this post was submitted on 07 Jun 2025
62 points (95.6% liked)

ADHD

11257 readers
112 users here now

A casual community for people with ADHD

Values:

Acceptance, Openness, Understanding, Equality, Reciprocity.

Rules:

Encouraged:

Relevant Lemmy communities:

Autism

ADHD Memes

Bipolar Disorder

Therapy

Mental Health

Neurodivergent Life Hacks

lemmy.world/c/adhd will happily promote other ND communities as long as said communities demonstrate that they share our values.

founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
 

Examples:

  • Kid's electronic toy that we loved is broken. Instead of throwing it away, I put it in a box because "surely, I'll find the time to fix it"
  • After moving, valuables are "temporarily" in plastic bags, because I'll buy & assemble a showcase soon enough.

None of these things ever happen. I make the planning as if I did not an attention disorder. Although I had it all my life.

Now that I'm in treatment, I would have thought that my brain works in a way I'd need to get used to. But no, it just works in the way I always assumed when I made a plan.

It's just so strange that the planning seems to assume an intact prefrontal cortex, rather than adjusting to how it actually works.

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] ChaosCoati@midwest.social 4 points 15 hours ago (1 children)

I always write myself a list of things to do in a day that’s so long I’d never get all of them done in a year. Yet the next time I make my to do list it’s just as long.

I’m trying to switch to making a “brain dump” list and then pick 3 things from there as my “to do.” It’s really hard to stick to my limit of 3. And if I get one done to I find I want to add a new thing so items 3 again, but that defeats the purpose of the limit.

[–] AddLemmus@lemmy.ml 2 points 13 hours ago (1 children)

I recurring problem is that I keep thinking "It's just 3 things, plus that other one that happens on the way to #2 anyway, no need to write a list". Then I keep wondering why I fall behind.

Only when I make a list, I realise how much there is to do, and that my plan is entirely impossible for one day!

On the other hand, it's surprising how even the biggest "backlog" melts away like snow when I really do one backlog thing per day. In addition to "the dailies", of course.

[–] ChaosCoati@midwest.social 1 points 7 hours ago

"It's just 3 things, plus that other one that happens on the way to #2 anyway, no need to write a list"

I struggle with this as well. Sometimes I let myself go into what I call “if you give a mouse a cookie” mode and do the things as they pop into my mind instead of following the list. It’s nice to not have to spend energy trying to keep my brain on task.

But usually I try to stick to my list. Things get on the list because either there’s an imminent deadline or it’s been bothering me and taking up too much of my mental bandwidth.