Start a more important task so you can neglect that and work on the other things you were supposed to do. A sacrificial task, if you will.

Newton's first law of motion. Body in motion remains in motion
So cant get stuck if i never sit down, keep on moving. Start in the morning and drop dead in the evening, never sit down too long in the meanwhile.

Though yeah probably not that helpful in getting into motion again once stuck. Body in rest remains at rest

Warning: not the healthiest approach

Watch a show with confident and or flat out deranged (but still motivated/functional) characters.

Wait for code-switching or whatever it is to kick in so you can easily start thinking and acting like said character.

Do the action the way you think they would.

You might have executive dysfunction but Hannibal Lecter sure doesn’t. (Bad example but I’ll leave it because it’s funny)

---

No joke I would do this to write essays in high school. It made my scores go up if I decided I would write the essay as though I was Cave Johnson

For completing household tasks, I’d recommend deranged characters like from Hazbin Hotel

For completing tasks that might make you anxious, I highly recommend someone who would be bored doing the task but still do it, so go watch The Witcher and then say under your breath “fuck” before doing the now more tedious than anxious task lol

I also really do recommend you choose humorously chaotic or satirical characters for most boring/tedious tasks btw because it makes life so much more entertaining to imagine their commentary about the action or your life in general.

Imagining that a character is talking to you (rather than… possessing you… being played by you?) can also be fun, like hearing Johnny Silverhand give you patronizing and cuss-word riddled but still somewhat motivating pep talk for going outside or writing an email lol

I pretend I’m two hours away from having to be at the airport to take a flight and I haven’t even started packing. Once I’m in that mindset, all the fog lifts, and I can see clearly. Every task is done to completion. I remember where I put (almost) everything. It feels like I’m flying.

I knowingly pick a new side project / fascination to focus on. I'm always forcing myself not to pickup side projects so I can actually finish something, but when struggling to motivate myself at all to get unstuck, I engage in the guilty pleasure of a new sideproject for a day or so to get going.

Weaponized procrastination. Avoid doing the thing you want to do by doing something else.

Just the other day I cleaned most of my apartment because I was not in the headspace to write lore.

Another day I really needed to do laundry, most productive writing day I had in a while.

Putting on my playlist of pirate music.

Broke: "Ugh, I need to sweep, mop, and do the dishes."

Woke: "ARRR, IT BE TIME TO BE SWABBIN' THE DECK, YE SCURVY BILGE RAT!! AN' WASH ALL O' THE DISHES IN THE GALLEY, OR YE'LL BE WALKIN' THE PLANK!!"

Edit: Ye asked fer the map to me hidden treasure. Here it be, me hearties!

Unavoidable timers. For example:

1. Devices with low battery and the charger is out of reach.
2. Drinking a bunch of water.
3. Playing an album with nothing queued afterwards.

Along the same lines: incidental timeboxing. My toaster takes 2 mins, and leaving the kitchen means I'm likely to end up with sad cold toast, so I better stay and deal with some of the kitchen mess in those two minutes. The phrase "if you have time to lean, you have time to clean" has been strangely useful to me.

Allowing things to be partially done, but not in a state where is going to be a big problem. For example, the above kitchen mess.

• A cup and bowl with food left in it will be hard to clean and attracts bugs and grows mold, and that's a problem.
• An empty but dirty cup and bowl is better but still harder to clean.
• A rinsed cup and bowl filled with water left in the sink is easiest to clean, so that's the least problematic state to leave it in, and it's not much harder to do that than it is leaving the food-filled cup and bowl there to begin with.

Chugging a quad shot espresso while saying 'get up trinity. Get. Up.' in my head

If you time it right, the anxiety from the caffeine hitting really sells the feeling that a matrix agent is coming to kill you so better get moving.

I have a simple 5-step plan I've used to do this.

1. Get old and have a family that always has needs
2. Get a shitton of pets too that always have needs
3. Go look at the shower plumbing I need to fix
4. Go look at my car hovering on jack stands as I wait for parts to come in for the brakes
5. I think there's an old overdue bill sitting somewhere too--

Heyyy today seems like the perfect time to go do that yard work that it's been too cold for!

1. Snort some meth.
2. Put on a kinky BDSM outfit.
3. Do the dishes while masturbating.

I'm only gonna say this once

SEEK PROFESSIONAL TREATMENT GET THE FUCK OFF SOCIAL MEDIA

that's the only thing I know that really works

Sit perfectly still and actively refuse to engage with any tempting distractions until you give up out of boredom and do the thing you need to do

Intentionally start spiraling to have a panic attack to get me off my ass to do the thing.

Literally just start smacking myself in the face until I do the thing

Uh yeah, I was once far less mentally well than I currently am…

Brain wants to shut down and not execute? Well let's make a motherfucking day of it then, no more voluntary muscle control, I'll let this bitch flop and slither right off the sofa til we bang our head on the coffee table.

Usually shocks the system back into action for a minute, during which I am de Captain now.

