The Power of Busywork

Hailed as one of the prime evils in the relentless pursuit of productivity, busywork refers to any task that doesn’t require much cognitive effort. It’s those small, mundane tasks you can complete without investing much mental energy—organizing your desk, cleaning up your Downloads folder, or sorting your emails.

Many productivity gurus will have you believe that busywork stands in the way of achieving your goals. They’ll tell you that only by minimizing busywork in your day will you be able to focus on the tasks that truly matter.

However, for neurodivergent individuals, particularly those grappling with executive dysfunction, busywork can serve as an unexpected ally in achieving your goals. In this article, I’ll share why busywork can give you that extra push you need to stay motivated.

Neurodivergence and Executive Dysfunction

Executive functioning is the cognitive system responsible for managing our thoughts, emotions, and actions to achieve goals. It’s how we manage ourselves—both internally and externally.

Some people don’t fully develop their executive functions until much later in life, and some never fully develop them. Executive dysfunction, or executive function deficit, means that one or more executive functions don’t work quite like they should.

One of the consequences of executive dysfunction is increased difficulty in motivating yourself to start working on a task—often leading to ADHD paralysis. Even seemingly straightforward tasks can feel insurmountable. You know what you need to do, and you know it’s important, but for some reason, you can’t bring yourself to do it.

The Paradox of Busywork

Busywork and productivity are often considered mutually exclusive. To be productive, you need to eliminate busywork in your day. It’s viewed as time-consuming, distracting, and ultimately counterproductive—a waste of time that could’ve been spent on better things.

One reason busywork has such a negative connotation is its ability to create a false sense of productivity without producing meaningful results. Just because items are flying off your to-do list, it doesn’t mean you’re getting any actual work done. You may feel productive, but you’re not actually making progress.

To avoid falling into this trap, some suggest tackling the most important, most challenging tasks first thing in the morning—or eat the frog, if you will.

Yet for those affected by executive dysfunction, tackling your most challenging task first thing in the morning can feel like trying to accelerate from a standstill in the highest gear. The consequence is often a sense of overwhelm and paralysis, leading to procrastination and avoidance.

The Dopamine Connection

Researchers have linked executive dysfunction with lower levels of dopamine, a neurotransmitter that plays a major part in the brain’s reward system.

Previously, researchers found a link between dopamine and pleasure—believing that dopamine is what makes us feel good. People even started calling it the “pleasure hormone”.

Today, we know that dopamine is more related to the anticipation of pleasure rather than pleasure itself ^{1 2}—making motivation molecule a better nickname. Increased levels of dopamine make you seek out rewarding behavior. And once you experience it, the brain produces more—as a way of saying, “That felt good, let’s do it again!”

A person affected by executive dysfunction needs to be mindful of their dopamine levels every day. They may attempt to increase their dopamine levels by having a protein-rich breakfast (specifically foods with tyrosine), exercising regularly, and listening to music.

Another way to increase your dopamine levels is through rewarding behaviors, such as receiving positive feedback or finishing a task.

But wait a minute! Earlier, I said that a dopamine deficit can make it incredibly challenging to even start working on a task, let alone finish it. Here’s the kicker though: Since we can increase dopamine through rewarding experiences, we can use a little dopamine to make more!

Building Momentum: The Domino Effect of Busywork

While completing mundane tasks may not yield immediate tangible results, the neurological boost from dopamine can be a catalyst for tackling more challenging tasks later on. We can increase the much-needed dopamine levels by engaging in simple, low-demand tasks or busywork.

In other words, the dopamine boost from doing busywork can give neurodivergent individuals the extra push they need to get unstuck. For people with ADHD, it can be the difference between feeling paralyzed and being able to at least start working on a task.

The trick is finding a task you can motivate yourself to accomplish with your current dopamine levels. While you may not be able to tackle your most challenging task right away, the dopamine boost you get from completing a simple task may give you the motivation you need to tackle the next one, and the next one, and so on.

For example, maybe I can at least move yesterday’s coffee cup from my desk to the kitchen. The slight dopamine boost I get from tidying up my desk may allow me to open my email. Deleting unwanted emails from the inbox may allow me actually to respond to one. Each task I complete enables me to complete a task that demands more motivation.

The dopamine boost we get from doing busywork shouldn’t be understated. As highlighted in The Hidden Pleasures of Busywork, one study from 2014 even found that people are actually the happiest on the job when they’re engaged in busywork.

Moving Beyond Dopamine

I should clarify that busywork is not the end goal. Once you get that momentum going, you’ll eventually want to attempt to gear up until you can tackle what you actually wish to work on.

While the extra dopamine may give me a well-needed push, it doesn’t guarantee that I’ll have a productive day. My dopamine levels vary from day to day, and so does whatever I find rewarding at the time. In practice, I may end up trying several things to build momentum. And even if I succeed, that doesn’t mean I’m motivated to do what I should be doing.

And even when I feel motivated, I’ll still inevitably get distracted and lose focus. If I’m writing a blog post, I may get stuck on a specific term or grammar and decide to look it up. If I don’t set a timer, I’ll realize it’s been two hours, and I could write an essay on the different regional variations and historical origins of that term.

Busywork as a Gateway to Productivity

In conclusion, while busywork is often demonized in the realm of productivity, its potential for neurodivergent individuals, particularly those facing executive dysfunction, shouldn’t be overlooked. For these individuals, busywork can serve as a valuable tool in overcoming the challenges of motivation and task initiation.

Ditching busywork in favor of meaningful work is a false choice. When used deliberately, busywork becomes more than just a means to pass the time—it becomes a valuable tool that lets you tackle the tasks that truly matter.

By leveraging the dopamine boost provided by completing simple tasks, neurodivergent individuals can gradually build momentum, moving from low-demand tasks to more challenging ones. This domino effect of busywork can help individuals break through feelings of overwhelm and paralysis, ultimately increasing productivity and task completion.

To learn more about the challenges of executive dysfunction, see How I (un)manage time as a neurodivergent.