Boring is my kryptonite.
If you give me an interesting problem, I’ll work on it for six hours straight, forget to eat or go to bathroom or any other life obligations that previously seemed important.
But a boring task? Even a really simple, probably-should-take-five-minutes task? I’ll stare at it for hours, my brain doing everything it can to avoid it.
It’s not that ADHD brains can’t do boring things. It’s that boring tasks are so unstimulating to our brains, that they feel impossible to start doing.
It’s the initiation of a boring task that feels like a brick wall.
When your brain runs on interest, the goal isn’t to force yourself to “care more” or shame yourself into taking action. We know that doesn’t work.
Instead we should try to bring in interest from somewhere else. This is the Captivate step of the 4 Cs of Motivation. Here are three approaches you can use:
Find your why. Don’t worry about anyone else’s why, or a why that they try to assign to you. That won’t motivate, you need your own reason to care. If you’re someone that values learning, maybe you can reframe a boring work project as a chance to pick up a new skill. Or if you feel most at home in a calm space, tidying up your desk area can be a form of self care. Connect the task with something you truly care about, rather than trying to will yourself into action out of obligation.
Borrow interest. This is one of my favorite approaches, picking a podcast or audiobook you love (or really want to check out) and make a deal with yourself: this is your chore podcast, you can listen to it whenever you want, as long as you are doing a chore while listening. Finish the chore and want to keep going? Find some additional work around the house. The goal is to associate those boring tasks with an interesting podcast or the latest Dungeon Crawler Carl book, something your brain actually wants to engage.
Add people. Boring alone can be unbearable. But boring with someone else is somehow... fine? Working alongside a friend (even if over a video call) can be just the trick your brain needs. Our brain finds people interesting, even when the task we’re doing with them (or in their presence) isn’t.
Congrats, with this great advice, you’ll finally become someone who loves doing boring tasks!
Or not.
But you will at least have a few new approaches you can try when the boring tasks are begging for your attention.
The goal is to stop waiting for interest to show up on its own, instead attaching tasks to the interests you already have.
This week’s worksheet: Boring Is Your Kryptonite. Ways to bring interest in when the task has none.
