ADHD task support: The Ta-Da! list

Working with the ADHD brain

I’m an ADHD coach. I’m also a person with ADHD running an ADHD coaching business. When I’m working with someone in a session, I’m at my most focused. My ADHD strengths wake up, I’m present, I’m interested, and I’m present. And that’s great.

But what happens I’m not in an ADHD coaching session, and I go to do one of the many things I need to do consistently in my business? More than half the time, I do something else. This is a common way of working for an ADHDer. Usually, that’s okay, as my ‘something else’ is also useful. But do I feel like it’s okay? 

No. I feel frustrated. I tell myself off for not doing ‘the thing I was meant to be doing’. Later, I’ll do ‘the thing I was meant to be doing’ - but then I’ll feel like I should have been doing something else!

Doing admin? You should be doing your deep work! Doing deep work? You’re avoiding your emails! At the end of the day, I used to often feel unsatisfied, and would tell myself I’d ‘done nothing’. (Pity the fool who tried to tell me that they’d witnessed me doing stuff.) 

To be clear, there have been many days in my life where I’ve genuinely been unable to motivate myself to do any of my chosen tasks - let alone remember they existed. I know all too well the deep potential capacity for procrastination in the ADHD brain. But this was something different. This was a technique my brain used to try to raise the alarm, to agitate a state of urgency, to generate anxiety, and in that way create some interest to help me be motivated to do what matters. 

This is what I accidentally learnt to do before I understood myself through the lens of ADHD. It worked occasionally, which was enough for it to be my go-to strategy. I didn’t know this, of course. I had a story about myself, in which I was always doing ‘the wrong thing’. And even though I’ve become much more skilled in motivating myself over the years, the story was still going strong.

Enter, stage left: the Ta-da! List.

From To-do to Done

What’s a Ta-Da! list? I don’t know who invented it, and whether there’s a notebook, podcast, and t-shirt to go with it, but my version is as simple as it gets:

When I do something in my business, I write down that I did it.

It’s really as simple as that.

My coach mentioned that he uses a Ta-da list. I’d tried one years ago, and given it up after a week, because it was pointless, because don’t I already know what I did, and shouldn’t I be getting on with actually doing something useful?

Dialling up the openness, and standing down the brattiness, I decided to try it out. And the benefits for me were strong and immediate. Don’t you love it when that happens?

I don’t know if it’s pumping dopamine into my ADHD brain, or supporting my often-challenged executive function of memory, or helping me to slow down a little and notice what I’ve done, or reminding me to celebrate, or all of the above and more. (Probably that last one.)

ADHD brains like to feel good

In my weekly planning book, I have a section called ‘Ta-da! list’. Every time I do something, I pop it in there. Today, among other things, I can see that I: Read an article. Completed my notes. Got in touch about an invoice. Set up my weekly reminders. Created an image about my Ta-Da! list. Now I think of it, I also tidied my office floor… let me pop that one on there - amazing! I did do that!

Isn’t this a terrible waste of time, rewriting everything? A. Not if it works. B. Not if it gives me a little buzz of reward and pride. C. Double handling is often really useful for the ADHD brain. D. What else would I be doing instead - perhaps trying to bully myself into being able to do everything simultaneously all the time?

When I look at my to-do list, I feel overwhelmed. When I look at my Ta-Da! list, I feel energised. That’s why I write it with two capital letters AND an exclamation mark. Every little flash of excitement helps keep up my momentum.

Show yourself you’ve done something

The Ta-Da! list is a tool to support positive emotion, interest, and motivation. It makes progress visible. These things all support the ADHD brain at work. If I don’t feel good when I’m working, I build up resistance to it. When I find small frequent ways to feel good, I stay engaged, and circle back to my chosen actions.

The Ta-Da! list suits circling ways of working. Yes, I often do something different from what I thought I’d do. Did I expect to be writing this right now? Nope. I tried to last week, couldn’t, and instead did something else that was useful. That thing got written on my list, as will this. 

I can trust myself that I’m doing stuff. I can see, with my own eyes, evidence that I’m doing what matters to me, even if it’s interspersed with walks and snacks and chats and…

And this is helping me to update my story about myself. If you’d like help to change how you feel at work, you can book a free introductory chat with me.