Sustaining Motivation

Neurodiverse students, particularly those with ADHD, autism spectrum disorder, and/or executive functioning difficulties, often find it hard to stay motivated because of their “interest-based nervous system” (Dodson, 2025). Unlike neurotypical brains that can usually engage with tasks based on importance or contribution to long-term goals, neurodiverse brains often need high interest or a sense of urgency to get started and keep going.

For example, you might be able to hyperfocus for hours researching a topic you care about but find yourself struggling to work on a research paper that’s required for your class. This feeling can be really frustrating and confusing. However, these challenges do not mean that you are “lazy” or “unmotivated.” Instead, your brain simply regulates dopamine/attention differently and responds to different types of motivational cues.

The goal is not to just “push through” and try harder, but rather to design conditions that work with your brain rather than against it. With the right strategies you can learn to sustain your motivation and make progress toward your academic goals.

Use the “INCUP” Framework to Boost Your Motivation

Neurodiverse brains are more likely to engage in tasks that are

Interesting
Novel
Challenging
Urgent
People-Oriented

Below are ways you can incorporate these characteristics into your academic work.

Interesting

Your brain is better able to sustain attention and motivation for tasks that are naturally interesting to you. However, for tasks that feel boring, vague, or repetitive, adding elements of interest can make it easier to start and continue working.

Change the sensory experience of your tasks. Try using colorful pens or studying with background music.
Connect tasks to your interests when possible. Try linking assignments to topics that you enjoy.
Add immediate rewards. Try giving yourself a short break to do an activity you enjoy after completing a task.
Add “passive dopamine.” Try incorporating passive stimulation, such as fidgets or chewing gum.

Novel

Make tasks feel new and exciting to you. Even small changes can help reactivate your engagement and make the task feel novel.

Change your environment. Try working outdoors or find a new study spot on campus.
Change your methods. Try using concept maps or diagrams when summarizing your lecture notes.
Rotate your tasks. Try creating a “task menu” and rotate your schedule of tasks.

Want additional ideas to make your tasks more interesting and novel? Review this handout.

Challenging

Many neurodiverse brains engage more when tasks have an element of challenge, competition, or fun.

Gamify tasks. Set a timer to race against the clock or use an online app to gamify your tasks.
Use point systems. Assign points to tasks and reward yourself when you achieve a certain number of points.
Use visual progress trackers. Try keeping a habit tracker or checklist of your to-dos.

Urgent

Add a sense of time pressure. Urgency can be a powerful motivator for neurodiverse brains. Although real deadlines often create this pressure naturally, you can also manufacture a sense of urgency.

Create your own deadlines. Set intermediate deadlines for yourself.
Try timed sprints. See how much you can accomplish in short chunks of time.
Make time visible. Try a visual countdown timer or timer app.

Want additional ideas to make your tasks more challenging and urgent? Review this handout.

People-Oriented

Use others for accountability. Many neurodiverse brains find social motivation (working with or around other people) to be helpful.

Leverage campus resources. Meet with academic coaches, tutors, or instructors to check in about assignments.
Create informal accountability. Share your goals with a friend, family member, or partner to check in about progress.
Try body doubling. Work alongside someone else as this can help you focus and stay on task.

Want additional ideas to make your tasks more people-oriented? Review this blog post.

Self-Reflection

As you consider what strategies might be helpful, take a few minutes to reflect:

What types of tasks do I naturally hyperfocus on? What do they have in common? (For example: Do I hyperfocus on tasks that feel personally interesting to me? Do I hyperfocus when something feels shiny and new?)
Which “INCUP” element is a motivator for me? You can circle or even rank them based on most to least motivating:
- Interesting
- Novel
- Challenging
- Urgent
- People-oriented
Does the “INCUP” element differ depending on the task or situation? (For example, a sense of urgency might feel really helpful to you as you are trying to write emails that you’ve been putting off, but you might find a sense of urgency too stressful and freeze up when writing a final paper)
What task(s) do I have this quarter that I find difficult to work on? Is there an “INCUP” element missing? What could I add to increase my engagement?
Which strategies have helped me the most so far?
What is one strategy I want to try or adjust this week?

