Emonthebrain - How To Get Anything Done With an ADHD Brain

Episode Date: March 23, 2026

In this episode of Planet Em, Emily breaks down how to get anything done using the neuroscience of the ADHD brain. She shares how she wrote an entire book while managing ADHD, working for seven hours straight without medication, and the exact systems she used to make that possible. Emily explains a concept called effort discounting, which is what happens when the brain perceives the effort of a task as greater than the reward at the end. She walks through three practical ways to overcome it. The first is making the hill smaller by lowering the barrier to entry and starting with just ten minutes. The second is making the task more fun by adding body doubling, aesthetic setups, music, or anything that creates a more enjoyable environment. The third is making the reward at the top bigger and more compelling so the brain has a reason to climb. She also covers why focus is not just a productivity skill but a nervous system state, why dopamine does not arrive before you start, and how to stack these three strategies together to stop avoiding the thing that keeps getting pushed to tomorrow. Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/1KV6h0wWN1Jh9t6qUPYIuQ Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/planet-em/id1852168666

Hi friends, I'm your host, M on the Brain, or Emily MacDonald, in case you guys didn't know my name. This episode is all about how to get anything done with an ADHD brain using neuroscience. And it's all based on kind of my experience as I was writing my book, because if you guys didn't know, I've been diagnosed with ADHD. I used to really, really struggle with it. I used to be that kid in school that was sent out into the hallway for talking all the time. I was super disruptive. I struggled to focus. I was impulsive.

I was emotionally reactive and easily triggered and all the things. And if you would have told me just five years ago that I was going to be able to work on a book for six months and write for seven hours nonstop without medication or stimulants or any of that, I would have laughed at you in the face. I would not have believed you. But through this process, I have grown so, so much. And honestly, I've learned a lot on my entire journey in the past five years. I have done a lot to train my brain for focus. and strengthen the executive networks in my brain and improve my executive functioning and regulate my nervous system, which are all extremely important pillars when it comes to ADHD, especially.

It's so important because one of the main things that we see in people with ADHD, including the past version of myself, is executive dysfunctioning. And this is why whenever I was writing my book, I was looking into, you know, ADHD and the newer research and just different ways to treat it and looking into the things that I actually did for myself to improve my way of life. And executive functioning training is one of the kind of main things that people with ADHD should be doing. You can look into it on your own time or you can work with me on it, if you do so please. But it's extremely important. And this is the first thing that I really want you guys to know just moving forward and throughout this episode,

but just in life is that focus is not just a productivity skill. It is a nervous system state. It is a way of living and being. It is a state that you live in that you can get into. To me, it's a state of living on purpose, living a life of intention, living as the creator that you are. You're not just focusing when you sit down and complete a task. Of course you are, but it's not only then.

It's as you move through life. What are you focused on? What are you focused on? Are you focused on problems? Are you focused on solutions? Are you focused on complaining? Or are you focused on the wonders of the world and the beauty of life? So focus is not just a productivity skill. It is a nervous system state. It's a way of being. It's a way of life. But let's talk about the three ways to get anything done that I have sort of come up with on my journey of writing my book. And it all started after a few occasions where I would roll up to the coffee shop. I'd be in my car, I had my laptop, my iPad, everything I need to go.

And I would sit there in my car and I would just stare at the doors of the coffee shop. And I would just stare at the doors and think about how much work I was going to have to do when I walked through those doors. I would just sit there, try to muster up the courage to go in. And this is something that I used to have to do back when I was going to. go to the gym, right, back in the day before it was really a habit for me. But I'm sure you guys can all relate to this in some way, shape, or form. There is probably something in your life that you're needing to do, but you're just struggling to muster up the courage to do it. You're avoiding it, procrastinating it, whatever it is. And I actually talked about this in my community with my students

