Permission to do half.

Most tasks arrive with a hidden contract: begin this, and see it through. It's so automatic you rarely notice it. But it changes the sum your brain does before you start. Instead of asking "can I do the first ten minutes of this?", it asks "can I do the whole thing, right now?" On a low-energy day the answer is no — and the task never begins, even though the first ten minutes would have been fine.

Why the whole task weighs so much

Starting a task needs a small push of motivation. Many ADHD brains don't produce that push on demand for things that are dull, vague or far away. Urgency, interest and other people waiting all supply it from outside, which is why the deadline rush works and the calm early start doesn't.

When the task in your head is the whole task, the push it needs is the size of the whole task. That is the part to shrink.

Change the contract, not the task

Before you start, say it out loud or write it down: I'm only doing part of this, and stopping partway is a complete result. You haven't made the task smaller. You've made the promise smaller — and a smaller promise is far easier to begin.

There's a second effect. Part of what makes a big task heavy is everything you can't see yet: the obstacles, the decisions, the chance of getting stuck halfway. Taking "finish it" off the table removes that weight before you've even opened the file.

It only works if you mean it

If the permission is a trick — "I'll say I can stop, but I'll really push through" — it usually fails, because the real expectation hasn't gone anywhere. You have to genuinely accept that one paragraph written, one drawer sorted or five emails answered is a good outcome today.

Often you'll keep going once you've started. That's fine. But it's a bonus, not the point.

What counts as a stopping point

• A fixed time: "ten minutes, then I'm allowed to stop."
• A small visible unit: one section, one shelf, one reply.
• The first awkward step: open the document and write the heading.

You still care about finishing eventually. You've just separated today's start from that finish line.

Stopping points for tasks that tend to wait

• The tax return: find last year's papers and put them in one folder. Stop.
• The difficult email: write the first sentence and save it as a draft. Stop.
• The messy room: clear one surface, the one you see first. Stop.
• The report: write the headings only. Stop.
• The phone call: find the number and write down the one question you need answered. Stop.

Each of these is small enough to feel almost silly. That is the point: a silly first step gives your brain nothing to argue with.

Make tomorrow's start easier too

When you stop, leave a note on top of the work with the very next step: "next: fill in box 4" or "next: reply to Ana's second question". Tomorrow you start from an instruction instead of a blank, and the hidden contract has less room to come back.

When it keeps happening

If starting is hard across most of your life, at work, at home and with things you genuinely want to do, it may be worth talking it through with a GP or psychologist. A pattern that shows up everywhere deserves more than tips.