The Most Creative Ways to Overcome ADHD Paralysis

I ran across a Facebook post by Cherry ADHD asking about the most unhinged tips for overcoming the ADHD paralysis and motivating our ADHD brains. And I have found some of the tips in the comments really creative and some borderline genius, so I decided to make a compilation. I have also added some answers from another Facebook post on the same topic.

But first, here are my unhinged and less unhinged tips for motivating myself to do something difficult, or just to even get moving:

Reward in advance

When I need to do something difficult, I usually do something pleasurable first. It’s a metaphorical way of filling my gas tank so that I don’t run on empty while plunging into the more difficult task. This method creates dopamine first, and then you can use it to finish the task at hand. 

For example, before I go write a long blog post, I make a cup of hot cocoa. Similarly, I schedule some of the more difficult tasks after a massage. That is an activity that helps me feel my gas tank quite a lot, so I’m able to tackle even unpleasant tasks afterwards. Of course, your rewards in advance may be completely different ones. 

Being dramatic first 

When I need to do something that I really, really don’t want to do, I let myself channel my inner drama queen. I throw my hands up in the air, I declare how much I hate it, I even lie down on the floor and kick my legs in the air. After that is done, I have generally found that the task is suddenly easier. I have released some of the built-up resistance, so 

Racing the kettle

I make tea every morning, so in the time it takes for the water to boil, I challenge myself to do as many things as I can: Empty the dishwasher, change my rat’s drinking water… It’s a good way to pass the time so that I don’t have to stand around bored and wait for the water to boil, it gives me a clear timeframe that isn’t too long, so it isn’t difficult to start, and it gives me a rush of adrenaline to race the kettle. Before I did this, I really struggled with changing my rats’ water regularly, and this completely took care of that problem. You can choose a short task you really need to accomplish, and habit-stack it to the kettle boiling.

The 5-minute trick

This is a well-known live hack, but I will include it in case you don’t know it yet. I set a timer for 5 minutes and tell myself that I only have to do the task for that amount of time, and then I can stop. This lowers the mental barrier for beginning and makes the task doable. What’s great is that after I have already started, I often choose to continue even after the five minutes are out because I already have the momentum. 

Watching a video of a person doing the chore

When I need to motivate myself to clean, I sometimes watch cleaning videos on YouTube. After some time, I feel the urge to jump up and start doing it too. The mirror neurons in action, I guess? This is actually a great way to use our hyperempathy for productivity.

Blasting an energetic song

Also, a well-known technique, but in case you are not doing this, I really recommend it. Before I plunge into something difficult, I blast S&M by Rihanna. It’s one that really kicks my ass into gear. And the rest of the playlist, All Time Bangers, is also quite motivating. I have tried various motivating playlists from Spotify, and this one is the best by far.

Slapping my hand on the table repeatedly

I do this for some time, and then I feel pumped and ready to take on the task that needs to be done.

Reverse to-do list

Or “to-done list”, if you will. I simply write down everything that I have already done, even the smallest, the most insignificant things, and then I tick them off the list. It gives your brain a bit of dopamine you can use to move forward.

Some of the other well-known tips that I haven’t tried yet but want to are:

Role-play

For example, put on medieval tavern music and role-play a bar wench who goes about tidying the bar. The role-playing keeps the task from being boring, and it appeals to that part of our brain that absolutely can’t do chores at our own homes, yet is more than ready to start tidying a friend’s house. When we make it feel like someone else is doing the difficult task, it is much easier to accomplish.

Putting your shoes on

A lot of people swear by putting on running shoes when they want to tackle some chores. It is a cue that signals to your brain that you mean business. You can create your own cue. An alternate method is not putting your shoes off when you are returning from the outside and still have the momentum.

Body doubling

A lot of people with ADHD swear by having someone else around, even virtually. You can call a friend and do your chores while talking, you can ask a friend to come over and sit with you while you are tackling your tasks (they don’t have to help), or you can join a virtual body doubling session on TikTok or Duubii. A variation on body doubling is setting your phone to record you while you are doing the chores, especially cleaning. It makes you feel like someone else is watching, which can be oddly motivating. And also, you can make a cool time-lapse video of you working!

