This was written with the intention of trying to show non ADHDers how ADHD brains work. Please share it with your loved ones so they can understand you better :). Good Luck!
With an ADHD brain, time is both your enemy and your best friend. How can I best explain this?
When your brain is going a mile a minute thinking of all these awesome and amazing ideas all at once that you simply must do immediately or they will never get done. PLUS, you are thinking about “I have to do the dishes; I have to get to the grocery store; I have to cook dinner; I have a mountain competing pile of laundry that needs to be done; the bathroom; the living room needs vacuuming; I have to feed the dog…” I think you get the point.
For most brains it would be easy and simple for someone to sit down and prioritize what they have to do and when it should be and can be done. People with ADHD brains have this other “little” problem called “where the heck to I start????”. Even if we actually have the forethought through all this chaotic thinking to just take ten minutes to make a list. Even after that list is made, actually starting the list after all that list making, chances are we need a brain break. We might even start on the first item (that in itself is an accomplishment) the issue then becomes, well I’ve finished that, but now I am too tired mentally to start on the next task, so maybe you try do another task but in order to complete that task, task number 4 needs to be completed first. In a nut shell it all becomes very overwhelming very quickly.
Chunking helps, chunking is when you take a large task and portion it out into a lot of smaller tasks. The issue with chunking is that you can run out of time for the task. Let's use the example of cleaning using the chunking method as an example. You take ten minutes and tidy up the living room then, take a break for ten minutes, then take the piles you made and bring them (as close to in proximity) to where they actually belong, take a break for ten minutes, then vacuum for ten minutes then take a break but by then it’s time to go pick up the kids from school and then distraction sets in, the kids are telling you about their day, they want a snack, they have homework or notes from the teacher and then by the time that whirlwind is all over the dishes in the sink look pretty darn daunting let me tell you. Yet you still have to figure out a way to make dinner through that mess. On top of all this, in order for you to get anything done, you need to take some time to quiet my brain. So you sit, do something mindless on the computer for a while maybe to start to re-focus and then that turns into procrastination. Think of procrastination is an ADHDers creative process; the only way to even begin to think about taking on that next task is to first quiet the brain. The necessary quietness created in the brain makes it very difficult to start over or start something new. Let the procrastination process begin! It’s a vicious cycle.
Things usually do get done eventually though, but by the time you do finally get through that list, you have to start all over again.. If you learn nothing else from this post, learn this… THE WORST thing you can do to an ADHD brain is create a painfully boring mundane task and then have do it again!
Check out this hilarious video from Totally ADD, it basically explains the above, if you don't have the attention span to read it ;)
Also, support our efforts in Shining a Positive Light on ADHD at I Am Shiny
