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Lost my job, taking ownership of my mistakes but could also use some friendly advice
I am not sure why the formatting on this is weird but this is possibly because I wrote part of this in a different program.
Hi all,
I appreciate you taking the time to read this.
I was diagnosed with ADD at age 8, and began taking medication. Due to side effects and other reasons I was taken off medication at age 10. It's now approx. 15 years later. In the time since, I've leveraged ADD to bring me a lot of success; I graduated top of my class in college, helped start multiple companies (with varying levels of success), speak multiple languages, learned multiple instruments, etc. These are all ways in which I have taken charge of the way my mind works to help me. I'm proud of those accomplishments.
Over the past year or so, I've been making a career shift into a more creative field and was lucky enough to get a 'big break' a few months ago. This was a part time job, on contract with opportunity for growth. It was for a small company, and though I had never worked in this industry before I was given the responsibility of project managing a campaign for a major client. I was responsible for deliverables, managing the team, and overall quality control. I was excited about it and thought I would be able to handle it well.
I will be the first one to say that on many levels I dropped the ball. I was disorganized, I took longer than I was allocated to finish work, I let deadlines slip, and was completely overwhelmed while I also worked a separate, full-time job. I had no training and no support. My boss sat me down and informed me I was being put on probation due to failures in "time management, project management,and following directions." It was as if all of the ADD symptoms from childhood had come back and were now a source of failure rather than accomplishment.
I tried my best to improve. I incorporated Omni Focus and GTD into my daily structure, started writing everything down, setting alarms, you name it in order to stay on task. My proactivity was noticed and appreciated. But no matter what I did, how many times I checked a document or email there would be the one typo or mistake that I had somehow managed to overlook. This was the biggest point of contention as this industry is one in which attention to detail is paramount, and I was not improving fast enough to help the bottom line. My mistakes came across as careless and lazy when I am nothing but driven and motivated.
Needless to say, this relationship has ended. I'm taking it on the nose and moving on, but I could use some guidance from those who have been in similar scenarios. Here's my questions/concerns:
1) I am considering going back on medication. When I took medicine as a child, it impacted my creativity and thought process. For those who have ADD and work in creative media, have you found a medication that works to manage attention to detail and staying on task while not sacrificing your creativity?
2) Are there any attention to detail training workbooks/software you can recommend?
3) Any other thoughts?
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Last edited by adny111 : 9 Feb 2011 @ 12:15 AM.
Reason: placing note at top
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9 Feb 2011 @ 12:13 AM
15 Feb 2011 @ 11:42 AM