The most creative tips for overcoming the ADHD paralysis

So these are my tips and tricks. Now, without further ado, I present you with the selection of the smartest, most creative, and craziest tips picked up from the Facebook comments. They are a testament to the creativity of ADHD and AuDHD minds and a great source of inspiration. Maybe you will find something here that you will incorporate into your daily arsenal of coping techniques. And if not, maybe you will at least have a good laugh.

TL;DR: The number one piece of advice. I⁠⁠⁠⁠f not anything else, do this:

The tip that people have repeated the most often, over and over? I have already mentioned it. It’s “Put your shoes on.” It’s a powerful cue for your brain to understand you are in the “go” mode.

The second most repeated advice? ”Don’t sit down.” “Don’t take your shoes off.” When you have momentum, use it, or you’ll lose it. 

The contender for third place is “play some energetic music“, often with dancing thrown in.

Here are the rest of the tips, grouped by similarities:

Play pretend

Alexandra Paraschiv

I imagine I’m someone else. For example, I imagine I’m a 40-year-old woman named Emma living in a small town in Norway, and she really loves to clean the kitchen. And I invent stuff about her while doing it. Sometimes, this is the only way that gets me through chores.

Ricc James

My favorite is to pretend I’m an undercover agent. And that I have to stick to the plan, and the mission is to go unnoticed, and by unnoticed, I mean the person I am pretending to be would normally do these things with ease… so I must DO THESE THINGS. Because I’m a SUPER SPY 🕵️‍♀️

Jade Noelle

I have a playlist called the “Broadway Battle Playlist” that’s Broadway songs that surround charging into a literal or metaphorical battle (think “Do You Hear the People Sing,” “I, Don Quixote,” “Into the Fire” and that kind of thing). I blast it, and then I think of lack of motivation or depression as a tyrant and myself as a revolutionary. The tyrant says I cannot do this task, but I shall! I shall do it singing! Laughing! 🎶IT IS THE MUSIC OF THE PEOPLE WHO WILL NOT BE SLAVES AGAIN🎶

That or I just narrate what I’m about to do in a weird voice until I do it.

Julie Bonaduce

Sometimes I pretend my life is a reality tv show and I’m being followed by cameras so that I always act excited and romanticize the things I’m doing like it’s a part of some grand plot

Emma Harris

I talk out loud, pretending I’m in a TV show – presenting to my audience the chore I’m doing, or answering questions about what I’m doing to the ‘presenter’.

Lorianne Gambrell

Pretend it’s someone else’s house. They need to get these things done before (invent a scenario). They’re desperate, don’t think it can be done, and they’ve asked for your help. It’s always easier to clean someone else’s house, especially when there is a deadline!

Ingrid Pinn

You want unhinged, I give you unhinged. When I was a child and was told to tidy up my room, I would disappear off into my dream world, pretend to be some character in there, and then come up with some wild idea as to why this place was in such a mess. Like for example, the goblin army had attacked and destroyed the village, now the people have to tidy up and rebuild their lives…..It was the only way I was ever able to focus long enough to get the job done. I’m over forty now, but to date, that was still the most effective hack for me.

Jenny Paatz

Since ADHDers are great at doing things for others, it also really helps to not do the thing for „present you“, but to imagine your „future you“, kind of like a different person. Imagine how future you will feel if the thing has already been done by the present (then past) you.

That’s my most successful method.

Gaby Portilla

I start imagining that a bomb is going to go off, and the only way to deactivate it is by washing all the dishes, or we will blow up and die.

Brenda Currier

I walk into my house and pretend it’s a stranger’s mess, and I’m getting paid to help them organize.

Becca Schattner Leipzig

Pretend I’m a cleaning house fairy and I must finish before I’m seen. Also, must finish to go back to reading.

A Skillful Story

I turn on music from the Sims and pretend that I’m no longer in control and that I am in the game being controlled by a random person who makes me do things even if I don’t want to.

Make it into a game

Alina Alvarado

When I was younger and needed to clean a messy room with stuff all over the floor, I would tell myself everything that wasn’t the floor was needles or spikes that needed to be moved to change them back so they didn’t hurt anyone (and I would physically move around only touching the floor like I was navigating invisible mines and even do a quiet but audible “ow” if I did touch something😅)

Katie Jean

I write down things I need to do, one thing on one piece of paper. Then I fold them up and put them in a cup. Then draw to see what my task is! There is an excitement about not knowing what you’ll have to do next. Then, I give myself time, based on the task. So it’s a race to get it done.

