Most to-do lists are just guilt trips in disguise, but this strategy turns your daily grind into a game you actually want to win.
We all know the struggle of staring at a massive list of tasks and feeling completely paralyzed by where to start. I just saw this incredible post from a creative Redditor that completely flips the script on productivity by treating your brain like a character in a fantasy role-playing game. The concept is simple but brilliant: instead of fighting against your natural tendencies, you lean into them by assigning yourself a character class and letting AI run the show.
The author of the post suggests that the main reason we fail at standard planning is that it feels like work, not play. By engaging with ChatGPT as your Dungeon Master, you remove the heavy burden of executive function, which involves deciding what to do and when, and hand it off to an impartial narrator. This reduces the friction of starting tasks because you aren’t just doing laundry; you are completing a quest for XP. It sounds silly, but for anyone who has ever spent hours grinding in a video game but can’t spend ten minutes on dishes, this logic clicks instantly. The creator designed this prompt specifically for ADHD brains, but honestly, I think it works for anyone who deals with procrastination or burnout.
Here is how the original poster structured this system to make it effective:
💡 Choose Your Character Class
The most entertaining part of this system is how the creator suggests defining your current mental state. Instead of saying “I am distracted,” the author created hilarious, relatable RPG classes that describe your specific struggle. This creates a psychological distance between you and the problem, which reduces shame.
For example, the creator lists the Dopamine Rogue, a character who opens 17 browser tabs and immediately forgets why they opened the first one. Then there is the Hyperfocus Barbarian, who builds an entire organizational system in a single night only to burn out and never use it again. My personal favorite from the post is the Avoidance Druid, the person who suddenly decides to clean the entire house just to avoid answering a single email. By identifying as the System Hopper (someone who buys six planners but uses none), you stop beating yourself up and start playing the role. This shift in perspective makes the chaos feel manageable and even funny, which lowers the anxiety barrier that usually stops us from working.
✅ The Power of the Side Quest
The brilliance of the prompt lies in how it structures your workload. The Reddit user specifically instructs the AI to assign one Main Quest and one Side Quest. This distinction is crucial for building momentum. The Main Quest represents that one scary, difficult task you have been putting off all day: the boss battle. However, tackling a boss immediately is intimidating.
That is why the author included the Side Quest. This is defined as a small win you can knock out in five minutes. In game design terms, this provides an immediate reward loop. When you complete the Side Quest, you get a hit of dopamine (or “XP”) that proves you are capable of getting things done. This small victory breaks the paralysis. The prompt also asks for a clear “done” state. This prevents vague goals like “work on project” and forces the AI to give you a binary pass/fail condition, like “send the draft PDF.” Knowing exactly when the quest is over prevents you from dragging tasks out longer than necessary.
📌 Spells Over Generic Advice
Perhaps the smartest constraint the original poster added to the prompt is the request for a Spell to resist distraction. The key here is the specific rule the author included: the spell must be a specific trick, not generic advice, and it must take under 30 seconds to cast. This prevents the AI from giving you unhelpful platitudes like “try to focus harder” or “remove distractions.”
Instead, because of the author’s clever phrasing, the AI acts like a wizard giving you a tactical tool. A “spell” might be putting on brown noise headphones (The Cone of Silence) or doing five jumping jacks to reset your nervous system (The Haste Buff). By framing these coping mechanisms as magical spells with a 30-second casting time, the creator has made self-regulation feel like an active, cool gameplay mechanic rather than a boring discipline exercise.
It turns the act of refocusing into a deliberate, quick action you perform to boost your stats.
The Prompt
Here is the exact prompt drafted by the Reddit user that you can paste directly into ChatGPT:
“You are my ADHD Dungeon Master. I am a [character class] with low focus and high chaos.
Assign me:
⚔️ 1 Main Quest (my hardest task today)
🗡️ 1 Side Quest (a small win I can knock out in 5 min)
✨ 1 Spell to resist distraction (a specific trick, not generic advice)Rules:
• Keep the RPG tone but make the tasks real
• Each quest should have a clear ‘done’ state
• The spell should be something I can do in under 30 seconds
• Add XP rewards I can trackWhat’s on my quest log today, DM?”
This approach proves that productivity doesn’t have to be dry or serious to be effective. Sometimes, you just need to equip your armor and let a Dungeon Master tell you where to go!
Check out the full discussion on the original thread for more custom classes.
💡 FAQ & Troubleshooting
How do I ensure the AI assigns quests relevant to my actual work?
The standard prompt sets the tone, but for the best results, you must feed the AI your specific to-do list. Do not let the AI hallucinate tasks for you. Modify the input to say: “I am a Dopamine Rogue. Today I need to file taxes, reply to 3 emails, and meal prep. Assign my quests.” This ensures the AI reframes your real-world obligations as RPG missions rather than creating hypothetical ones.
Can I save this character so I don’t have to type the prompt every day?
Yes. This prompt acts as a systemic framework that can be saved as a Custom Instruction, a “Gem” (in Gemini), or a custom GPT Persona. Once set up as a saved system prompt, the AI will remember your specific character class and rules, allowing you to simply type “Start new quest” each morning to generate your daily log.
I don’t like Fantasy RPGs. Can I use a different genre?
Absolutely. The core mechanic here is gamification, not specific lore. You can rewrite the prompt to fit any narrative style that stimulates your focus. For example, replace “Dungeon Master” with “True Crime Narrator” or “Drill Sergeant,” and change “Quests” to “Evidence Collection” or “Mission Objectives.” The structure remains the same, but the flavor text changes to match your preferred theme.
This prompt turns ADHD into a fantasy RPG where your to-do list is a quest log
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