How can I maintain focus on my 20-page history thesis when I have ADHD and only two weeks until the final deadline?

The most effective way to break this cycle is to implement a strict moratorium on new research and pivot entirely to a low-fidelity drafting phase. When you have ADHD, the thrill of finding a new, shiny source often acts as a dopamine trap that keeps you from the harder work of synthesis. You need to close your browser tabs, hide your research databases, and force yourself to work only with the notes you have already collected. Think of it like cooking: you have all the ingredients on the counter, so stop going back to the grocery store and start turning those raw materials into a meal. If you find yourself needing a specific fact, just type a placeholder like "insert date here" and keep writing; don't let a missing detail derail your momentum. Imagine you are halfway through a chapter on post-war industrial shifts and suddenly realize you need to know the exact trade volume of a specific port in 1952. Instead of opening a new tab to hunt for that number, you should highlight that sentence in yellow, leave it for your final edit, and immediately move to the next paragraph. To get moving, try setting a timer for just twenty minutes to write a "garbage draft" where you aren't allowed to edit or look anything up, which helps silence that perfectionist internal critic. You might also consider physically moving to a different environment, like a quiet corner of the library where you don't have your usual distractions, to help your brain associate that space with output rather than input. Once you have a rough structure, you can spend your final days polishing the prose rather than chasing new rabbit holes. You have already done the heavy lifting, so trust your existing notes and focus all your energy on weaving them into your own unique argument.