projects. But what if you’re struggling to tackle something simple and quick to do? You know, the boring, routine stuff: doing dishes, folding laundry, cancelling Netflix.

When you can’t muster the energy to do trivial tasks, it’s natural to ask, “What is wrong with me?”

Rather than assume something’s wrong with you, why not blame the task? From that perspective, it’s the task that is failing to motivate you.

In other words the task is not providing you with enough motivation.

Now, rather than beat yourself up, the solution is to make the task more intriguing, fun, or rewarding. And there are lots of ways to do that!

Thanks to our patrons whose support allows us to make new videos – Please join us on Patreon

Sign up for our Friday Funnies

Hi I’m Rick Green, everybody who has ADHD has a different combination of symptoms, some more intense, some less intense.

For some restlessness is a problem, for others, depending on your situation could actually be an asset.

But some challenges seem pretty universal, like procrastination.

Did someone say procrastination? Now I’m not a big fan of the term procrastination, it doesn’t suggest why you’re stuck or what to do about it, and there are lots of reasons why we procrastinate, some are profound, and some are very simple.

Now the world views procrastination as a personal weakness, a moral failing, and of course before you’re diagnosed with ADHD, and even after, the world is keen to dismiss you as lazy, selfish, or lacking gumption. So I need more gumption, or what exactly is gumption, where do I get some and what’s a safe dose?

Plus you might have very good reasons for putting something off to a later date, yeah I can’t do anything until I get the report from the head office, or it could be fear fear of failure, or even fear of success.

If I do a good job then they’re going to promote me, and I’ll have more responsibility, and uh oh. Check out my video on seven good reasons to procrastinate.

But what if you take you out of the equation, rather than blame and shame yourself let’s blame the task, the task you’re procrastinating on, the task is the problem.

Yes sorry paperwork you’re just not doing it for me, I get that you’re a big turn on for my accountant Chris but, uh you leave me uninspired you know the potential payoff that you’re…. it’s just…. it’s….

I love this perspective, you aren’t the failure you’re procrastination is not due to some flaw in your character, some trauma that’s going to take years of intense therapy to heal, it’s the task.

The task is failing to motivate you, maybe it’s too boring, or it’s too much work, or too difficult, not challenging, mundane, whatever it is you look at the potential payoff and you go… meh.

Reading the 20 page instruction manual for a new water heater… ugh, whereas reading a 300 page book about the biggest spy scandal of the Cold War? That’s interesting, to me, I blasted through this in a day and a half.

Finally replacing the burnt out light bulb in the garage door opener? Yeah I’ll do it I’ll do it on the weekend.

Working on my model railroad for most of the weekend? Sure, but why not all of the weekend!

Unless we’re dealing with depression we rarely procrastinate about everything, there are things on my to-do list that I put off again, and again, but other things have me diving right in, happily, some are so motivating I don’t even think of the his tasks!

Now as long as you’re not procrastinating because you’re unsure what’s involved, or it’s just way too complicated, or you don’t have what you need to do it, and I do have light bulbs for the garage door opener, then consider how you might make the task more appealing, more motivating, motivating for you for you as someone with ADHD.

Sure the average person is motivated to finish tasks that are important, or because they’re financially rewarding, or they’re deadline driven, they may have the patience to plow through the routine boring repetitive stuff, not so much us, that doesn’t wake up our brain.

What does? Well something interesting, interesting for our brain, maybe something new something that has an immediate reward, which is why scrolling on our phones is so addictive, dopamine, dopamine, an hour later I don’t remember a thing I saw, but there you are… ding.

Because motivation is really about neurotransmitters, they give you the get up and go to go, so when a task doesn’t give us the juice, the chemical payoff to get up and go, it remains undone for weeks, months, forever, and then when we finally begrudgingly do it we’re ticked off at ourselves, oh that took 20 minutes, why didn’t I do it months ago? What an idiot, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.

We accomplish something but we don’t feel any sense of accomplishment, at best maybe relief, just one less thing on the long list of chores, oh, and that’s no way to live.

So how do I increase my motivation to change the light bulb in the garage? By tying it to a reward one that motivates me like cake, or a new outfit, I don’t know, a cake, or buying a silver Porsche 911 convertible, or a classic bright red Ford Thunderbird.

I actually bought both, I really I treated myself, I went I know they were seven bucks each but.

Kidding aside actually for me the best reward is making someone happy, making people happy, my whole career as a comedian has been motivated by the joy and the challenge of making audiences laugh, unfortunately I’m never going to earn a standing ovation from a big audience for changing a light bulb.

So instead of focusing on what I’m going to have to do I focus on the result, oh by the way honey I replaced the bulb in the garage door opener, so when you’re driving and now it’s nice and bright in there, and I know she will be delighted, she’ll be grateful, she’ll tell me so and she won’t spoil the moment by saying finally, or well what about the gutters now?

Which to be honest are all valid questions but for an ADDer they are a giant buzz kill.

I suspect positive feedback is especially motivating and empowering for those of us with ADHD because we get so little of it growing up. One study suggested a child with ADHD hears 20,000, 20,000 more negative statements than the average kid.

So the promise of positive feedback yes please, being able to please your spouse, or your boss, parent, a coach, a friend that can be very motivating.

I often celebrate my victories in our Patron chat rooms, so let’s wrap it up, what reward is going to work best for you, consider some things that you do accomplish and ask what is it about them that motivate you, it might be acknowledgement applause, success, admiration, or it might be cake, cake.

Let me know in the comments what motivates you and of course you can make a big difference for others by liking, sharing, and to ensure you don’t miss a video becoming a subscriber on YouTube ,and you can make a small financial contribution here on YouTube, or enjoy previews and great community and benefits through patreon, the links are in the description.

Either way thank thank you on behalf of myself and all the people who are going to find answers and knowledge from the videos that we’re able to produce thanks to you our supporters.

This video is for entertainment purposes only. Copyright © Big Brain Productions 2025. All Rights Reserved.

Scroll to Top