Welcome to our May blog post where AJC associate coach, Alice Fisher, shares her own experience with ADHD and how she has used the 1% better method to boost motivation and take action in many areas of her life. This approach builds on James Clear's proven "Atomic Habits" methodology, focusing on small, consistent improvements that compound over time. By making habits 1% better each day, he reports that you'll see remarkable transformation in just months.
Why 1% Better works for ADHD-ers
I’ve been tough on myself since I can remember.
When desperately trying to achieve my goals as a teenager, I’d overhaul my entire routine on the basis I’d magically turn into the person I wanted to be overnight.
Someone who was disciplined. Consistent. Part of the 5am club.
And I continued this trend into my mid-twenties, each time (unsurprisingly) failing, and accumulating more evidence that I couldn’t do it. Achieving my goals wasn’t for me.
Until, of course, I got my ADHD diagnosis.
Talk about lightbulb moments! Of course I couldn’t achieve things in the ‘atomic habits’ way, or in the way PTs had tried, or follow a gym timetable consistently (even if I loved the class).
Because my brain just doesn’t work that way!
At first, I felt overjoyed - how liberating to know that all the things I’d berated myself for were just a part of me.
And then I got sad. And then I got angry.
I had believed I was incapable of being successful until the age of 27 because 1. I didn’t realise my brain was different and 2. I had never been taught how to personalise my process.
This is because a lot of self-help books (which I’d read a lot of) based their pursuit of success on neurotypical methods… which sound like the following:
- Discipline
- Consistency
- Long-term thinking
- Impulse control
- Intrinsic motivation
- Time management
- Organisational skills
- Step-wise/strategic thinking
Now I know that all the above attributes are impacted by ADHD and executive dysfunction, I can see that they do not work for me.
Despite this fairly consistent messaging that to achieve your goals you’ve got to be a type A personality, successful ADHDers do exist (actually, to a disproportionate ratio)! But often, they’ve got there through charisma, hyper-focussing on a passion, thinking ‘outside the box’, a lack of risk awareness, and crucially, having a low tolerance for being bored.
But that didn’t stop me from wanting more control over what I was achieving: I did, and do, want more calm, linear achievement for things like health and financial wellbeing. And, doing things the more ADHD-adjacent (read, chaotic) way wasn’t making me feel reassured, or like I could measure my progress.
So, with all I was learning as an ADHDer and coach for burnt out creatives and freelancers, I found myself asking: which methods can I use to make my success more strategic & consistent without being either of those things?
The answer for me, through trial and error, has been 1% better.
This is where, instead of setting a huge goal and chasing it, you just focus on the day-to-day; what can I do 1% better today than yesterday?
Perhaps it sounds unstructured or unambitious, but here’s why it works so well for ADHD brains.
- You can’t do ‘all or nothing’.
When you set a big goal, even if your intention is to chip away at it steadily, the ADHD urge is to try to achieve it quickly or overachieve your way there. Instead of “I could do this healthily in about a year”, it often becomes “I wonder if I can be the person who achieves this the best ever and in record time.” This, although great if you’ve got a tight deadline, can lead to burnout if this mindset is pervasive long-term.
This perfectionism is common in ADHDers, and also a key factor in why so many goals or pursuits remain unfinished. The mindset that ‘perfectly is the only acceptable outcome’ isn’t the same as setting high expectations: it actively gets in the way of your goals. A 1% better mindset is more compatible with the reality of everyday life: you can embrace fluctuating energy and motivation, and even on a rubbish day where everything has gone wrong you could do something that feels aspirational.
- It’s easy.
One of the biggest indicators of whether something will be sustainable for me is whether it’s a quick win. If something is difficult or drawn out, I will likely procrastinate it to give me time to mull it over, or to avoid the anxiety of confronting it. 1% better removes friction because it’s a simple, actionable micro-goal that accumulates over time without me having to think about it.
It also really works because as affectionately termed ‘butterfly brains’, many ADHDers find working memory hard; it has more to answer for than simply losing your train of thought mid-sentence or perpetually forgetting where you’ve put your keys. Poor working memory coupled with distractibility makes long-term thinking less motivating, as well as exacerbating our mental load.
Our brain is so full and so noisy most of the time, meaning the overlong list of things we ‘should’ be doing to achieve our goals can overcomplicate things, trigger a shame response, and overwhelm our nervous system, ultimately making it less achievable.
- It allows for spontaneity.
If I feel I can’t (or am not allowed) to do something, especially something fun, whimsical or ‘in the moment’, I will often rebel. Even if that restrictive goal is self-imposed, seemingly incredibly important to me, and I’ve made very rational choices to get there. I’ve tried dry January, Veganuary, Lent… it just makes me want the wine, cheese and chocolate more!
1% better fits in with family gatherings, Christmas… real life stuff where indulgence is part of the deal. But I can still stay ‘on track’ and provide concrete evidence that I can achieve my goals, because it doesn’t rely on me saying the hardest word in the English language: no.
This also allows a little bit of dopamine chasing (in the shape of a coffee and a cake) or accepts the occasional comfort eat without the internal monologue about how ill-disciplined I am. But more on the ADHD relationship with shame later!
- You can’t really get bored.
Conventional goals often fail for us because they’re linear (aka boring). As ADHDers are dopamine deficient, we thrive off novelty, excitement, newness… which can make staying consistent at challenging things excruciatingly hard.
However, the micro-challenge of 1% better means that you’re rarely improving the same thing over and over again: on a health journey for example, one day it might be upping your exercise, another upping your water, another improving your sleep. This keeps the challenge fresh and helps you stay motivated for longer.
- It cuts out the baggage.
Most of us avoid pursuing our goals in earnest because of the umpteen previous examples of failure. We assume this means we can’t do it ever, and we outsource or personal growth in a desperate attempt to ‘finally do it this time’… and this advice is invariably not tailored to you personally.
This shame is felt more (and more acutely) by ADHDers, as we can be particularly sensitive to perceived criticism or imperfection. 1% better can improve your resilience because you’re not adding a laundry list of convoluted rules to an already full and overstimulated mental load. Instead of trying to do anything and everything, you’re doing one tiny thing. This can help you stay regulated, and in turn, more likely to stick to your personal development journey long-term.
And my personal review of it? I’ve only done it for three weeks so far, but that’s three weeks longer than I’ve stuck to anything else in my life!
I feel assured I can stick to it, and it’s automatically helping me choose more desirable habits in addition to my micro-goal for the day; I’m more likely to stack habits, as I don’t feel like I’m constantly failing or playing catch up to my usual unrealistic expectations. I’m loving it so far, and I can’t wait to see where it takes me.
So, if you’re currently looking for something – anything – to magically make your goals more achievable, impactful and purposeful, I’d strongly recommend – neurodiverse or not – trying the 1% better method. As those micro-habits add up faster than you think!
Find out more
If you’d like to know more about how coaching with me, Alice and our other associate coaches can help you move forward with your goals, you can discover more herehttps://abigailjanecoaching.com/services/. We can offer you a free, no obligation, 30 minute consultation to discuss your current situation and explore the options together.