Jessica Dykstra

I bought pretty dice and made a “board game” of sorts. I roll for what I have to do in which room and for how long. Then I get to roll for points and do math! The points = game money, so I “get paid” as well. Quite fun when I remember it exists

Create an adrenaline rush

Carlie Rhae

I smash a plate in the kitchen – I have to clean it up quickly so no kids or animals get cut… clean mode activated!!

Miranda Sowell

I just scream and make loud noises like I’m a maniac to amp myself up and get the blood flowing. Inducing my own adrenaline rush 

Gia Rendon

I climb on the counter, stand up, and scream as loud as I can (when I’m at home)

Jenna Gillis

I use commercials to jump up and race to do a task, and then come back to watch my show when commercials are over.

Sky Shipley Craig

I throw my phone, scream at the top of my lungs, then sing show tunes like I’m being held at gunpoint while I clean as fast as I can because if I don’t, my entire family will die. Or I pretend I’m a sim

Erin Martin

If my boyfriend starts cleaning first, I have to clean right now and faster than he is, or I feel bad 😅 probably trauma-based response from being called lazy over any little thing, even going to brunch with my mom…(not with him though, he’s a serious blessing) but yeah, that gets my ADHD brain in gear real fast 🤷🏻‍♀️

Christi Murphy

I invite people over for dinner, knowing full well I will have to panic clean the house. Sometimes that’s the only way to get me to do it. 🤣

Sherece Matos

Wait for my husband to tell me he’s on his way home, then run around doing as many things as I can until he is pulling into the driveway, then run to sit back down on the couch as if I did all the things throughout the day, or however long he was out

Use your body’s functions

Alanie Espinoza

Back when I would wake up at 5 am to go to the gym, I would keep a 32-oz mason jar of water by my bed and would chug it when my alarm went off. If the water itself didn’t wake me up, the urge to pee would.

Andrea Harding

I usually wait til I need to pee, and then it’s a case of ‘well, I’m up now, so I may as well’. Not much else works for me if I’m honest, though.

Samantha Jane

Can’t go for a wee until I do the thing

Devora Orloff

If I can’t get up off the couch, I start drinking every liquid within arm’s reach. very soon, I am FORCED to get up because I have to pee, and then I “might as well” myself into doing at least one task before sitting down, since I’m already up.

Sensory hacks and cues

Danielle Wilkinson

Not completely crazy, but spray air freshener first…. for some reason the clean smell makes me go into motor mode to have a clean house… but also only with shoes on because I can feel the floor too much … and crumbs 🤢 on my feet make the good vibes go away almost instantly

Steven Nault

Erm….I had a friend tell me to grab his smelling salts and put them under his nose…..legit, he jumped, and that got him going, and he hyper focused on cleaning for an hour.

Brianna Scarson

This only works if it’s winter and snowing. Go outside in your clothes and bare feet, standing in the snow for a minute or two. NO SHOES OR SOCKS. It just kinda works like a restart for me.

Curt Ward

Lemon …. Lemon drops, lemon water, lemon yogurt, anything lemon.

Kristen Hunter

I get the supplies out and leave them where they need to be, and I’ll see them. Then, when they’re right when they need to be, when it’s time to do the task, it’s there, and it’s easy, and I’m motivated to do the thing because now it’s all out and I have to put it away, so I might as well do the thing.

Mela BE

I put things where I will trip on them or sit on them so that I can’t forget. Daughter’s lunch needs to be packed after I put her to bed? I put the lunch box on my seat on the couch so I won’t just sit down and forget. Need to order more vitamins? Put the empty bottle where I will trip on it or have to awkwardly step around it so that I will be forced to notice it and reminded to order it. Need to put away laundry? Block the door with the laundry basket and/or hide the TV remote in the laundry so I will remember to fold as I watch my show later.

Mike Connell

I’m diabetic and use my finger being pricked to shock me into action. A spray of water works too. I’m essentially a naughty puppy

Kathie Fisher

In desperate times, I play an old Nokia ringtone from when I used to be on call for work – instant action-mode

Stewart Robert David Cumming

Give myself a little love slap, like it restarts the brain. Or flail my hand in the air like I’m trying to flick my fingers.

