The Difference Between Perfectionism and Procrastination in ADHD

Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) is one of the most common neurodevelopmental disorders today. It is characterised by inattention, impulsivity, and hyperactivity. It can make you feel chaotic or as if your mind can be difficult to control.

Since it is a chronic condition, ADHD affects the way you approach your relationships and daily tasks - both as a child and an adult. It can make you forget important dates or miss deadlines, instinctively interrupt conversations to say what's on your mind, or find planning and prioritising tasks extremely challenging. 

As a result, a lot of us with ADHD tend to procrastinate or avoid tasks until the last minute. This blog explores how perfectionism in ADHD may result in procrastination (and it is not because you are lazy).

Also read: Do I have ADHD? Understanding ADHD Symptoms

Where Does It All Start?

As a child with ADHD, you may have struggled with paying attention in class or memorising answers due to hyperactivity. This could lead to an excessive focus on your performance and capability. Growing up, the criticism or punishment that is displayed makes you internalise feelings of inferiority and inadequacy.

Now when you are presented with a task, your perfectionism evolves into excessive worry, anxiety, nervousness, and a fear of failure to such an extent that it becomes daunting for you to even think about where to start. To prevent yourself from feeling anxiety or embarrassment about your job, perfectionism often keeps you from taking the first step.

Additionally, as ADHD makes it difficult for you to regulate emotions and motivation on your own, it can be difficult, if not distressing, to pull yourself out of the lack of motivation to work on tasks. It can make it difficult for you to rationalise why starting small now will be more beneficial than waiting until the last minute.

You can also check: Debunking Common ADHD Myths

The Role of Impulsivity

Another symptom of ADHD, impulsivity also works with perfectionism in the process of procrastinating. Impulsivity is acting without considering the consequences of your actions. 

When you strive for perfection at your task, you may set impossibly high expectations and deadlines for yourself. While working towards it, you realise that you may be unable to meet them. (You are not a machine, after all!). This exacerbates feelings of anxiety and frustration with yourself and the task to such an extent that it pushed you to take hasty decisions.

In this way, you may be constantly torn between wanting to give your best performance and not being able to give or regulate for yourself the headspace and time to finish the task. Instead, you tend to lean towards acting impulsively for shorter and immediate rewards, even if the decision appears to be rash in hindsight. 

When you finally come to terms with the consequences of the impulsive actions, it aggravates feelings of failure, embarrassment, and worthlessness. This turns into a negative loop which again makes you want to strive for perfection and nothing less, and the feelings of worry and anxiety keep you from starting to work on it yet again.

Also read: How Therapy Can Help Adults With ADHD

Don’t let Perfectionism get in the way of Productivity 

Everyone has a different style of approaching tasks. A perfect, time-bound schedule which requires constant focus may not be the best approach for everyone. 

If your perfectionism forces you to stick to a schedule to work done, remind yourself that you have a style of your own to perform tasks which can be just as effective. It is essential to tap into what works best for you to get things done, and then make the space for performing it yourself. It is time to destigmatise chaos. 

It is not easy to be kind to yourself while procrastinating, as growing up we have learnt to associate it with laziness and irresponsibility. However, now you know that that is not the whole story and you can learn to choose differently. 

If you want to understand your ADHD symptoms and your working patterns better, let our mental health coach guide you over a 20-30 minute free phone call.

The negative feelings that build when you force yourself to work while you are getting ready for it hurts your relationship with yourself and further demotivate you to work on the task that you may be excited about before. Instead, ADHD can help you unlock hyperfocus on tasks that you won’t be as motivated to complete later on. 

The chaos that can result from forcing yourself to work on something on a “scheduled” time is bound to be more frustrating and mentally exhausting than working on tasks in a way that works best for you - may be through being in the flow of chaos or spontaneity.  

There is no harm in it.

If you are looking to network with more people with ADHD and what works best for them instead of a time-bound schedule, join our community and unravel your style.