I picture the most over-achieving, manically driven person I know. Someone whose calendar is booked full half a year in advance from all their hobbies, friends and side-hustles. Then I pretend I'm them, magically teleported into my body, looking at the situation they found themselves in. I comment on the mess in my room, imitating their voice and everything.
Then I say "Well, it is what it is, let's fix this shit" and get to work.

I have autism but not ADHD. In my case it's "wait until 1 a.m., take advantage of the night owl super boost".

For some reason I can't concentrate during the day. It's only after sunset when I can really focus. I wrote all of my master's thesis after 1:00 a.m.

Convince myself that I have the most perfect plan in the world.

Get out of bed and put on socks? I will move my duvet to the right in a fast tug with my right arm. Flashy! Swing both feet down to the floor simultaneously and get up in one smooth motion. Strong! Then grab the first pair of socks I can find blindly. Brave!

Something my therapist told me and that works more often than not. Set out to do the task for a very small time, like 3 minutes. After 3 minutes, you may find that you are absorbed in that task, but if not, just stop doing it.

The idea I think is to get over the difficulty in starting a task.

Remember that I'm going to die

wait, you guys are getting things done??

Drink a lot of water and get up because you really need to pee

Ok so have you seen the Dropout show Dimension 20? The Mentopolis season has a character (played by Hank Green) called The Fix, whose job is to go around this 1930s-coded brain city and literally mob-enforcer style "take care of" distractions.

So I just chat with my The Fix in my head. It is starting to work a bit more all the time.

Drinking a good amount of water! It makes me pee every 30-45 minutes and somehow that interruption keeps me focused on whichever task I was doing. Plus, keeps you hydrated and healthier skin 😂

My top two are reminding myself that the stupidest people alive manage to do the thing, and listening to Theoden's speech at Pelennor Fields

Screaming DEATH! DEATH! DEATH! right before calling the mechanic to schedule an oil change rn

Put all the shit i have to do on my calendar back to back to back and start the moment I get it if need to create a false sense of "oh shit" and it works for me.

Getting it out bed isn't always the easiest so I rub one out, well I gotta get up to clean that mess, that a shower, and get in it.

This one might not be weird to some, but it's my "one weird trick".

I put my shoes on.

I normally work from home, so usually don't even wear shoes most of the day. And when I need to go outside for a minute or two, I don't wear my shoes either.

But on the days that I get up and put my socks and shoes on in the morning, I feel extra motivated for the whole day. I definitely get more things done.

Mindfulness meditation and strength training. Both of these things together do not get enough credit for how they complement and enhance each other.

Start provoking/taunting the task as if it was a fight about to happen.

I've figured out mindset is everything for me which sucks because I've gotten that drilled into me as a kid but figuring out stuff about one self only works if you figure it out yourself. Getting into the mindset needs to be not so obvious. I can't just repeat "I am component, I am smart, I won't postpone". I need to get into a vibe of getting stuff done and I honestly can't explain it better than it being a vibe. Medium energy (not high energy because then I just get a small panic attack) electronica music helps a lot for some reason.

Also small breaks from time to time but I can't set myself a time or I will just keep thinking about the timer.

Hardly any responses are "unhinged". But I'll try my best.

Don't force yourself to do it. Instead, look at your list*, and just simulate the items one by one in your head, as if you'd do it.

Sometimes it happens that I really, really feel like doing one of them, like a neurotypical. It doesn't sound like it'd work, but it does.

There is never any pressure to do any of them; then it would not work, because starting the process would be the new thing to be stuck on. Quite often, I just don't feel like doing any of them. But that was not the job, the job was to simulate them. And it's done, and I can allow myself to do nice things then.

(*) If there is no list, making the list is the only job. Don't start on any items on it, just create the list. Then relax and enjoy whatever you want, until you feel like doing simulations.

As much caffeine and nicotine as I can physically tolerate.

Start a war in the Middle East 🤠

Get up and run.

Maybe 5 feet maybe 500, but I need to move and I know it will change my current collection of brain noises to a different and potentially more useful cacophony of quantum farts.

So I get up and run.

Unhinged? I tell myself “I don’t need motivation” and then just do the thing, people at least act like this is unhinged when I tell them it works, it’s literally just CBT in action

Heres my process: Eat something, do one thing I do want / can motivate myself to do, and then DON'T SIT DOWN! If you need a drink mid, drink standing up. If all else fails, play boppy af music, and imagine you're in one of those movies where the cut scene shows a dance / song sequence, involving them just going about their everyday, but with dance, then go about whatever you can motivate yourself to do, but with flourish. Bonus points if you sing your own lyrics about your feels. Or just sing what you're doing, and let whatever lyrics fall out of your head, naturally, after that. It's actually pretty fun.

get really really really baked

Im putting this as unhinged advice cause it is kinda unhinged but like those sigma male motivation videos sometimes work. I dont mean the "beat your wife" kind but there are ones that have compilations of professional athletes and whatever. Like why it works, i dont subscribe to all of the alpha male stuff but watching a 300lbs man pull an airplane with a chain while some inexcusable techno/hardstyle plays helps sometimes. Also get up, get your blood pumping and get ready like youre about to do a similal feat, and instead clean your home or whatever your goal was.

double dose the pharmaceutical speed

I don't really have one. I just get stuck 😢

Ps, she's cherry.adhd on instagram, can recommend following her.