Elsa McCowan

Step in water with socks on, and then I don’t allow myself to take them off until I complete one thing.

Deanna Travatzi

Intentionally step in water while wearing socks and won’t take them off till the task is done, or if I need to keep motivation, a VERY large toy in a very uncomfortable location to prevent me from sitting down until said task is done

Mys Hensley Hahn

I work from home, but I get dressed like I’m going to the office. Something about changing from pajamas to people-ing clothing, doing my hair, applying simple makeup, and putting on SHOES (those are the most important part) makes my brain boot. The same thing happens in reverse – slippers or shoes coming off and comfy clothes equals mentally logging off.

What makes it unhinged? The laundry. The effing laundry… gah!

Ashley Miniajluk

I tell myself I can sit but only on my heating pad at the hottest setting…..I literally light a fire under my ass to get myself moving. 😬

Jordan Logue

I put on my kids’ old Easter bunny ears, birthday crowns, saint paddy’s Day headband, and it’s like I’ve been activated.

Be vocal

Amy Bennett

Like in the moment? Make a quick list of things that need to be done in my head, then SING IT. Out loud. I do a little dance too. It’s usually in the kitchen, and to the tune of Timmy the Tiny Turtle “washing in the machine, pick up all the socks, put the chicken in the oven, clean up all the pots…” (everything rhymes in my head) usually by the time I’ve finished I’m energized, got an order, and have done half the jobs and now high in dopamine 😂 Neighbours think I’m nuts

Steven Specht

Singing pop songs in chicken noises.

Cecelia Richards

I do a hard, slow clap that gets progressively more aggressive the longer it takes me to regulate enough to get TF up.

Mallory Ann Kitchens

I start yodeling the Sound of Music goat song at full volume. It pumps me up 🤷‍♀️

Lisa Kinsey

Talk to myself out loud, like I am a child. “Okay, honey, time to brush those teefers.”

Monica D. W.

It’s ADHD, the musical up in my house. I start with a little number about doing my least favorite chore, and then the reprise is doing an ”enjoyable” chore …as a reward.

Dena Mauldin

I say out loud the next thing I have to do until I annoy myself enough that I get up to do it.

Emma Marriott

I can only tidy up when I rap. I probably sound ridiculous, but something magical happens, and I can just focus on housework and do it like a normal person. As soon as I stop rapping, I stop tidying. It’s bizarre.

Samantha Maiden

When I’m with a friend who also has the paralysis, I look them dead in the face and say, “ready go?” And they reply, “ready go.” And we get that shit done so we can sit back down.

Reward yourself

Søutẹr Stéwąrt

Listen to an audiobook.

Tiffany Webber

I love reading! After every chapter, I require myself to get up and do at least one thing. I usually get momentum and do more, but on bad days, I at least get some stuff done.

Kristine Heimdal Kleiv

Have made a rule: I can’t keep listening to my audiobook if I’m sitting or lying down😅 I often stop it at a cliffhanger so I’m more motivated

Amy Sanders

Go eat a spoonful of ice cream right out of the tub. A tiny snack of dopamine to get me moving.

Hannah Wallace

I dragged the TV out of our bedroom and put it in the kitchen. I work night shifts, so constantly tired. If I sit down in front of the TV on the sofa in the lounge, I will be stuck there for hours/ days. If I put the TV on in the kitchen, I am more likely to cook, do the dishwasher, do the laundry, etc., because it’s all in 1 room but uncomfortable to sit at the table all day.

Amanda Schmitz

I like having my nails painted, so I break a task I don’t like into 10 steps, and paint 1 finger with each step. That way, if I don’t finish all 10, I’m stuck with funny-looking nails 💅

Use another activity

Haiisa Natrho

If I’m binging a show and told myself I need to work out, I’d tell myself I have 25 reps of whatever exercise before the next episode’s intro starts, and I’d do that for about 3 episodes, or until I get tired of working out, then I’d stop binging lol

Melanie Kincade-Russum

I set appointments as early in the morning. Once I’m moving, it tends to be easier to keep moving

Kay Oh

Put free-to-air TV or YouTube on, tell yourself you’ll watch show until ad break, try and finish task during ad break, forget about show (and everything else) because you’ll now be in a hyperfocus and finished cleaning your entire house (or maybe just finished dismantling your entire washing machine/building a dining room suite from scratch/re-seeding your lawn) before you even realise what’s happened.