in Minecraft. And when I was talking about, you know, how I went through. this process. I had everybody, I said, choose your player. Choose one thing that you have been avoiding doing. And I'm recommending you guys listening to this podcast, do that right now as well. This is going to be an interactive episode. You're going to have a way to get this task done by the end of the episode. All right, you are going to know exactly what you need to do to get it done and stop avoiding and procrastinating. When I was sitting there, mustering up the courage, I finally wouldn't, right? And me being me, I was like, I need to look into the neuroscience behind this. like what is going on and what do I need to do to make it happen because I'm tired of dealing with

this. I'm like, I need to figure out what is happening in my brain. And so I did. I figured it out. And it all has to do with dopamine. And it's something called effort discounting. Effort discounting is what happens when your brain perceives the amount of effort something's going to take as greater than the reward you're going to get at the end. Let me give you an example. Let me say I put your favorite snack right in front of your face. you would probably reach out and grab it. You'd probably reach out and grab it and take a bite and get some dopamine from it because why not? It's so easy.

It's right in front of your face, especially if you're a little hungry, you would probably take a bite. But let's say I put your favorite snack, just a handful of whatever your favorite snack is at the top of a five mile high super steep hill. What are you going to do? Your brain is probably going to go, oh, it's not that good of a snack. I'm not really that hungry, right? You're going to start to come up with reasons why you don't. really need it. What happened? The reward didn't change. The amount of effort changed. This is called effort discounting, right? And this is what happens. This is what your brain does to normal everyday

tasks that you need to complete. Except it's not a real five mile high mountain. This is just what your brain perceives it as. And this is why it's so difficult to do the thing that you need to do. So what is the thing that you're avoiding doing and hold it in your mind, write it down. Let's talk about the three ways to smack effort discounting in the face so that it can disappear and you can get we need to get done. So the first way to smack effort discounting in the face and complete whatever it is you need to get done is to make the hill smaller. This is where my beloved saying that I sort of came up with back in the day, start small and send it comes into play. How can you make the task that you're avoiding as tiny as possible? For me, when I was writing, I was writing, I was

writing my book, it was, let's just go write for 30 minutes. 30 minutes, that's it. Made it so much easier. It minimized the barrier to entry. So you can go start because that's a lot of times the hardest part is to start. For my one student, it was sending an email. And I said, well, how about you just tell yourself that you're going to go and write the first two sentences of that email. How can you break down your task into something smaller? If it's cleaning the house, let's do it for 10 minutes. One thing that I know to be true is that the dopamine does not come until after the first 10 minutes. I love this hack because motivation doesn't come before you start. Dopamine is increased when your brain perceives evidence of progress. And when you break it down and you start small and you send it,

I know damn well that when I sit down and I write for 30 minutes, it's going to start feeling good after about 15, 20 minutes. And then I'm not going to want to stop when I hit that 30 minute mark and I'm going to keep going. I know that, but I'm not going to tell myself that. I'm going to tell myself, all you need to do is sit down and do it for 10 minutes. You do it for 10 minutes. You've got this. So how can you make the hill smaller? How can you make the perceived effort tiny so that your brain will stop avoiding it? Because your brain, again, is just trying to keep you safe. It's trying to keep you safe from the discomfort of all the effort. Your task is going to take. Trick it. Tell it. It's not going to take any effort. How can you make the hill smaller? Let's talk about number two.

The second way to smack effort discounting in the face. Make the Hill more fun decline. For me, when I was writing my book, I actually went and got a pink keyboard. And at the time, I had Valentine's nails when I was finishing my book up. And it was the most aesthetic experience. My nails were sparkly and shiny. And I would look at them and they were pink and they matched the keyboard. And I literally, if you open up my photos on my phone, you will find lots of photos of my fingers on the keyboard.

because it was so aesthetic and I loved looking at it. It made it more fun. Another thing that I did is I would call it my best friend who is in her PhD and she's writing up her manuscript as we speak and we would be writing at the same time. This is something that is super helpful for people with ADHD as well. It's called body doubling, right? There are websites and services for it. We do it in Minecraft.