Use this checklist to experiment with different strategies. Keep track of strategies as you try them and make note of what was helpful (or unhelpful).

By actively reflecting on your experiences with different strategies, you’ll gradually build a “toolkit” of strategies you can draw from that work well for you. It is also important to note that sometimes a strategy that works for you in one situation may not work in another situation. Rotating strategies can also help maintain a sense of novelty.

Area of Concern/Challenge: What is one area where I’ve been struggling to find motivation?	Strategy: What part of “INCUP” will I use? What strategy or strategies will I try to address this?	Reflect: Was it helpful? Is there anything you might adjust to make it more helpful?
Example: I have a hard time staying motivated when I’m working on my PWR paper. I know it needs to get done, but I don’t find the topic very interesting, so I always find other tasks to work on instead.	Interesting: I want to add some passive dopamine to the task since I don’t think there’s a way to make the task itself more interesting. I’ll try having a matcha while I write and listen to some background music.	The matcha made the experience enjoyable and I paced myself so I could enjoy it throughout my work session. I think the music might have been a little distracting, so I might try LoFi music next time.
Example: I have a hard time staying motivated when I’m working on my PWR paper. I know it needs to get done, but I don’t find the topic very interesting, so I always find other tasks to work on instead.	Challenging: I enjoy a little competition, so I’ll try creating a reward system for myself for each part of the paper I complete (e.g., read three articles, outline, write a paragraph). For a certain number of points, I can get coffee or a treat off campus.	I can fine tune my reward system. I got coffee to stay awake while working on my paper, so coffee didn’t feel that rewarding. I also can brainstorm more rewards that don’t cost money.
Example: I have a project for my engineering class that’s not due until the end of the quarter. I know that if I don’t work on it now, I’ll be really pressed for time and stressed. But because it’s not due until Week 10, I just can’t bring myself to get started.	Urgent and People-Oriented: I’ll try to schedule an individual appointment to check in with my TA in Week 5 to update her on my progress.	Scheduling the appointment helped me to at least get started. It made the project deadline feel a little sooner than it actually was. Plus, I felt more motivated to do something before our meeting because I wanted to show my TA that I had at least looked at the project guidelines.

Area of Concern/Challenge: What is one area where I’ve been struggling to find motivation?

Strategy: What part of “INCUP” will I use? What strategy or strategies will I try to address this?

Reflect: Was it helpful? Is there anything you might adjust to make it more helpful?

Example: I have a hard time staying motivated when I’m working on my PWR paper. I know it needs to get done, but I don’t find the topic very interesting, so I always find other tasks to work on instead.

Interesting: I want to add some passive dopamine to the task since I don’t think there’s a way to make the task itself more interesting. I’ll try having a matcha while I write and listen to some background music.

The matcha made the experience enjoyable and I paced myself so I could enjoy it throughout my work session. I think the music might have been a little distracting, so I might try LoFi music next time.

Challenging: I enjoy a little competition, so I’ll try creating a reward system for myself for each part of the paper I complete (e.g., read three articles, outline, write a paragraph). For a certain number of points, I can get coffee or a treat off campus.

I can fine tune my reward system. I got coffee to stay awake while working on my paper, so coffee didn’t feel that rewarding. I also can brainstorm more rewards that don’t cost money.

Example: I have a project for my engineering class that’s not due until the end of the quarter. I know that if I don’t work on it now, I’ll be really pressed for time and stressed. But because it’s not due until Week 10, I just can’t bring myself to get started.

Urgent and People-Oriented: I’ll try to schedule an individual appointment to check in with my TA in Week 5 to update her on my progress.

Scheduling the appointment helped me to at least get started. It made the project deadline feel a little sooner than it actually was. Plus, I felt more motivated to do something before our meeting because I wanted to show my TA that I had at least looked at the project guidelines.

Works Cited:

Dodson, M. (2025, May 19). ADHD and the interest-based nervous system. ADDitude.

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Sustaining Motivation

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