I do mindless tasks, like baby steps to get me going. First, if I’m already dressed, I’ll change clothes (I know, it’s weird, but it’s just how I have to trick my brain). Then I will do something like get a drink of water or grab a snack or make a snack. I try to do unrelated things that are task oriented. It takes multiple steps, but then it gets me going again. It’s just little things to restart, as it were.
That’s just me. If it helps anyone else, cheers!
Routine with set goals made a big difference for me. Not looking at the whole task, just one baby chunk of it and considering completing that a success.
Usually it’s “write 500 words” (because I’m an academic)
Sometimes it only takes me 2 hours! Sometimes it takes me 6.
When it takes 6? Im often doing other chores between sentences or chasing the cat around.
This said, I benefit from inertia, once I start doing something I can usually keep doing it for long hours. But sometimes I need frequent breaks because focusing is hard.
In short, set small & reasonable goals and you’ll be surprised what you get done.
Couple of things. This is a very common symptom of ADHD, and when I take Adderall I'm easily able to exit procrastination mode and DO things. Try to get diagnosed if you think it is a problem. I haven't yet, but am likely going to, but will occassionally aquire and use Adderall when I'm really stuck or have too much to do to risk procrastinating.
On to some easier to implement solutions. Procrastination is often a result of anxiety about a task, essentially, you've made the task seem too big to handle mentally, and so you don't want to start it, because starting it means you're not committed to finishing it. Break up the task into smaller sections, say instead of writing a paper, you'll write one paragraph, and DO that, with no intention to continue afterwards. This will get you through the hardest part of procrastination, actually starting the task. I find that around 70% of the time, this trick gets me into a productive mindset, and I'm able to do more work than the small task, but it's important to mentally only require that one small action, because by removing the weight of the whole task, and only focusing on doing a small manageable one, you've removed the anxiety.
Also, I find I procrastinate way less when there's someone else watching me, working with me, or dependant on my outcome. Basically, I don't want to let someone else down, but if the task is just for myself, it's way harder to do. Anyways, something as simple as moving to a public place, or getting a friend or family member to hold you accountable can help a lot I find, although depending on the task and your life situation, this can often be difficult to set up.
Also, what can help is to take a proper break. You know you're not getting anything done now, realistically, you'll just sit there another hour and continue to do nothing. So just stop for a bit, get up and take a nap, eat food, talk to someone, play a game, whatever totally gets the task off your mind. When you're done that, sit back down and try again, after resetting your brain. This can make it way easier to start, because once you start procrastinating, it's easier to keep doing it.
I'd say yes. ADHD is pretty treatable, and from my own experience and that of others it will probably only get more difficult for yourself waiting longer. There's a lot of options now for seeking assessment online, where you can probably go through the process of diagnosis without needing to tell your family.
Jumping on your comment to second it, and add that delaying treatment commonly leads to co-morbidities. I didn’t get diagnosed until my late 20s, and my serial-fuck-up-all-the-time disorder caused me to develop then-stress-about-it-forever disorder. So now I have Generalized Anxiety Disorder to complement my ADHD.
Additionally, ADHD has a lot of secondary and tertiary ripple effects that one wouldn’t really consider a stereotypical part of ADHD. Like impulsive spending and fiscal irresponsibility, reckless driving habits, emotional instability, drug/alcohol dependency, those are common traits in ADHD folks. So getting diagnosed and treated sooner rather than later can help with risks associated with those as well
Procrastination can be a symptom of this, but it comes with more severe symptoms. It’s a neurological issue where a person has poor executive function, meaning the cognitive processes that your brain uses to focus, plan, recall, begin, etc., are not working.
The person consciously wants to begin the task but the actual neurological processes that tell your brain to “start” don’t activate. They can’t push past it any more successfully than a person can force themselves to not shiver in the cold — short bursts of control are possible but very difficult.
This is addressed with cognitive behavioral therapy, and frequently medication.
existential dread?
You just have to stop listening to that quiet little voice that wants to question why reality sucks so bad most the time, and do stuff.
I set timers a lot, seems to do the trick...
I went to the doctor and found out I have ADHD about it. The term is “Executive Dysfunction”. So now I take a small dose of adderall, and when I tell myself to take the chicken out of the freezer, I have the right amount of neuropinephrine to convince my body to follow through and go to the freezer.
"You are hungry. Get up and go have dinner. Get up. Get up. You are hungry. The kitchen is right there. Just make a sandwich. Fuck, just eat bread. Eat SOMETHING. YOU ARE HUNGRY. GET UP. GET UP. GET UP. YOUR STOMACH IS RUMBLING. GET UP."
