199: Try this Productivity Hack for ADHD Brains if You Are Struggling To Get Anything Done

Retroactive Credit: The Trick for When You Feel Busy But Never Done

That frustration of watching everyone else seem productive while you’re spinning your wheels, busy all day but somehow with nothing to show for it, is one of the most demoralizing feelings out there. I want to talk about a small productivity hack for exactly that feeling, one I’ve mentioned pieces of before but never actually named until now. Naming it matters, because a named tool is a tool you can actually reach for.

What retroactive credit actually means

Retroactive credit is simply giving yourself credit for actions you’ve already taken, even if you never wrote them down as a plan beforehand. Our executive function often keeps us from building the perfect linear to-do list, and that’s part of why I’ve always pushed nonlinear pending lists instead of itemized plans. But just because the action wasn’t planned out or crossed off a list doesn’t mean it didn’t happen or didn’t matter. You’ve likely been busy and taking real steps toward your goals all along, just in a messier, more haphazard order than the version society tells us counts.

How to actually do it

Sit down at the end of a day, a week, or whenever you feel like you need to get a grip on what’s happening and what hasn’t. Look at your scattered Post-it notes, your pending list, or just your memory, and start writing down everything you’ve actually taken care of. Checking one thing off often jogs your memory of another thing you handled that was never written down anywhere. Compile all of it, scraps of paper, half-finished lists, or just things pulled out of thin air, and give yourself credit for every bit of it. None of it had to be on an itemized list to count.

A recent example from my own life

This happened to me just today. In my membership group, we’re working through a monthly challenge on planning a project without getting lost in it, and I was hosting one of my Work With Me Wednesdays body-doubling sessions. I felt behind on my own project, the one I was supposed to be modeling for everyone else, and genuinely embarrassed that I hadn’t made progress. So I sat down and did the exact brainstorming exercise I teach, laying the whole project out for myself for the first time. Then, with a green highlighter, I started marking off everything I’d actually already done. Once it was all highlighted, I realized I was right on pace with my own members. If someone had asked me point blank five minutes earlier, I would have apologized and said I’d gotten nothing done. The actual, visible accounting of my work told a completely different story.

Why seeing it written down changes your attitude

That visible, honest accounting of what you’ve actually accomplished can be the difference between feeling defeated and feeling like you have real momentum. You’re working hard, and it isn’t for nothing. The work often just doesn’t look like the tidy, gold-star version we’ve been trained to expect.

Your practical, actionable step

The next time you feel like you’re spinning your wheels, stop and write down everything you’ve actually done recently, whether or not it was ever on a list. Give yourself retroactive credit for every bit of it, and let that honest tally reset how you feel about your progress.

Until next time, continue to choose joy.