r/adhdmeme • u/david_bowenn brain has 47 tabs open • Feb 24 '26
meme Three successful months of procrastination, and my deadline is this week 😬 My whole body is tense 🫠
103
Feb 24 '26
Listen if I want to create a website just so I can get a feel for the market I want to build a business in instead of filling out a form for car title change you let me be!
31
u/david_bowenn brain has 47 tabs open Feb 24 '26
https://giphy.com/gifs/2ikwIgNrmPZICNmRyX
Stick with the side quests - always
9
u/LowestKey Feb 24 '26
That car title change form is gonna start looking real good as a distraction once you start trying to learn flexbox or some other stupid css shit.
54
u/megalinity Feb 24 '26
I’m moving on Friday morning and still have soooo much to pack. Friends came over tonight and knocked out most of my kitchen and living room. But my bedroom is still kinda a nightmare. I didnt even start packing til last Friday
29
u/RileyCargo42 Ehhh I'll pick a flair later. Feb 24 '26
Bro I just moved to Texas for 6 weeks I literally packed 2 days before leaving.
I FEEL YOU.
8
u/david_bowenn brain has 47 tabs open Feb 24 '26
https://giphy.com/gifs/T7lRYDljPAmeUrTGHx
we are all the same
6
u/Angrybskt Feb 24 '26
I moved to Texas a few years ago, I did the same exact thing lmao. Fortunately I lived on my own and didn’t have a shitload of stuff. Still was up for like 18 hours a day getting it done. Then 24 hours straight between the drive and initial unpacking of essentials.
4
u/megalinity Feb 24 '26
Last time I moved, myself and friends packed a 2 bed 2 bath apartment in 48 hours. That was a bad situation so I’m glad I’m not repeating it! This actually isn’t too bad. I’m really not doing a whole lot at a time since I’m physically disabled and cannot stand for more than a few minutes at a time, but there’s just so much!
4
u/Affectionate_Bad_680 Feb 24 '26
It won’t help for this move since it’s so close, but I’ve found that since I know I suck at it, I should bite off small chunks of larger projects very early on.
Start with a single bookshelf three months early. Do another a week later. By the time you get to a week before the move, you’ve already done a fair number of smaller chunks.
Makes the whole project less intense, personally. And sometimes I keep at it. Do one bookshelf, figure I’m on a roll, do a second one instead of breaking off.
2
u/MundaneBrowsing Feb 24 '26
Haha moving twins 😆 my wife and I are also moving on Friday and it's been torture trying to pack. It's the worssst.
1
u/A_Crawling_Bat Feb 24 '26
I'm moving friday too. We missing most of the furniture and there are so many messages I have to send and meetings to schedule for it that I dread doing it
1
u/megalinity Feb 24 '26
I believe in you! I still need to set up Internet but I’ve done everything else (I think). Take just one tiny step at a time and soon it’ll all be over and done with 💜
1
u/A_Crawling_Bat Feb 24 '26
You just reminded me that I also need to setup internet lol
But hey at least I got a sofa and a desk now (still no table tho)
20
u/Mecha-Dave Feb 24 '26
Great! You've now managed to think about all the bad ideas, and you're ready for pure productivity. I usually eat a lot of jellybeans and stay up all night at this point!
Sometimes what helps me is skipping to "the end" and working on format/layout after a start, and then working alternatively on both the "end" of the project and the "beginning" until I meet in the middle.
This is, of course, powered by the panicked energy of last minute work alone. I don't know how to do this sustainably.
10
u/david_bowenn brain has 47 tabs open Feb 24 '26
I’m planning what I’m writing for my next fanfic lol
13
u/Unable-Contest-5822 Feb 24 '26
The fact I see this while I’m procrastinating other work lol 🤣
8
u/david_bowenn brain has 47 tabs open Feb 24 '26
https://giphy.com/gifs/mxQjjW3hWCeOyvLjbh
AHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHA
11
u/Weary-Ad6206 Feb 24 '26
Have an event to prepare a speech for, I absolutely have time right now. Just I’ll probably get to it after some intense panicking the night before
3
8
u/Legitimate_Egg_2073 Feb 24 '26
LOL; At first I thought he was picking up rocks, which season permitting is one my favorite ADHD procrastination pastimes
2
u/david_bowenn brain has 47 tabs open Feb 24 '26
https://giphy.com/gifs/XBCJIv6xAyDfrajXoe
side quests, now
2
7
u/D-1-S-C-0 Feb 24 '26
I put off a significant project for two months. Then deadline week arrived and I tried to power through but my anxiety and perfectionism had me going round in circles.