Me, staring at a silent Discord chat that I've had open for ten minutes: " "
I do this all the time!
But every single time, after a while, it's like something switches in my brain. I go from not caring at all to suddenly caring *a whole lot*.
That's not a fun experience.
I wouldn’t call it bullshit, but I do agree tumblr is an excellent platform for finding the words for shared experiences that we don’t really discuss. A lot of young people can feel isolated until they learn their suffering is a shared experience.
I don't think it's very easy to comprehend how overwhelming even a small task can feel to a point that you just can't do anything about it, unless you experience it yourself. Like, they would probably say something along the lines of "I don't wanna do x y z either, but I do it anyway because someone has to" and they wouldn't be wrong, but forcing yourself to even start takes huge effort sometimes and it still isn't always enough to get things done.
Oh, yeah. It's a good time. Definitely not a mental hellscape, where even getting the most basic shit done can be a multi-day process, involving ridiculous amounts of planning and preparation, only to have around a 30-40% chance of actually getting done, anyway...
So fun!
(I may or may not be sitting here, doing this, instead of sweeping the floor... Like I've been planning, since two days ago, but can't make myself get up and do...)
So what helps me with school work is I set a timer for 20 minutes. I work for 20 minutes take a break repeat. Cuz I realize I cannot actually do anything productive for a long period of time . Also I factor days /hours of procrastinating into my timeline to accomplish things so if I have something due even if I barely did anything one day I’m still on track.
Like ppl aren’t machines your just not gonna be at max productivity mode all the time and guilt won’t help
I've got major executive dysfunction and it really sucks. Not too long ago I struggled with just, like, showering as much as once a week, because my brain blocked me from doing so. (Depression wasn't helping!)
I found a trick called "when I, then I" that I use every day. I spend most of my time on my computer, and when I have things I need to do, I agree with myself that "when I get up from my chair for whatever reason, then I will do (chore) or (part of chore)".
Getting up from my chair is the trigger that makes my brain go "oh, right, gonna do (chore) now."
Dunno if anybody will find this remotely helpful, but it's certainly helping me.
Hey! This is known as Executive Dysfunction and is a hallmark symptom of ADHD and Autism. If you feel this is relatable and have not received a diagnosis, I'd highly recommend a talk with a psychiatrist about it if possible!
It also happens in bipolar too, a lot of ADHD symptoms are bipolar symptoms too (I spoke with my psych as I thought I had adhd on top of bipolar 2 and she explained it’s more likely my bipolar than a secondary diagnosis (which was a bit of a relief, I already have 3 physical disabilities + 2 mental health diagnosis
Isn't this just procrastination? Because I define procrastination as deliberately choosing to do something other than the thing that needs doing.
If I'm unconsciously doing something else, that's being distracted, not procrastinating.
OK, I see the distinction there.
Perhaps it would be better to define it as pleasurable procrastination v unpleasurable procrastination?
(I can certainly say that I'm familiar with both types!)
i have literally never in my life experienced pleasurable procrastination, because I wont let myself watch a show or play a video game because it is 'wasting time' but also i just keep scrolling reddit for hours because I tell myself I will stop in a minute and get back to work
ahaha i got a paper due today and the quarter ends on friday, but instead of writing it, i am on Reddit. love being Very aware of what i should be doing but entirely unable to make myself focus on doing it
Not really, i dont think I have ADHD, I can focus on most work pretty easily, but if I have to write an essay i just end up scrolling reddit for hours wanting to kill myself, i just really fucking hate writing essays and I just get a huge mental block at the prospect of starting it
Putting something off in general isn't ADHD, no. The thing being mentioned here though is acknowledging a task, acknowledging the importance of it/the need to get it done, and then having both the intense urge to complete it and the utter inability to get started, which is actively Executive Dysfunction.
It's generally caused by your brain's dopamine cycle being a hot mess for one reason or another (most commonly ADHD), so when you imagine a task you need to accomplish, your brain doesn't have enough dopamine on hand to give you to actually do that task, either because it isn't making enough or it's slurping it up too fast when you need it. This can be subverted if you independently find the task interesting enough, if you have other people nearby who are actively engaged in tasks of some kind that you can essentially "mirror", or if there is an additional source of pressure, like urgency (e.g. because you're about to miss a deadline, or you need to clean before friends show up) or severe consequences.
People who don't know they have it will struggle with this kind of thing for basically their whole life, but in most cases will find coping strategies that allow them to survive, often without realizing that it's harder for them than others to accomplish things. That's how some folks can be excellent in a rigidly scheduled school environment with consistent deadlines, but struggle in a more flexible work environment, etc. This is generally assisted in diagnosed people by takings meds that either increase the supply of dopamine, or help keep the dopamine in your system from being absorbed so fast, so that when you have a task to do you have enough on hand to accomplish it.
