Doc's Advice for Staying on Task

[thelivingframe]

I was just diagnosed ADD last week and I thought I would pass on some useful advice my doc gave me to help cope with my distraction and procrastination:

1. Have the Mantra, "Work before play", repeat it to yourself and at all times try and abide by it.

2. when you find yourself beginning to get distracted, by whatever, it could be the next great idea, the impulse to play a game, surf the web, or anything that isnt what you are supposed to be doing right then, write it down on a post it note, tear it off and put it aside.

Number one helped me with general order to my daily activities. Before I felt ok about surfing gadget blogs and news in the morning when I got into work and didnt view them as distractions. I view that activity as play now and have altered my general patterns accordingly.

Number two helped with the random distractions that occur throughout the day. First, having to write down the distraction before I engage in it helps me quantify exactly what is distracting me. Sometimes I can write down something specific, but many times, I realize there is no specific thing pulling me away. I think in these instances my brain is tired of doing whatever it is doing and is in "search" mode something that will provide better immediate rewards. Other times when I can identify a particular thing as a distraction, writing it down tearing it off and putting it aside provides enough relief from the urge that I feel like I can ignore it. I think this has to do with the physical acting out of what I am supposed to do mentally, like maybe my brain is taking que's from my body's actions.

Distractions still interrupt my day and my workflow but with these two rules, the size of that interruption is limited.