Today my psychiatrist told me I've gotten by for so long because I only do what I enjoy, and while I've been lucky to be able to do this, it also makes my procrastination harder to improve. According to him, since a lot of my interests relate directly to my work, it makes distractions harder to fend off.

It's true that I basically only do what I enjoy. The general rule is, if I like it, put it off till the very last minute and finish it in a rush, and if I don't like it, don't do it -- either find someone else to do it, find another way, or let it slide.

Uminchu,

I agree especially with "if I don't like it .... find someone else to do it, find another way."

The problem crops up when it is something I don't like and can't get someone else to do it. I've never got interested in anything where some parts didn't suck, couldn't get someone else and used the last minute addrenaline to pull it off. Adderall has been a life saver because those last minute thingys were getting too stressful in my old age.

Bob

I completely hyperfocus on music, for up to 8-12 hours a day and I do ok.

I don't so much get by as just bounce from crisis to crisis- like coming home to find the electricity has been turned off because I forgot to pay the bill.
I fully intend to pay the bill and put it down on the 'pay the bill' pile.
It just gets left until there are multiple reminders for everything and I can't keep track.

I don't so much get by as just bounce from crisis to crisis- Yep! I call it "putting out fires." :)

My hubby has found this a great way to "get by".

I can so relate to this thread. *sigh*

There are so many things that I don't like doing, its hard to ignore them.

I do the things that I hate getting done such as balancing the checkbook, cleaning the bathroom, Algebra the minute I wake up that way I know the rest of the day is down hill from there. Of course my husband says I look like I'm walking into my death in the morning on my way to the desk to work on my Algebra...O' how I hate math!!!!

There are so many things that I don't like doing, its hard to ignore them.I guess I would describe my MO as "self indulgence." It kind of scares me, or at least worries me, that I just refuse to do things that I don't enjoy.

I did manage to make it through college and do well, even in classes that were boring, but that's because I was playing a game with myself of getting all A's. And I managed to set it up so I only had to take 2 or 3 classes I didn't like...

I suppose I should be happy that I can spend 99% of my day doing things I like... but when that 1% comes around it's hell.

Uminchu,

Believe it or not you (and Barb) make my demented mind think. I hate you both. Somewhere that I can't find you posted something about being lazy. I got the answer for you.

YOU ARE NOT LAZY!!

“They” say ADHD is inherited. OK. I buy that. That means the chomosomes in the nucleus of my cells have buggy DNA. OK. I buy that. Wrote enough bugs in my time to be a believer. But what language DNA? We all know that DNA is written in the TAG_C language. Heck, God is pretty smart. C gives me the most control. God is right. Do it in C or more specifically in TAG_C. Scientists that ain’t as smart as me think TAG_C means Tymine, Adenine, Guanine, Cytosine. Hell, maybe they are smarter than me which means DNA is quadary NOT a binary numerical system. That’s cool. Who cares anyway?

I don’t know. I do know that I am capable of seeing through intelllectual BS. So why don’t I develop my little pet programs into commercial products? The answer my erudite friend is cause THERE AIN’T NO DOUGH IN IT!!!!!!!

The only programming game left in town is highly specialisted business apps developed NOT for a specific industry – that has been down a zillion times over – BUT for a specific business within a specific industry. One of a kind, don’t have any other market programs. Am I not correct? That means both you and I are SMARTER than the masses causes we don’t waste a zillion hours doing something that won’t do a damn thing for us.

<O:p</O:pWe are NOT lazy. We are smart enough NOT to blow our valuable time on something that will bring us no benefit!

I have spoken. Let it be written.

All that do not agree let them a die a painful death in poverty. Am I nut or what? :D.

Bob

YOU ARE NOT LAZY!
I have heard that before: 'The fact is your just lazy'. :mad:

I wish it was that simple...

Believe it or not you (and Barb) make my demented mind think. I hate you both.


Oh, you're just jealous. :p

Isn't it great that you CAN think??? I'm still a bit baffled at how long I went on in a daze without doing something about it!

On topic -- now I have a great excuse to do what I like. It's a good thing I CAN now!!!!

Thats why I get up at 5 am so that one percent is far over with by the time I get the kids off to school. lol

YOU ARE NOT LAZY!!Yeah, I'm "fake lazy" :)

One of a kind, don’t have any other market programs. Am I not correct? That means both you and I are SMARTER than the masses causes we don’t waste a zillion hours doing something that won’t do a damn thing for us.

