ADHD and the Planning Trap: Why You Can Picture the Goal but Struggle to Start

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By Dr. Chris de Feijter, EdD., MACP., CCC · Clinical Director, STG Health Services

You know what you want to do. You may even know a great deal about how to do it. But the plan keeps getting clearer while the project stays untouched.

Here’s the part most “just start” advice gets backwards. The usual assumption is that if you haven’t begun, you must not want it enough. In practice, it’s often the opposite. The goals people stall on longest are frequently the ones they care about most — the career change, the return to exercise, the creative project they’ve imagined for years. One line of motivation research even found that the drop in energy after a pleasant daydream was larger when the goal met a more pressing need. Wanting something badly doesn’t protect you from the trap. Sometimes it pulls you deeper in.

But here’s what most people miss:

• More planning isn’t always progress. Research and preparation can quietly become the project itself. A useful test: has the last round of planning changed what you’ll actually do next?
• The obstacle belongs in the plan. Imagining things going smoothly feels better, but rehearsing the likely sticking point is what makes a start more workable.
• A start is not a promise to finish. Many people avoid beginning because, in their head, starting means committing to the whole thing. It doesn’t have to.

This article is for adults who recognize a pattern of researching, organizing, buying supplies or imagining a change — and then not quite moving into action. It includes people who look capable from the outside and feel privately frustrated by how much effort ordinary tasks take. It offers one lens and one experiment. It isn’t an explanation of all ADHD motivation, and recognizing yourself here doesn’t mean you have ADHD. Stalling has many possible contributors — low mood, anxiety, poor sleep, burnout, or simply too many demands for the hours available, something shift workers on long rotations know well.

When planning becomes the most satisfying part

Planning is useful. The problem starts when it becomes the most rewarding part of the whole goal — the part you keep returning to because it feels good, not because it moves anything forward.

It helps to separate three things that can feel identical from the inside:

1. Imagining the outcome — picturing yourself fitter, organized, finished.
2. Preparing — researching, comparing, buying, scheduling.
3. Acting — doing something that changes the actual state of the project.

All three matter. But only the third one changes anything you could point to tomorrow.

Composite example (details changed and blended): Dana works a two-weeks-on rotation at a northern mine site. On her days off she wants to get back into running. She’s compared three training apps, bought proper winter shoes, and can picture herself finishing a 10K by spring. Six weeks later, the shoes are still by the door. Dana isn’t lazy, and she isn’t faking the goal. She has a vivid picture of the finish line and almost no picture of a dark, minus-25 morning when she has to decide whether to go out.

Psychiatrist Dr. Sasha Hamdani describes a similar experience with something as ordinary as new curtains: imagining a warm, finished room felt completely different from measuring windows, choosing hardware and drilling into the wall. The imagined version came with its reward up front. The real version came with steps — and each step was a place to stall.

A question worth keeping handy:

Is this step helping me act, or helping me keep imagining?

Why the real task feels different from the imagined one

The imagined version of a goal has had the hard parts edited out. The real version still has every decision, every bit of uncertainty and every mildly unpleasant moment intact.

Take paperwork. The outcome sounds simple: “My paperwork will finally be organized.” The actual work looks more like this:

• find the papers (they’re in at least three places),
• decide where they’ll go,
• decide what to keep, shred or deal with,
• tolerate leaving some of those decisions unfinished for now.

That last one is the one people underestimate. Many adults with ADHD can push through effort. What’s harder is the open loop — sitting with a half-done pile and a decision you haven’t made yet. If the plan only ever pictures the finished filing cabinet, the first unresolved envelope can feel like failure instead of a normal part of the process.

So the more useful question isn’t “Do I want this?” You probably do. It’s: “What happens when I meet the first real obstacle?” If you can’t answer that, the plan isn’t finished yet — no matter how detailed it is everywhere else.

One caution. This explanation fits some stalls, not all of them. Hamdani frames the pattern in terms of planning “using up” the motivation you need for action. That’s a memorable way to put it, but the research doesn’t show planning drains a fixed supply of anything, or that the mechanism works differently in ADHD. Treat it as a useful description of an experience, not a brain-chemistry fact.

What research says about imagining success

Positive fantasies are not the same as a workable plan

Psychologists Heather Barry Kappes and Gabriele Oettingen ran four experiments in which people were guided to imagine an idealized version of a desired future. Compared with people who imagined a more questioning, negative or neutral version, those who indulged the idealized fantasy showed lower energy — measured both physically and through behaviour. The effect was stronger when the goal met a more pressing need.

That doesn’t mean hope is harmful, ambition is a mistake, or every kind of visualization backfires. These studies looked at idealized fantasies — the effortless, everything-goes-right kind. The researchers’ own suggestion was that a less polished picture, one that includes obstacles and setbacks, is more likely to help you get moving. Oettingen’s later work built that into a method called mental contrasting (often taught as WOOP: Wish, Outcome, Obstacle, Plan), which pairs the goal with the main thing inside you that’s likely to get in the way.

Rehearsing the work may be more useful

In an earlier study, Lien Pham and Shelley Taylor asked first-year university students to spend a few minutes a day, for the week before a midterm, imagining either the process of studying — where, when, how — or the outcome of getting a good grade. The process group studied more and earned better grades. Better planning and lower anxiety helped explain the difference.

The limitation matters: this was a study of university students, not people with ADHD, and not a treatment trial. It’s a reason to try the idea, not proof it will work for you.

