Tips from an ADHD Coach: Staring at a blank screen

Sometimes when we start on something important with ADHD, we find ourselves unable to make any real progress on it. This can be really frustrating, but that frustration doesn’t always turn into focus. 

This week on Tips from an ADHD Coach, Jaye tackles what happens when we’ve gotten ourselves to start work on something important, but our brains aren’t working with us. Listen for some tips to help when stuck in an unproductive headspace.

Have a challenge you’d like Jaye to talk about in an episode? Email or send a voice memo to us at adhdcoachtips@understood.org.

Related resources

• Rachel’s How’d You Get THAT Job?! episode, Changing focus between two jobs fights off my ADHD boredom

• How the Five-Second Rule changed my ADHD life

• Trouble getting work done is real. Executive function challenges may be the culprit.

Timestamps

(00:46) Rachel’s quote

(01:53) Being set up to start a task, but unable to make any progress

(02:56) Differences in neurotransmitter activity

(05:37) Personal ideal stimulation points

(08:45) What can we do to help?

(12:52) Recap and credits

Episode transcript

Jaye: Do you sometimes make yourself start on something important, then find yourself unable to make any real progress on it? Do you get frustrated with yourself staring at a blank screen or a blinking cursor but the frustration doesn't seem to turn into focus?

This is "Tips from an ADHD Coach," and I'm your coach, Jaye Lin. Today we're talking about that dreaded moment when we've gotten ourselves to work on something important but our brains don't seem to be working with us. We're going to hear from Rachel, who was on another Understood.org podcast, "How'd You Get THAT Job?!" about what she does when she finds herself in an unproductive headspace.

(00:46) Rachel's quote

Rachel: Oftentimes when I find that I've been bored with a certain task, I just like, can't focus. I'm logged off like in my brain. I might be logged on and like green on the computer, right? But I am not putting in my best energy. I'm not putting in my best effort. I can't be as productive as I'd like to be. And so, it's honestly strange to be like "Hi Rachel's brain, to be more productive, you actually need to like stop doing the things that you're that are boring you and do something else that's exciting."

And so, it's really nice to kind of make that balance. I mean, honestly, now when I'm thinking about just like my past roles where I was losing my mind of boredom, nothing was exciting, nothing was new. I was like sitting in this room, like in the office from like 8 to 5, and then like everyone would leave and then I'd be like "I didn't get anything done today." And ultimately what ended up happening is like, I was so bored at my job, I was like making my own, like I started building my own company on the side.

(01:53) Being set up to start a task, but unable to make any progress

Jaye: Rachel's interview is pretty amazing, I have to say. She has this self-awareness about how a lack of excitement can lead to a slump in all of her productivity. So, she has two jobs, a main job that pays the bills and a side gig that keeps everything exciting. She communicates her flexible working schedule with the people she works with and gets everything done by maximizing her focus and productivity. Almost everyone I know has stared at a blank screen with a blinking cursor.

Even the people who don't have jobs with computers have experienced the equivalent, like a general contractor showing up to the construction site and staring at a wall, unable to get started. Or a musician who needs to write their next song and zoning out at the piano. Rachel's explanation is a common reason many of us find ourselves unable to be productive. She was bored.

Many of us with ADHD just assume we aren't able to work on a boring task because when we try to, we tend to just stare at a blank screen. To the people around us.

(02:56) Differences in neurotransmitter activity

It might seem like we just don't want to do boring things. And I mean, who really wants to do mundane things? But with ADHD, it's not just that we don't want to do things we consider boring, it's that we often can't due to differences in our neurotransmitter activity.

People who don't have ADHD, autism, dyslexia, or other learning and thinking differences are who we refer to as neurotypical. Those who are neurotypical operate with a higher level of executive function on a regular basis, and their brains provide them with a consistent stream of dopamine and other neurotransmitter activity. While they can get a small boost of stimulation from something that triggers a stress response, for the most part, they're able to regularly operate at that Goldilocks just right amount of neurotransmitter stimulation for higher executive function.