But also you can do it with your friends. If your friends are on the grind as well, just literally get on the phone or get on FaceTime or do it in person and work with them. work with your friends. That's something that I personally did. We would send each other pictures of our setup. Right before we would start, I would send her a pick of my setup. She would send me a pick of hers and then we'd get going. And I found myself so much more motivated because I knew my friend was working too at the same time. And so it made it more fun. There are plenty of ways to make your tasks more fun. So how can you make the hill more fun to climb? Get whimsy with it.

Get whimsy with your tasks. It's really funny because I said that. my talk at South by Southwest last week and my brother, he actually showed up, which was incredible because I wasn't expecting him to. And he literally texted me, I think, this morning. And he was like, get wimsy with it. But it's really true. Like, we don't, we shouldn't be separating work and play. Like, how can you make your work more fun? How can you make your tasks of today more fun? How can you make them more enjoyable? Maybe it is going and getting, making up a delicious drink. I remember someone asked me in Mindcraft, well, I need to cook and clean. I'm like, that's simple. Put on your favorite show or your podcast, an audiobook, or your favorite music, dance while you're doing it. Something that I

love to do while I cook is dance or watch a show or something or watch an interesting YouTube video and learn something cool. There's so many things that you can do. But especially with the example of cleaning, I was like, well, first start small, and saw yourself, you're just going to do it for 10 minutes, and then make it more fun. So all of these hacks that I'm giving you right now, by the way, they're still. You can do them all if you want. So lower that barrier to entry, start small, and send it, and then get whimsy with it. How can you make it more fun? Stop taking everything that you do so seriously. The weight of the world on your shoulders is just putting so much more pressure than there needs to be.

It's okay to just be relaxed and loose with it. Take a moment to give yourself permission to just take a deep breath. lower your shoulders just relax not everything you do has to be super locked in super grind extra top speed super power that everything has to be like that it's fun personally i have a great time getting into that state but not everything has to be like that all the time how can you get whimsy with it how can you get whimsy with your tasks of today how can you make your tasks of today more fun. Whatever that thing is that you're avoiding, that you're procrastinating doing, how can you infuse a little more fun into it? I ask myself that all the time. Even if I'm not avoiding it and I'm

just like, I'm not really super excited to do this. I immediately ask myself, well, okay, how can I make it more fun? Sometimes it's changing my outfit. You know, it can be something as simple as that. The third tip for overcoming effort discounting and getting that dopamine so that you can get it done is to make the top of the hill more rewarding. How can you? can you make whatever's at the top more rewarding? I know personally for me, right, I always wanted to write a book. And I know some of you might be thinking, because I was asked this question actually in Minecraft is, you know, if we always have to motivate ourselves to, you know, work on whatever it is that we're wanting to achieve and work on our businesses or whatever, you know, is it really

meant for us if we're always having to like push ourselves or whatever? And this is the way that I think about it because there were 100% days where I woke up and I was excited to write my book. But then there were also days where I was just, you know, not peak energy. And that is a normal human thing. So let's just take a moment to recognize that. It is a normal human experience to not wake up on 100% dopamine mode. It is actually completely normal to some days have more energy and more motivation and more excitement and more inspiration and other days to not. That's actually a part of the human experience. And I think a lot of times we tend to pressure ourselves and think that we should be feeling that way all the time. And that's just not how our brains and bodies work. I know especially

for me as a woman that goes through her cycle every month, my hormones are changing all the time. And so I am also aware of that and aware of where I am in my cycle. And so if you are, a cycler then maybe looking into that is helpful too but my answer to one of my students questions when she asked me that was just that it was we all are operating on these cycles and it's not normal to wake up and just be go go go every single day it's completely normal to experience ebbs and flows we're like water we're like waves right and so these are really for the days where maybe we're lacking that motivation or we're not having that energy that we usually have and and we're needing that little extra m for push, right? And also, I don't think that it's necessarily a bad

thing to design your tasks for dopamine. Because if I'm being completely honest with you, whenever I got probably to like month four of writing my book, I just really wasn't loving it anymore. I mean, there were some days, I don't want to lie. There were some days where I really was. But when it got toward the end, it really was just like, I can't wait to finish this. Like, I just want to get this done. But even on those days, and I actually told my Minecraft, student this as well, even on the days where I was super unmotivated and just, you know, not feeling it, not having the energy. Even on those days, I would ask myself, is there anything else I'd rather be doing? And my answer was no. There was never anything else I would rather be doing. I was like,

