Procrastination, time mngmt!
- I too have ADD, procrastinate, leave things till the last minute. The only thing that gets me running is the adrenalin rush I get from the fear that I won't make it to work on time. I care very much about others. I don't want to let them down, or have them think I don't care, or am narcissistic or feel entitled to do what I want. I am highly respected at work, hardworking, very resourceful, intuitive, think out of the box. I value and respect my coworkers and to let them down or have them think I don't care would be awful! Despite my successes, keeping things organized at home is often an insurmountable task. Even when I work hard at this, it is short lived. The guilt, utter frustration I felt in the past when my ADD compromised the lives of others, was intolerable! The relief, happiness of living on my own now, is wonderful!! I am finally free to value all the good I am, enjoy being me, not be so hard on myself and love life, even during days of utter chaos!
- —Guest www.add.about.com
Mantra or Broken Record
- In frustration of my seemingly endless lack of will to begin tasks I began searching for a thought or mental mantra to motivate improved performance. I stumbled on some words of wisdom by Hillel, and ancient Jewish Philosopher. His quote was, “If I am not for myself, then who is for me. If I am only for myself then what am I? If not now, when?" It was the bit at the end that stuck with me. I thought how perfect, I'll channel this thought of, "If not now, when?" into a greater demand for action. Unfortunately this proactive mantra became not real motivation but a broken record in my head that became a form of self administered meta-mental/verbal abuse. As I continued to lack production I would be repeatedly beat down by myself questioning of, "If not now, When?" I DON'T KNOW DAMNIT!
- —Guest Sallen35
Reply to Frustrated Father
- "My son has ADD and I deal with it but show my frustration. I was never aware that the laziness and lack of motivation was connected to ADD. I have not turned to medication yet and don’t want to, but I am considering it. -Frustrated Father" My brother was exactly in your situation - working so hard to help my nephew and just so frustrated with lack of improvement. One day I called. "How's he doing?" I asked. "We finally decided to put him on medication," he said. "How's he doing?" "Like night and day - like night and day." He's a college graduate now after years of drug problems, school failures, and all the rest. If your son had diabetes would you not put him on insulin first and THEN work with diet, exercise, and so on to keep the dosages as low as possible? So why not think of ADD the same way? Your son has a MEDICAL condition - not enough neuro-transmitters are getting to the executive function areas of his brain. Do both of you a favor - see a good specialist doc. Now.
- —CosmosMarinerDU
Contrarian view of "chunking"
- Many articles suggest "chunking" a large project into bite-size pieces. Sounds good - seems obvious. However, I think there's a big issue that makes that approach simplistic. We all know that ADDers hate facing tasks that are "boring," "don't present a challenge," are "uninteresting." But what is a chunk? A short stand-alone task needing minimal thought or effort. My personal experience is that such a task can be completely solved/completed IN MY HEAD at which point it's almost impossible to actually EXECUTE it. What fun is that? So CREATING a chunked list can be fun - but DOING the chunks? Not so much. Do I have a solution? Yes, but I'm fortunate - one not possible for most of my schooling/career nor, I'm afraid, for most ADDers: I assign the task to one of my (non-ADD) employees with exact instructions. Takes me a minute; might take them hours. OR THEY task ME with small chunks one-at-a-time when necessary ... we enjoy working together like that. But as a GENERAL strategy? NO.
- —CosmosMarinerDU
Highschool ADD Bites
- Hey, I'm 17 and in my junior year, the year that counts, and I have no motivation what so ever to do anything. As a result I’m currently failing four out of eight classes and TWO of them are electives that I find awesome. My parents have tried everything from positive to negative punishment and nothing keeps me going for long. I really feel bad, but neither my parents nor I know what to do. I don't think we can handle me taking any more medication, but if this keeps up, I'm really worried, scared even, that it will really hurt my future. And it's really embarrassing to have your friends doing so well in school and there you are left behind with your parents breathing hell-fire down your back and just about ready to throw everything I own to keep me from getting distracted. I'm trying, I really am, but NOTHING keeps me on track for long, and I just feel lost...