A steady flow of dopamine gives motivating energy to start and follow through on a task if they really want it to be done. And high levels of executive function allow them to manage the logistics of it all. Their focus and energy towards doing tasks tends to be fairly consistent. In fact, being in high-stress situations often negatively impacts neurotypical focus and motivation because getting an extra bump in stress can make them overstimulated and reduce their executive function.

As you've probably figured out, this is not the case for those of us with ADHD. At our resting state, we tend to be understimulated with lower levels of dopamine and other neurotransmitter activity. This means that without something to give us a boost in stimulation like medication, the adrenaline of a pending deadline or an exciting challenge, etc., our executive function is below optimal levels.

Executive function is what allows us to do the decision making to figure out what needs to be done and in what order, how things need to be done, and how long each thing will take. Executive function also gives us the boost of motivating energy to start and finish doing something and allows us to pivot from the plan when we need to.

When we are in our resting state and understimulated, our brains just can't do as much as they can when we're in a more stimulated state. It's like trying to stream an HD YouTube video on a computer from 1990. The video will probably be constantly paused to buffer, the page might need to be reloaded, and the entire computer might freeze and need to be restarted.

(05:37) Personal ideal stimulation points

Most of us know what it would feel like to have the clear mind and focus that a neurotypical person has because we have experienced it at higher stimulation levels. Like we weren't able to make any significant progress on a project. But suddenly, right before the deadline, everything becomes clear and we're able to blaze through everything we need to do. Having an ideal stimulation point that's much higher than our resting state is why a lot of us have a reputation for being calm and effective in a crisis while others around us are shutting down and panicked.

A lot of ADHD folk I know attribute their tendency to procrastinate on things as a moral failing. But more likely, it's because doing things at the last minute can give us the neurotransmitter boost to be at our most productive. Think about when that blank screen stair happens. It's most common when we've decided we want to get started on this early way before a deadline.

Or maybe there is no deadline and we can finish it whenever we can. There's no boost, no extra oomph of dopamine and neurotransmitter activity. So, it can be hard to even figure out what we want to do and what needs to be done, which can feel frustrating and uncomfortable.

And this brings us to the negative outcomes from staring at a blank screen too often or for too long. Feeling like we're not doing good work or we're unable to be productive, can make us feel bad about ourselves and our abilities. We can create negative associations about doing that task which can encourage us to avoid it altogether. This explains why eventually many of us with ADHD reach a point where even at the last minute we aren't able to finish the project, the term paper, packing for our trip, etc.

Procrastinating on unpleasant tasks later and later means that when it's time for us to kick it into gear, we might not feel like there's enough time to get it all done. And that dopamine rush that we would be getting from adrenaline turns into a cortisol rush of fear that can put us in, you guessed it, that overstimulation zone that makes it harder for neurotypical folk to think clearly in a crisis. We need more stimulation, but it's very possible for us to overshoot that stimulation point too.

Another negative outcome happens when we keep staring at that blank screen and we don't allow ourselves to do anything else. What happens if we spend five hours staring at a blank screen? Well, we aren't able to get anything else done for those five hours. The to-do list has piled up and we're stressed out. What happens if we weren't even able to finish in that five hours? When we spent a lot of time slogging through something, we're usually only able to make light progress on it, but we're still working on it the whole time, using up our energy and brainpower.

Then when it's go time, right before the deadline, our brains can be too exhausted to kick it into gear and finish. Cue the panic and meltdown.

(08:45) What can we do to help?

So, what can we do if we find ourselves staring at the blank screen, unable to be productive? You already know that I don't recommend forcing ourselves to keep working on it, even when the results aren't good. What Rachel does is brilliant. If there is no pull for her to work on it at that moment, she pivots to work on something else and comes back to it later. This isn't quite avoiding it. It's switching up the order for tackling things. There will be a point where that thing she finds boring is more stimulating, like when it gets closer to the deadline, or after having conversations about that topic with her co-workers or boss.