I definitely still want to write a book. I definitely still want to publish a book, right? And so there was never anything else I'd rather be doing. And so knowing that is extremely important because there are going to be days where you don't feel like waking up and moving toward your dreams or your goals or your job, right? There are going to be days when you feel like that. But then ask yourself, is there anything else I'd rather be working toward right now? And if the answer is yes, then maybe check in. But for me, the answer was no, I'm moving toward my dreams. This is my dream.

And then I'm like, all right, then let's design our tasks for dopamine so we can get it done. So that's exactly what I did toward the end of the process of writing my book. The first thing I did was I actually, found this pair of shoes. I had seen these pair of shoes online that I really wanted. They were kind of expensive. They were a pair of sneakers. They were pink. And they're kind of expensive. So basically I kind of told myself, you know, you can't have these until you're done writing your book. And that's something that I like to do sometimes. withhold reward until I'm done completing a task. I need to complete. I do this usually every morning whenever I get up and I move my body, whether it's doing

Pilates or going to the gym, working out, going for a walk, whatever it is. I don't let myself have matcha until afterward, usually. That's not a punishment. That's just, oh, I have something to look forward to afterward. And guys, dopamine isn't just released when you get the reward. It is released in anticipation of a reward. And so when I'm over here knowing that I'm going to get a macha at the end of, I'm going to be, oh, hell yeah, I can't wait. I'm getting a little dopamine anticipating that reward. That's something that I studied whenever I was in my PhD when I was studying drug addiction and we were investigating craving, right? That's what craving is. It's dopamine released in anticipation of a reward. And so that is one way that I would sort of design my tasks for, you know, dopamine and withholding a reward till afterward.

But toward the end, the shoes just were not enough. Like a six-month project is deserving of more than a pair of shoes. If I mean, if I'm being honest, right, it deserved more than that. And so actually in the past, in the last maybe three week stretch of me writing, we planned a trip to go to the Bahamas. And it was to, you know, go and check out potential venues to have our wedding. But for me, it was a, it gave me a deadline. I was like, I want to be done writing this book before we go to the Bahamas because I also want the Bahamas to be kind of a celebratory trip to celebrate me finishing my book. And so that deadline, that hard deadline of me finishing before my trip and also that anticipation of the trip was the motivation I needed. I was writing every day from 12 p.m. until 2 a.m.

Some people might ask, oh, but isn't that unhealthy? Yeah, I mean, look, I've said it once, and I'll say it again. Work-life balance is a scam. If you try to balance everything at one time, you're going to get balanced results. And a lot of times, balanced results are mediocre results. I was still getting my eight hours of sleep when I was writing from 12 p.m. to 2 a.m. every single day. I was still, I was still sleeping. I would sleep to like nine or something. So I was still getting enough sleep. Was I doing anything else? No. No. I was maybe getting up, moving my body, doing a little mobility and then eating and getting right back into it. My brain was filtering for nothing other than write your book. That's how you get things done. Now, that didn't happen forever, right? I did that for a stretch of time. And now, I'm not doing that anymore. So that's where the balance happens. That's where the balance happens, right? It happens between the waves of life, not all at once. And I've spoken to a lot of my students about this and a lot of people about this. And I think it also, it can be a huge relief when you realize that. It can be a huge relief when you allow yourself to be like, oh, hey, I don't have to balance everything

