Whipping Procrastination? With ADHD? — ADHD Tip O the Day 808

 It just seemed like too much, so I kept putting it off.  Hanging over my head for six long months.

Does that sound like ADHD to you?

I want a job in Maine.  I really really want a job in Maine.

But the first step required filling out an application to a head hunting company, so they can find me a job.  Many pages to fill in.  Many documents to find and copy ,many of them  from long ago,  many of them obscure. And many questions, also about long ago and obscure.  What was my address ten years ago?

Then if they find me a  job, I’ll need to do it again for the state of Maine, and then again for the hospital. They will all require pretty much the same information but they will each want it on their own forms.  And each one will also require some other obscure document that the other ones hadn’t thought of yet.

See, I’ve done this many times before.

So why in the world, you might ask, if he’s done it before, doesn’t he have all the necessary papers in one place, and just fill out the forms, copy the papers, and send them?  Have I mentioned that I have ADHD?

I do have all, or most, of the papers in one place, but they aren’t organized.  And often I have to search through them to find some obscure piece of information.

And why, you might ask, don’t the head hunting companies and the states and the hospitals use the same forms, and why, you might ask, if the state says I’m OK, isn’t that good enough for the hospital?  Or why, you might ask, can’t the head hunters send their files to the state and to the hospital, and that will take care of it?

Yes, indeed, you might ask.

But-

Yesterday, I sat down and filled out the forms and found and copied the papers.  I did.  And I was only distracted once – got tired and said, “Oh, I can finish the rest of this tomorrow.” But I got myself to pick up the next page and keep going til I was done.

Took the entire flipping morning.  Then rewarded myself with a nice lunch and then took the fifty pages to the UPS store and faxed them to the headhunters. (Fifty pages.) (Fifty.) 

Done!

Point

Besides just sharing my lament, the point is that if you let something keep hanging over your head, it seems to grow bigger and bigger and harder and harder to do.  And it hangs there and drains energy from you.  So just do it.  Do it now.  Get it over with.

Easy to say.

Strategy

I used a strategy to finally get started. I said that I need to just start. I don’t have to finish right away; I can spread it out over several days.  That lightened the size of the perceived burden.  But once I was able to start, I pushed myself and just finished the SOB.

Done! Done! Done!

In spite of ADHD.

doug

@dougmkpdp,@adhd,#ADHD

Distra-?

What??

Let’s actually do it! Now!