How to Motivate Yourself (when you have ADHD)

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Hey y’all! If you’re anything like me, you probably struggle with getting things done and motivating yourself to do things. Some days you might have all the energy to do all the things and finish all the projects and feel really amazing about it. And then there’s other days when you can’t do anything, you can’t get out of bed. You can’t get off the couch. You might sit and stare at your computer, but nothing is connecting from up here to the hands that have to do these things, right.

But here’s the great news. Whether you have ADHD or not, self-motivation is a skill that can be learned and cultivated. So, stick around because we’re going to get into that.

The Role of Dopamine in Self Motivation

Motivation is rooted in dopamine. Dopamine is a neurotransmitter that not only regulates motivation, but also regulates working memory and focus, and task initiation. And when you have enough dopamine in your system, you’re able to focus on what’s required to complete a task. You can hold steps in your memory and know why you’re doing something, actually initiate the task, follow through with it, and then feel amazing once it’s done.

So naturally, when you don’t have enough dopamine in your system, it becomes really hard to self-motivate to do things. It’s kinda like running through hummus, man, and you just keep sinking and sinking and the deeper you sink, the harder it is to get yourself out of it.

Understanding the Brain and Body Connection to Motivation

I once heard motivation and ADHD described like erectile dysfunction of the brain. You know, you want to do something and you know, it’s important and valuable, but you just can’t perform, if you know what I mean. 😉

So that is what’s happening inside the brain and body. When you can’t motivate yourself to do something, you know, you need to do it all starts with dopamine, but what you’re probably wondering is. Okay, now I get it. But what do I do to change it?

Generating Dopamine

The first thing to know about dopamine is that it’s generated through anticipation of something that’s going to feel good. It is very connected to your emotions. So, you know, that theory of eating the frog first, where you’re supposed to do the hardest thing that you need to do in a day first, you get it out of the way. Well, that’s actually the reverse of what we need to do.

If ADHD’ers want to generate dopamine in our brains, we need to start with things that are enjoyable first or that we know that we can do and get a quick win because the more quick wins we can get the better we’re going to feel.

Working Memory Issues Can Hinder Self-Motivation

The other struggle we have as ADHD, or is when it comes to self-motivation is our working memory issues. So working memory is an executive function that often struggles with. And in the context of motivation, working memory is not only just about remembering all the steps that we need to do. It’s also remembering why it’s important and connecting the dots between what this little task is and what it means for us.

Overcoming Self-Sabotage

One of the things I want to point out about ADHD and self-motivation is this idea of self-sabotage. So not only might we not have enough dopamine to get started, if our brain anticipates that this task is not going to feel good, or we’re not going to succeed based on previous knowledge, it is going to do everything it can to make sure you don’t do it again.

Cultivating the Skill of Self-Motivation

So at this point, you’re probably going, oh my God, like, how am I ever going to learn to self-motivate? Well, hang on because we’re going to get into that right now.

1. Find an Emotional Connection: Find an emotional connection to the task that you need to do. So let’s say it’s your taxes and nobody’s emotionally connected to doing taxes. However, you might be emotionally connected to the feeling you’re going to feel when it’s done.
2. Manage Your Mood: The best way to do that in the moment where you need to motivate yourself to do something is to start with something that you do enjoy so that you can get that dopamine neurotransmitter flowing.
3. Start Small to Go Big: When we’re talking about something like taxes, that’s not a task, it’s a project and it’s big and there’s a lot of bits and pieces to it. So instead of sitting down to do your taxes, sit down and organize your paperwork and tell yourself I’m just going to organize paperwork for five minutes.
4. Don’t Do It Alone: As I mentioned earlier, body doubling has this magic appeal for us, where we’re able to focus when there’s somebody else in the room or on like a computer screen.
5. Celebrate Your Wins: Every time you make progress towards a task that you’re struggling with, whether it’s doing that five-minute rule and you just leave it after five minutes or it’s something bigger. You’ve got to acknowledge the fact that you took a step and you follow through with it.

Creating a Self-Motivating Dopa-menu

I’m not sure who coined the term of “dopa-menu”, but the idea is too good not to share. As mentioned earlier, we can generate dopamine through the anticipation of something that feels good. But, very often when we need that hit of dopamine the most, we can’t think of a single thing that would feel good.

That’s where a dopa-menu comes into play. Having a standby list of things that you can do to elivate your mood in the moment, is a great way to inspire and engage your senses when you need it the most.

Here’s a few ideas from my own dopa-menu

• Roll out a yoga mat and do a few sun salutations
• Listen to one of my favorite podcasts while taking a walk outside
• Cleaning (only works sometimes, and depends on the job)
• Scroll dog accounts on instagram (with a timer!)
• Plan my day in my Notion Planner (I’m a nerd for Notion)