#task paralysis

[tiredpoets]

HEY! YOU! Yea, you, scrolling through Tumblr for validation and support for your executive dysfunction because you feel powerless: I love you, and I know you're trying your best <3 Take a moment and breathe. Let your chest unwind for a little bit as you read this post. I love you despite the things you cannot do, and I hope you find people who see your complexities and value you for them instead of putting you down. You deserve empathy and comfort. I know it's heavy, so thank you for continuing despite how hard it is. I see you.

[piskelo10]

Living with ADHD

[angelinasnotebooks]

Hate that my form of hyperfixation is consuming and not creating.

I think I've been falling in love with ideas my whole life. I see colors and concepts and characters, and I want every part of the illusion to play around my body and immerse my mind and soul. I thought growing up I would be an artist. When that mentally shattered, I moved on to thinking I would become an author. Now, however, I don't know what or who I'll be. All I know is that my brain never stops coming up with ideas. 

Yet, with all these ideas comes the possibility of creation. It's what I want, isn't it? I want to create these pictures and stories and share them with the world. So, why am I motionless in my pursuit to bring my mind to life? I have a library in my head. There's a girl in there. Her favorite color is blue. She doesn't know if life is worth living. I have an art museum there too. There's a portrait of a dying renegade, and a demon alter ego desiring joy. Then there's the realm of fandoms. The endless multiverse of continuations and alternatives.  

There's a lot going on inside my brain and imagination. Chemicals I do not understand and signals I cannot control. An abundance of beauty only an individual can conjure with their subjectivity. With no outlet for these thoughts and images, I find it all to be too much at times. Wings heavy on my back and flightless under the pressure. The ability to soar is there, but the weight within is burdensome.  

Every day I come up with something new. Some ideas are fresh while others are another line on the loom, but that is all they are. Thoughts. Ideas. Invisible whisps, webs, and wishes. It's as if the only part of my frontal lobe that works is that of imagination and complex thinking. I attempt short stories, painting, studying, chores, school projects, craft projects and I never get them done. Planning, time management, logical reasoning, and decision-making have all taken a backseat. I can't get any of them done, so I turn to what has already been done. 

I rewatch a favorite show. I read another fanfic. I click on a YouTube video and another. I scroll Tumblr. I read character analysis. I try on the clothes in my closet. I add shit to my wish list. I post photos from two months ago on my Instagram. I relate to autistic ADHD tiktokers. I pretend Pinterest will help me get my life together. I think about the MCU. I watch another comfort, crime, haunted, mythical series. I visit my AO3 bookmarks. I doom scroll whatever app I can get my eyes on. I turn thirteen again and either spiral into a depressive state or become infatuated with the Hunger Games--again.

The point is, I can't force my brain to work on the original ideas. Sitting at a desk with supplies doesn't get my hands moving. I fall numb waiting for my body and mind to comply with my intentions. So, I end up here again. Hitting a heart button to let other people know that their commentary and hard work have reached me, and I liked it.  

I don’t want all my ideas and universes to end where they are. I don’t want to minimize or invalidate my existence, or the experiences of others like me, by remaining artistically stagnant. I want my mind to be a visual tangible galaxy free to be roamed and explored. I want to have my heart in my hands, and I want to give it to every single person that I can. I want these thoughts, these precious ideas out of my head and into yours, dear reader. I don't want to consume; I want to create. If I'm going to go down the rabbit hole, I want to be the rabbit. The entrance maker. Not the lost girl I am right now. 

[yeeiguess]

Medicated ADHDers, I need someone to relate to me. When I take my meds during the weekend I'm efficient and can do Weekend Tasks (Vacumming etc). BUT.

Once I'm done with my tasks my brain still wants me to be efficient. So I sit here and watch videos buy my brain is persuaded I need to Do Stuff (that isn't having fun) and it's so fucking exhausting.

So I either take the meds and Do the Tasks (which I must because I don't live alone) and then stress about Not Doing More Tasks,

Or I don't take the meds and I stress about Not Doing The Tasks.

In any way I don't actually rest. Uh maybe taking the meds at noon instead of in the morning would let me rest more ? But I'd have to remember to do that, and only during the weekends.

[thewallsaretalking-again]

- A SIMPLE TASK - IT ISNT HARD - GET UP - JUST DO THE DAMN THING -

“WHY AM I SO ANGRY…?”

[anxietyfrappuccino]

i get so excited about the prospect of learning something new, but the experience is ruined every time by the weight of expectation

[winwinwinterb]

Always looking ahead to what's next instead of giving myself permission to be proud of my accomplishments. I'm trying to change that.

[little-homestead-in-the-suburbs]

Cleaning Jump Starter random chore picker wheel. Created from the UFYH Mini-Challenges, with extras added by me marked with an asterisk. Hope this helps someone!

