I’ve found that breaking a daunting task down into concrete steps and eating away at it in baby steps helps me get it done. When I take Concerta, it helps me focus on the boring nitty-gritty bits, and it enables me to focus on activities like reading where you don’t have to do any planning. But the actual process planning/task breakup stays just as cognitively straining as before and becomes the new bottleneck to my productivity. Can this also be fixed with a pill, or does everyone have it this hard and is it a skill that you get better at over time?
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There are multiple ways to break up tasks but for myself, and with practice, the best approach I’ve found isn’t to break down a whole task at once but rather to shave off one small chunk and focus on that then revisit the task and shave off one small chunk again. I, personally, get overwhelmed if I have a long list of little steps so my task list usually looks like
Do this small thing
Come up with a new #1
It may sound silly and irrational but it works for me.
Hmm yeah this is what I’ve been doing as well. It’s just that step 2 is tiring
It definitely is - that’s why ADHD is considered a disability. Shit is just hard for us and not even medication is a complete fix.
I think the most important thing to do is to try and align what parts of your life you can to make yourself most likely to succeed (i.e. perform in society at an acceptable level) and, fucking crucially, forgive your damn self when you fall short. You’re dealing with a disability, a shame spiral leading into depression won’t do shit - be kind to yourself and let your brain relax when you are able. It is tiring to act un-neurodivergent but most of us need to do that to keep food in our belly - so let your brain indulge itself in your off time.
Hmm, that makes sense
Ah. The “eating the pie” methodology.
I don’t often algorithm, but when I algorithm I do so greedily.