Imagining a result can clarify what you want. Rehearsing the work can clarify what comes next.

Try picturing the middle — not just the finish line

Hamdani’s phrase for this is “manifest the middle”: picture yourself doing the steps, not just enjoying the result. The exercise below combines that idea with the process-simulation research. Think of it as an experiment, not a validated ADHD treatment. Most people can run it in under ten minutes.

1. Choose one real action

Swap “work on my finances” for something you could see yourself doing: “open the latest bank statement.” You don’t need to map the whole project first. Mapping the whole project is often where the trap lives.

2. Rehearse what doing it will involve

Run it like a short film, with you in it:

• Where will you be?
• What will you open, pick up or write?
• What will you need within reach?

The more ordinary the details, the better. “At the kitchen counter, phone in hand, banking app open” beats “getting my finances sorted.”

3. Include one likely sticking point

This is the step most people skip because it doesn’t feel good. Do it anyway.

“I might open the statement and feel overwhelmed.”

Then decide your response ahead of time, in if–then form:

“If I feel overwhelmed, then I’ll find one payment I recognize instead of trying to sort everything.”

4. Define a small stopping point

“After I find that payment, I’m allowed to stop.”

This separates starting from finishing. It also makes the first step much easier to agree to, because you’re no longer signing up for the entire job.

5. Review the attempt without grading yourself

Afterward, ask:

• What was easier than I expected?
• Where did my plan not match reality?
• What would make the next attempt more workable?

If you didn’t start at all, that’s data too. Which step did the rehearsal skip?

What this looks like in everyday life

Which version tells you what you would actually do next?

Is this the right tool for your situation?

No single strategy fits every stall. This one works best when the gap is between a clear goal and a vague first step. It’s less useful when something else is doing the blocking.

If–then shortcuts:

• If you keep adding steps to the plan → then stop planning and rehearse only the first action.
• If you rehearse the step but still don’t start → then shrink the stopping point until it feels almost too easy.
• If you start but quit at the same spot each time → then that spot is your sticking point. Rehearse your response to it specifically.
• If nothing works across several attempts → then the problem probably isn’t the technique. That’s worth exploring with someone.

Quick-start checklist:

When another strategy isn’t enough

Maybe you’ve already broken tasks down. Maybe you understand every word of this article and still can’t make it work. That doesn’t mean you aren’t trying.

If you can understand a strategy but still can’t put it into practice, that’s useful information — not a reason to blame yourself. The next step may be understanding what is making action hard for you: attention, sleep, mood, anxiety, workload, or some combination. A one-size strategy can’t sort that out. A proper look at your history, your capacity and the real demands of your week can.

If the stuck feeling has turned into hopelessness, or you’ve had thoughts of not wanting to be here, please reach out now: call or text 988, or call 811 to speak with Saskatchewan HealthLine.

If you’d like to read more, the SaskADHD articles Beyond Willpower: A Practical Framework for Adult ADHD Support and I Already Have an ADHD Diagnosis. Why Am I Still Struggling So Much? both look at why effort alone often isn’t the missing piece.

Frequently asked questions

Turning a clear idea into a supported next step

You don’t need smaller dreams to justify a smaller next action. Keep the big goal. Just give it a first step you can see.

Try it once this week: pick one unfinished goal, name the first action, and name one thing likely to get in the way.

If planning, starting or following through keeps disrupting your daily life, SaskADHD can help you explore what’s getting in the way. Wondering about ADHD? You can start clinician-reviewed ADHD screening online — it’s telehealth, so it works whether you’re in Regina or a few hours north of La Ronge. Already diagnosed? Begin therapy intake to talk through whether therapy or skills support fits your needs.

About the author

Dr. Chris de Feijter, EdD., MACP., CCC, is a Canadian Certified Counsellor (CCPA) and Clinical Director of STG Health Services, a province-wide telehealth practice based in La Ronge, Saskatchewan. Before counselling, he spent 20 years as a special education and inclusion consultant in Europe and Saskatchewan, working on the gap between what people intend and what their environment lets them do. Chris provides psychotherapy and skills-based care; he does not diagnose ADHD or prescribe medication. Diagnosis is made by a physician, nurse practitioner, psychiatrist or registered psychologist, and prescribing and diagnostic clarification at STG are handled by the STG nurse practitioner.

Sources and how this article was written

This article draws on two experimental research programs: Kappes and Oettingen’s 2011 studies on positive fantasies and energy, and Pham and Taylor’s 1999 study comparing process and outcome mental simulation. The “manifest the middle” framing comes from a video by psychiatrist Dr. Sasha Hamdani. Neither study tested people with ADHD, and neither was a treatment trial; the exercise here is an adaptation for everyday use, not a validated ADHD intervention. The examples are composites with details changed and blended. No client data was analyzed for this article.

Kappes, H. B., & Oettingen, G. (2011). Positive fantasies about idealized futures sap energy. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 47(4), 719–729. DOI: 10.1016/j.jesp.2011.02.003. Pham, L. B., & Taylor, S. E. (1999). From thought to action: Effects of process- versus outcome-based mental simulations on performance. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 25(2), 250–260. DOI: 10.1177/0146167299025002010. Hamdani, S., Why You Dream Big But Do NOTHING (with ADHD), YouTube video, identifier tMUXptVRvo0.

Not an emergency service. In immediate danger, call 911. For suicide crisis support, call or text 988. For 24/7 health advice in Saskatchewan, call 811.