Everyday at work, I misunderstand instructions and do something either half right, or completely wrong.

If my boss asks me to paint something, I end up painting the WHOLE thing, instead of just the bits he asked me to paint.

Today he asked me to wash out a bucket, and fill it half with water.

I only took in half of the sentence, and only washed the bucket out without filling it back up again, then when I got back to my boss, he asked me why it wasnt half full, and I said "you wanted it half full?" and he said "yes....thats what I asked you to do" and im thinking... "oh s**t! I never took that part in" so I had to go back and fill it half way.

Thats just one example!

We were in a newly built house, and he asked me to sand the door frames and boards.

So I went and sanded all the wood on the first floor of the house. Then I stood about for about an hour, then the boss came back and said "did you sand ALL the wood in the HOUSE?"

And I said "no, I only done the first floor" and he said "why.... I asked you to do the whole house"

Then again I relised I miss understood what he asked me to do. :(

Anyway..... before I get carried away....

here is my question....

Is it an ADD thing, to either get an instruction half correct, or completely wrong?

That's one of the reasons I stopped doing manual labor with my uncle... he'd give me so much sh*t for not listening, not paying attention, etc. I was once told to put a second coat of paint on a wall. So what did I do? I painted half the room with the wrong color. I didn't notice until 5 minutes before he came back to check on me.. I was doing this for at least an hour.

I couldn't take it anymore... being yelled at for things I didn't mean to do or couldn't help. Sure, I could have "manned up" and took it anyway but there's only so long I can take constant negativity and feeling like a constant f-up.

that happends to me allot i do more then i need to and do it my way and they get mad at me when i do that

ADDers have terrible times with Auditory Memory and Auditory Processing.


Multistep instructions are REALLY hard for us.

1. ONE trick is to REPEAT BACK INSTRUCTIONS (verbal ones) to your Boss abou the task assigned to you...

I have seen Waitresses "repeat back the order" to me. I think it is a really smart thing to do! Better than getting an order with a mistake in it.

"So you want me to write a report about (a), (b) and (c). And you want it by next Wednesday morning?"

2. SECOND trick is to get Instructions (say, for a report) in writing. (like an assignment for a report you need to write up.)

Some people use VOICE RECORDERS for this purpose.

3. THIRD option is to make a list yourself. The whole TO DO LIST idea saves my hide every day. ;)

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When people yell at me, i tell them, "When you yell, i can't listen to the words, i just 'hear the volume'."

Yelling, anger and stress just make people's memory and concentration (and esp ADDers memory/concentration) -=worsen=-. People need to know this. (Has to do with the stress chemical CORTISOL and how it affects our memory... in a bad way.)

NB I avoid Angry People (and Cold People and Low Empathy People) as much as possible. They are negative influences on my brain health and work quality.