I have so many things I want to do but just can’t. Play a video game, read a book, take dog for walk, build a gadget I bought parts for, finish writing a song, finish building a computer… But no, I just sit there stuck. How do I get unstuck?
I’ve been there and felt a lot of guilt for not doing all the things I wanted to.
One thing that helped was stopping to think about why I wanted to do each thing. A lot of the time, it was just impulsive and led to an overwhelming list that kept me stuck in the same loop.
Reflecting on what I actually cared about made it easier to focus and follow the other suggestions here. Not exactly what you asked for, but worth considering.
Make a list, do the first thing you put on it. I figure whatever I think of first is what I subconsciously want to do most and anything is better than nothing.
If you are undiagnosed and unmedicated, you can try a very strong cup of coffee, or an energy drink. Ritalin is also a stimulant, and caffeine has similar effects.
Beware though, if you consume caffeine regularly, this won’t work.
My recommendation: drink only water on normal days, drink very strong caffeinated drink in case of emergency.
It does give you a headache later in the day, and/or the day after, so keep that in mind.
I found that picking something really small and succeeding helps motivate me to succeed at other things I want to accomplish.
Imake a list and number them and then go on random.org and have it choose an integer and then i do the the thing on the list that matches the number randomly chosen.
This way i’m not making a decision, the lord of chaos is.
Tried it, not a great success… The only result is making me not want whatever was chosen anymore.
- Movie A or movie B?
- I can’t decide… I want to watch both…
- Lets flip a coin.
- The coin says movie A.
- I don’t want movie A anymore. Movie B it is then.
- Wait maybe the coin is using reverse psychology on me… I should pick movie C that wasn’t in the list just to be safe.
My brain has this awful tendency of going “I could have done it a minute ago but now that someone else told me to I can’t anymore”
If you flip a coin and don’t like the answer that just means you already decided but didn’t realize you had decided.
No it’s really that the result feels like a decision imposed on me and my brain can’t deal with that… It’s the same if I start to do something I want, then someone calls to tell me to do it and now I can’t do it anymore. Not sure if it’s PDA or something else, but it’s really annoying, especially in combination with AuDHD.
What works for me is starting on an easy and rewarding chore first. With ADHD, the promise of distant rewards are a poor motivator. What works is to incorporate the reward into the first task and you will find its easier to move on to the next task. I.e., take the dog for a walk, but grab an icecream/coffee/beer whatever while you’re doing it. Think about the the things you will do next while you’re on that walk. YMMV, but this is how I do it.
Drugs. Amphetamines specifically - doctor managed, not street level self medication. Then flip a coin and take one step in any direction.
Make a list of shit you want to get done. Do one tjing on it.
While youre busy not doing that youll probably get some others done.