all at once. The balance can happen between the waves of life. I didn't have a social life in that stretch of like two, three weeks, no social life at all. I wasn't doing anything except for eat, sleep right. But that's what it takes sometimes. And I think a lot of people don't want to hear that. But if you talk to a lot of founders, they'll tell you that's what it takes sometimes. Talk to founders of businesses, people that are going after big goals and dreams. It takes sacrifice. It really does. And it takes those stretches of big push, knowing that those don't last forever, right? But it takes sprints. There are sprints that you need to go on. And honestly, I didn't suffer through that three weeks span at all. I actually felt amazing. It feels really,

really good to make progress toward your goals and dreams. And as long as it's not, you're not, you know, pushing yourself to the point where you're burning out, it feels great. And then you balance it with the waves, right? Then I want to trip onto the bomb. So I worked on that trip. So I'm not even going to lie and say that it was so relaxing because it honestly wasn't. But with all that being said, that is how I made the top of the hill more rewarding. Now, that's a huge thing. That was a huge task. Writing an entire book is a huge task. You guys might not be avoiding writing an entire book. You might be avoiding making some calls, writing some emails, building a website, whatever it is, right, cleaning your house. It might be something smaller, content creation,

whatever it is. How can you reward yourself afterward? Maybe it is planning a meal or hanging out with your friends this weekend. I know for me when I was in college, I was way more productive throughout the week when I would add plans on Friday night. And I know that's because of dopamine. When you have something to look forward to, you are way more productive. So maybe you should plan something, right, to look forward to. It doesn't have to be a trip. It can be something small. It can be a dinner. It can be hanging out with your friends. It can be completely free. Or it can be buying yourself something. I know sometimes for me it's buying myself an outfit. It can be, you know, getting yourself a matchad to reward yourself. Just little things like that. It can really be so small.

but planning a reward for after you complete it a lot of the time and make it undeniable. Make it really good. If it's something that you're just like, and it doesn't really motivate you, it doesn't work. It has to be undeniable. It has to be so good. So let's summarize the three tools that we just talked about in this episode. Okay. The first is make the hill smaller.

How can you break whatever it is that you're avoiding down into the tiniest first step so that you lower the barrier to entry and it becomes easier to actually initiate the task so that you can then go work for 10 minutes or do whatever it is you need to do for 10 minutes, get that dopamine from the evidence of progress that your brain sees and be on your way. Number two, how can you make the hill more fun decline? How can you get more whimsy with it? How can you make the tasks of today more fun? And number three, how can you make the top more rewarding? How can you make it undeniable? How can you make it so good that yeah, of course I would climb that hill. Of course I would. And now, guys, this episode would not be complete without talking about our three wonders of the week. We got to do

that. And I highly recommend you guys do them too. My three wonders of the week. The first one is actually based on one of the stories that I shared with you all in this episode. So I finished my book, right? And then I realized, oh, hey, I should go buy myself those shoes that I've been waiting on buying. Got really excited. Got a lot of dopamine. And then I went on, like, line and they were out of stock. And I was like, what the? Maybe I shouldn't have withheld this reward. Maybe I should have just bought myself those shoes. I was a little upset, if I'm being honest. And, you know, I looked, though, and they had them in stock in California. So I did not give up. I was going to call the store and see if they could ship them to me from the store. And I didn't do it

because it was past closing time that night. I believe it was Sunday night. And then the next day It was Monday. And I was talking about, you know, yeah, I'm like, how, maybe, whatever, whatever, I was over it. And so I went, anyway, Monday rolls around the next day, and I go online, I go to their website, and I'm going to try to see how I can, you know, get the phone number to the store location that the shoes are at that in my size. And I go, and all of a sudden, the shoes are magically back in stock, literally a day later. And to me, that was just such a wonder of the week. just within 24 hours, the shoes that I really wanted are back in stock. And that was, I think that was God being like, do you really want those shoes? And actually being like, let me make sure you really appreciate them. And I really appreciate them now because I almost couldn't have them.

