I can relate. Often times I find myself staring at my screen looking at the code that has to be written, at refactorings that have to be done, at data that has to be collected, at bugs that have to be squashed, at presentations to be made, at understanding my brain has to develop, and I just glaze over.
Inevitably I spin around, open my phone, and browse hacker news articles, reddit, the news, or YouTube.
Honestly, I wasnt always like this. Homework in university was never really a big deal. But as of late sitting on my office chair just feels like it withers me into dust.
This withering effect has a huge negative feedback loop in that putting things off causes stress induced insomnia. I think about the work that needed to be finished and cannot sleep because of it. Sleeping poorly causes horrendus energy drain the following day.
I have to shake things up. God help me I'm going to sleep properly tonight. If you have this problem you should too.
One life tip - leave loose ends on tasks. When you come back, it's easier to start from a minor tweak to get into the right head space.
If you keep avoiding doing a thing, don't do the thing. Start a list of the tasks you need to do, in increasing detail. If it's studying for a test it might be "get my book out of my bag" then "review X Y Z", etc. Get as tediously detailed as you can until you get annoyed and just start doing things to get them off you list.
List-making is a super skill for ADHD since it codifies (and gamifies!) executive function.
The writer mentions "panic monster" which is something like deadline or fear or public embarrassment and it forces you to work. It's kind of strong external motivation.
I wonder if ADHD can be described in terms of motivation instead of in terms of attention. Like what if someone with ADHD can regulate his attention as well as somebody other but he's not motivated enough to do it. Could ADHD be described as a better than usual resistance to "panic monster"? In a class somebody might feel very stressed out about homework and about being in time (are those things "panic monsters" to him?) while somebody other feels uninterested. Somebody other is not even scared of getting reprimanded by teacher if he directs his attention to talking with friends during class. He's not scared of being late. He's not scared of getting bad grades. He's generally not easily stressed out and he does fun things while the other reads homework.
If both internal and external motivation are lacking for him he might have some troubles graduating from university. If he's expected to work without much direction or pressure(e.g. remote coder) he might have troubles getting good results in work.
This idea is surely simplistic but can you relate to this, that instead of ADHD person being more prone to divert his attention to fun things randomly he might be just feeling the external motivation in a weaker way?
I don't have ADHD even though the article made me think about it.
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[ 8.5 ms ] story [ 25.2 ms ] threadInevitably I spin around, open my phone, and browse hacker news articles, reddit, the news, or YouTube.
Honestly, I wasnt always like this. Homework in university was never really a big deal. But as of late sitting on my office chair just feels like it withers me into dust.
This withering effect has a huge negative feedback loop in that putting things off causes stress induced insomnia. I think about the work that needed to be finished and cannot sleep because of it. Sleeping poorly causes horrendus energy drain the following day.
I have to shake things up. God help me I'm going to sleep properly tonight. If you have this problem you should too.
One life tip - leave loose ends on tasks. When you come back, it's easier to start from a minor tweak to get into the right head space.
If you keep avoiding doing a thing, don't do the thing. Start a list of the tasks you need to do, in increasing detail. If it's studying for a test it might be "get my book out of my bag" then "review X Y Z", etc. Get as tediously detailed as you can until you get annoyed and just start doing things to get them off you list.
List-making is a super skill for ADHD since it codifies (and gamifies!) executive function.
I wonder if ADHD can be described in terms of motivation instead of in terms of attention. Like what if someone with ADHD can regulate his attention as well as somebody other but he's not motivated enough to do it. Could ADHD be described as a better than usual resistance to "panic monster"? In a class somebody might feel very stressed out about homework and about being in time (are those things "panic monsters" to him?) while somebody other feels uninterested. Somebody other is not even scared of getting reprimanded by teacher if he directs his attention to talking with friends during class. He's not scared of being late. He's not scared of getting bad grades. He's generally not easily stressed out and he does fun things while the other reads homework.
If both internal and external motivation are lacking for him he might have some troubles graduating from university. If he's expected to work without much direction or pressure(e.g. remote coder) he might have troubles getting good results in work.
This idea is surely simplistic but can you relate to this, that instead of ADHD person being more prone to divert his attention to fun things randomly he might be just feeling the external motivation in a weaker way?
I don't have ADHD even though the article made me think about it.