Chess, Not Checkers: Strategic Moves for Managing ADHD
Chess and checkers may both be played on the same board, but they require completely different mindsets. In checkers, every piece moves the same way, one square at a time, in the same direction. It's reactive. You respond to what's in front of you. Chess is different. Each piece has unique capabilities and limitations. Success requires thinking several moves ahead, anticipating consequences, and making strategic decisions based on the bigger picture.
When it comes to executive function challenges and our constant pursuit of dopamine, managing ADHD is far more like chess than checkers. Reactive, one-move-at-a-time thinking keeps us stuck. Strategic thinking helps us win.
And like any chess player knows, the game is won or lost in the moments where you have to choose between an easy move and the right move.
The Battle of Starting
For many of us, the challenge isn't the inability to complete tasks. It's the execution piece, specifically getting started. That initiation phase can feel like pushing a boulder uphill. But once we actually begin, something shifts. Momentum builds. Dopamine floods in. That task we'd been avoiding for days suddenly feels manageable, maybe even satisfying.
Then we hit a wall. The task isn't finished, but the initial rush has worn off. Now we're faced with a choice. Do we push through and complete what we started? Or do we reward ourselves for simply beginning?
Here's what's actually happening. Our brains run on lower dopamine than neurotypical brains. We're not lazy. We're not weak-willed. We're working with a reward system that needs more stimulation just to feel normal. When we start a task and get that hit, our brains want to chase the next one rather than grind through the boring middle part. This isn't a character flaw. It's how we're wired. Knowing that doesn't give us a pass on our decisions, but it does explain why the pull toward instant gratification hits us so hard.
So what do we do with that pull? Grabbing our phones for unlimited screen time feels like a reward, but it's a checkers move. It's reactive, short-sighted, and usually derails us completely. A chess move looks different. Using the Pomodoro method with intentional, timed breaks keeps us engaged while honoring our need for rest. It's strategic. It places counterproductive rewards in check while keeping us moving toward completion.
But task completion is only one part of the equation. What happens after we succeed matters just as much.
Rewards That Work Against Us
We have great ideas. We've found solutions for challenges that once seemed impossible. We've completed tasks we avoided, delayed, and mishandled for far too long. But when success finally comes, it can feel insufficient. We feel compelled to reward ourselves, and if we're being honest, those rewards are often counterproductive.
Here's a personal example. Say my goal has been to lose fifteen pounds, and I've been making real progress. The temptation is to celebrate with food I love: a dozen chocolate mint cookies from Insomnia, chicken strips and toast from Zaxby's, chicken strips from Cane's, and two orders of avocado rolls from the Cheesecake Factory. Emotionally, that sounds perfectly reasonable. I earned it, right?
But strategically, it undermines everything I just accomplished. That's a checkers move, reacting to the moment without considering the next several moves on the board.
A chess move would be choosing a reward that doesn't cause me to regress. For me, that might be going bowling, one of my favorite things to do that I rarely make time for. It's enjoyable, it's rewarding, and it doesn't sabotage my progress toward a healthier weight. The goal is the same: feel good about what I accomplished. The strategy is completely different.
Now here's something that doesn't get talked about enough, especially among men: shame. Many of us have spent years making impulsive decisions, watching them blow up, and feeling like failures because of it. We tell ourselves we should know better by now. We beat ourselves up. And then what happens? We feel terrible, so we seek relief. For our brains, that relief usually comes as more impulsive behavior.
Eat the thing. Buy the thing. Scroll for three hours. Anything to escape the feeling.
This creates a cycle. Impulse, regret, shame, impulse. Round and round. The chess move here isn't just about choosing better rewards. It's about recognizing when shame is driving the next decision and refusing to let it. You made a checkers move. Okay. That doesn't make you a failure. It makes you a man with ADHD who slipped. Now make the next move a chess move.
The reward trap shows up in obvious places like food and screen time. But there's one area where it hits a lot of us even harder, and the consequences tend to pile up fast.
The Financial Battlefield
Making chess moves requires something that's genuinely difficult for the ADHD brain: delayed gratification. We have to be less impulsive, especially with our finances.
