In My Head: ADHD And Dopamine Sucking Tasks

Welcome to In My Head - a lecture series about ADHD and all things related to mental and emotional wellbeing. In this talk, I tackle the topic of Dopamine Sucking Tasks. What they are, why we avoid them and how to make them more fun so that they become less dreaded.

Transcript

Hi,

Hello,

How are you?

Welcome to In My Head,

A new series of talks that I'm going to be giving on Insight Timer,

Specifically related to mental health and emotional well-being.

My name is Shanna Moyer.

I'm a mental health counselor,

An ADHD management specialist,

And a trauma support specialist based out of London,

Ontario.

I'm also a human who exists with late-diagnosed ADHD,

And I'm a parent of two neuro-spicy ADHDers.

I know a thing or two about how the brain works,

Why we are the way we are,

And how the world just has not been created with neurodiverse humans in mind.

So my hope with this new series of lectures here at Insight Timer is that you will take away one little sliver,

One nugget,

Every single time,

That helps you understand your brain and helps you embrace who you are.

Today we are talking about dopamine sucking tasks.

What those are,

What it looks like to an ADHDer,

And why we avoid them like the plague.

I don't know if you have certain dopamine sucking tasks that are particularly difficult for you,

But I definitely do.

My top two are unloading the dishwasher and putting laundry away.

Specifically,

Moving it from the dryer to the kitchen table to fold it to put them all away in the various different spaces in the house where they belong.

Now,

What is a dopamine sucking task?

Those are the tasks that are unavoidable,

Tedious,

They need to get done,

But they offer you absolutely no enjoyment.

So take a minute and think about your own dopamine sucking tasks.

As I mentioned,

For me it is the dishwasher and the dryer.

These are unavoidable.

I mean,

The dishwasher,

I guess,

Could go by the wayside and we could just use the out of there and reload it as necessary.

But I've really started to value developing some systems so that these dopamine sucking tasks aren't ones that I constantly am wanting to avoid.

And with systems and routine,

They become just common things that need to be done,

Rather than avoided tasks and things that you detest doing because they are so boring.

With the dishwasher specifically,

Sometimes I'll set a timer and see just how long it takes me to do that task.

Then I will reflect afterwards and realize that three and a half minutes of unloading the dishwasher and now everything is clean,

Everything is tidy,

Everything is in its place,

And it feels nice.

My brain feels more organized when all of that is done.

The timer helps.

What I do for my laundry is a completely different routine,

A completely different system.

There are three human beings that live in this house.

Two of them are tween and teenage boys.

They create so much laundry.

They're responsible for bringing all of their goods down to the laundry room and I will do it.

I will do the laundry,

Wash,

Dry,

Fold,

And sometimes put away because I like for it to be organized and neat.

The first thing that I do when it comes to laundry is I make sure that the chimes are turned on,

On both the washer and the dryer.

It has this kind of almost Irish jig sound,

A sing-song at the end of a cycle and as cheesy as it sounds,

It gives me a little dopamine rush.

It gives me that sense of joy that,

Oh,

It's done.

I can go move that over.

It also ensures that I remember to move it over.

If the chime isn't on and the cycle just stops,

It's out of sight,

Out of mind.

There's no more noise to remind me that it's happening so I completely forget.

That's when an ADHDer would get sucked into the cycle of constantly,

Over and over,

Having to restart the washing machine.

The next thing that I do,

And this might be a little bit controversial,

I don't separate the clothes.

I simply reach down into the basket and throw a bunch in the washer.

I just want to get it done quickly,

Get everything in there,

Spot treat as needed,

And that happens in the moment or else I will forget to do it.

Start the washer,

Away I go.

When the time goes,

Do the little happy dance,

Go switch the laundry.

The same time is on the dryer,

Otherwise I will completely forget that it's going.

It's so quiet and almost has this rhythmic white noise quality to it.

So I just kind of let it go,

Let it do its thing.

Then there comes the dopamine-sucking part of having to take it out of the dryer and go do all of the folding.

What I do for that,

I put music on.

Whatever the current dopamine playlist is or whatever the current artist fixation is,

I put that on and I turn on my house speakers.

So I'm not just playing it from my phone or I'm not putting it in my earbuds,

I'm playing it on speakers overhead and loud.

Sometimes I'm dancing around and singing while I'm folding laundry and putting it into the appropriate piles.

Other times I'm not really that interested in the music,

But my brain can focus on the task at hand because it's not thinking about the dopamine-sucking task,

It's thinking about the music.

Some of the music that I really love to use is actually instrumental versions of pop songs.

So think the Bridgerton soundtrack.

I put that on and within two songs I am done folding all of the laundry.

I've proven to myself that I am capable of doing the task that I've been avoiding and that it really didn't take a whole lot of my time.

These tasks,

The dishwasher and the laundry,

They take maximum five minutes when you're unloading the dishwasher or you're folding the laundry.

It doesn't take very long,

But our brains will procrastinate,

Our brains will say there is no dopamine there,

There is no amount of joy that is going to come from that task.

So I'm simply going to avoid it.

Introduce music,

Introduce a timer,

Gamify it,

And all of a sudden it's not so bad.

Another dopamine-sucking task would be making the bed.

It seems like such a simple thing,

You know,

One of those adult tasks that we probably should be doing every single day,

And think about how your day is impacted by such a simple thing.

But it's so easy to avoid because it seems tedious and monotonous to have to make your bed every morning like your parent is telling you to when you're a teenager.

What if when you got out of bed,

Instead of immediately heading to the bathroom,

Putting in your contacts or getting your glasses or doing whatever your morning routine is,

Instead of that simply pulling the covers back up over where you had just been sleeping,

Fluffing your pillows,

Throwing the throw blanket on the bottom of the bed,

And it's done.

It literally takes seconds to do it,

But it's one of those tasks that we actively avoid because there's no dopamine there.

Think about your dopamine-sucking tasks,

Whether it's laundry,

Dishes,

Cleaning the litter box,

Whatever it is,

It's very likely that it is a typical household chore.

Now think about how much smoother your day could be if that task was done.

Think about how much more enjoyable the task would be if it was gamified with a timer.

Think about how much more enjoyable that task would be if you were listening to your all-time favorite song.

Those tasks don't have to be those dreaded tasks that we are actively avoiding just because there's no dopamine there.

We can create our own dopamine and our own sense of accomplishment from these tasks that are absolutely boring.

Somebody has to do them,

And if you're the only adult in the house like I am,

It's going to be you,

So you might as well make it enjoyable.

Until next time,

You're not broken,

You just have ADHD.

Reviews

Oh my gosh, I love you & your ideas!
Not diagnosed until 63, and I did use the timer, but I will use music for the laundry that plagues me….thanks Shannon (you are just down the 401 from me!)

I liked the examples and I always find listening to music 🎶 helps me with chores.