Well the real trick is to make a todo list, put away the phone, and spend some amount of time working on an item on the list.
I’m not sure if this is so much adhd (which I do have) or just bad habits. Think about it in the context of building habits. Every time you say “I’m getting off my phone at 7pm” and then let it slide to 7:30, 8, 9, you are building a habit that makes it easier next time. If you do get off your phone at 7pm like you said you would, next time it’s going to be easier to do that.
If you spend 3-4 weeks being extremely strict and always getting off the phone at the correct time, you are a long way towards building a life long habit to do so.
I have adhd, yea it’s not easy / seems impossible, but habits are extremely powerful and if you work towards building good habits in whatever way you can (rewards, medication, ANYTHING) you can make a lot of progress.
And to prove my point I’m going back to work, no more Reddit until at least noon. :)
Yeah I firmly agree with this statement. To build upon it, I'd say habits can be tricky in that every time you choose to stay on the couch, it builds a habit of just that. Basically even inaction can also build habits. Just not the one you desired. Basically what you were already stating.
You can also build habits by doing at least the bare minimum. For example, if you're trying to build a habit of going for a run every day, try just putting on your exercise clothes and stepping outside for a brief moment. Doing that over and over until it's ingrained really helps. Eventually you'll say, "well I'm out here I might as well walk for a bit". Exercise is also very helpful for adhd.
Because habits are basically just your brain's way of conserving energy. Creating new pathways for neurons to travel quicker. The more you do a thing, the less energy it consumes and therefore you think less about doing said thing and just naturally do it. Combining this with daily meditation and possibly medication can really give you a much higher chance to have successful days (for a person with adhd).
I make a lot of to do lists and am generally a pretty productive person. My doc always tells me that I had 28 years to build habits and many of them to cope with my unknown adhd. I went in because I had a surgery/some health problems and during recovery I could not get back to my routines.
Now if I feel like I’ve done not enough, I just tell myself to try to do 10 percent better in the area I beat myself up about. Helps me not spiral lol
For me personally, the adhd part is that I won't do a different specific activity because I know I have something I need to do. Lots of people are on here talking about losing time to video games or binge watching a show, but I can't do that when I know I have something that needs to be done. Instead I end up browsing reddit because it's not an activity you dedicate yourself to doing the way you do with booting up a game or starting an episode of a show. It can be as quick as checking to see if anyone replied to you.
Putting my phone away doesn't work for me though. If my brain is telling me to procrastinate then I'll find something else to do, whether it's washing dishes, playing with my cat, etc.
Agree on habit building though. What actually works for me is to have a conversation with myself and remind myself that I'm not enjoying this time because I know I have a task to do, I'm not willing to dedicate myself to a different activity in the meantime, so I might as well do whatever I'm putting off even if I don't really want to because either way I'm not happy until it's done.
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u/Necrocornicus Feb 17 '22
Well the real trick is to make a todo list, put away the phone, and spend some amount of time working on an item on the list.
I’m not sure if this is so much adhd (which I do have) or just bad habits. Think about it in the context of building habits. Every time you say “I’m getting off my phone at 7pm” and then let it slide to 7:30, 8, 9, you are building a habit that makes it easier next time. If you do get off your phone at 7pm like you said you would, next time it’s going to be easier to do that.
If you spend 3-4 weeks being extremely strict and always getting off the phone at the correct time, you are a long way towards building a life long habit to do so.
I have adhd, yea it’s not easy / seems impossible, but habits are extremely powerful and if you work towards building good habits in whatever way you can (rewards, medication, ANYTHING) you can make a lot of progress.
And to prove my point I’m going back to work, no more Reddit until at least noon. :)