Stop ADHD Procrastination in 5 Simple Steps

Hey, what's up? Jim here, and for those of you that don't know me, I'm the founder of Seamless, a 7-figure digital agency, and I also run ADHD Harmony, a community where we help ADHD entrepreneurs to launch and scale their businesses. And in this video, I'm going to give you the 5 steps to finally overcome procrastination, even if you're someone with very bad ADHD. It will start with more surface-level practical advice, and we will build up until really more the identity level, like below the surface emotional blockers that actually might be preventing you from moving the needle. So let's dive into the video, starting off with step number 1, which is diagnosing the blocker. And this is a very important step because if we don't really understand what's happening, it's very hard to actually overcome something. Now, I want you to literally name what is happening. Don't just guess and feel, no, literally pinpoint why am I procrastinating. Now, if you're someone with ADHD or someone higher up on the ADHD spectrum, then you probably procrastinate for one of those three reasons. It's either an energy problem, so by naturally you already have lower baseline dopamine levels, but if you don't sleep well, don't eat well, or don't exercise, then this can even be lower, which is basically blocking you. Another thing is that the steps are actually unclear, so things can feel very, very overwhelming. So for example, if we have this task, clean room, That can be really vague, but what it sometimes means is that in our head it's like this huge thing. But if we actually chunk it down into just open the door, put away the clothes, open the windows, clean away some dust, then we make it very practical and very small. And then it can feel less overwhelming. And that will help with like the overload in our memory that is blocking us from actually doing the thing. Then the third one is emotional avoidance, and this is more below-the-surface-level stuff. And this is also related to emotional dysregulation, ADHD, and also rejection-sensitive dysphoria, which we, most of us, struggle with a lot. And to give an example on that, it can be the fear of failure, but more on this in step number 5. Now, to give you an example on this, I've created this AI prompt that you can use in whatever AI tool that you want to use. I personally use ChatGPT in this example, which is free for you to experiment with. So I recommend you test this out. Now to give you an example, in this video I will be zooming in onto creating a YouTube video because that's what I'm doing right now. And over the last few weeks I've kind of procrastinated on it and I want— I will zoom into the things that I was, uh, the challenges I was facing to actually demonstrate a real-life practical example of this. So I am recording now, so I overcame procrastination and also partly implemented this process. So I'm procrastinating on recording a YouTube video. Okay, and the prompt is asking me to give— it gives me 5 quick questions. And okay, so we will zoom in. Is it dopamine, clarity, or emotional block? Now what I highly, highly, highly recommend you to do is use this little microphone over here to start using voice to interact with AI. Why? Well, number 1, it is way faster. But number 2, it is also unlocking a different part of your brain and you start more speaking more from the heart and from the feeling part than when you're typing and you can quickly overthink things and you just can share a lot more context. Okay, what I'm going to do, I'm not going to do 1, 2, 3, no, I'm just going to read through this and share my thoughts and give as much reasonable usable context as possible. Okay. So when I sit down to record, I don't really feel the urge to do something else. It is more that I don't even take time to sit down. Do you already know the first 60 seconds? Right now I do, but when I procrastinated, no, I had no idea. I didn't know what to start with. Does the thought of recording make you feel anxious, pressured, or judged? I think it's a bit of anxious. And the reason why is I'm overthinking the video I want to make. If someone handed you a ready-made script, would you record it right now? I probably would make it, would make things easier, but I probably would still overthink the whole script and not being sure if it's actually good enough. If the video got almost no views, would you still feel it was worth making? This is an interesting one because my last few videos didn't get a lot of views. But now that you're asking me, and yeah, it was kind of blocking me, just to be really honest there. But now that you're asking it in this way, it makes me think like, even if I can just help one person, it will already be worth for me. Okay, so now I'm sharing all of this context and it's transcribing it to actually put it in the chat here. And now the AI will pinpoint what is the actual blocker. So it's clarity and an emotional block. You delay because you're unsure how to start, which is the clarity problem, so we should break it down. And emotional, not because of dopamine. It's not dopamine or not distractions, which is, yeah, sometimes you can think that is the problem, but underlying