Executive dysfunction is probably the worst part of having ADHD. That and having issues regulating emotions.
I can’t just clean, theres so much to clean that cleaning is just an insurmountable task on top of all the other things that i have to do first to even BEGIN cleaning.
I find that breaking my tasks into much smaller little tasks helps a lot. That way instead of failing to do one task I’m failing to do 50… wait.
Joking aside breaking the tasks apart helps me a lot. It’s not “I need to clean my apartment,” it’s, “I need to clean my living room, bedroom, and dining room.” And even that more task heavy list gets broken down a lot where basically each room becomes zones.
I might not finish the living room today but cleaning that end table will be something I can revel in finishing.
For me it also helps me practicing point-and-call for the tasks I need to do. It helps lowering my chance of getting distracted while I’m doing something and also helps prevent mistakes on more complicated tasks.
One of two things happen: more commonly, I break it down too far. Now, the task isn’t “clean”, it’s about 28 steps of get x cleaner and y supplies and scrub this clean and wash that and do the thing over there to tidy up, etc. Then, once I’m done making a task list for this one very simple thing I need to do, and micromanaging every aspect of it via a list of things to do, I’m now overwhelmed by the massive list of things I need to do in order to accomplish this one very simple task.
On the flip side, if I don’t micro manage myself into task paralysis, I end up breaking it into smaller sections, like “clean living room” and “clean bedroom” etc… And make an agreement with myself to do one today, one tomorrow, etc, until everything is cleaned. So today I only need to clean room x, and I’ll do room y tomorrow. So I clean room x, but I don’t want to put away all the cleaning stuff, I’ll just need it tomorrow, so I put it in the corner ready to go for tomorrow. I accomplished something, I cleaned a room. I’ll do the rest later. About three months later, I’ll wonder why the cleaning supplies are sitting out, and remember I was supposed to clean room y. Feeling like a failure, I’ll be unhappy with myself and instead of getting back to that task I’ll just put the cleaning stuff away, because if I’m going to start over, I’ll need to clean room x again. You see, the dopamine from getting room x cleaned that one time basically made my brain say “yep, task is done, we cleaned” then file it away in the completed file, never to be thought of again.
For me, I have to go all or nothing and just fight my task paralysis head on. I don’t often win, but if I don’t, things never get finished.
This, this, 1000% this. And if I do somehow manage to start, I can NOT stop. None of this “do x for y minutes, take z minute break, then go back to doing x.” If I stop, I don’t know when I’ll be able to start again. Which then feeds back into the “overwhelming” loop.
Oh yeah the “go for x, break for y, then go again” thing never works for me unless it’s go for hours with headphones on, then break in a specific manner for 10-15 minutes, then go again. Then maybe I’ll be able to finish properly.
It shouldn’t feel like we have to fight our brains to get shit done but I swear half the time it feels like I have to enter the Goddamned Konami Code just to get my shit done lol.
Oh yea, I’ve used this before and still do. But this only works to a point and for me, being medicated was my best option.
My first session with my pysch, she said it sounds like youre already doing everything i would normally recommend before prescribing medication so i think we should try meds.
Not that these kinds of things dont help, just sometimes needs to be paired with meds as well.
Executive dysfunction is probably the worst part of having ADHD. That and having issues regulating emotions.
I can’t just clean, theres so much to clean that cleaning is just an insurmountable task on top of all the other things that i have to do first to even BEGIN cleaning.
I find that breaking my tasks into much smaller little tasks helps a lot. That way instead of failing to do one task I’m failing to do 50… wait.
Joking aside breaking the tasks apart helps me a lot. It’s not “I need to clean my apartment,” it’s, “I need to clean my living room, bedroom, and dining room.” And even that more task heavy list gets broken down a lot where basically each room becomes zones.
I might not finish the living room today but cleaning that end table will be something I can revel in finishing.
For me it also helps me practicing point-and-call for the tasks I need to do. It helps lowering my chance of getting distracted while I’m doing something and also helps prevent mistakes on more complicated tasks.
I find this does the opposite of helping.
One of two things happen: more commonly, I break it down too far. Now, the task isn’t “clean”, it’s about 28 steps of get x cleaner and y supplies and scrub this clean and wash that and do the thing over there to tidy up, etc. Then, once I’m done making a task list for this one very simple thing I need to do, and micromanaging every aspect of it via a list of things to do, I’m now overwhelmed by the massive list of things I need to do in order to accomplish this one very simple task.
On the flip side, if I don’t micro manage myself into task paralysis, I end up breaking it into smaller sections, like “clean living room” and “clean bedroom” etc… And make an agreement with myself to do one today, one tomorrow, etc, until everything is cleaned. So today I only need to clean room x, and I’ll do room y tomorrow. So I clean room x, but I don’t want to put away all the cleaning stuff, I’ll just need it tomorrow, so I put it in the corner ready to go for tomorrow. I accomplished something, I cleaned a room. I’ll do the rest later. About three months later, I’ll wonder why the cleaning supplies are sitting out, and remember I was supposed to clean room y. Feeling like a failure, I’ll be unhappy with myself and instead of getting back to that task I’ll just put the cleaning stuff away, because if I’m going to start over, I’ll need to clean room x again. You see, the dopamine from getting room x cleaned that one time basically made my brain say “yep, task is done, we cleaned” then file it away in the completed file, never to be thought of again.
For me, I have to go all or nothing and just fight my task paralysis head on. I don’t often win, but if I don’t, things never get finished.
This, this, 1000% this. And if I do somehow manage to start, I can NOT stop. None of this “do x for y minutes, take z minute break, then go back to doing x.” If I stop, I don’t know when I’ll be able to start again. Which then feeds back into the “overwhelming” loop.
My brain is not kind to me.
Oh yeah the “go for x, break for y, then go again” thing never works for me unless it’s go for hours with headphones on, then break in a specific manner for 10-15 minutes, then go again. Then maybe I’ll be able to finish properly.
It shouldn’t feel like we have to fight our brains to get shit done but I swear half the time it feels like I have to enter the Goddamned Konami Code just to get my shit done lol.
Oh yea, I’ve used this before and still do. But this only works to a point and for me, being medicated was my best option.
My first session with my pysch, she said it sounds like youre already doing everything i would normally recommend before prescribing medication so i think we should try meds.
Not that these kinds of things dont help, just sometimes needs to be paired with meds as well.
If only cleaning was the only problem…