Key Points
- Why does ADHD procrastination at work feel like a brick wall, even for simple tasks?
- How breaking projects into micro-steps makes them easier to start.
- Why feedback loops matter for productivity and focus.
- How visual feedback (like a “feedback jar”) keeps momentum going.
- The role of small, easy wins in building consistency.
- A system that works with the ADHD brain instead of fighting against it.
If you’ve ever lived with ADHD, you know procrastination doesn’t feel like a choice. One of my clients, let’s call him Rosy, once said to me: “I can get lost for hours reading online forums, but I can’t make myself answer a two-sentence email.”
That’s what ADHD procrastination at work looks like. The task is right there, you know it won’t take long, and yet your brain says no. For Rosy, this pattern was wrecking his confidence and putting his career under pressure.
The Cycle of Procrastination
She’d sit at his desk, open his laptop, and then find himself scrolling instead. Reports were left unfinished. Emails piled up. Deadlines became fire alarms he only responded to in panic. Each time he told himself he’d do better tomorrow, but the cycle kept repeating.
Why ADHD Brains Struggle
The turning point came when she realised he wasn’t lazy—his brain was wired to respond to feedback loops. Individuals with ADHD tend to crave fast and frequent rewards. That’s why distractions are magnetic. They provide instant feedback: click, scroll, laugh, and dopamine. The loop is short, simple, and satisfying.
Work tasks, by contrast, are long and vague. “Write a report“ or “finish that essay“ is so open-ended that it feels impossible. There’s no immediate payoff. The feedback is delayed. And the barrier to entry feels sky-high.
When we reframed the problem this way, Rosy could finally stop blaming himself. The issue wasn’t her; it was the way the work loop was built.
Shrinking the Loop with Micro-Tasks
So we broke the cycle by shrinking the loop. Instead of “write the report“, Rosy’s sticky notes looked like this:
- Open the document.
- Write the title.
- Draft three bullet points.
- Expand one bullet into a sentence.
Each step was so small that starting took less effort than resisting. And once he began, momentum did the rest. The brain got a quick win, a micro-dose of feedback, and that kept him moving.
The Feedback Jar
But we didn’t stop there. We added a stronger layer of feedback with what I call the feedback jar. Each time Rosy finished a micro-task, she crumpled the sticky note into a ball and dropped it into a clear jar. That small ritual—sound, movement, the jar slowly filling—gave him a physical sense of progress. For someone who used to stare at endless digital to-do lists, this was a powerful experience. The jar became a visible scoreboard of his effort.
“For the first time,“ she told me, “I could actually see myself working, not just feel guilty about what I hadn’t done.”
Starting the Day with Easy Wins
The hardest part for Rosy was starting his day. If his first task was something big, she’d freeze. So we created a list of morning easy wins:
- Open email.
- Reply to one message.
- Write a subject line draft for the report.
These took only a few minutes but gave his brain momentum. Just like video games start with easy tutorial levels, his mornings now began with small steps that built confidence before tackling heavier work.
We also prepared these notes the night before, so she didn’t waste energy deciding what to do. She woke up, saw the first step waiting, and followed along.
Building Consistency
Over time, the shift was remarkable. Rosy went from dreading his inbox to consistently working through it. Reports no longer sat untouched for weeks. And when procrastination crept back, she had a tool: shrink the loop, grab three microtasks, and restart.
For larger projects, we break them down into timed loops instead of vague goals. “Work on the essay for 10 minutes,“ not “write the essay.“ That kept his brain in motion.
Slowly, procrastination lost its power. She no longer thought of himself as someone who “failed at work.“ She thought of him as someone who moved forward every day, even if the steps were small.
His words say it best: “I used to think I needed more discipline. Now I see I just needed a system designed for how my brain works.”
Takeaways from Rosy’s Story
- ADHD procrastination at work isn’t laziness; it’s a mismatch of feedback loops.
- Break projects into tiny micro-steps of 1–5 minutes.
- Use a feedback jar to make progress visible and satisfying.
- Start mornings with easy wins to gather momentum.
- Stay flexible—the system isn’t about perfection, but consistency.
If you’re caught in the same cycle, try it. Tonight, write down three micro-tasks. Make them laughably small. Tomorrow, do them, crumple the notes, and throw them into a jar. Watch the jar fill. Notice how your brain shifts.
You don’t need to wait for a bolt of motivation. You need to build loops your brain can say yes to.
