ADHD Procrastination Hacks: How to Stop Avoiding and Start Doing

If you’ve ever found yourself deep-cleaning your kitchen to avoid sending a single email or reorganizing your closet instead of making a doctor’s appointment, you’re not alone. Procrastination is practically an Olympic sport for ADHD brains — but here’s the kicker:

A growing body of research suggests that procrastination is about emotion regulation, not time management or motivation. It’s not about avoiding the task itself — it’s about avoiding the uncomfortable feelings that come with it. The guilt, the overwhelm, the fear of not doing it perfectly. In this post, we’re diving into why ADHD brains procrastinate, the sneaky ways it shows up, and some ADHD-friendly strategies to break the cycle without hating your life.

1. Emotional Avoidance

When we procrastinate, we’re not avoiding the task itself — we’re avoiding the feelings that come with it. Anxiety about not doing it perfectly, overwhelm at figuring out where to start, or just plain boredom. Dodging the task gives us that little hit of relief, even if it’s only temporary. It’s like hitting snooze on a really loud alarm clock: it feels great in the moment, but the problem’s still there when you open your eyes again.

2. Dopamine Deficit

ADHD brains are basically dopamine bloodhounds, constantly sniffing out things that are interesting, new, or urgent—because those are the things that actually give us that dopamine boost we’re missing. Unfortunately, boring but necessary tasks don’t usually make the cut. Without enough dopamine to kickstart motivation, even simple tasks can feel like trying to roll a boulder uphill.

3. Time Blindness

ADHD brains tend to operate on what I like to call the now/not-now timeline, where things either need to be done right this second or they feel like they’re a million years away. This is why a deadline that’s two weeks from now might as well be in another dimension, and why we suddenly become productivity machines the night before something is due. Without a strong sense of how time passes, it’s easy to put things off because, well, they just don’t feel urgent.

4. Perfectionism & All-or-Nothing Thinking

For a lot of ADHDers, it’s all-or-nothing thinking: if I can’t do this perfectly, I might as well not do it at all. Even small tasks turn into massive undertakings because our brains are constantly rewriting the task from “do the thing” to “do the thing flawlessly or don’t even bother.” It’s exhausting, and it makes starting damn near impossible.

The Sneaky Side of Procrastination: Procrastiplanning, Procrastilearning, and Procrastivity

If regular procrastination is a problem, then ADHD brains have invented some truly creative solutions for avoiding the important stuff while still feeling productive. Enter the unholy trinity of procrastiplanning, procrastilearning, and procrastivity. These are the sneaky forms of procrastination that trick us into feeling accomplished—without actually making progress on the thing that really matters.

Procrastiplanning

This is when you spend all your time planning to do something instead of actually doing it. Like making the perfect to-do list, color-coding your planner, or creating a 37-step morning routine that you’ll probably never follow. It feels productive as hell, but the reality is you’re just pushing off the actual task. ADHD brains love this because it gives us that nice dopamine boost without any of the emotional discomfort that comes from starting.

Procrastilearning

This is when you convince yourself you can’t start the task until you’ve watched every YouTube tutorial, read all the blog posts, and taken a deep dive into the internet’s darkest corners to learn just a little bit more. Learning feels productive, but it’s really just another way to dodge the task that actually matters.

Procrastivity

This is when you avoid a priority task by doing lower-priority but still productive tasks instead. Like cleaning your entire house instead of making one phone call, or reorganizing your entire Google Drive to avoid doing your actual work. It’s sneaky because it tricks us into feeling accomplished while still avoiding the real task.

ADHD-Friendly Strategies to Beat Procrastination

Alright, now that we’ve called out all the sneaky ways we procrastinate, let’s talk about what actually works to get stuff done.

1. Regulate First, Act Second
This one’s all about dealing with the emotional roadblocks before you even try to start the task. If a task feels overwhelming or anxiety-inducing, it’s basically a guarantee your brain is gonna nope right out of it. So take a minute — literally — to do something that calms you down. And I don’t mean scroll TikTok. Take a few deep breaths, take a walk, call a friend, etc.

2. Remove Roadblocks
Literally remove the stuff that’s making the task harder. If gathering supplies is a pain, make step 1 putting them all in one spot. If notifications keep dragging you off task, turn on Do Not Disturb. ADHD brains are way more likely to start a task if it feels easy to get rolling.

3. Find the Most Fun or Interesting First Step
If a task is boring, your brain is gonna fight it with every ounce of executive dysfunction it has. So trick it. Find a part of the task that feels even slightly interesting and start there.

4. Make It Tiny
We’re talking bite-sized, toddler-friendly, “so easy it’s almost ridiculous” levels of small. The goal is to trick your brain into starting because once you’re in motion, it’s easier to keep going.

5. Reframe Your Mindset
Perfectionism is a giant middle finger to productivity. If you’re stuck because you’re worried about doing something perfectly, reframe it to “done is better than perfect” or “progress is better than perfection.”

---

Reflection Questions

• What’s one task you’ve been avoiding, and what emotion comes up when you think about it?
• Which type of procrastination do you fall into most often?
• What’s one strategy from today that you’re willing to try this week?

---

Ready to Stop Avoiding and Start Doing?

Hit play on the latest episode of ADHD Adult(ish) for more ADHD-friendly tips to outsmart procrastination — and if you want some extra help building momentum, grab my free Quick Wins Playbook! It’s packed with simple strategies to turn small wins into real progress.