It's true, my commercial app is in a very niche market. There is other software in the market, but mine has a slightly different niche still. It makes sense, because most of the software I write is because I want to make my own work easier.

It does make me money -- like around $500/month. Not really enough to justify the time I put into it, but it does help (justify it).

<o>We are NOT lazy. We are smart enough NOT to blow our valuable time on something that will bring us no benefit!
But some things I don't do would bring me benefit. For instance, I have literally lost thousands of dollars because it was too much effort to invoice my work. Doing the work was fine, but spending an hour to create an invoice was too much? How smart is that???
</o>

I am so glad to hear that someone else has lost thousands of dollars by not invoiding. Most of the work, I enjoyed doing - but because a great deal of it was last minute, I felt guilty about the methodology and sometimes even the output. Most clients were reasonably happy with the output, but I always thought it could have been better if I hadn't squandered away so many hours procrastinating.


What a strange behavior we share - not invoicing for monies owed. It's not like we're the best financial managers either . . .:eyebrow:

Most of the work, I enjoyed doing - but because a great deal of it was last minute, I felt guilty about the methodology and sometimes even the output. Most clients were reasonably happy with the output, but I always thought it could have been better if I hadn't squandered away so many hours procrastinating.Yes, that's exactly how I feel. All they see is the output, so they don't know I just spent 8 hours pulling an all-nighter to do a job they gave me a week for. They just get the job at 9am, say it looks good, end of story. But I feel like a total sham for doing shoddy work.

But back when I was first freelancing, and didn't know about ADHD, I confessed my tactics to a professional advisor and he told me it was because I was afraid of success, and I didn't like to invoice because I didn't value my work. But that's not it at all -- I know I do a good job and I definitely enjoy being successful, after plenty of years experiencing the opposite.

I have literally lost thousands of dollars because it was too much effort to invoice my work. Doing the work was fine, but spending an hour to create an invoice was too much? How smart is that???
Been there, done that. Earned the shirt. On good days, I call it the "tax" on owning a brain that is wired this way, and then try to think about all the good times that brain has also brought me, especially the "high" of strong creativity. (Along with the late fees for all the bills I paid a day or few late because I couldn't dislodge the clog in the brainpipe fast enough {gg})

You know it wasn't that many generations ago when being bad about the administrative side of "life maintenance" was taken as a given among high creative types, and every (male) above a certain pay grade had a secretary while his wife had a maid. Not saying we should yearn for a "rewind" button back to a less enlightened and more stratified time when access to opportunity was much more limited, but that how 'defective' we feel for any set of quirks does have a cultural context on top of the rest.

Today you find folks at every pay grade doing their own typing, bills and laundry while a big proportion of high creatives and others with similar wiring still remain inept at those same kinds of details. This is one of a zillion reasons the traits of ADD are more obvious these days.

But that's not to say it's only situational or that there's nothing 'disordered' about it or no reason to treat it. It is just to note that we seem to attach much more shame to this set of quirks than any generation before us, while our antecedents seem to have had more lattitude to expect some help and get it without feeling self-indulgent.

Viewed in a more forgiving light, you could simply say you have a high octane mind that is, at times, more expensive to fuel :)

This is even more relevant for me- I am combined type, so I am both easily distracted AND likely to follow my diversions down the primrose path to perdition.

Someone I work with said to me that she has to work twice as hard to do as much as I do in the last minute. Been hearing it all my life....

Someone I work with said to me that she has to work twice as hard to do as much as I do in the last minute. Been hearing it all my life....Me too, Charlie. It's the degree of contrast between our capabilities and our limits that keeps our observers perplexed, especially if they are the types who struggle to hold competing concepts in mind at the same time.

Your comment is also a vivid little example of why so many ADDults seem to have a finely honed sense of irony.

We live with paradox constantly.

Me too, Charlie. It's the degree of contrast between our capabilities and our limits that keeps our observers perplexed, especially if they are the types who struggle to hold competing concepts in mind at the same time.

Your comment is also a vivid little example of why so many ADDults seem to have a finely honed sense of irony.

We live with paradox constantly.
No kidding. People see me as someone who is freakishly smart, but lazy and socially inappropriate, as a result many people with half my mojo- but twice my motivation and go-along-to-get-along move on up ahead of me.