That only really happens if there is no immediate threat of doom. If there is, I am the most productive person on the face of the Earth but only due to the sheer terror that results from last second procrastination.
if you leave ti to the last minute it will only take a minute
It’s super time efficient.
Yeah… homework was done 5 minutes before class starts…
“I can do it on the bus!”.
Reader, he could not…
it’s called executive dysfunction
Which should be the name instead of ADHD.
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No it’s not. ADHD is a developmental disorder that affects the prefrontal cortex, which controls executive function. Attention deficit and hyperactivity are poor descriptors of the disorder, and lead to a lot of misconceptions about it.
To correct your analogy, calling it ADHD is like referring to all automobiles as dirt bikes.
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To be blunt, the stigma of typicals around adult ADHD is so severe that for most people I just tell them I have an executive function disorder.
It usually confuses them into learning what the issue actually is rather than their perception of what ADHD is.
Look, I’m bad at life because my brain does things wrong, okay?
Hey! I do that too! Instead of saying I have trouble committing names/dates/verbal info, I just tell folks I have a short term memory disorder. Which is true! I need to mess up someone’s name or an important piece of info like 5 times until I cement it in, with guilt and embarrassment.
Then I power through what should have been my whole day of work in 2h30 before going to bed. Then I go try to sleep very late on an adrenaline high, wondering why I tend to burnout, cause I’m so great at this.
Anyway, the medication seemed to have calmed me down a bit on this.
Oooh. I felt this. My thing is, when facing a deadline or something, procrastinate until I forget about thing, then when I’m reminded the day before, start work at 10pm sharp, stay up until finished, convince myself I’ll be fine with only 2 hours of sleep, go to bed, sleep through my alarm, show up several hours late, unbathed and generally in a disorderly state, frantic and panicked.
I did that a lot recently, but the past week I decided that I hated spending all day thinking about the tasks more than doing them.
I’ve been forcing myself to just do it and I’ve been getting through it pretty quickly and not having that task loom over me all day.
This feels good when I can actually do it. Most of the time it’s just suffering though.
I read somewhere a good starting point is if a task takes less than two minutes, just do it now. You start there and build. Never quite realized that’s what I’d started doing on my own, but it has helped, especially after making it a conscious effort.
Now if someone could tell me how to deal with having a shift at work at the end of the day and the entire day before the shift being wasted because all I can focus on is that I have somewhere to be in 6 hours.
just do it
I used to chroncially be like this, it was awful. Somehow, somewhere, without outside help I flipped, and now Im organized, efficient and proactive. Marking this spot so I can think about it and come back when I think I know what changed.
You have to tell us, you know that right? I am waiting for this moment for 4 decades.
I’m in more or less the opposite scenario. I used to be able to actually do shit, then something snapped and it’s far more difficult for me to do anything efficiently. I think what snapped was effectively my self confidence. After a period of existential crisis, things stopped feeling so important all of a sudden. So the herculean effort that allowed me to complete all my work and keep up on everything stopped being possible, because it briefly became impossible leading me to recognize how unsustainable that was.
Now I’m in a position where I still try to get what I need to done, but I try not to stress about it so much and I prefer to do what I want. And making myself do what I need to do is partially a matter of medication (Vyvanse) and partially trying to find reasons to enjoy/prefer the tasks that are important for my survival, then capitalizing on that intrigue/excitement.
Basically, I guess it comes down to choosing to accept whatever our current reality is and trying to work from there. There are reasons that I’m fortunate, just as there are reasons others would probably say I’m falling behind in life. Doesn’t really matter in the end. All any of us can do is what we can actually do. If we don’t allow that to be enough, we’ll drive ourselves insane with the dissonance.
I dont really know. Maybe my post is a good example of it though. I dont know how to complete the task, but I started it anyway. Just did a little bit. Then, having broken the seal, its not seem so hard.
Thats how i approach stuff i have to do. Put it on the list and start it at the same time, under the self-agreement that ill just do a little bit of it then stop.
Rather than ‘clean whole house’ i start with ‘just pick up clothes off bedroom floor’
This removes the mental fear of ‘uhhh its going to take forever!’. Once ive done a bit, it becomes clear thar I can just do the whole thing, or at least recognize that its not very hard after all.