- —Guest Junior
Research / Sleep / Write
- I can't say how much I'm struggling with my MBA. Every class I have to ask the professor to understand why I didn't finish my paper. My main problem with paper is that I get overwhelmed by the research part. It is so much information and I can't decide one to pick or how to organize them. Recently, I discovered (by accident) that, if I make the research at night, and then after a good night I write in the morning, I get the writing done less painfully. I think the reason why is that the best results from the research are the firsts I'll remember. Plus, I can do my brain hygiene at night and come back in the morning with an uncluttered brain. I also agree with the music strategy (but not for writing!!!) :)
- —Guest Francine
Finding things interesting to you
- I went to nursing school and the one thing that motivated me to get through it was always learning something new. I also like anything that is healthcare related because there are so many things to learn in the healthcare field that you hardly ever get bored. Nursing school for me was highly stimulating and I also found people to study with and that kept me motivated.
- —2678
Motivation ideas
- This may sound funny but, Nike's slogan of "Just Do It" is a great help. I find if I just start a small piece of something I can get going. For example, I worked as a graphic designer and I can remember many times staring at a blank page, unable to start. When that happened I would just start drawing circles, anything, and that seemed to get me over the hurdle and started on the project.
- —ohmyword
ADD for 10 years
- My parents always said I can consider myself lucky. I was diagnosed with ADD in the second grade and was put on medication in fourth grade. It took about a year to find the right meds for me, but it was worth it. Having ADD has made a huge impact on my life, mostly in school. I am now a senior in high school and I know that unfortunately my grades are not the strongest. I cope the best I know how and am still trying to figure out how to get my life together for when I go off to college. I plan to major in Education so I can help students with the same problems I face now. To all those with ADD, don't give up! There is always hope. You can beat this!
- —Guest Ellen
Yes!
- All yes. So many times I just could not get started on anything. I knew I wasn't lazy. I didn't know what was wrong with me. Last year I was diagnosed with ADHD. I take medicine, it has done wonders for me. I can start and finish tasks. My kid and I developed the 20 min switch in order to get multiple tasks done around the house. We do it together and I get as excited as she does to get to a new task. At first I wanted to finish up a task, but you have to stay on the 20min time frame. Yes some tasks take more time that have to be finished, but only write out 4-6 tasks then you can come back around to the tasks that take longer. I sometimes have time left over because some tasks take less time. Very important to set a timer each time - 20 min. then switch. It works for a 30 year old and a 6 year old. Hope this helps the unmotivated. Take care and keep your heads up.
- —LittleJoe30
Understimulated/lazy/bored
- Hi, I was just reading a member’s response to your article and I can see myself as that person. I am 42 now and over the past three years I've slowly gravitated toward feeling lazy/unmotivated and bored. One way I deal with this is to exercise! This helps tremendously. However it is short lived and I am back to my unmotivated self. Sometimes I tend to use herbal/natural products to help with energy which I've been lacking as well.
- —Guest Robert
Hard to Start, and Follow Through
- I've been struggling for years with motivation. I get easily affected by things happening around me, bad news, bad comments, etc. but what I find the most frustrating is that despite the fact that I know what I need to do at work, more often than not, I push things back until the very last minute. I get overstressed and tell myself I'm stupid. If only I could get stuck in and complete projects I work on in a timely manner like others. Unfortunately, no matter of how much good thinking I put towards it, I find myself going back to a lazy state, getting distracted by pretty much anything I can think of. I've had some excellent results at work, but for most projects or tasks I work on, I find it most times very, very frustrating that I push back things all the time. Only the things I find new, interesting, innovative, etc I can work on easily, until I get bored that is. This imbalance is causing me concerns, more and more. I haven't been diagnosed with ADD, as I’ve not yet talked about it with my doctor.
- —Guest VD79
Work From Lists
- It helps me to write down what I want to do on a list. It is motivating to check off if I have started a task or completed it. Items not started can go to the top of the next. The discipline comes in sticking to it, but projects are easier with it. If you can get a project management software like MS Project it can be helpful. It helps break large projects into 1-2 items a day and keeps things from getting overwhelming.
- —Jeff_R
HOW I GET MOTIVATED
- When trying to get motivated, I try associating it with something I like doing like listening to music. My mind concentrates on the music instead of the “ugly task” at hand. I start simple and when I am getting into it I enlarge the “picture” slowly. Self motivation tapes or sermons from upbeat pastors. Concentrate on the truth and realize the simplest seemingly innocent things that my mind wanders off on are just getting off the subject. Focus on focus.
- —Guest JEANNE BURKE
Weighing & Measuring
- I am attracted to many things - like a bee moving from one pretty flower to another. What I try to do now is ask myself: is this action, decision, interruption, going to forward me in a positive direction that will provide a sense of personal and/or professional satisfaction and fulfillment - or is it simply a distraction?
- —Guest M. Lamb
