3 ADHD Game-Changers that aren’t just 'Drink More Water'

As your coach, I’ll never tell you what to do. But as your ADHD friend who knows exactly what it feels like to sit staring at your laptop, 42 tabs open, a thousand things to do, and zero idea where to start… I got you.

Living with ADHD, especially as a freelancer, creative, or entrepreneur, can feel like running a business with a rebellious intern for a brain. One moment you’re fired up with ideas, the next you’re in a 90 minute conversation with ChatGPT about what’s really going on in Area 51, and you've forgotten to eat lunch. Your motivation isn’t missing, it’s just wildly inconsistent and can feel totally untamable- think Tasmanian devil energy. Some days, it feels like climbing a mountain in flip-flops, I really do get it.

So no, I’m not going to tell you to “just get organised.” And yes, I do want you to drink your water and do your stretches. But I’m not here to add to the echo chamber that we’ve heard before.

Instead, here are three practical, slightly unconventional things that have genuinely changed the game for me. They’re small but mighty, and they work with your creative and ADHD brain, not against it.

Buckle up.

1. Get yourself a whiteboard.

Use it to plan your morning the night before. And I mean actual timings: wake-up, breakfast, dog walk, journal, take your supplements. Whatever’s important, schedule it in. Keep it visible and simple. It’s not a Pinterest mood board, it’s just a realistic, no-fuss layout of your morning.

Why it works:The ADHD brain needs help getting into motion. You can start your day full of energy and great intentions, and still end up 92 TikToks deep before you’ve even made it to the shower.

Planning ahead helps eliminate decision fatigue in the morning, when your brain is still half in dreamland and low on dopamine. By planning out a realistic timeline from wake-up to your first meeting or call, you give yourself structure and a clear path forward. You also create accountability with yourself.

By TikTok 24, you know you’re meant to be three activities in. You start to get real about what fits, how long things actually take, and what’s worth your energy.Each time you tick something off, you get a hit of dopamine. Suddenly, “take supplements” isn’t just a health tip, It’s a satisfying box-tick and a micro-win that your brain will absolutely lap up. Best of all, it helps lower that anxious, overwhelmed feeling before it even starts. You’ve already made the decisions. Now you just have to follow the plan.

2. Write morning pages.

All credit to Julia Cameron on this one, author of The Artist’s Way. The practice is simple: Write three pages of unfiltered, unedited thought every morning. No stopping, no censoring, just writing until it’s done.

Why? Because it gets all your brain noise onto the page, raising your awareness and putting language to the hundreds of thoughts swimming around your head. And once you move through the boring ‘front of mind’ stuff: the to do list, the rants, the “should I get bangs?” thoughts,  that’s where the real magic starts. You often start to plan, ideate and give space to dreams that were hiding just behind your potential bangs, ready to be heard and developed in this space.

It also breaks the grip of perfectionism. The hardest part is to keep going, and not to stop, even if you’re writing about the weather, your only job is to keep that pen moving until your 3 pages have been hit. Remember that no one’s reading it, it doesn’t have to make sense, it just has to exist. You’re not trying to be deep, you’re trying to get started.

Bonus tip: Do your morning pages before looking at screens. When you wake up, your brain is in theta and alpha, the slower brainwave states linked to calm, creativity, and intuitive thinking. Alpha is where connections happen, ideas surface, and your most original thinking lives.

Picking up your phone shifts you right into beta, the fast, reactive brainwave state that pulls you out of creativity and removes you from your access to your own deep, original thought.

So do yourself a favour and protect your alpha, Listen to your thoughts before you listen to the rest of the world. That’s where the real creativity lives.

3. Create accountability.

Don’t wait for it. Motivating yourself as an ADHDer or freelancer can feel near impossible when the consequences are low, but add a looming deadline or the threat of a tax fine, and suddenly you’re on fire. That’s the power of accountability. It externalises the stakes and taps into that people-pleasing wiring we all secretly have, even when we joke about it. If it doesn’t exist naturally, build it yourself. Tell a friend, “Hey, I’m going to call you on Friday to update you on where I’m at with my taxes.” That simple act of knowing you’ll have to explain yourself is often enough to get you moving. Or better still, say, “If I finish this project by Friday, we get ice cream, if I don’t finish it, I’m buying you ice cream.” That’s accountability with built-in motivation and consequences, making it much harder to slack off. Accountability doesn’t have to be formal or intimidating. It can be casual, like a quick text check-in, a voice note, or a message in a group chat. Mix it up. You can have different accountability buddies for work deadlines, exercise goals, or even for keeping your sugar intake in check.Start small with micro-accountabilities, like sending one email or doing five minutes of work, which build momentum and trigger dopamine hits that keep you going. Most importantly, accountability should feel like support, not pressure. It’s about connection and kindness, not stress and shame. When it works like that, it’s pure magic for getting unstuck.

So there you have it, three simple but game changing hacks, let me know how they work for you!

With love and snacks,

Laila x