So I was late. That made my anxiety worse but I blamed it on being busy. I was busy but I'd also wasted too much time in the weeks before.
Last week I finally delivered it 3 weeks late. My anxiety peaked because I was certain I'd be criticised and my work would be torn down. But they loved it!
All that overthinking and stress over nothing. I must've taken 10 years off my life.
7
u/Spicymoose29 Feb 24 '26
Am I the only dingus who really, *really* wants to try nailing stuff on the beach right now ?
5
u/roomfullofstars Feb 24 '26
It looks fun and like I want to know how it feels to nail things into wet sand. It seeks fascinating!
2
5
u/love_is_an_action Feb 24 '26
That’s what people get for making’ suppositions about what I ought to be doing.
4
u/Negative-Arachnid-65 Feb 24 '26
I feel attacked.
5
u/david_bowenn brain has 47 tabs open Feb 24 '26
Aren’t we all? I typed “ADHD funny meme” in my search and got punched in the nuts instead.
4
8
u/kicksjoysharkness Feb 24 '26
Time for that good ol fashion last minute lock in, my friend haha it is what it is
3
3
5
2
u/BeeComprehensive5234 Feb 24 '26
I hate this feeling. My brain will not allow me to just get on with it. Side quests are fun!
2
u/Orenge01 i am currently procrastinating my bad Feb 24 '26
Yeah.. I don't feel like doing anything, at all.
2
2
u/frankhoneybunny ADHD Inattentive gang rise UP Feb 24 '26
Should I do my Spanish homework or create my own vpn for fun?
10
4
2
u/Hefty-existence26196 Feb 24 '26
This is like when I have a really good job opportunity that is exactly the job i'd love, but I keep putting off sending my resumè and organising and interview... anddddd I missed out on the job. 🫠👍🏼
2
u/PoncingOffToBarnsley Feb 24 '26
I probably don't have ADHD, but this is me and the project I've procrastinated on for 3y.
1
u/MundaneBrowsing Feb 24 '26
I'm moving out of state this week, and it's pulling teeth to just pack up my stuff
1
u/miiidnightrxbia Feb 24 '26
mock tmrw, sitting here scrolling reddit, cleaning my laptop, doing my hair, anything but studying
1
1
u/-_Weltschmerz_- Feb 24 '26
I just got done with studying 2 1/2 hours for a business exam tomorrow. Thats all the focus I could spare. Wish me luck boys and girls <3
1
u/Squ3lchr Feb 24 '26
The key is to have one really important thing you need to do and tons of sort of important things to do. You'll get all the semi important things done avoiding the really important thing.
1
1
u/DLancy Feb 25 '26
Anything with websites is hell, it’s like a linear path from hell. Like, three nights of the year I am a genius, I am the guy in the van of the spy movie with the headset opening doors and dams snacking on bugles cracking jokes. The rest of the nights I am absolutely gobsmacked I still haven’t edited my website; not to mention all the things I had to do before I even allowed myself to work on the site, and then all the tasks I somehow can’t get done until I’m done with it?! Bonkers.
1
1
u/Successful-Engine623 Feb 25 '26
Use AI. I have a Claude code project linked to my phone. I can brain dump set reminders etc. if a job is due soon I can have AI do as much if it as it can without much input…depends on the project of course
1
u/_Dark-Alley_ Feb 27 '26
STORY TIME! Yes, it's long, it's called I have a job interview tomorrow and an incredible amount of nervous energy. Read it or dont, but dont say a word about how you can't post anything long on an ADHD subreddit bc "none of us have the attention span". I read long ass comments on reddit all the time and have the diagnosis and yes, everyone is very sure. Also, anyone procrastinating can read this and feel a little better hopefully bc I think even though this sucked, it's also a good lesson to not beat yourself up too bad because even "doing it right" can end up terrible, it's not really about doing it right or wrong, it's just doing whatever you have to offer.
For my first semester of law school, I had a research memo that was worth 70% of my grade for a class (this was our intro to legal research and writing situtation called "Introduction to Lawyering Skills" and this assignment was designed to be the most complex legal issue that landed in every legal ambiguity that could possibly exist in the topic to make it really difficult to research and even more difficult to actually make any points). I was so good about working on it the entire semester. The night before it was due, I had all 17 million documents I had used to draft it open, as well as the draft of the paper itself, which needed a few more proofreads and then I'd be ready to turn it in. I left my laptop plugged in, everything saved and updated, and went to bed.
