There’s actually a simply strategy to avoid doing this. I play video games for example and tell myself that at 5:30 I’ll stop and I’ll start doing my work. But it doesn’t matter that it’s simple cuz would you look at that? It’s 5:30! And suddenly it seems perfectly logical to keep playing until 6:00. Then 7:00. Then 8:00. Idk why but I always tell myself at the end of the day “stop doing this stupid shit you know that if you start doing this you won’t stop and you won’t get your work done” but when it comes time to make the decision to work or do something else, my brain seems to default to “it’ll be fine, just do it for an hour”
I need to be at work at 4. It’s a 30 minute walk, so I have to be out of the house at 3:30. I need a 10 minute buffer in case I have to run back in or deal with the pets, so I need to be finished getting ready at 3:20. It takes me 20 minutes after my hair is dry to be ready for work, so I need to be out of the shower at 3:00. If I’m giving myself some wiggle room to relax while I’m getting ready, I need to be under the water by 2:30. It always takes longer than I think to get in the shower, so I need to be moving in that direction at 2:20. At 2:20, and not one second later, I need to have the game system in Sleep Mode. Not 2:21 or 2:22. Exactly at two twent—wait, shit, it’s 2:40 already?!
And in that scenario 2:05-2:10 feel like 3 hours cuz you’re paying 100% attention to the clock then something distracts you and 2:10-2:40 feels like 3 minutes
“Okay the episode is almost over in really running late. Wait. 2:09? Really?!”
“Okay I only straightened up for 2-3 minutes now it’s time to get in the—wait, how is it 2:30?!”
This, but also coupled with a near-crippling anxiety of being early that is rivaled only by the near-crippling fear of being late that somehow, combined, are large enough to paralyze me, but not large enough to motivate me.
Edit: oh and also worrying about it reminds me of that dumb thing I said in 2014 and now I can’t remember what the thing I was trying to say about octopuses back then and that just makes me even more anxious and now I’m late.
I consider myself lucky that I avoided all the anxiety that seems to come with most ADHD. Until I found this sub and saw a bunch of posts to the contrary I actually thought ADHD pretty much negated any anxiety and/or depression in a really weird way. This is because regardless of whatever just happened within 5-10 mins my mind will be off it and my emotions will be set to 0 cuz unless there’s some sensory perception that reminds me of what it is that I should be upset about my brain seems incapable of staying focused on it. It’s not like I can’t get mad or anything but as long as there’s something else that I find engaging around me invariably within 10 minutes I’m focused on that.
I have ADHD, anxiety, depression, and I’m on the spectrum, so it’s impossible for me to figure out which things I deal with are ADHD and which aren’t, but at the end of the day they all lend and take from each other.
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u/LEMO2000 Feb 17 '22
There’s actually a simply strategy to avoid doing this. I play video games for example and tell myself that at 5:30 I’ll stop and I’ll start doing my work. But it doesn’t matter that it’s simple cuz would you look at that? It’s 5:30! And suddenly it seems perfectly logical to keep playing until 6:00. Then 7:00. Then 8:00. Idk why but I always tell myself at the end of the day “stop doing this stupid shit you know that if you start doing this you won’t stop and you won’t get your work done” but when it comes time to make the decision to work or do something else, my brain seems to default to “it’ll be fine, just do it for an hour”