are maybe those things mentioned earlier. Okay, so let's dive into the next step, which is actually shrinking the task. And I already gave you an example of cleaning your room. Another example mentioned here. We don't want tasks like write report because this can feel really, really, really overwhelming. So we break it down into actually opening a document and just writing the first title. Because a lot of times when we sit down and actually do the thing and we just start, it suddenly becomes easy and maybe even fun to do. And then we get in hyperfocus and then by the end of the day everything is just done. But if we just look at this, this large big thing, write this full report, we prevent ourselves from actually starting. And we again can use the AI here to take a task and break it into these small chunks. So I'm going to continue on that same example to get some practical advice on breaking it down. Now, next, after. So now we can open my camera right now and just hit record. Don't aim for perfection, just start. Interesting. Watch the first 30 seconds back, pick the part you like, and decide on the opening line. So what's interesting here is that we don't start with thinking We just go with the flow, we learn, we see what went well, and we continue. So this removes like the blocking part of actually starting. So interesting one there. And then after we can record the full video. Now to start, just grab your phone, open the camera, and start recording. So very good advice here. Interesting. Okay. But sometimes this is not enough. Sometimes we need more, and that is when we arrive at step number 3, which is sparking interest. Make it engaging for your brain. And this is a very interesting one, and I will give an example on this that goes a bit deeper than just the AI prompt here. But first, what is this? The NICE model. Novelty, Interest, Challenge, Emergency. So the way our brain works, we need those elements to actually get us excited to move needle and get productive. Now, I actually didn't understand about— I didn't know about this model yet, but I implemented this into my life already. So an example on this, it's quite a funny one, but it works very, very good for me, is in my community, I sometimes launch products before they even are finished. And an interesting thing to give you like a concrete example, I sold a course to some people which wasn't even fully finished yet. So I promised them a specific deadline, a specific moment, so a launch date. And then I find, I immediately have like a deadline for myself. So I create emergency. And it also just becomes a challenge because I have this deadline and I'm not going to let these people down because those people actually paid me to, to follow this course. So I basically hacked the model and I create this emergency and this challenge for me to actually make it exciting, keep myself accountable to those other people. So yeah, maybe this can, can inspire you to experiment with this. Maybe not as extreme as just selling something, but you get the idea. Now, okay, let's apply the nice model by using this prompt. So again, we're going to use ChatGPT. We put in this prompt. Perfect. Here's how I can play a nice model. Try recording in a new environment. So that's a very good one. So I'm sitting here at my desk now. I have a studio. I also have a couch there and I do some recordings there. And recently I also just went outside and just having a different dynamic, different energy can really light you up to take the next step. So switching environments is a good one. Pick one personal story or raw moment. Yeah, something I actually just did it. I shared like the procrastinating on this video. Set a fun constraint. I will post the whole thing in one single take. I might be actually doing that. I might be uploading this in one take. So can help. Tell yourself I have 20 minutes by the end of this timer. You create that emergency and sometimes this can work, but what I have learned is that you need someone else to keep you accountable. So maybe sharing your friends like, okay, end of the day, or your partner or your family or whoever you want to share with. At the end of the day, I'm going to share you this draft of my video and then you have others that will keep you accountable as well. So the NICE model, novelty, interest, challenge, and emergency, and this quick little prompt to use it. Now another hack is timeboxing. So for us as ADHDers, there's basically two situations. There's now and there's not now, and everything in between is like very, very vague and sometimes just gets lost. And that is why we need the clear when, where, and how. And to implement this, we can set a timebox, and that is basically helping us with multiple things. So first of all, let's insert this prompt again. So I can start explaining some things. So we do a lot of things here. So it's a one-line implementation line. So when I finish my coffee or after lunch or this night or this morning or when I wake up, we actually set a time to do something. I also recommend you to put that in your calendar with a reminder. And it will give me the actual steps: sit at my desk, open the camera, and record. And by just That 20 minutes, by preventing it