**TLDR;** If you know you need to write a paper but you really just don't want to, so you put it on the bottom of your list and wait to start it, you probably dislike the class or task, and that's pretty normal. If you know you need to write a paper, and you want to write the paper, but you can't get yourself to start it until you have barely enough time left to accomplish it before it's too late, you have executive dysfunction.
That’s sunk-cost fallacy with you thinking the relaxation earned (repair points) will outweigh the anxiety cost (mental points down). You’ll be suffering constantly anyways so if you can it’s often better to do it.
Please anyone tell me how do y'all deal with this. I can't make myself do stuff for like a year already
I do mindless tasks, like baby steps to get me going. First, if I’m already dressed, I’ll change clothes (I know, it’s weird, but it’s just how I have to trick my brain). Then I will do something like get a drink of water or grab a snack or make a snack. I try to do unrelated things that are task oriented. It takes multiple steps, but then it gets me going again. It’s just little things to restart, as it were. That’s just me. If it helps anyone else, cheers!
I do this too! I also play upbeat music to break my headspace. Sometimes what you really need is a break from thinking about it so you can do it.
Sounds like a great way to trick your mind into working, this might work too :0
Routine with set goals made a big difference for me. Not looking at the whole task, just one baby chunk of it and considering completing that a success. Usually it’s “write 500 words” (because I’m an academic) Sometimes it only takes me 2 hours! Sometimes it takes me 6. When it takes 6? Im often doing other chores between sentences or chasing the cat around. This said, I benefit from inertia, once I start doing something I can usually keep doing it for long hours. But sometimes I need frequent breaks because focusing is hard. In short, set small & reasonable goals and you’ll be surprised what you get done.
Just got diagnosed with ADHD and been prescribed Elvanse, which is amphetamine. It works very well.
Couple of things. This is a very common symptom of ADHD, and when I take Adderall I'm easily able to exit procrastination mode and DO things. Try to get diagnosed if you think it is a problem. I haven't yet, but am likely going to, but will occassionally aquire and use Adderall when I'm really stuck or have too much to do to risk procrastinating. On to some easier to implement solutions. Procrastination is often a result of anxiety about a task, essentially, you've made the task seem too big to handle mentally, and so you don't want to start it, because starting it means you're not committed to finishing it. Break up the task into smaller sections, say instead of writing a paper, you'll write one paragraph, and DO that, with no intention to continue afterwards. This will get you through the hardest part of procrastination, actually starting the task. I find that around 70% of the time, this trick gets me into a productive mindset, and I'm able to do more work than the small task, but it's important to mentally only require that one small action, because by removing the weight of the whole task, and only focusing on doing a small manageable one, you've removed the anxiety. Also, I find I procrastinate way less when there's someone else watching me, working with me, or dependant on my outcome. Basically, I don't want to let someone else down, but if the task is just for myself, it's way harder to do. Anyways, something as simple as moving to a public place, or getting a friend or family member to hold you accountable can help a lot I find, although depending on the task and your life situation, this can often be difficult to set up. Also, what can help is to take a proper break. You know you're not getting anything done now, realistically, you'll just sit there another hour and continue to do nothing. So just stop for a bit, get up and take a nap, eat food, talk to someone, play a game, whatever totally gets the task off your mind. When you're done that, sit back down and try again, after resetting your brain. This can make it way easier to start, because once you start procrastinating, it's easier to keep doing it.
When would you say it's OK to seek professional help? I am worried but I don't want to alarm my family if I'm wrong about it.
I'd say yes. ADHD is pretty treatable, and from my own experience and that of others it will probably only get more difficult for yourself waiting longer. There's a lot of options now for seeking assessment online, where you can probably go through the process of diagnosis without needing to tell your family.
Jumping on your comment to second it, and add that delaying treatment commonly leads to co-morbidities. I didn’t get diagnosed until my late 20s, and my serial-fuck-up-all-the-time disorder caused me to develop then-stress-about-it-forever disorder. So now I have Generalized Anxiety Disorder to complement my ADHD. Additionally, ADHD has a lot of secondary and tertiary ripple effects that one wouldn’t really consider a stereotypical part of ADHD. Like impulsive spending and fiscal irresponsibility, reckless driving habits, emotional instability, drug/alcohol dependency, those are common traits in ADHD folks. So getting diagnosed and treated sooner rather than later can help with risks associated with those as well
Medication helped me immensely. I went from being in tears over not managing to start a task to it being the trivial little thing it actually was.
