People with ADHD struggle to get things done in a timely fashion. Much of the struggle is to get started on the task and then stick with it until it is done. It is not that we can’t start things but that we often can’t start the right thing, that thing we are supposed get done. Instead we start many things that are not a priority to avoid the task that we need to do.
I have talked and written a lot about chunking projects into shorter tasks. It is easier to get started and do a shorter task than to get started on a big project. All big projects are a series of shorter tasks waiting to be accomplished.
I strongly believe that success breeds success. It makes sense to identify a short task to start with in the morning and complete quickly. That success may just spur you on to the next task. The only caution is not to get so full of the success that you feel you don’t need to accomplish anything further that day.
When I wrote my book “Forget Perfect: How to Succeed in Your Profession and Personal Life Even if You Have ADHD” I didn’t write the book from the beginning to end. I wrote it in chunks with each chapter a series of those chunks. That way I could write for a short time and complete something and cross if off the list. That success helped me pick another chunk to write and complete. Each chunk spurs me on to finish the next until a chapter was done. I didn’t write in a linear fashion but wrote what chunks I could when I could.
I often wrote first thing in the morning to get the allocated chunks for the day done. The success of completing a chunk done helped me keep going. That resulted in a more productive day.
At this time many people are working from home and it is difficult to get started in the morning and stay on task all day with so many distractions available at home. The strategy of picking a short task to get done at the start of the day will help you to get started in the morning. The immediate success will set the tone for the day encouraging you to get more short tasks done. All those short tasks become a completed project. You have achieved your goal.