pareto principle says it takes 20 of time and energy to finish 80 of a task and 80 time and energy for the remaining 20 this is true for most everyone and everything but i have a feeling that it is even more relevant to people with adhd  thing is you need to let go of those 20 repeat after me its always better to half-ass something than to not do it at all  this sentence needs a lot of repeating and i know it wont stick at first but trust me eventually it will  once youve internalized it youll probably be able to transfer it to whatever task at hand but let me use your essay as an example  a you know that the references page is a boring chore and a drag b you know you have to do it anyway c you know you wont start again once you take a break  therefore d you have to cramp it into those productive hours somehow  if you know a necessary part of a task uses up a lot of timeenergy and you cant put it first like you cant with your references you gotta save that energy somewhere else  that can mean if you get a little stuck at some point or feel this part right here needs a little more attention - let it go jump to the next section and keep going no fiddling with single sentences for endless minutes cant think of that word you really need leave a blank no excessive proofreading during writing this alone saves so much time and energy once youve finished and your references are done and then you have energy left you can go back and do the fine tuning  also for many tasks you can split off certain things as different tasks for a different day idk say if you clean your windows doesnt mean you have to also wash dry and iron your curtains even if it feels like those are connected leave it for a different day instead of forgetting it in the washer and drag your wet curtains with you for another week