Welcome to episode # 7. Today we’re going to talk about procrastination. I’m going to talk about some of the reasons we do it, and I’m going to share with you some strategies that I’ve learned that have helped me and many of my clients procrastinate less and do more. I’m going to share with you a great app I recently discovered that can actually help you with procrastination. We’ll also hear from you, the ADHD rewired community.
Join me at the 2014 Attention Deficit Disorder Association (ADDA) Conference in Florida, July 24
It’s too big Break it down.
- Really focus on the first step.
- Do a mind map or brain dump
- I don’t know where to start
This is much less of an issue than it used to be for me. I recognize that starting is hard, so I just take it for what it is. Often, it is not as hard as I think it is going to be.If I have a project to do, but I don’t know what I’m going to do it on, then Brainstorming is the start, not start the project.
Talk to someone about it.
It’s amazing how many times I figure it out what I need to do after talking to someone. So, when your stuck, “use your words”
It’s so boring, I hate it –
There are certain tasks, no matter how important I know they are, I will never want to do. Identify these types of tasks for what they are… Boring & Tedious and then build strategies and supports around each one. This is the reason we have labels, we have to name it to tame it. When I used to do my own billing, I would have actually have anxiety while I was entering the numbersDyscalculia – I just went to the google, and typed in Numeric Dyslexia, because I couldn’t recall the name for it, and while on the internet machine, I visited one of the most reliable places for information, Wikipedia,which according to this article, I read a quarter of children with ADHD have Dyscalcula.
- Tax Documents
- Email – Tedious
- Anything that involves auditing
- Anything that involves needing to find and reference information.
It needs to be perfect
I don’t remember what I need to do.
I have learned to just ask for help. I assume I will forget, which is why, as I stated in the episode 5, capture everything.
It’s so far away, that I can’t even see it. If you’ve ever heard “just begin with the end in mind.” And thought that sounds good in theory, but had no clue how to do that in practice, welcome to the club. I came across a great program at a CHADD conference two years ago called “Seeing my Time.” And this provided some great strategies for how to do this.
Use a month calendar; 3 month dry erase calendars work great. I did this in grad school.
The first task for a project is plan it. So, in your calendar, that you surly use on a regular basis, schedule an appointment with yourself called “plan out the paper”If this is a big project, give yourself at least 30 minutes to do this.
First, Put the due date or your goal due date on the calendar, it should say, “Paper due” – but be specific, assume you will develop amnesia, and when you see this in your calendar you going to panic and say “what paper?” – 2 days prior, to the due date write complete project. This is intentional. We are great at forgetting about things until the last minute, and then we ask ourselves, “how did not remember about this” “Why didn’t I know this would take me more time” Let’s say this is a report. Think about what done would look like. Maybe it would mean you emailed the report to your boss, teacher or perspective clientMaybe it means you printed it out, and put it your trusty out box, which you reliably use when you have to give something to someone. You do have one of those right?Let’s think about the possible things that could go wrong, and why we should actually plan on completing our project or paper a few days ahead of time. $#iT Happens.Computer breaks You get sick. Your Great Aunt Susy’s pet poodle is ill, and you couldn’t bring yourself to say no, when she asked if you would come and help clean up after the dog.
When you have ADHD, you can count on the fact that things will take you longer the you anticipate. So plan for that! Trust me! There is information that is locked in our brain, and is only released until the very last moment, if ever.
App pick of the week. Procrastor Reviews and updates