Cindy Lyngaa Holme

Call someone. Then I’ll be distracted, and boom shakala, clean house.

Visual motivation

Holly Joy Teed

Need to clean out the closet? Pull everything on the floor into the bathroom. Now I have to clean it otherwise, people will trip on my stuff, and I’ll feel bad. Garage? Pull stuff into the driveway because I know I can’t leave it out overnight. This works IF I can manage to visualize the results afterwards and get just a smidge of dopamine from that feeling, juuuuust enough to give me motivation to start pulling things out. Once I’m rolling, I can’t help but keep going. So, visualizing the end result and the feeling I’ll have then, then becoming a human wrecking ball is my version of unhinged.

Paul Wunderlich-Heißtschonimmerso

When it comes to cleaning a room, I put everything that needs to be put away in the middle of the room. Then everything looks good except that one spot, which is now very easy to clean, because it’s so small compared to the mess before!

Chelsea Dooly Shipley

Take a picture of the mess and then edit it to color the parts I cleaned up with a highlighter

Build momentum

HiddenInaHoodie

“Eh, might as well” method. I tell myself I only have to wash one dish, and then I can go, but once I start, I’m usually “well, my hands are already wet and soapy, might as well do a few more” and end up doing all the dishes. Doesn’t work all the time, but lowering the pressure from “I have to do all the dishes” to “I can do one dish, and that’s enough” helps my brain not get overwhelmed before I even start.

Michelle Wallace

I do a 20/20. I do whatever I want to do (or do nothing!) for 20 minutes. When the timer goes off, I go balls out on a task for the next 20 minutes. As soon as the timer dings, I stop and go back to the fun stuff for 20. I can clean my entire house, but it doesn’t feel like I’ve done much!

Jenny Paatz

Get your body to move. Anything of it. Even a wiggle of the big toe is a start. Let the movement grow until you can shake your whole body. Then you are out of the freeze mode and are ready to do something.

Hannah Domon

Say out loud, “okay .. 1, 2, 3 go!”, then make myself get up & do at least one thing. Sometimes I add a clap if I need a little extra push

Kandie Rose Hudson

Tell myself to just do the fastest and easiest thing. Then the next easiest. So we’re not cleaning the living room, we’re just picking up a bag and only grabbing trash, just trash, not even throwing the bag out. Just collect the trash.

Once the trash is out of the way, you can see there are a few dishes scattered around. Pick those up next and put them in the sink. We’re not washing them now, we’re just getting them out of the living room.

….then you just keep going. Eventually, you get some momentum, and the next easiest thing to do is take out the trash and load the dishwasher. You can make a lot of progress in not a lot of time thanks to this method.

Marcin Maroin Dąbrowski· 

Three steps:

1. Name all the tasks in the head
2. Choose the hardest one, the one that actually paralyzes you
3. Attack the biggest bully task, and all other tasks are now scared of you

Natalie Mason

Every time I don’t wanna do something, or I’m stuck in paralysis, I either:

A. Make plans immediately that require me to do the task.
B. Make someone else start and do it wrong so I have to jump in and “fix” it
C. Assign myself a bigger or harder task that makes the one I’m avoiding seem smaller and easier

Virginia Nakiah Louise Burnes

Tell myself I’m only going to wash the knives so they don’t rust. 20 minutes later, I’m done with all the dishes.

Tell myself I’m just going to empty the dryer’s lint trap. 20 minutes later, I’ve switched the loads, started a new load to wash, and put away the stuff from the dryer.

Tell myself I’m just going to store for milk, eggs, and bananas. 2 Hours later, I’ve done the weekly shopping, put away groceries, and meal prepped for at least 3 nights.

Planners, to-do lists, and alarms

Laura Marie Lacy

Keep a paper planner because I know I’m very tactile. I will also write out to-do lists, take a picture of them, and make them my phone wallpaper for the day.

Nicki Davies

Alarms. I need alarms. And differing alarm tones! It works…. often?

