Inertia Surfing

ADHD in motion will stay in motion, unless it gets stuck on something and turns into a barnacle.

Inertia Surfing means riding a wave of action or productivity - you started by rinsing the coffee pot and then you decided the dishes needed to be done and while you were in the kitchen there wasn't a good reason not to sweep and as you put the broom away you took the vacuum out and did the floor in your bedroom, which got you to put away your floor pile of clothes so you also got together a pile of donations and took them over to the thrift store while you returned your library book and went grocery shopping on the way home, then put the groceries away, grabbed a drink out of the fridge, and sat down on your couch wondering when the spirit of helpful elves decided to possess you.

Inertia Surfing can be involuntary - perhaps you are cleaning your entire house at midnight because you're hiding from an email - but it is also a state that can be induced and maintained in the right conditions.

Getting Started

First, note that it is not always possible to inertia surf. If you are burned out or you have looming deadlines you are probably not in a state for sustained, varied activity so much as either lethargy or panicked unidirectional action. That said, anxiety and depression can be emotional motivators for inertia surfing, and inertia surfing can help to relieve anxiety and depression. You don't precisely have to be feeling well to inertia surf, but you have to be feeling right.

But, if you're in the right state to get started (you're not exhausted, you're not avoiding an imminent deadline, you don't have any looming obligations and it's cool if you fall headfirst into action for a few hours), the way to get started is by finding the one thing in your environment or situation that is currently most annoying to you. Perhaps you've been meaning to bake for a day or two but the sink needs to be emptied first. Perhaps you want to mow the lawn but first you need to move your car. Perhaps you've got a powerpoint you need to finish at work but you need to read someone's email before you can update a slide. In these examples, it's not the baking, powerpoint, or lawn that are the barriers, it's the sink, email, and car in the driveway. If you've figured out what the barrier is, write it down or otherwise fix it in your mind (I'm going to write it down. I'm going to forget if I don't write it down.)

Once you've identified the annoying little lever, think about things that are in proximity to the project. If you empty the sink do you also need to empty the refrigerator and wash tupperware containers? If you're going to move your car anyway do you need to go anywhere with it first? If you finish the powerpoint do you have other emails you could read after? Think about the thing you want to do and the surrounding things that touch on it, if you empty the containers in the fridge does that give you space to clean the shelves? Think along that path for a little while - making a list as you go if lists are helpful to you - and think if there's anything that could stop you as you're following that path. Do you need to eat breakfast? Do you need to go to the bathroom? Is it five AM and you've got work at eight AM and should sleep for a couple hours? Before you start the ball rolling, make sure that you're going to be in a condition to lock in for at least a couple of hours. Eat something, fill your water bottle, take your meds, write your list.

Now that you're prepped and you've got the vague outlines of a plan, focus back on the barrier/annoyance/lever. Think about the first step you have to take to move that lever. Walk to the kitchen. Grab your car key. Open your email client.

Okay now do it.

I know that's easier said than done, and if you aren't able to motivate yourself to take that first small action without some other motivation, consider these as possible motivations:

• Future you will be much less stressed if you do this now than if you put it off
• Once you are done with this thing you do not have to do other things and can fuck around as a reward
• Doing the thing will mean that you have accomplished the thing and you may be given a crumb of dopamine by your brain as a reward
• You get to cross the thing off your list
• Nobody can yell at you for not having done the thing if you do the thing
• Nobody will be waiting on you to do the thing if you do the thing
• Doing the thing will prevent the thing from looming at a later date
• Doing the thing is productive enough to be a good excuse to procrastinate on another, less appealing thing that you could be doing.

If none of those work, try 5-4-3-2-1-Go. If that doesn't work, try to Do the Smallest Amount Possible or see if you can Start a Timer as motivation. If those - or other initiation tricks - don't help to get you moving, you may simply not be in the right mindset for inertia surfing today, and can always try again later. Sometimes the surf is too high and you can't get up on your board. No biggie.

If you ARE able to get started, your next goal is to keep riding the wave.