ADHD · Baseer Maroof, LCSW
The First Five Minutes
You don’t have to finish it. You don’t even have to want to. You just have to start.
Saved only in this browser. What you type stays on this device.
What are you avoiding?
Tap one. No judgment here.
What’s in the way?
Pick the loudest one. Each gets a different move.
Make it so small it feels silly.
Tap one, or edit it. If it still feels heavy, go smaller.
Set up your start.
How long?
Add some fuel optional
Your reward after
You only have to do 5 minutes. Stopping after is allowed.
Your one step
5:00
Race the disk. Can you finish your step before it’s gone?
Someone’s working alongside you.
You only have to do 5 minutes. Stopping after is allowed.
You started.
That counted.
Want more, or done?
Logged.
The hardest part was the start, and you did it.
Here we count starts, not finishes. Coming back to it later is part of the plan, not a failure.
Why this works
The short version: ADHD makes the start, the clock and the payoff harder to feel. This tool puts all three outside your head.
Starting is its own skill
Task initiation is one of the brain’s executive functions, the management skills that help us plan, begin, pace and stop. With ADHD, the gap between knowing what to do and actually beginning can be the hardest part. It isn’t about caring less.
A silly-small first step lowers the cost of getting going. Once you’re moving, continuing usually takes less effort than starting did.
Making time something you can see
Many people with ADHD describe time blindness: time feels like “now” and “not now,” and it’s hard to sense minutes passing. A number on a clock asks you to read it and work out what it means. A disk that visibly shrinks shows the time as a shape, so you can feel it without thinking about it.
Borrowing interest
A common clinical way of describing ADHD is an interest-based nervous system: attention switches on more easily for what’s interesting, new, challenging or urgent than for what’s merely important. It’s a helpful framing used by many clinicians, not a formal diagnostic term.
That’s why the fuel options exist. Music adds novelty, racing the disk adds challenge and urgency, and a reward adds a reason that feels real right now.
Bringing the reward closer
Research links ADHD with differences in how the brain responds to reward, especially rewards that are far away. “It’ll feel good when it’s done next month” often doesn’t land. A short deadline you can see and a small reward right after give your brain a payoff it can actually register.
Structure outside your head
When the inner manager is unreliable, external structure does the job instead: a written step, a timer, a set start, another person nearby. Clinicians and coaches use these supports widely in ADHD care.
Working alongside someone, often called body doubling, is a strategy many people with ADHD find helpful. Formal research on it is still limited, so treat it as something to try and see.
Why “stopping is allowed”
A lot of avoidance is driven by dread of a long, open-ended slog, and by the shame of past attempts. Knowing you can stop after five minutes makes starting less threatening. Often you’ll keep going. When you don’t, you still practiced the hardest part.
Getting stuck isn’t laziness. If it’s happening a lot, it may be worth seeing someone who understands ADHD.
Clear every start saved in this browser?
Education and a self-help tool, not a diagnosis or treatment. Only a qualified clinician can assess for ADHD.