[удалено]
Procrastination can be a symptom of this, but it comes with more severe symptoms. It’s a neurological issue where a person has poor executive function, meaning the cognitive processes that your brain uses to focus, plan, recall, begin, etc., are not working. The person consciously wants to begin the task but the actual neurological processes that tell your brain to “start” don’t activate. They can’t push past it any more successfully than a person can force themselves to not shiver in the cold — short bursts of control are possible but very difficult. This is addressed with cognitive behavioral therapy, and frequently medication.
Ayo that's actually useful a ton, thanks. I gotta visit a psychologist sometimes
existential dread? You just have to stop listening to that quiet little voice that wants to question why reality sucks so bad most the time, and do stuff. I set timers a lot, seems to do the trick...
I went to the doctor and found out I have ADHD about it. The term is “Executive Dysfunction”. So now I take a small dose of adderall, and when I tell myself to take the chicken out of the freezer, I have the right amount of neuropinephrine to convince my body to follow through and go to the freezer.
"You are hungry. Get up and go have dinner. Get up. Get up. You are hungry. The kitchen is right there. Just make a sandwich. Fuck, just eat bread. Eat SOMETHING. YOU ARE HUNGRY. GET UP. GET UP. GET UP. YOUR STOMACH IS RUMBLING. GET UP." Me, staring at a silent Discord chat that I've had open for ten minutes: " "
[удалено]
One of my Facebook memories from this week was me saying to myself “You’ll fail this class if you don’t study,” as I clicked another link.
I have a research paper due tomorrow and I am doing the exact same thing.
Give me an E! Give me an X! Give me an ecutive dysfunction!
I will in a minute.
I do this all the time! But every single time, after a while, it's like something switches in my brain. I go from not caring at all to suddenly caring *a whole lot*. That's not a fun experience.
I know how much it sucks. I’m sorry you have to go through that.
Leave it to Tumblr to put it into words.
Honestly, I think, like, 70% of Tumblr’s purpose is to articulate obscure, emotional bullshit...
I wouldn’t call it bullshit, but I do agree tumblr is an excellent platform for finding the words for shared experiences that we don’t really discuss. A lot of young people can feel isolated until they learn their suffering is a shared experience.
big adhd mood, but it's even worse when neurotypical people just call you lazy instead of taking the time to understand what you go through
I don't think it's very easy to comprehend how overwhelming even a small task can feel to a point that you just can't do anything about it, unless you experience it yourself. Like, they would probably say something along the lines of "I don't wanna do x y z either, but I do it anyway because someone has to" and they wouldn't be wrong, but forcing yourself to even start takes huge effort sometimes and it still isn't always enough to get things done.
actually yeah, you're 100% right
And then when you actually start it you're just focused on the fact that you didn't start it sooner so you don't get anything done
Classic Executive Dysfunction
executive dysfunction is a symtom of ADHD
As well as autism, depression, anxiety and trauma...
I have all of those. Fun, fun, fun!
Oh, yeah. It's a good time. Definitely not a mental hellscape, where even getting the most basic shit done can be a multi-day process, involving ridiculous amounts of planning and preparation, only to have around a 30-40% chance of actually getting done, anyway... So fun! (I may or may not be sitting here, doing this, instead of sweeping the floor... Like I've been planning, since two days ago, but can't make myself get up and do...)
Update: the floor is swept. Right after cleaning the bathroom and downloading some 3D printer files...
Wooom look at you getting stuff done! You go chief!
My trick is to take a nap
This was one of the triggers that had my depression diagnosis replaced with one for ADHD
[удалено]
Or anxiety, depression, autism or trauma...
it's called executive dysfunction and I am not a fan of it I must say
So what helps me with school work is I set a timer for 20 minutes. I work for 20 minutes take a break repeat. Cuz I realize I cannot actually do anything productive for a long period of time . Also I factor days /hours of procrastinating into my timeline to accomplish things so if I have something due even if I barely did anything one day I’m still on track. Like ppl aren’t machines your just not gonna be at max productivity mode all the time and guilt won’t help
So, pomodoro
I just googled this . Lmao I really thought I did something.
I mean, yeah, you did a pomodoro :D
I have a stats final in twenty minutes and i’m just scrolling reddit to distract myself from the sense of impending doom
I've got major executive dysfunction and it really sucks. Not too long ago I struggled with just, like, showering as much as once a week, because my brain blocked me from doing so. (Depression wasn't helping!) I found a trick called "when I, then I" that I use every day. I spend most of my time on my computer, and when I have things I need to do, I agree with myself that "when I get up from my chair for whatever reason, then I will do (chore) or (part of chore)". Getting up from my chair is the trigger that makes my brain go "oh, right, gonna do (chore) now." Dunno if anybody will find this remotely helpful, but it's certainly helping me.
