Procrastination | ADHD Information

my fav phrase "i will do it later".i was supposed to phone my driving instructor the day after a lesson to get a time for the next one.it took me 5 weeks to finally phone him.

forget about me getting an appt to the doctor,by the time i get round to it i am better or ready to go to hospital..

it took me 8 months to decorate my kitchen and i still have not finished the hall i started months ago

as for lists,i make them,never finish them or lose them.

I haved two pencilcases full of different coloured pens too!!!

I will also get very attached to a certain pen and get very angry if I cant find it and will refuse to write with any other.

Man, I really am a weirdo

Do any of you have severe procrastination issues?

I'm a shocker, it's probably the one trait that causes me the most problems in every area of my life as it then leads to extreme guilt.

I have looked into it but have yet to find any solution that really does help.

I just can't seem to get it together.

Maybe I am just lazy with no willpower

Lazy and no willpower, thats how I feel every day.

This last Saturday we had family reunion at our house. I've known it for several month. All week long I told myself "I need to clean the house, I need to clean the house". Instead I sat down reading, sewing etc. On Friday after I got home from work I finally got started and did the whole house in a couple of hours. I do the same with laundry, paying bills, fixing supper.. just give me something to do and I put it off till the last possible minute.

I have not found a solution to this yet. If I make myself lists, I lose them. I tell myself that I just do better work under pressure.

I'm right there with ya PP.  I have a house full of junk and messes that badly need cleaning up.  I have started but it seems like I haven't even made a dent in it after hours of work.  I was so depressed about it the other day.  I can't begin to tell you how many notes and lists I have written for myself and never finish what I set out to do.  I'm not giving up though.  I'll be back in the living room today, sorting things out and putting things away.  I have to do things in little chunks and try not to look at the big picture or I get overwhelmed.  It may take me all summer, but I am really going to try.  Don't give up PP.  Maybe if you do things in little chunks like me it will help.  Maybe scrap the big lists because it puts too many expectations on you at once.  Put one thing on your list and concentrate on that one thing, then move on to the next. Wishing you lots of sunshine today. Hang in there.  I know how you feel.   Dee lostmyshoe38896.284537037I write lists too and then write them out better, then write them out neater, then write notes beside each item and so on and so on until all I have to show is a plie of scrunched up paper a sore hand and still nothing achieved

If it is depression procrastination, this doesn't work.  For ADHD procrastination, the only thing helps me sometimes is:

Get up IMMEDIATELY and just do it without further thought.  I read someplace a long time ago that efforts to focus actually decrease the activity in those areas of the ADHD brain.  I don't know if that is still considered valid science, but it does fit with my experience.

Procrastination builds on itself and turns me into a big lump of useless.  Trying to force myself to do something builds on itself the same way.  If I don't get up and do it right then, I try to forget about it instead of continuing to try pushing that rock up the hill.  The next time the task occurs to me, I have another shot at jumping up and doing it. 

I suppose this would be using impulsiveness as a tool - about time it was good for something besides foot-in-mouth. 

Doing stuff in 5 or 10 minute increments works for me.  For housecleaning, try setting a timer for 5 minutes, and just work for that amount of time.  When the buzzer rings, you are done.  Then you can reward yourself with whatever you like to do when you are slacking.  Repeat as necessary.  It is depressing and discouraging to look at a whole messy house and even think of cleaning it up, so why bother?  But I find that five minutes is unintimidating and there's really a lot that can be done in that amount of time. 

You sound exactly like me. Down to the list thing.  I even have lots of colorful pens and markers and I often rewrite them over and over,until the list is perfect.  Only I tend to not even refer to the list at all. 

 I am queen of procrastination too.  I think whoever said they work well under pressure may be right on.  I have always done that too. 

 

 

Think I'll start with the one thing on the list first.

It sounds so childish but when I actually do finish a chore or make that appointment, phone call or whatever I feel so proud of myself and my anxiety so much better.

You'd think that would be a good enough reason to get my arse into gear, wouldn't you

You lot are descrbing me, but im normal, i think