[hilacopter]

task paralysis sucks so fuckin bad. whether it's stuff I do for passion like writing, editing, recording for the voice acting project I'm a part of or stuff I need to do like rehearse my lines for the school play or even just answer a text message my brain prefers to just think about it rather than do it. and the longer I procrastinate the more scared I become of doing the task, like the universe is going to scold me for being late or something. it's caused me to steal as a kid because I was afraid of returning books to the library after forgetting, it's caused me to lose friendships because I was scared to re-initate contact with past friends after not speaking with them for long, I've held off drawing digitally even though I got a tablet two birthdays ago because my ADHD simply wouldn't let me touch it and those aren't even half the times it's screwed me over. all I can do is just lay in bed wanting so badly to write, record, draw, edit, do anything but my dumb fucking brain is holding me hostage over my stupid perfectionism and low attention span. we don't talk enough about just how shitty executive dysfunction is.

[themongosianhorse]

How the actual fuck do I get rid of task paralysis when I have a paper due in 3 hours that I can’t break into smaller pieces?

[stickfishery]

me when

[oocooartistry]

A lil help here...

K so this is random (a non-art post on my dedicated art blog? Gasp!) but I had a question about executive disfunction. What am I meant to do when I'm stuck but I don't have anything to do? Like, all the tips I read say to write out your task start with small steps etc but I don't have a task. I'm between jobs rn so when I get stuck I'll be thinking "Should I read? I don't have any books I just read my books I could play a game but I don't want to maybe stretches but there's people here I don't wanna just SIT here doing nothing everyday" ... and externally I just spent 4 hours on pinterest. Any tips?

[tryoongs]

i just realized that more than just being unable to do anything when i have to do A Thing on a certain day (basically like if i have a meeting at 2pm i wont be able to do any productive thing until That), im also unable to do a different task if something else is upcoming. kind of like procrastination but also not quite.

like if i have a task due on the 27th but i have another one due on the 30th, since im paralyzed and unable to do anything else bc im stuck preparing for the one on the 27th i wont be able to do anything about the one on the 30th until the one on the 27th has passed.

it's ridiculous and it makes me want to pull my hair out bc it hurts me in the long run. it makes me feel unproductive and it makes me have to cram tasks with very little time. does anyone else have the same issue? have you found ways to solve it? im desperate

[ittybittybeastiebuddy]

"Why can't I move, why am I trapped in my body— I FORGOT TO TAKE MY DAMN MEDS"

Every. Single. Time.

[purplesaline]

Hey ADHD folks!

Did you know that anticipating a negative or aversive outcome inhibits the supply of dopamine in our brains? This is true for everyone, but particularly noteworthy for us because we have chronically low levels of dopamine to begin with.

Dopamine regulates, among other things; motivation, motor behaviour (aka literal movement), concentration/attention/focus, mood, memory, sleep, and learning.

What this means is that when we look at a task that seems overwhelming we're expecting an aversive outcome, aka that we'll never be able to get it done and we won't be getting the expected reward from finishing the task (which can be anything from getting paid to just feeling good for accomplishing a task), we're actually making it even harder to even start the task in the first place!

By thinking about that aversive outcome we're inhibiting our motivation to get started on the task, our ability to concentrate and focus on the task, our energy levels (we feel lethargic and sleepy), and can even slow our movement!!

So how do we prevent this?

As cheesy as it sounds, with the Power of Positive Thinking!!

Also with a little Mindfulness and Radical Acceptance thrown in for good measure.

If you literally have too much work to accomplish before your deadline hits it can be really hard to avoid thinking of that negative outcome, and here's where Radical Acceptance comes in. Accept what you can't control. No amount of worrying or agonizing is going to change the fact that you can't meet your deadline so you need to acknowledge and accept that. Take a deep breath and just let it go. Once you do that you can move on to what you CAN control, which can help mitigate how aversive the outcome will be.

Now comes Mindfulness! Once you've got your tasks ordered by most urgent/important to least urgent/important it's time to focus only on the task in front of you. Stop thinking about the mountain ahead of you and focus simply on putting one foot in front of the other. Any time you find your mind starting to wander to that overwhelming list of tasks, pull your attention away from those thoughts and back to the one task in front of you. This gets easier the more you practice it and the key is to be gentle with yourself about it. Don't scold yourself for letting your attention wander, just gently remind yourself that it isn't time to worry about that right now because you need to pay attention to what you're already working on. You can worry about the rest of it later.

Positive Thinking! Don't focus on the negative outcomes of the task you can't complete, focus on the rewards for the tasks you CAN complete. "Sure I can't get X,Y, Z done but I CAN get A,B,C done and the rewards for those will be [insert everything from the dopamine rush for completing a task, to getting paid, to the rewards you decided to give yourself for getting it done like treating yourself to delivery from your favourite restaurant for your dinner break]. And again, when you find yourself starting to think about the negative outcomes bring out the Radical Acceptance and Mindfulness skills you've been practicing!

You don't need to be ADHD to benefit from these techniques and skills either! For us ADHD folks it can mean the difference between getting nothing at all done because we're completely paralyzed to making a decent size dent in the to-do list, but this method can help even neurotypical people be more productive and, more importantly, feel happier!

[kodoandsangha]