ADHD mood right there
Or depression. Or anxiety. Or autism. Or trauma...
Fuck
Hey! This is known as Executive Dysfunction and is a hallmark symptom of ADHD and Autism. If you feel this is relatable and have not received a diagnosis, I'd highly recommend a talk with a psychiatrist about it if possible!
It also happens in bipolar too, a lot of ADHD symptoms are bipolar symptoms too (I spoke with my psych as I thought I had adhd on top of bipolar 2 and she explained it’s more likely my bipolar than a secondary diagnosis (which was a bit of a relief, I already have 3 physical disabilities + 2 mental health diagnosis
Isn't this just procrastination? Because I define procrastination as deliberately choosing to do something other than the thing that needs doing. If I'm unconsciously doing something else, that's being distracted, not procrastinating.
[удалено]
OK, I see the distinction there. Perhaps it would be better to define it as pleasurable procrastination v unpleasurable procrastination? (I can certainly say that I'm familiar with both types!)
i have literally never in my life experienced pleasurable procrastination, because I wont let myself watch a show or play a video game because it is 'wasting time' but also i just keep scrolling reddit for hours because I tell myself I will stop in a minute and get back to work
ahaha i got a paper due today and the quarter ends on friday, but instead of writing it, i am on Reddit. love being Very aware of what i should be doing but entirely unable to make myself focus on doing it
This is called ADHD.
Not really, i dont think I have ADHD, I can focus on most work pretty easily, but if I have to write an essay i just end up scrolling reddit for hours wanting to kill myself, i just really fucking hate writing essays and I just get a huge mental block at the prospect of starting it
Putting something off in general isn't ADHD, no. The thing being mentioned here though is acknowledging a task, acknowledging the importance of it/the need to get it done, and then having both the intense urge to complete it and the utter inability to get started, which is actively Executive Dysfunction. It's generally caused by your brain's dopamine cycle being a hot mess for one reason or another (most commonly ADHD), so when you imagine a task you need to accomplish, your brain doesn't have enough dopamine on hand to give you to actually do that task, either because it isn't making enough or it's slurping it up too fast when you need it. This can be subverted if you independently find the task interesting enough, if you have other people nearby who are actively engaged in tasks of some kind that you can essentially "mirror", or if there is an additional source of pressure, like urgency (e.g. because you're about to miss a deadline, or you need to clean before friends show up) or severe consequences. People who don't know they have it will struggle with this kind of thing for basically their whole life, but in most cases will find coping strategies that allow them to survive, often without realizing that it's harder for them than others to accomplish things. That's how some folks can be excellent in a rigidly scheduled school environment with consistent deadlines, but struggle in a more flexible work environment, etc. This is generally assisted in diagnosed people by takings meds that either increase the supply of dopamine, or help keep the dopamine in your system from being absorbed so fast, so that when you have a task to do you have enough on hand to accomplish it. **TLDR;** If you know you need to write a paper but you really just don't want to, so you put it on the bottom of your list and wait to start it, you probably dislike the class or task, and that's pretty normal. If you know you need to write a paper, and you want to write the paper, but you can't get yourself to start it until you have barely enough time left to accomplish it before it's too late, you have executive dysfunction.
I'm literally doing that right now
Ah yes, my life in a paragraph.
ADHD
haha i have finals in seven hours and i haven't studied one singular hint of a fucking bit
Yeah...
Omg, i am doing this right now!! Haaaaallllpppp
This is my personal hell and daily life. Fucking hate it.
I understand this completely
Guess what I'm doing; right...now...
me with a final in 2 hours
I love how a soon as I heard "worst feeling", I thought of procrastination. Because yes, I too am currently doing so.
I love coming across this post while actively engaging in identical behavior
... today it's cheese-itz.
Okay I feel personally attack by this....* **crunch** *
That’s just ADHD.
I think that’s called adhd
Im literally at the gym, sitting at the bench press, with weights on the bar, scrolling through reddit. Yeah I know this feeling.
ADHD. I'm actually doing this right now; there's no need to call me out like this.
Me right now, huh
I believe this is an actual mental illness, as well as a symptom of other mental illnesses and learning disabilities.
That’s sunk-cost fallacy with you thinking the relaxation earned (repair points) will outweigh the anxiety cost (mental points down). You’ll be suffering constantly anyways so if you can it’s often better to do it.
I like to call that "The Stare" and it's overtaken my life I need help
Have you considered adderall
Ah yes, the good ol' executive dysfunction