#ADHD solutions

[knotty-et-al]

Two weeks to-do-list hanger

[too lazy to write description rn, communicating is exhausting atm, but i want to share nevertheless]

[master-jarrus]

My son keeps nap trapping me on the couch so I'm making a bunch of posts but they are going to be scheduled so I can spread out people's responses for more motivating dopamine

[upset-to-dead]

ADHD idea:

I brush my teeth a little every time I use the restroom.

So the routine goes: business -> flush -> wash hands -> brush teeth -> dry hands -> leave

I'd have to brush with wet hands because if I dry my hands first, that's the end of the routine and I will forget and leave. But if I insert the new task in the middle of the routine, then I still have the reminder to do the new task.

I will be trying this today.

[bestieboots]

Sometimes the easier of two options is the one that takes 2 hours longer because otherwise I will not take off my coat and I hate overheating.

Or... The shorter thing is more stressful because my brain doesn't want to do it and the whole 10 minute affair will actually feel much much longer than the two hour one.

And meanwhile people are like "you were just getting a glass of water". Yes, but did you see the spreadsheet I made of all the possible paths to get that glass of water and time/joy projections over a three year period? If I pass by the cat tree on a Thursday, there's a thirty percent chance of pets..." And there all "you forgot the glass of water, didn't you."

[older-and-far-away]

My most ADHD moment of the week so far has been:

Last week I made some pinko tofu and I finished it four or five days ago, but.

I like to do the dishes as soon as I'm done with them because I get overwhelmed by a big sink full of dishes and then just won't do them, so.

When I finished the tofu I just wasn't feeling in a place to deal with cleaning out the crumbs and washing the Tupperware so I made the decision to stick it back in the fridge and deal with it later.

Today while waiting for a cup of coffee to be ready, I decided to wash the few dishes in the sink. I also remembered that I had a Tupperware container I needed to wash in the fridge so I took it out and dumped it and cleaned it and it worked absolutely fine but now I can't find my coffee cup.

[plantpirating]

When I must communicate with my siblings' spouses since they never respond to my messages.

Me, spouseless, never being forced to return messages.

[hipstergecko]

Time to change up some methods.

Dealing With Executive Dysfunction - A Masterpost

The “getting it done in an unconventional way” method.

The “it’s not cheating to do it the easy way” method.

The “fuck what you’re supposed to do” method.

The “get stuff done while you wait” method.

The “you don’t have to do everything at once” method.

The “it doesn’t have to be permanent to be helpful” method.

The “break the task into smaller steps” method.

The “treat yourself like a pet” method.

The “it doesn’t have to be all or nothing” method.

The “put on a persona” method.

The “act like you’re filming a tutorial” method.

The “you don’t have to do it perfectly” method.

The “wait for a trigger” method.

The “do it for your future self” method.

The “might as well” method.

The “when self discipline doesn’t cut it” method.

The “taking care of yourself to take care of your pet” method.

The “make it easy” method.

The “junebugging” method.

The “just show up” method.

The “accept when you need help” method.

The “make it into a game” method.

The “everything worth doing is worth doing poorly” method.

The “trick yourself” method.

The “break it into even smaller steps” method.

The “let go of should” method.

The “your body is an animal you have to take care of” method.

The “fork theory” method.

The “effectivity over aesthetics” method.

[twelfth-dykector]

AuDHD decided to be really funny when it made me really annoying (adhd), absolutely terrified of being perceived as annoying (rsd) and having no idea what people find annoying (autism)

[vodid]

zero's pressure

[mira-hildegard]

[coming out of the code mines after two hours, clearly covered in some kind of programmer malaise] i added a screensaver mode to @miku-earth! go load it up, put it on full screen, and wait a minute for it to activate

[writing-with-olive]

ADHD task completing tip

okay so growing up i was usually told "do the hard thing first and then you get to do the fun thing." and generally that's reasonable.... if you've got decent executive function. but for those of us who don't, this is a thing i've been using to get through school/work/general human functioning. It's still using hard thing/fun thing, but it interweaves them WAY more

first step: find something that sparks some dopamine quickly. i usually use short-timer online chess or mobile games. if you pick scrolling social media or something that doesn't have a clear endpoint, make sure you have an easy way to set a timer. On apple phones, there's a timer setting that says "stop playing" instead of playing a sound. I love this because it'll take you to your lock screen so you can't accidentally dismiss the timer and keep going. Do NOT make this movement or taking care of bodily functions; eating/hydrating/going to the bathroom/moving around are things you can and should do when your body tells you. take care of ya self

second step: look at your task and break it up TINY. If you have to write a paper, don't break it up by paragraph. break it up into something like fifty words. Cleaning a room: ten items put away. Close reading: 1 page. Really you want something that if your executive functioning was playing nice you could do in 1-4 minutes. I recommend NOT saying "work for x minutes" however, since that's a really quick way to sit there watching the clock. You wanna tie progress to completion not time spent.

third step: estimate how many levels/games/etc of your dopamine source it takes to last 1-5 minutes. Ideally you will already have a sense of this. I'd advise not "testing it out right now" and procrastinating that way.

fourth step: get to work. every time you complete a tiny task, you can do one unit of the dopamine thing. If you get some momentum, you can stack rewards, so if your tiny task was 50 words for one mobile game level, 150 words straight would be three levels. If you are having a really hard time getting going, you can start with 1-3 units of your dopamine thing to kinda jumpstart the process, just decide how many you're doing first so you don't lose hours to it.

note that this ONLY WORKS if you don't ignore your timer/level cutoff. The idea is to get dopamine levels up and use that to power through the next tiny task.

[a-little-artsy]

posting before i go to school.hi doc

blabla

[homoqueerjewhobbit]

New Psychiatrist: you always seem to be thinking when you're talking.

Me: ...?

[autism-official]

Just get a spice rack

(official autistic ADHD post)

cleaning along desire paths