Moving on to something else on the to-do list when we're unproductive with an understimulating task means that we're freeing up time later on to do it. Just remember to set an alarm or timer when it's go time on that task so it's not forgotten while we're working on something else and it's not just productive tasks we can move around like this, it's also self-care.

Back when I was still at Google, I couldn't make progress on a slide deck that was due the next morning, so I decided to do it later, like right before going to bed. I made a plan to work on it from 9 p.m. to 11 p.m. that night and then signed out of work two hours early. I made myself dinner, watched TV, watered my plants, all the stuff I would have done after work just about two hours earlier. The slide deck only took one hour because by the time 9 p.m. hit, I was well rested and also thoroughly pumped with dopamine.

Hugely different from the times I spent the whole day trying to force myself to work on something, then being miserable and exhausted from working 12-hour days. When I tell people I support doing tasks when it's closer to deadline, they often tell me they don't want to do things closer to the deadline. They want to do it earlier, but they can't seem to. That's fair and also very possible to do with some intention in planning.

In order to do things earlier without the adrenaline and dopamine of an impending deadline, we have to increase our stimulation levels another way. Yes, medication is one way and there are a few others. One thing I always suggest is to classify things we do the same way we classify dishes in a meal. Before appetizers went the way of artichoke dip and buffalo wings, appetizers were used as a way to stimulate appetites. They were often lighter dishes like salad that had an acidic element to them because they were meant to start up our digestive systems by making us salivate.

The main course in our lives represents the tasks we need to do. Like a project we've been assigned or the daily task of checking emails. Sometimes we can go right into that main course and sometimes we don't feel that hungry and need some extra stimulation. We can start with an activity that will boost our stimulation, like creating a challenge for ourselves, talking about the project with her co-workers, and doing a more exciting thing that allows for an easier transition into doing the main course task.

Like at Google, before I did a big stretch of emails and scheduling, I checked the cafe menus for lunch that day. The dopamine I got from anticipating what I was having for lunch gave me an extra boost of executive function. After that was done, I would already be in my desk chair looking at my computer, signed into my account, so it was easy to transition to emails and scheduling, and I looked forward to checking out those menus first thing every morning, so no procrastination there.

So, the next time you're staring at a blank screen, unable to be productive with your time because you're under or overstimulated, try your best to stop staring at that blank screen and forcing yourself through it because there are more productive options for you to try instead. Options that you can feel good about doing.

(12:52) Recap and credits

ADHD brains tend to require an extra boost of stimulation for higher executive function. When we are staring at a blank screen and unproductive we're often trying to slog through it even though our focus and ability to figure it out are lower.

When we find ourselves staring at a blank screen, we can choose to pivot to another task on the to-do list using the adrenaline and dopamine boost we get closer to the deadline later on to complete the understimulating task, which frees up time in the future for us to do it. We can also try to do understimulating tasks earlier than it's due by increasing our stimulation with an appetizer, like creating a challenge, talking about the project with co-workers, and starting with a more exciting thing for an easier transition into the main task.

By pivoting away from staring at a blank screen and increasing our stimulation levels, we can be productive for a bigger chunk of our day and feel good about doing the work we're doing.

You've been listening to "Tips from an ADHD Coach" on the Understood Podcast Network. If you have a challenge you'd like me to talk about or would just like to say hi, you can email us at ADHDCoachTips@understood.org. You can also check out the show notes to find links to anything mentioned in the show and more resources.

This show is brought to you by Understood.org. Understood is a nonprofit organization dedicated to empowering people with learning and thinking differences like ADHD and dyslexia. If you want to help us continue this work, donate at Understood.org/give.

"Tips for an ADHD Coach" is produced and edited by Jessamine Molli and Margie DeSantis. Video is produced by Calvin Knie. Our theme music was written by Justin D. Wright, who also mixes the show. Ash Beecher is our supervising producer. Briana Berry is our production director, and Neil Drumming is our editorial director. For Understood.org, our executive directors are Laura Key, Scott Cocchiere, and Seth Melnick. And I'm your host, Jaye Lin. Thanks for listening.