I was literally walking around after I saw them out of stock like, damn, they would look so cute with this outfit. You know, you know how it goes. All right. So number two, my second one of the week is actually another thing that I shared in this episode, which was that my brother pulled up to my talk at South by Southwest. I did not think that he was going to come just because of the event that I was at and, you know, it was kind of he, he didn't think that he'd be able to get into the event, which, you know, hindsight is 20-20. I'm like, obviously, I could have got him in. But anyway, we didn't really talk about that. We were, I don't know, he was at South by Southwest for work. And so I wasn't sure whether or not he was going to need to be at certain events,

certain workshops, whatever. Anyway, the morning of he asks me, he's like, hey, am, what time do you speak and where at? And I sent it to him, not really thinking anything of it. And then maybe 30 minutes before I go on, my fiance is like, hey, your brother's texting me. And he's like, he's on his way. I was like, what? He's on his way. He's coming. He's walking here right now. I just got so excited. And he actually got there. He got there right as I was going on. And so I wasn't able to, you know, initiate him getting in. And so he just went up to the front. Apparently, there was a huge long line outside of this event. And he went up to the security guard. and told the security guard, I'm Emily's brother, look, you can look at my badge, last name's

McDonald, like we're siblings. She's literally going on right now. I need to get in there right now. And the security guard went, we need a VIP escort. And so he got a VIP escort into the event, into the workshop that I was speaking at. And as I begin on the first slide, I see him walk through the door in the back. And it just made me light up. And I was so happy. He's like one my best friends. I love him. And so I was really happy that he got to be there. And it just, it made it so much more enjoyable. And then afterward, he was really hyping it up. He was, he was really hyping up my slides. He thought I built them with AI. He was like, did you use AI to build those? I was like, no, I built those myself. And he was super impressed, which was awesome.

And the talk went absolutely phenomenal. It was great. Everyone loved it. Everyone was laughing and nodding the whole time. It was so fun. And tons of people were asking me questions afterward, which was so cool. I had the best experience. So it was really a great. time. So those are two wonders of the week. Obviously, the event could be another one because it was absolutely incredible. But I will say my third wonder of the week is actually that I ordered some athletic wear last week and it got in yesterday. And as I opened the package, there was a free shirt included. I don't know whether it was on purpose or on accident, but I already had the shirt that they put in there. I kind of want to give a fourth wonder of the week. And this happened at the

airport. I walked into the bathroom and I went, you know, went to the bathroom and I walked out and there the line was so long to the airport bathroom. And this happened another time while I was in Austin. I forget where we went, but we went somewhere, I think to like a restaurant or a coffee shop or something. And then as we were leaving, it was packed and the line was so long. And what I know to be true is that when you go somewhere and it's empty and then all of a sudden it's packed means you're super magnetic. It means you have super magnetic energy. And so that's my. My fourth wonder of the week is that I was receiving evidence of me just being super magnetic because the places I was going were empty when I arrived and crowded when I left.

So I was just attracting all the energy to wherever I was at. And those are my four wonders of the week. Highly recommend you all do yours. Keep track of them. Have a little notes folder that you enter your Wonders of the Week throughout the week. It's so awesome, so helpful. I've experienced a change in my perception of reality through practicing them. I highly recommend you do it on.

So guys, thank you so much for your time, energy, and attention in this episode. I appreciate you more than you will know if you are someone who is interested in learning more about these systems, especially focus, executive functioning, creating the right systems, regulating yourself, and, you know, just ADHD brain in general. I'm actually holding a class. I believe when this episode comes out, it'll be this week. I'm holding a class this week on focus, ADHD, attention, all of that. I'm holding a class going through all the systems.

It's a free class. So come. It's going to be one of my last classes for a while. So I highly recommend you guys come. It's going to be a brand new class that I've never taught before. And it's going to be great. So I highly recommend you guys come. The link to join is in my bio.

Or you can go to at MindCraft and you can sign up and register for your spot. Save your spot there as well. But anyway, guys, I am sending you all. so much love, so much good energy. I hope you guys have the best week ever. I'm rooting for you. I believe in you. You are worth it. You deserve it. So go get it. Have a great week, everyone. I'll see you guys in the next episode. Bye guys.