Okay, let’s get one thing straight before we dive in: procrastination isn’t laziness. Not even close!
If you’re neurodivergent — ADHD, dyslexic, autistic or some delightful combination of the above — procrastination is usually your brain doing its absolute best in a world that wasn’t really designed with you in mind.
The standard advice? Just make a to-do list. Break it into steps. Set a goal. Cheers for that. Very helpful. Meanwhile your brain is already seventeen tabs deep into something completely unrelated, and you’ve forgotten what you were supposed to be doing in the first place.
The good news is there are strategies that actually work with your brain, not against it. Think of these less like a strict setlist and more like a playlist you can shuffle depending on your mood. Pick the ones that resonate. Leave the ones that don’t.
Let’s goooooooooo!
1. The Brain Dump: Get It Outta your Head and Onto the Page
If your brain is a browser with fifty tabs open, a brain dump is how you force-quit the ones you don’t need right now. It’s simple: grab a notebook, open a doc, scribble on a napkin — whatever’s nearest — and write down absolutely everything that’s rattling around in your head. Tasks, worries, random ideas, that thing you keep meaning to Google. All of it.
The ADHD brain is brilliant at generating thoughts. It’s less brilliant at filing them quietly in the background while you crack on with the actual job. A brain dump gives all those thoughts somewhere to live so they stop elbowing each other for attention.
Once it’s all on paper, you can pick ONE thing to focus on. Just one. Not a list of seven. One. The rest can wait — they’re not going anywhere.
Not a writer? No bother. Voice notes work just as well. Talk it out to yourself or send a rambling voice message to someone you trust. Getting it outta your head is the goal — the format doesn’t matter.
Pro tip: Do a brain dump at the start of every working day. It takes five minutes and saves you from spending the next two hours feeling overwhelmed and doing absolutely nothing as a result.
2. Co-Working and Body Doubling: You Work Better with an Audience
Body doubling sounds a bit mysterious but it’s one of the most powerful tools in the ADHD toolkit. The idea is simple: you work alongside another person — not necessarily doing the same thing — and somehow, magically, you actually get stuff done.
It’s thought to work because having another presence nearby (even a virtual one) activates a different part of your brain’s motivation system. The external accountability kicks in where the internal kind has, frankly, gone AWOL.
You don’t need a formal co-working space. A mate on a video call doing their own thing works just as well. There are also online communities built entirely around this — virtual focus rooms where everyone just quietly gets on with it together. Look up Focusmate if you want a free option.
The accountability piece is important here too. Before you start, actually say out loud what you’re planning to work on. Tell your co-working partner, drop it in the chat, or even just announce it to your empty office.
Something about stating your intention makes it stickier. Even if you do end up down a rabbit hole twenty minutes later, part of your brain is still keeping score. It’s not about being “perfect” in the session. It’s about having something to come back to.
Think of it like playing better when someone’s in the room. Even the most seasoned musician can lift their game when there’s an audience, even a tiny one.
3. Setting Timers and Deadlines: Give Your Brain a Finish Line
The ADHD brain has a complicated relationship with time. Specifically: it tends to recognise only two kinds. “Now” and “not now”. Everything in the “not now” pile feels comfortably vague and very far away — right up until it’s absolutely on fire and due in an hour.
Timers create an artificial “now”. They make time feel real and finite, which is exactly what the ADHD brain needs to stop drifting and start doing.
The Pomodoro Technique is a classic for a reason: 25 minutes of focused work, five-minute break, repeat. But honestly, experiment with what works for you. Some people do better with 15-minute sprints. Others can sustain 45 or 60. The point is to have a clear end-point, so your brain can commit without feeling like you’re signing up for an indefinite slog.
Fake deadlines work too.
- Tell a friend you’ll send them something by 3pm.
- Book a meeting that forces you to have something ready.
- Add events to your calendar that don’t exist but create urgency anyway.
Your brain doesn’t need to know the deadline is self-imposed. It just needs one!