Argue with every intrusive thought in the morning till 8am comes around, then tell them "Time for my adderall! And time for YOU ALL to shut the FUCK up!" then gleefully take it and wait 40-45 mins for brain silence.

My partner tells me "there will be consequences if you dont do it now" My brain is that dumb luckily that it falls for it lol

Jerking it while doing tedious bullshit on my side monitor has worked for me in the past. Probably not great for executive function long term though so I don't do it regularly and it's usually that I get distracted enough from what I'm watching by whatever annoying task popping into my head that I just start chipping away at it.

I imagine labeouf shouting "JUST. DO IT"

I set a 5-minute timer and race it like my life depends on it… somehow turning it into a game actually works 😅

Think about a reason to hate yourself. Being hollow and empty is a good way to create space to fill the time doing everything that needs to be done.

Meds.

Mushrooms

Blow a minor deadline so I can get motivation not to miss the next one~

I just force myself to start knowing that my next issue will be forcing myself stop.

Start with something easy.

Plan bigger things and break it into smaller tasks.

Get the right equipment to do this.

No that pen won't do get another one.

Ugh let's look through reviews of ebook notepads.

Look forever to buy one for an acceptable price.

Start taking notes.

Never get anything done.

PTSD.

I turn on the bathroom exhaust fan. HVAC going is good. When HVAC gets shut down things are about to go to shit.

Embrace your hyper-fixation, leverage it to compete tasks while keeping a plan of attack for the day. Compete only what must be completed, leave the rest.

Go a direction backed up with facts. I know this because of this this and this. Things you know. Doesn't matter where, just what you know. Saying this as I struggled trying to get out of high school in 1995. Be proud of what you know and be humble about what you don't. Facts are your friend. You make them work better than most.

Fucking SCREAM

Icy shower.

For a quick focus jolt, a snack size slim jim from the "slim jim chute", as i like to call it, and a shot glass of redbull.

My office (work from home) has a very narrow laundry chute we dont use, so I placed a 2x4 in it to cover the chute. Now it stores a box of slim jims and a cheap jelly fish speaker.

I start by cleaning. Which can be a hard thing to start. I just break it down to as many small tasks as I can. Once I have an ordered, clean space, it's easier to do whatever I need to do

Putting on my boots and walking into something. IDK why but it works, problem is that then I don't know how to slow down again resulting in me pacing until my laundry is done.

It doesn't work but I write about doing the task and every once in a while that unsticks me

I don't have any hacks, my brain kind of just flips back on to what I'm supposed to be doing after a few minutes any time I get onto a train of thought

I vaped weed in the afternoon during business hours a few times when I was absolutely not getting shit done. A lot of the time it shook up my mental context well enough that I actually got started on the thing. Not always though, and generally this is just plain bad advice, especially if you're not working a knowledge job like tech work

Honestly if we’re ever overwhelmed we just go to the bathroom for 10 minutes, just sit there on our phone and if need be hyperventilate in privacy sometimes sparkling water in our face.

If we’re panicking over a certain fear we’ll end up cursing it like it should fear us and just binge some memes

When stuck being frustrated we take a second and zone out like hard reset and our brain is like “mood”

Make an iced latte by rehydrating and frothing dry milk powder, and brewing the espresso shots using ice-cold water in a hand-pump travel espresso maker.

WELL. Now this is going to be quite unhinged. It all starts with one of my favorite stories I've ever read. In it, the protagonists are given powers by the gods to exercise their will in the world. But, realising that these gods are assholes, the protagonists rebel (while keeping the powers). A war breaks out and well, the plot happens.

Personally, I've always hated authoritarian figures in general. By hated, I mean HATED. With a burning passion.

In the story, there's an analogue to Loki. This character is shown to whisper "thoughts" into people (and gods) he wants to manipulate. Whenever I begin to procrastinate, I imagine it's Loki whispering mischief in my ear. Him attempting to manipulate me to stop me from doing the good things I want to do. A simple, "fuck off Loki" works wonders!

I kinda did something similar when I was plagued with suicidal thoughts. I imagined it was Badb (the Irish goddess of death) circling around to claim her prey. To add some plot, I imagined it as, "Badb wants to snatch me away, as my survival means less prey for her in the years to come". Basically, some "main character", "protagonist" energy to keep the entire thing interesting. Whenever I even came across the thought of kms, a simple, "Haha Badb you bitch, not today. It ain't that easy (to get me), you collosal loser" worked! I haven't come close to spiralling down AT ALL after I started taunting Badb. So hey, it worked for the better, right?

Now here's the thing - I know this is objectively false of course. The "war against gods and authority" is objectively not real. I KNOW THAT. But, I subjectively like to pretend that it is, just so that it:

• makes me connect abstract things that strongly motivate me to do/not do something with real life.
• makes stuff more interesting and fun! I mean hey, rebelling against the gods is kinda based, and it's even cooler if it's YOU who's doing that (pretending to do that, I know)!