Writing Agile stories shouldn’t feel like pulling teeth — but for a lot of us, especially those with ADHD, that’s exactly what it is. Our brains aren’t broken. The backlog is.
Agile artefacts are more than just tactical tools. They’re behavioural mirrors. The way we write — or avoid writing — tells us everything about how we think, focus, and manage mental energy. And when the default structures don’t fit our cognitive wiring, it’s no surprise that friction builds. This isn’t about discipline. It’s about design.
Let’s look at how ADHD traits shape the way we write (and don’t write) stories — and how small, structural shifts can help your backlog become a place of clarity, not chaos.
The Dopamine Deficit in Your Backlog
ADHD brains are built for novelty, urgency, and feedback. Story writing, by contrast, offers ambiguity, delay, and administrative vibes. It’s a dopamine desert — and it shows.
Take Ella, a senior designer who started writing a story with the best intentions. She typed a title, scribbled a few notes, then tabbed over to Figma to cross-check a component. A Slack ping pulled her into a bug thread. When she returned hours later, the draft felt like a stranger’s work. Instead of finishing, she opened a new tab and muttered the death sentence of momentum: “I’ll come back to this later.” That ticket stayed untouched for three sprints.
This isn’t a failure of motivation. It’s a signal that the artefact structure isn’t supplying the cognitive cues her brain needs to stay engaged. Story decay isn’t a time management problem — it’s a behavioural mismatch.
Structure Without Shame
Many neurodivergent practitioners carry an invisible guilt: “I should be better at this.” But friction isn’t failure. It’s feedback — and often, it’s pointing to the rigidity of the tool, not the ability of the writer.
Marcus, a product manager with ADHD, hated traditional story templates. The rigid “As a / I want / So that” format made him freeze. He spent more time mentally rebelling against the structure than capturing the actual need. Eventually, he flipped the workflow: one sentence on the desired outcome, a rough sketch of user interaction, and a follow-up voice note to the team. The devs loved it. Velocity improved. But Marcus still felt like he was cheating.
He wasn’t. He was designing for his brain. And when the brain feels safe, expressive clarity follows.
Constraint Is Cognitive Kindness
ADHD often shows up as too many thoughts, not too few. Unbounded writing tasks — like “draft five stories” — can quickly become cognitive choke points. Ironically, constraint can be the key to unlocking flow.
Sasha, an engineer with inattentive-type ADHD, started using structured writing sprints to batch her stories. She’d set a 25-minute timer, flip open a prompt deck — Outcome, User Trigger, Justification — and power through like it was a game. She ended each session with a board full of coherent stories and a little voice memo celebration. Her manager called it her best refinement cycle in months.
When constraints are framed as creative scaffolding, not bureaucratic boxes, they reduce cognitive load and free up working memory for the stuff that matters.
Designing for Brains, Not Bureaucracy
After a particularly painful retro, a cross-functional team decided to rewrite their artefact rituals. They introduced 20-minute co-writing sessions, encouraged low-pressure first drafts, and even created a shared “discard pile” to take the fear out of starting. One engineer, usually silent during refinements, became a breakout contributor. He later admitted that he always understood the work — he just froze when faced with the pressure to write it perfectly.
When we stop moralising clarity and start designing for it, we make space for every kind of brain — not just the neurotypical ones.
Conclusion: Agile, Rewritten
Your stories don’t have to be masterpieces. They don’t even have to be pretty. They just have to work for the people writing — and reading — them. And that starts with acknowledging that brains, like backlogs, need structure, safety, and a little bit of dopamine to stay alive.
Because the truth is: when ADHD brains are supported, they don’t just survive Agile. They rewrite it.
Behavioural Principles
Designing for Brains That Don’t Wait for Clarity
- Friction reveals design, not failure When artefact writing stalls, it often reflects a mismatch between cognitive needs and structural norms
- Dopamine directs attention ADHD brains engage when reward is tangible — story writing must generate momentum, not just compliance
- Templates should scaffold, not suppress Rigid formats can backfire when they ignore how different brains process logic, context, and expression
- Constraint unlocks flow Time-boxes, prompts, and micro-structures reduce overwhelm and invite engagement
- Clarity is co-regulated The most sustainable artefacts are born from rituals that reduce pressure and make cognitive safety visible