I personally use the in-built timer on Zoom with some of my clients and it works brilliantly. It’s right there on screen, shared between you both, so there’s no faffing about with separate apps, and the mutual visibility adds a lovely layer of accountability too.
Pro tip: Use a visual timer — one you can actually see counting down. The Time Timer is popular in neurodivergent communities for good reason. When you can see time disappearing, it stops feeling abstract.
4. Active Listening: Use Sound to Anchor Your Focus
This one’s close to my heart. Music isn’t just background noise — it’s a genuine brain tool. For many people with ADHD, the right kind of sound can significantly improve focus, reduce the pull of distractions, and help the brain settle into a working rhythm.
The key word is “right kind”. Lyrics can be a trap if your brain wants to sing along instead of work (v. guilty). Try lo-fi beats, classical music, film scores or brown noise. There’s a whole genre of music specifically designed to support focus. Defo worth a rummage on Deezer or YouTube.
Binaural beats (when two slightly different frequencies are played in each ear) have also gained traction in neurodivergent circles as a focus aid — not for everyone but worth a try. And if silence works better for you, noise-cancelling headphones can be the best investment you ever make.
The trick is to build a consistent sound environment for focus tasks. Over time, your brain learns that a particular playlist means it’s time to get on with it, just like a musical cue before the show starts.
On a related note, I sometimes get used as a “soundboard” by clients who just need to think out loud. They bounce an idea off me, I chip in with thoughts and suggestions, and more often than not, simply voicing the idea out loud is enough to break the procrastination spell.
There’s something about saying it to another person — having someone sense-check it and reflect it back — that makes it feel real and doable rather than just another swirling thought going nowhere. If you’ve got someone in your corner who can do that for you, use them!
5. The Messy First Draft: Lower the Bar to Get Started
Perfectionism and procrastination are basically besties. The thought of doing something badly is so uncomfortable that you don’t do it at all. And so the task sits there and sits there, growing in your head until it feels enormous and impossible.
My personal mantra on this is: people pleasing + perfectionism = procrastination.
The two are inextricably linked. When you’re caught up in worrying about what others will think, you set an impossibly high bar for yourself before you’ve even got started. The work has to be perfect because you can’t bear the thought of letting anyone down or being judged. And so you don’t start at all. Round and round it goes.
The messy first draft is your antidote. Give yourself full permission to do something badly. Write the terrible email. Make the rough plan. Sketch the wonky layout. Create the version that nobody will ever see.
Because here’s what actually happens: once you’ve started, the resistance drops. The task that felt impossible at 100% suddenly becomes manageable when you’ve already got something on the page. You’re not writing the final version. You’re just warming up.
This works for anything and not just writing. Messy first draft of a proposal. Rough cut of a video. Scruffy outline of a plan. Done and imperfect beats stuck and perfect every single time.
Tattoo this on your brain: You can’t edit a blank page. Get something down, then make it good.
Find Your Rhythm
These five strategies aren’t a rigid system. They’re more like instruments in a band — some days you’ll need all of ‘em, some days just one will do the job. The goal isn’t to force your brain into a neurotypical mould. It’s working out what helps yours get into flow.
Try one this week. Just one. See what shifts. You might be surprised how much easier things feel when you stop fighting your brain and start playing to its strengths instead.
Want to Stop Doing Everything Yourself?
If your to-do list is running the show and your brain is staging a full-on revolt, maybe it’s time to hand some of it over.
I work with neurodivergent biz owners, creatives and coaches to create systems that actually make sense for the way your brain works. And I take on the admin, content and organisational chaos, so you can get back to doing the work you’re brilliant at.
No complicated onboarding. No having to explain yourself six times. Just proper, practical support from someone who genuinely gets it.
Book an informal chat and let’s figure out how I can help you get out of your own way and back into your zone of genius.
P.S. My first (second is brewing) book Sing Like No-One’s Listening is out on 31 March 2026! I go much deeper on how I beat people-pleasing, perfectionism and procrastination to finally take the plunge and become my own boss, and how YOU can too.