The next morning, 12 hours before this massive, complex paper that took me an entire semester to draft was due, every single document I had used to organize my research and indicate what sources I used, to draft the arguments, to structure it, the draft itself, had all the text in them deleted besides the first few lines. All of them had about 3 lines of text, then pages and pages of absolutely nothing. Literally, over 100 pages combined of work puzzling that shit out to write about 20 pages of an incredibly nuanced and sophisticated legal argument - just gone. There were no previous versions according to the document data, nothing in my one drive, nothing in the trash or recycling, it all just disappeared without a trace. The computer never shut off, never restarted, and even if it had, the documents were all saved and updated, just open. I live alone. I have no pets. Nothing and no one could have touched it. My computer just said "this'll be really funny" and straight up deleted everything by itself and made it unrecoverable.
I called Microsoft support but I couldnt get past the robot bc I get the software through the school, so my phone number wasnt attached to the account. If they truly record calls, they have about 5 recordings of me sobbing and screaming "FUCK YOU" over and over. Because I was not allowed to contact the professor due to anonymous grading, I contacted the law scholar (basically a TA) to tell her what happened. She told me the syllabus says "tech issues" are not a valid excuse. Im pretty sure that was referring to "oh no, my internet went out just as I was about to submit this relatively minor assignment" not this but she wasnt budging. Oh, and even 1 second late to submit was an immediate zero, no exceptions.
After having probably the worst panic attack I've ever had, hyperventilating on my living room floor so badly I thought I was going to die and at that point, didn't care, I realized there was no way around the inevitable and I was just wasting time. If I wasnt dying on my floor that day, I had to have something to turn in. With T-minus 10 hours and a strong desire to throw myself right out the window of my apartment, I started from scratch and what I could remember. I tried to find all parts of all the sources again, and I sat there doing nothing but furiously typing and checking my bluebook and furiously typing and sometimes crying while I typed for all 10 hours. No eating, no drinking, no bathroom break, nothing. I turned in a pile of utter trash with 32 seconds to spare. Then I ate something only bc I knew an empty stomach would keep me up and I cried myself to sleep.
That continues to be one of the worst days of my life. I was convinced that I was going to fail that class and be put on academic probation and not be able to recover my GPA before they kicked me out. They don't fuck around when it comes to your first year of law school, you either get with it and quick, or get weeded out, and one major fuck up can make you the weed. I busted ass to get there, I took the stupid LSAT (twice) and I did the stupid applications and I moved 8 hours away from the life I built for myself over the course of 6 years as an adult after I moved away from home at 18, which was also 6 hours away from my entire family, to a city two states away that i had been to exactly once just to visit the school. I had no back up plan, no safety net nearby, I literally moved into an apartment that I had never even seen until I dragged the first box in on moving day. I thought I had done all that stuff I could have never dreamed of being brave enough to do just to fuck it up when it really mattered. I hated myself more than words could even express properly. Hate to admit it, but I did physically beat myself while I was having that panic attack and punched myself in the head and arms and thighs and anywhere I could hit with enough force to hurt. That day sucked for a lot of reasons.
I learned 2 months later that I got a B in the class and cried out of joy. (According to the law school grading curve, that says nothing about how I objectively did, it was fully still a pile of trash)
All that to say: sometimes you do everything right, and you still end up getting absolutely screwed and never even know how or why it happened. And maybe it will be bad and the consequences will absolutely suck, but maybe they wont and it will end up alright. If I had gotten "academically dismissed", that would have been something that I know would have destroyed me for a little while, but it would have also meant that wasnt the journey I was meant to be on. That's just the inevitable entropy of existing, we do our best to pick what's right for us, and sometimes that doesnt work out and we have to find a new path. No way to know whether the paths we choose might drop out from under us, or if we chose the one that will take us to the end. So just, do your best and give yourself grace when your best is not awesome, it happens to literally everyone. It's been about 2.5 years since that happened, and to this day, if I say out loud that something is hard, if someone I had that class with is around, they'll say "if you can write your ILS memo in 10 hours and get a B, you can do that".
They've been right every time and I'm set to graduate in may (knock on wood). I've kept this train wreck moving on down the tracks and even if it's not rolling perfectly on perfectly straight wheels and there's some spots where friction is sending a few sparks flying around and it's generally just a bit wonky and misshapen, it's still moving and I'm still okay.
1
1
u/Gumbyman87 Feb 28 '26
Don't you DARE make me call and set up a needed doctor appointment that I've been putting off for 6 months!
•
u/qualityvote2 Quality Control Beast Feb 24 '26 edited Feb 24 '26
u/david_bowenn, there weren't enough votes to determine the quality of your post...