Every morning, I accidentally choose my new personality.
Am I going to be the productive business owner who sits at her desk for sixteen hours straight and forgets she has legs?
Am I going to be the content creator who’s somehow on Instagram every time she picks up her phone?
Or am I going to become the Writer™ who fills pages of a notebook, has seventeen business ideas before breakfast, and suddenly remembers she’s a creative person?
The weird part is...I don’t consciously choose any of those versions of myself.
I just choose what I do first. And then, somehow, that becomes the entire vibe of my day.
After noticing this pattern over and over again, I did what any reasonable person would do.
I disappeared down a neuroscience rabbit hole until I either found proof I was right or accidentally became a neuroscientist.
Spoiler alert: I found proof.
And now I’m about to ruin your mornings forever. You’re welcome.
Today’s guest is, unfortunately...
My ADHD.
She arrived late, forgot why she came, interrupted me seven times, and somehow still managed to teach me something.
Her favourite hobby is convincing me that reorganising my Notion workspace is a productive substitute for answering emails.
Her walkout song is probably just the sound of seventeen browser tabs opening simultaneously.
And if she had a catchphrase, it’d be: “We should definitely do the important thing...”
“...right after we research the history of Victorian door knockers.”
She’s exhausting.
Here’s the part that absolutely blew my mind.
When you first wake up, your brain is still transitioning from sleep. Your prefrontal cortex, the part responsible for planning, decision-making, and generally acting like an adult, isn’t fully online yet. It’s basically rubbing its eyes and asking for coffee.
(Which my prefrontal cortex will never receive because I think coffee tastes like hot bean water. Sorry to everyone I’ve offended.)
During this window, your brain is incredibly impressionable.
Neuroscientists call it attentional priming, but what it really means is this:
Whatever you touch first leaves a deep imprint on your brain.
Open your email? Your brain decides productivity is the mission for the day.
Open Instagram? Congratulations. You’re now a full-time content consumer until approximately bedtime.
Start journaling? Your brain suddenly remembers it’s creative.
The first thing you do isn’t just the first thing you do.
It’s the thing your brain starts chasing for the next several hours.
They care what’s interesting.
People love to tell ADHDers to “just prioritise.”
Unfortunately my brain isn’t asking: “What’s most important?”
It’s asking: “What’s going to give me dopamine the fastest?”
Those are very different questions.
Most neurotypical brains can prioritise based on deadlines, importance, or logic.
ADHD brains prioritise based on novelty, interest, urgency, and dopamine.
Which means the first dopamine hit of the morning becomes incredibly important.
If your first hit is scrolling social media, your brain goes: “Amazing. Apparently this is what keeps us alive now.”
And then it spends the rest of the day trying to recreate that feeling.
It’s giving caveman.
Something else I learned that made me feel deeply attacked: Switching tasks has a metabolic cost.
Your brain literally burns energy every time you redirect your attention.
Can somebody please explain why every time I learn something new about ADHD there’s another cost?
Executive function cost.
Decision fatigue.
Working memory.
Task switching.
My brain has more hidden fees than Ticketmaster.
Why opening your laptop “just to send one email” somehow turns into four hours disappearing.
Why one innocent Instagram check becomes twenty-three more.
Why once you’ve started down one path, changing direction feels so disproportionately difficult.
It’s not laziness.
Your brain is simply trying to conserve energy by staying on the same track.
Unfortunately, that track is sometimes Pinterest.
It’s a programming session.
I think this is the part that made me stop feeling guilty.
For years, I’d beat myself up when I’d accidentally spend an entire day glued to my phone.
“Why am I like this?”
Turns out...There’s an answer.
Because I accidentally told my brain that’s what mattered today.
That also works in the opposite direction.
If I journal first...I stay creative.
If I look at my calendar first...I’m productive.
If I intentionally start my day offline...I stay offline much more easily.
The goal isn’t creating the perfect six-step, colour-coded, aesthetically pleasing morning routine.
The goal is choosing your first five minutes on purpose instead of by accident.
Because those first five minutes are quietly telling your brain:
“This is who we are today.”
You’re addicted to the first signal your brain receives, telling it what matters today. That signal gets chosen in a small, quiet moment before you’re even fully awake, and your entire day builds on top of it. Once you learn to work with that instead of fighting it, your mornings will stop feeling like shit.
Love you, mean it. 🖤
BTL LINKS
— All of my website copy resources: betweenthelinescopy.com/web-copy
— All of my email marketing resources: betweenthelinescopy.com/email-marketing
— Take my website copywriting course: betweenthelinescopy.com/sprint
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— Subscribe to my ADHD newsletter at bysarajoelle.substack.com
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OTHER LINKS
— Past episodes: 30 Things I’ve Learned By 30, How to Keep Promises to Yourself (Even With ADHD), How To Go OFFline When Your Business Is ONline (Without Feeling Guilty)
This episode was edited by Adrienne Cruz
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