In the past, acting on an impulse to buy something meant leaving your house. There was friction built into the process. Today, that friction is gone. At the touch of your fingertips, you can be on Amazon, Temu, Shein, or any website of your choice. You can do it from your couch, your car, walking down the street, or on the treadmill at Planet Fitness. The dopamine hit from spending is instant and accessible everywhere.
So what do you do when you're standing at that crossroad?
A chess move means pausing before the purchase. If your goal is financial stability, buying another pair of earphones isn't strategic when you already have five pairs at home. Instead of clicking "buy now," you count up what you've already spent on the same item. You look at your financial goals, not just whether your bank account will cover this one purchase today, but your plan for the week, the month, the year.
I know. Looking at your finances is something many of us avoid. It's uncomfortable. But avoiding it is a checkers move. Facing it is chess.
And here's something else worth sitting with: these patterns don't just affect us. They affect the people around us. Partners. Spouses. Families. When impulsive spending creates financial stress or when we repeatedly reward ourselves in ways that undermine shared goals, trust erodes. The conversations get harder. Resentment builds. A lot of us have been there. We've seen what unchecked impulsivity does to relationships.
Playing chess with our decisions isn't just about personal wins. It's about being someone the people in our lives can count on. It's about building trust through consistent choices rather than constantly apologizing for reactive ones. That's not guilt talking. That's recognizing the stakes are often bigger than just us.
One strategy that works for me, even though it takes extra time, is this: I find the item I want, I select it, I add it to my cart... and then I leave it there. In my mind, I've chosen it. Momentarily, it's mine. That satisfies something in my brain without actually spending the money. And there the item stays.
The cart trick is one chess move, but there are others worth having ready. The 24-48 hour rule is simple: for any purchase over a set amount, whether that's fifty dollars or two hundred, you wait at least a day before buying. If you still want it after 48 hours and it fits your plan, go for it. Most of the time, the urgency fades and you realize you didn't need it.
Another move is adding friction back into the process. Delete shopping apps from your phone. Use website blockers during certain hours. Make it harder to act on impulse. Our brains take the path of least resistance, so make the impulsive path harder to walk.
For getting tasks done, find an accountability partner or try body doubling. Having someone who checks in on your progress or works alongside you, even over video, creates external structure that our internal systems struggle to build on their own. It's not weakness. It's strategy.
These tactics work. But the real shift happens when we stop seeing this as a collection of tricks and start seeing it as a different way of playing the game entirely.
Your Strategy, Your Game
What works for one person may not work for you. That's the beauty of chess. Not every player uses the same strategy, but the goal is the same: win the game.
When we reflect on what has worked and what hasn't, complacency becomes less appealing. Operating without awareness stops being acceptable. Excuses lose their power as justifiers, and solution-oriented approaches become the driving force behind our perseverance.
We don't have to keep playing checkers, reacting to whatever's directly in front of us with one predictable move at a time. We can think ahead. We can anticipate. We can make strategic decisions that serve our long-term goals instead of just our immediate impulses.
Now, none of this means you'll never make a checkers move again. You will. We all do. The question isn't whether you'll slip. It's what happens after.
When you make an impulsive decision you regret, the worst thing you can do is spiral. That spiral feeds right back into shame, and shame feeds more impulsivity. Instead, treat it like a chess player who loses a piece. You don't flip the board. You reassess. You adjust. You make the next move count.
Recovery doesn't have to be complicated: acknowledge what happened without drowning in it, figure out what triggered the impulse, and decide what you'll do differently next time. Then move forward.
One bad move doesn't lose the game unless you stop playing.
Make those power moves.
Jonathan E. Greer is a teacher, a podcaster, and a leader in his community. His podcast Striving With ADHD speaks to his journey with ADHD and using his faith, therapy, and medication to manage it. He is also a moderator for our Men’s ADHD Support Group on Facebook, where he shares his amazing wisdom, his journey to manage his ADHD, as well as living and thriving in his faith. Please join us and find your way into a community of men who are all on this same journey in finding ourselves and living our authenticity.
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