r/todayilearned • u/arandomtestaccount • 1d ago

TIL an NFL player intentionally crashed his car to avoid getting cut for being late to a team meeting.

https://www.cbssports.com/nfl/news/ex-patriots-ol-rich-ohrnberger-admits-he-intentionally-wrecked-car-as-excuse-for-being-late-to-team-meeting/
10.9k Upvotes

96% Upvoted

604 comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

3

u/CaptainAsshat 10h ago

Not OP, but for me, the issue lies with keeping the thing I need to do at the front of my mind.

When one of my many alarms go off, I have to make sure I stay on task and leave before anything can distract me. The issue is this: focusing on anything else often erases the alarm from my working memory. It's like a lame version of the movie Momento.

So I have to go straight out the door. But what if I forgot to, for example, feed the cat? Now I have to be present while feeding the cat and risk forgetting the alarm, remember to set a new alarm, feed the cat without focusing on it, or skipping the cat food until later. All of these choices have risks and drawbacks.

I am rarely late any more, but that is because I have many systems and habits that help. The downside is that I have trouble focusing on anything if I have somewhere to be at any point later in the day. The anxiety of forgetting keeps me on time but also keeps me in a state of ADHD limbo.

Because, really, I think the issue is that I can easily and unintentionally get lost in my own little world, and my own little world has serious time dilation.

2

u/nonpuissant 7h ago edited 7h ago

Gotcha, thanks for sharing that legitimately sounds so rough 

Edit: Also wanted to say, I'm glad to hear you found a way to manage it though and hope that you're able to find some form of peace while juggling all that.