for just 20 minutes, we take away the overwhelm of making the full video, which can take hours in our head. No, we 20-minute time box, we focus, and a lot of times this 20 minutes turns into maybe 1 or 2 hours, and that's fine. But by creating just this 20 minutes, it's either it's both easier to start and we feel the urgency because we just have 20 minutes, so that can prevent us from procrastination. And then some distraction tips: put away your phone. So I personally use Opal to block all my notifications during deep focus work and also recordings, of course. Close all browser tabs, close everything, don't keep your socials open, don't get notified by other people. And place a sticky note with a quick little reminder for yourself. So again, some pretty solid advice over here. But then the final step, which I think is the most important one for a lot of people, because those are more like practical, the ones that we had now, and this one is more below the surface. And a lot of you might be struggling with things that you don't even know yet. And that's what this step is about. So it's about reframing the story. And what we can use for this is a method which is called CBT, cognitive behavioral therapy. Because a lot of times procrastination, even also for people with ADHD, often hides specific fears. So this is also what we talk a lot about in my community. So it can be the fear of failing. So if I just don't start, I will never fail. Or maybe I'm actually deep down scared to actually succeed because that will make me this different person. And am I really ready yet to become that version? This is all stuff maybe deeper inside us that we sometimes don't really understand, but it actually can prevent us from taking those next steps. So it's kind of a self-sabotage way. To not move forward. And to give you an example on this again, I will take the personal example again to show you how you can use this prompt. So we are going to do this. I'm procrastinating on recording a YouTube video. Ask me 5 short questions to uncover what's really blocking me. So it's kind of the same as in the beginning, but then give me 3 self-talk lines that directly respond to my biggest block. Okay, so main message will be about procrastination. Worst case scenario, so yeah, probably that the video don't get views. That's probably the worst thing. I do delay because I want it to be perfect. And if no one watched it, would you— well, if no one watched it, I mean, it will be The world won't end when no one watches it. Actually, it's not that big of a problem. And yes, I am very excited to share this message with the world, but I'm also, I'm so hyped about helping other ADHD people become productive and start businesses that this really feels important to me. And because of that, I tend to overthink it a lot. Okay, so now I've shared context again, and then we can see that my biggest block is perfectionism. Fueled by the emotional weight. Now, this can already help me, but another thing that I want to share with you is that you can use this to go even deeper. You kind of can use this as a therapeutic process, which is not for everyone, but it can be really interesting to like zoom in on where does this perfectionism actually come from. So it can be society, it can be childhood experience, it can be family dynamics, can be anything. And to give you an example, let's ask it. So let me record again. So I want to better understand where perfectionism comes from. So I want you to explain why a lot of people with ADHD struggle with perfectionism. And based on everything I've shared in this chat, I want you to give me some tips and advice and questions to reflect on to better understand why I actually feel this Why wanting to be perfect for this video? Okay, really important question. Okay, and then we get a lot of— so this is a lot of valuable and really spot on. Also, a lot of things are, if you look at the science, are really true. So we do have this all-or-nothing brain. We do struggle with rejection sensitivity. We do struggle with timeliness. And all of those things can really bundle up into into triggering, into making this perfectionism kick up. And I'm excited about helping AUC people. So yeah, and then some practical advice here, shift your metric of success instead of a lot of views, did I share my truth today? So very, very practical things again, and really on a deeper level understanding where this procrastination comes from. So yeah, I highly recommend you to experiment with this. And this was it for today's video, and I want to thank you for being here until the end. And if you like this video and if you like this kind of tips and methods and information, then I highly recommend you to check out ADHD Harmony. There will be a link below in the description. And at ADHD Harmony, we help ADHD entrepreneurs to actually launch their business, and people that have already launched but struggle with taking the next step, so, so scaling, that is also what we help with. So if that sounds interesting to you, then I highly recommend you to check it out. And again, thank you for staying till the end of this video. It really means a lot to me, and hopefully I will see you in the next one again.