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What a Waste: My ADHD Procrastination Runs Rampant Again

Each morning, I make to-do lists and resolutions for better time management. And each night I fall into bed beating myself up about hours wasted and tasks undone. How can I reign in this ADHD tendency?
ADHD College Blog | Friday January 9th - 12:01pm | More January 2009 Blogs
 
The ADDitude college blogger writes about surviving college and succeeding in school with ADHD

Seriously – enough is enough! I waste so much time every day that I feel like I don’t ever sleep – but I don’t ever accomplish anything either. The classic ADHD conundrum.

Today I was supposed to: go to work (duh), do my laundry (I have at least 3 loads), mail my car insurance bill, clean up my room, outline my thoughts on a book I’m reviewing for ADDitude magazine, write a blog, and go to bed at a decent hour since I couldn’t fall asleep until 12:30am yesterday.

It’s 11:15pm and this is what I’ve actually done: I went to work (yay!), I came home, went upstairs to change into my sweats and ended up reading a book for an hour. After dinner I looked for tickets to upcoming Celtics basketball games with my brother. At about 9pm I decided to do laundry; it took 20 minutes to sort the lights and darks, but one load finally got in the wash. While I was waiting to put it into the dryer I should have cleaned up my room, or made notes on the book – but do you think I did that? Of course not.

Instead I became mesmerized by iGoogle. My homepage was always Google, but I never bothered to customize the theme, add my zip code for the weather, or select which applications I wanted on my homepage. But because I had something else to do it suddenly became imperative that I customize my iGoogle right away. Well, my homepage now has pictures of a beautiful beach (where I wish I was; instead of in this feels-like-12-degrees freezing rain every day), and it tells me exactly how cold and windy it will be for the rest of the week (nothing above 31 degrees).

Now, I’m exhausted and aggravated at myself. Why do I do this to myself every day? In the morning I think of all the things I’m going to accomplish; I even make lists and put endless reminders on post-its all around my room. It’s not like I forget that I have things to do – I just don’t actually start them. I am the Queen of Procrastination.

The worst thing about ADHD (to me) is that if someone asked me: "If you wanted to get the laundry done and mail your bill, and clean your room then why didn’t you do it?" I wouldn’t be able to explain it. I honestly don’t know why I didn’t get things done – I just didn’t. I hope other people have the same problem; because I’m not sure I’m explaining myself well even now. I could say that I’m resolving to do better tomorrow – but I do that every night as I crawl into bed close to (or after) midnight.

Again – I can’t think of anything witty to end with. I guess the funny side of my brain doesn’t function well on 5 hours of sleep a night.

5 Comments:

  • Posted by Ative - Mar 31 2009 @ 4:22 PM
    I definitely relate
    Those rare magical days when I do everything that I said I was going to do are so special because of how often I usually don't have those types of days. I totally get it!
  • Posted by crunchy - Feb 17 2009 @ 8:54 PM
    this is exactly me
    I do the same thing! I could have written this, although you articulated it better than I could have. I have no answers, just I know how you feel. Thanks for writing this.
  • Posted by knoelle - Feb 17 2009 @ 12:22 PM
    YES YES
    My Gohd, I feel THIS Way!(Right Now bc I am in My 2nd Sem of School, too). Ya, Know I am AB to Drop My ENG Class. And the teacher is Strict NO Late PPRS, & bc I spent SO much time researching, really wanting to know all aspects of torture, so curious, I didn't write my paper. lol! of course(perfect) My process for school is Slow & I really have to reflect on my work/study intense. YES I make Post-its also I have Lists of things to Do-& JUST DON'T DO THEM!!(Messed Up) Unless my back's against the Wall, & Then I want to Give Up instead. Here IS the Frustration, *Knowing What to Do, How to do It, Having Time to Do It, Want To Do It* ( But Somehow? Don't? So twisted!) I have been Lying in bed lately thinking ab my "lost" time, Geez, I Cannot Dwell on it to Much though, But I go Through Periods of MAJOR Frustration, and Anger That I have this, (every 2-3 mnths,& I will cry maybe 4 times a yr.) THat's It But Yea, I Completley Understood EVERYTHING you said, and I am Glad you Said It(Big Problem for Me Too) Thanks, Peace n Love ~KAT~
  • Posted by canadianmom - Jan 15 2009 @ 10:57 PM
    suggestion
    I have a son who has ADHD so I see what he goes through and how easy it is to be distracted by something else....like google. A couple of things to save time, set up two laundry baskets in your room. One for darks, one for whites, add another for any special or hand wash items if needed. As you take off your clothes, put them in the right basket...it will save you time in sorting later. When you get up in the morning, put a load in the wash and then set your alarm to remind you to put them in the dryer later when you get home. Use the alarm on your cell phone as a reminder or get an electronic organizer that can hold many alarms. Be realistic on what you can get done in a day and allow yourself an hour of play time (on google for example). Set your alarm for 8pm for example as a reminder to check the notes on the book or a pay a bill. Make sure the alarm will keep going off until you stop what you are doing to go shut it off so it pulls you away from the distraction. Just use it to give you that little extra help you might need to be pulled away from what you shouldn't be doing and move on to what you need to achieve that day. Don't you become immune to the post it notes after awhile? They become part of the wall?? How about a white board kept in the hallway? Cross of the items as you do them. You can also use lipstick (the old ugly one you never use) and write a note on your mirror for the morning--"put in laundry now." Or add a note for anything you need to do before bed, ie. "Put my books in the car." Lipstick wipes off easily and your priority notes are seen every morning and at bedtime.
  • Posted by scatterbrainiac - Jan 9 2009 @ 11:46 PM
    Ditto
    I came across this post because I typed in "adhd" into google after I started dwelling on the fact that I have been sitting at Borders pretending to be productive and after I realized that I keep refreshing my homepage/email as if it will reveal something useful, any excuse not to get things done! 09' was supposed to be different! :) GRRR!!
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