ADHD (10): Why ADHD Productivity Comes in Waves (and How to Use It).

Productivity… we all know the feeling.

You get the washing done, then the hoovering, then the washing up. You pop out and do the food shopping. One task rolls into another and the whole day flows.

Then suddenly — boom.

Your energy disappears. Your motivation evaporates. You feel flat, drained, and one step short of clinically depressed.

If that hasn’t happened to you, you probably don’t have ADHD.

Why This Happens

The issue is dopamine regulation and executive function.

Neurotypical people have fairly stable regulation of these systems. ADHD brains have the same systems, but they are inconsistent.

We rely on urgency, novelty, pressure, or genuine interest to activate them. That’s why some days you can complete twenty tasks in the time it takes someone else to finish one.

If you watch your behaviour closely, you’ll often see your attention jumping from one thing to another driven by urgency or interest. It’s difficult for us to simply “do” things in a steady way.

Executive Function Fatigue

Executive tasks — planning, starting something, switching between tasks — drain ADHD brains far faster than they do neurotypical ones.

You may even want to keep going, but the mental and physical energy simply isn’t there.

Yesterday was a good example for me. I was a passenger in a van all day, did four quotes and a job in the morning, and spent the day with my son.

I left the house at 09:00 and got back at 19:30. I had a bath, tried to play a game for a bit, and immediately fell asleep — which is another ADHD classic.

Looking back, the day wasn’t especially difficult. But it completely wiped me out.

The Emotional Factor

Our emotional state also affects productivity.

ADHD emotions can be like British weather — calm one moment, a thunderstorm the next, then bright sunshine five minutes later.

Sleep, food, and environment all influence this as well. These factors can either increase or drain your ability to get things done.

How I Deal With It

I use two simple principles.

1. Work When the Energy Is There

When the energy arrives, use it.

Do the cleaning, the writing, the organising, the admin — whatever needs doing.

When the energy disappears, stop forcing it and focus on recharging.

But there’s one rule: be ready when the energy appears.

Have a task list ready. It doesn’t need to be perfectly organised. I keep one large list and estimate the time each task will take so my brain knows what to expect.

The worst thing you can do when motivation appears is stand there wondering what to do first. If you hesitate, the energy disappears.

Look at the list and pick a job. If the first one can’t be done immediately, move to the next until you start something.

2. Move Your Body When Energy Is Low

If you are stuck in a motivational slump, go for a short walk.

Movement triggers momentum. A ten-minute walk is often enough to restart your brain.

When you come back, pick one task and start it. Once that task is underway, you may find the energy to continue.

For ADHD brains, motion creates motivation.

Movement regulates emotions, breaks rumination, and helps disrupt procrastination.

Time Blindness

Another related issue is time blindness, which many people recognise as “I’m late again”.

Time blindness usually involves:

Difficulty sensing the passage of time
Difficulty estimating how long tasks take
Difficulty feeling urgency about future events

I personally don’t struggle with time blindness very much, but I researched it after hearing other people talk about it.

For many people with ADHD, the present moment dominates everything else.

I have a friend who would probably be late to his own funeral. Why? Because whatever he is doing right now always feels more important than what he promised someone else he would do.

“I’ll do it in ten minutes” and “I’ll do it next week” can feel equally distant.

Practical Help for Time Blindness

A calendar helps enormously — but only if you actually follow it.

Use alarms and reminders.
Set clear time limits.
When the alarm sounds, get up and move immediately.

Movement once again becomes the trigger that shifts you into action.

Final Thought

Productivity, motivation, and time management with ADHD are rarely fixed by brute force.

They improve when you recognise your natural rhythm — the rise and fall of your energy — and learn to work with it rather than constantly fighting against it.