Use AI 

Laura Bryant

Vent my entire brain, stress, tasks, hindrances to tasks, and whatever else to ChatGPT. Then, knowing I have ADHD, it organizes everything, says, “Eat some protein, then do x,y,z.” And it works 🤷🏻‍♀️

Kate Austin

I tell my AI what my tasks are, how I’m feeling about it, and ask it to come up with a whimsical way to get things done. Then I check in after every tiny step of progress for my paragraphs of accolades, like I really did do a great job. AI is tireless and infinite with its encouragement and praise, which I would feel bad about asking a friend for so much feedback

Tracey Valentine

I tell Copilot all the stuff I need to do, and it picks the unlikeliest. Then I am so surprised that I go and do it! 🙂

Creative ways to get yourself moving

Angie Sharma-Lowe

My phone alarm is a doorbell. Nothing gets you out of bed faster than a doorbell.

It works every day, because before I remember it’s the alarm, my brain & body are up getting decent, wondering who it could be.

Jezebel Sheffield

When I want to do something but I can’t get up and do it for whatever reason, I put all my effort into falling off my bed— so I have to get up, and while I’m up, I can do the thing!

Emily B. Tellier

I put a sticky note on my phone that says NO when I really need to focus on something.

My bff will tie herself to her desk when she needs to work on the computer. Literally ties her ankle to a rope and attaches to the desk, so if she thinks to get up and do something, she is reminded to stay at the desk

Jessi Egnor

Have one completely messy, destroyed room at all times. Whenever you need to do dishes, say I gotta go clean that room today. Your whole house will stay clean. You’ll do anything but clean that room.

Jenna Schrengohst

Assign myself a different hard task. I just did a task 5 years overdue in order to avoid a different task

Karen Smith

Pick another ADHD bird (birds of a feather flock together remember!) and play the “What Three Things” game – choose three things for the other person to do from their ridiculously impossible to achieve to do list them race them to complete them…..usually don’t hear back for hours as avoiding doing the three things spurs them (and you) on to do 25 other things instead 🙂

Tree Russell

Get someone to say “you could never do that well”….the inner spite will rise 😂

Christine Lyons

Anthropomorphize chores. The dishes are sad because they are not clean and tucked into bed (the cupboard) with their family.

Emmy Miller

Honestly, I tell my kid I need to get up and do stuff, but I’m having trouble motivating, so he comes to annoy and force me into doing my stuff. It helps me, plus he loves the opportunity to be as obnoxious as he can be

Kristen Rosiar

Toss my phone across the room, so I have to stand up to get it.

Lyndsey Lola

Wait until everyone is in bed! 🤣 Shit gets done when everyone’s gone to bed, so there’s no one to talk to, and my phone battery has died

Misha Fuller

Take the argument you’re having inside your head and do it out loud with ridiculous voices…

Whiney: “But I don’t wanna cook dinner, wahh!”
Mom: “But you have to cook dinner, honey, or you’ll be hungry later.”
Brat: “You can’t make me!”
Pro Wrestler: “You’re gonna get that GD butt out of bed, or you’re gonna have to deal with ME.”
Certainly, you’ll eventually get to the voice that says, “ok FINE I’m doing it.”

Emily Hinds

If I’m having a hard time making myself respond to texts or emails (frequent issue for me), I hit “reply” and just start furiously typing swear words until my brain becomes afraid I’ll accidentally send it to my boss or smth and spits out a coherent response instead.

Chelsea Weaver Chenyworth

I start planning my funeral. I write down the number for the natural burial cemetery I want to be laid to rest in, a couple of ideas for shrouds, my demand not to be buried in a bra or shoes, etc. And then I realize “oh shit, I can’t leave my family with this mess” 😂 and yes, before you ask, I’m ok. 🥰

Conclusion

I have intentionally made this post long to include all the tips and tricks that I found useful and interesting. I intended to create a comprehensive treasure trove of as many options as possible for you to pick from. Of course, you don’t need to try them all, you just need a few that work for you. Choose one or two and try them the next time you feel stuck. The key is to lower the barrier to starting and create just enough momentum to get going. And if you can have fun in the process, even better. Let me know in the comments what worked for you the best!

Are you always late?

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