Building Rest into Daily Routines

Discover tips, treatment options, and support strategies from the Finding Focus Care Team

‍

Last Update: June 23rd, 2025 | Estimated Read Time: 8 min

Understanding Burnout Through the ADHD Lens

Burnout is more than temporary fatigue, it is a psychological and physiological response to chronic stress and overwhelming demands. For individuals with Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD), burnout is not only more common but also often more intense and long-lasting. This is due in part to the underlying neurocognitive differences associated with ADHD, particularly in the domains of executive functioning and emotional regulation.

ADHD impairs the prefrontal cortex’s capacity to plan, regulate impulses, manage attention, and maintain focus. These challenges can lead individuals to expend significantly more effort in academic, professional, and social settings, often without experiencing corresponding outcomes. Barkley and Murphy (2010) found that adults with ADHD frequently experience occupational impairment stemming not from lack of intelligence or effort, but from executive function deficits that increase their cognitive workload. The result is persistent mental exhaustion, diminished motivation, and emotional volatility.

Recognizing the need for proactive, structured rest is therefore not a luxury for those with ADHD, it is a critical aspect of health maintenance and functional resilience.

Reconceptualizing Rest: Beyond Sleep

Rest is often narrowly defined as sleep or inactivity. However, emerging psychological literature has expanded this definition to encompass multiple forms of restoration, including mental, emotional, sensory, and creative rest. For individuals with ADHD, who are often sensitive to environmental stimulation and mental overload, this broader conceptualization is especially relevant.

Mental rest refers to a deliberate disengagement from cognitive demands, while sensory rest involves a reduction in external input such as noise, light, and digital stimuli. Emotional rest includes taking breaks from social masking or managing others’ expectations. For people with ADHD, integrating these varied rest modalities can mitigate overstimulation and restore regulatory capacity.

By building rest into daily routines, individuals with ADHD can interrupt the cycle of hyperfocus and exhaustion that often precedes burnout. Doing so also reinforces emotional and behavioural self-regulation, which is often taxed during prolonged periods of stress.

The Productivity Myth and Internalized Guilt

A key barrier to adopting consistent rest practices is the internalized belief that productivity defines personal value. Many individuals with ADHD experience years of negative reinforcement, being labelled as lazy, disorganized, or inattentive. These experiences frequently lead to compensatory overwork and a resistance to rest unless it is "earned" through achievement.

Ramsay and Rostain (2015) describe how adults with ADHD commonly develop cognitive distortions around performance and effort, leading to persistent guilt during periods of rest. These internalized beliefs increase the risk of chronic stress, contribute to self-criticism, and undermine emotional resilience.

Rest must therefore be reframed not as a reward, but as a foundational component of executive functioning and self-care. Addressing the psychological resistance to rest, through self-compassion, psychoeducation, and structured intervention, is essential for long-term well-being.

Practical Strategies for Building Rest into Daily Life

The following evidence-informed strategies are designed to support individuals with ADHD in integrating rest into their routines. Each approach acknowledges the unique executive function challenges of ADHD and prioritizes ease of implementation, sustainability, and psychological benefit.

1. Implementing Brief, Scheduled Pauses

Short, structured breaks between tasks, sometimes referred to as "micropauses", help reduce cognitive fatigue and restore attentional capacity. Ariga and Lleras (2011) demonstrated that even brief mental breaks significantly improve sustained attention and task performance. These breaks can include deep breathing, stretching, or simply sitting quietly without engaging with screens.

Incorporating these pauses at natural transition points throughout the day reduces overstimulation, facilitates emotional recalibration, and supports more consistent productivity.

2. Creating a Personalized Rest Toolkit

Given the variability in how rest is experienced, individuals benefit from identifying personalized activities that support different forms of recovery. These might include sensory regulation tools (e.g., noise-cancelling headphones or soft textures), creative outlets (e.g., drawing or music), or quiet movement (e.g., walking without a podcast).

Establishing a “rest menu” in advance can alleviate decision-making fatigue in moments of stress. By organizing these strategies into categories, mental, emotional, and sensory, individuals can more easily identify and access what they need.

3. Anchoring Rest in Existing Routines

Executive functioning challenges can make it difficult to initiate new habits. One effective solution is to anchor rest practices to already-established routines, a technique known as “habit stacking.” For example, a short meditation or movement break can follow brushing one’s teeth or completing a class or meeting.

This pairing increases behavioural consistency and supports the integration of rest as a normative, non-disruptive component of daily life.

4. Reframing Rest as a Cognitive Strategy

To counteract internalized guilt, rest should be explicitly framed as a tool that supports executive functioning, not as avoidance or indulgence. Individuals with ADHD often benefit from repeating affirmations that reinforce this reframe, such as “Rest helps my brain work better,” or “Taking a break supports my focus.”

Over time, cognitive-behavioural restructuring can help reduce self-criticism and promote healthier patterns of self-regulation (Safren et al., 2005).

School and Work Applications

Students

For students with ADHD, rest can be incorporated by using visual schedules that alternate between periods of academic work and brief regulation breaks. Accommodations such as extended time or quiet spaces can also be leveraged to support sensory and cognitive rest.

Professionals

In professional environments, individuals may benefit from blocking time between meetings to decompress, using noise-reducing tools in open office settings, and scheduling “non-responsive” time to mitigate digital fatigue. Advocating for flexible or asynchronous work arrangements may further protect against burnout.

These practices are not about doing less, but about working sustainably with an ADHD brain.

Conclusion: Rest as a Foundational ADHD Strategy

Burnout in individuals with ADHD is not simply the result of doing too much, it is often the result of doing too much without adequate recovery. By reconceptualizing rest as a proactive, essential part of self-regulation, individuals can reduce stress, improve cognitive functioning, and increase emotional resilience.

Rest is not a sign of weakness or failure; it is a strategic adaptation to the neurocognitive demands of ADHD. Through structured interventions, psychological reframing, and the development of restorative routines, rest becomes a cornerstone of sustainable success.

Finding Focus Care Team

We are a group of nurse practitioners, continuous care specialists, creators, and writers, all committed to excellence in patient care and expertise in ADHD. We share content that illuminates aspects of ADHD and broader health care topics. Each article is medically verified and approved by the Finding Focus Care Team. You can contact us at Finding Focus Support if you have any questions!

References

Ariga, A., & Lleras, A. (2011). Brief and rare mental 'breaks' keep you focused: Deactivation and reactivation of task goals preempt vigilance decrements. Cognition, 118(3), 439–443. Link  

Barkley, R. A., & Murphy, K. R. (2010). Impairment in occupational functioning and adult ADHD: The predictive utility of executive function (EF) ratings versus EF tests. Archives of Clinical Neuropsychology, 25(3), 157–173. Link  

Ramsay, J. R., & Rostain, A. L. (2015). The Adult ADHD Tool Kit: Using CBT to Facilitate Coping Inside and Out. Routledge. Link  

Safren, S. A., Sprich, S., Chulvick, S., & Otto, M. W. (2005). Cognitive-behavioural therapy for ADHD in medication-treated adults with continued symptoms. Behaviour Research and Therapy, 43(7), 831–842. Link