I listened to a podcast a few years ago that was really transformative in my way of thinking. (I can’t remember the exact podcast but I linked one that talks about procrastination); and below is a transcribed excerpt from the episode:
Fabrice explained “want” traps. For example, you may sit at your computer cruising the internet or playing digital games, all the while telling yourself “I really want to get to work on my paper,” or taxes, or whatever. But in point of fact, you DON’T want to get to work on the thing you’re putting off. You WANT to be doing exactly what you are doing.
We “trick ourselves into thinking we want something (like doing our taxes) when we really want to be doing something else (watching TV, playing computer games.) So, once again, we are telling ourselves stories that don’t map onto reality.”
Our real “wants” are the result of an unconscious cost-benefit analysis we make in our head, where the choice that comes out on top is our real want. It’s only when I really start doing my taxes that I’ll know this is what I want to be doing (probably because the urgency of the matter made the cost-benefit analysis tip in that direction).
David was trying to see if this concept of “wants” can be helpful in therapy but had trouble seeing how this might help someone who’s procrastinating.
Fabrice explained it like this: First, we need to realize that we are doing what we want in the moment; so, it’s a choice. Next, we can make our cost-benefit analysis conscious and see that we’re only considering short-term factors (e.g., it’s a lot more comfortable right now to be watching TV than doing taxes). Finally, we can develop some empathy for our future self (the one who will be pulling an all-nighter three weeks from now, or who will have to pay late fees) to reevaluate our cost-benefit analysis with more complete data.
Fabrice also explained that procrastination can sometimes be difficult to treat because it’s an addiction.
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Yeah i think so. Same happened with my roadrage. I used to screech at people forever on the road, then it just got too hard so now im just chill.
Likewise with drinking alcohol, one day I just had had enough of being sick all the time, so I just decided to stop.
I believe that a ‘mental rock bottom’ is an apropriate way to describe it.
I hope my brain does that sometime soon.
[x] I’m in this photo and I don’t like it.
I find I can leverage this sometimes.
Years ago in college, I lamented to a classmate of mine that I feel like i was doing so much thinking all weekend but had nothing to show for it. He simply responded “That’s called research, and that counts”.
Now, although i’m far from efficient, I try to use that rapid thinking time to sort out all the loose strings in my mind, essentially polishing ideas over and over again until my “what-ifs” are paired down and in the last hour of work I can sometimes get myself into a hyperfocus and accomplish what I was thinking about all day.
Totally not a blanket solution but I hope it helps someone reframe their thoughts a bit, maybe help them feel less guilty about holding all this in their head.
Also TAKE NOTES. Obsidian is great, you can link your ideas together, extra pages are free, the canvas tool is great to just tie ideas together.
Man, I wish my high school teachers would have framed it this way instead of shaming me for procrastination. I’d do a similar thing for my English papers - I’d start thinking about the topic I was gonna write about as soon as it was assigned, mulling things over, getting things mentally organized, but I wouldn’t type anything up until the night before it was due. I usually had a pretty good idea of what I was gonna write by that time though, so I could reliably crank out something in a few hours. And I always ended up with good grades on those papers, so I guess it worked for me.
Absolutely the same experience as you. I’d spend weeks (or months, in the case of my final dissertation) mulling things over without being able to write anything, then the night before it’d just click into place and I’d write it all out. I’d end up with good grades as well, but the stress at the time from my frustration at not being able to just “get things done sooner” wasn’t fun!
Yes. Meds can help this. Meds can also make the problem worse. As with all drugs, set, setting and dosage,
Literally procrastination.
I tend to get something done every day but my weekends get shot because it takes me so long. Im not diagnosed with adhd or anything else but I feel like my life is just a long string of being behind on getting things done.
Yep, and to help it somewhat I’ve been setting alarms. If I can’t get started and am stressing to do the thing, I’m presuming I won’t and just take time of till the next activity. That way I end up doing nothing, but not burnt out
I made a meme of this exact phenomenon before my original instance went belly up, can’t get it to upload but the text was:
"People say being ADHD doesn’t come with superpowers
But can a neurotypical feel the exhaustion of a task without ever getting up to do it?"
This is me all day every day recently. I’m stuck.
Hey, I don’t remember giving you permission to post my thoughts.
Me… right now… Oh god someone send help
If you can find help, let me know, I also need help with this.
But your brain does have hands. They are your hands. Your hands are wired directly to your brain.
And yes, there’s five things you would have to or want to do, but do not quite know which to start or how you should exactly to do them and you end up doing anything else you are confident with.
