I can no longer distinguish between different types of bad advice: ADD edition · 6:37pm Mar 30th, 2016
So, in my ongoing quest to bang my head up against my attention deficit disorder, I’ve done a whole bunch of different stuff to “improve my concentration,” and y’know what I realise about pretty much all of these tips? They’re like money-saving tips when you’re on minimum wage.
Like, throw aside the tips that are impossible to implement (“buy a car with higher MPG to make your commute less expensive”), or are ludicrously condescending (“instead of spending £30 a night on cocktails, try arranging a drinks night at your home with friends!”). These are annoying, but they’re written by Cosmo/Men’s Health writers who need to get a third dumb listicle written in the next hour to keep their heads above the water, and they’re not meant to be taken seriously. You do get tips that can be helpful! You can start couponing to save on money. You can religiously turn off all the lights and never boil a pan without a lid and never leave your TV on standby. You can drink cheap tea instead of snacking, buy more dried and frozen food, and keep a detailed diary of the little luxuries you indulge in.
And by the end of the month, after all that hard work and ball-ache, you’ve saved like... £15. You have enough for one (1) round of drinks at the pub.
You scream and your tear out your hair in frustration but this was always going to happen. You’re on minimum wage! Everything is already eaten up by the basic necessities, there’s nothing more to cut!
This is literally the exact way ‘here’s how to concentrate on your work and study good and get organised uwu!’ advice works with ADHD/ADD. Like, a lot of things will improve my concentration and productivity. I’m more productive when I’ve had sleep. Eating so that my blood sugar levels don’t spike and crash helps. Drinking just enough caffeine to lift the fog but not enough that I tense up, putting blocking software on my browser and computer so I don’t spend all day on tumblr and New Vegas, taking the odd walk so my room doesn’t turn into a depression cave... All of this does make me more productive.
And yet my monthly average wordcount remains constant, because my brain has a Limit for concentration. These productivity tips are the difference between me writing for 15 minutes in a day and kicking out 100 words, and writing for 10 hours in a day and kicking out maybe 2000 words. Not polished, perfect words even, just raw incoherent mush that can then be chiseled into actual prose with the exact same amount of effort.
That’s the beauty of it. These tips allow me to do something, they allow me to pour all of my brain energy into writing very slowly, or into Two Things In A Day, but in the end I can’t just endlessly optimize with tips and strategies because employing the strategies themselves requires willpower and concentration!
Christ, I hope my next psych appointment works out.
All I can say is that I feel your pain
I try to keep my advice to the more pragmatic.
Financially, that would mean stealing your boss's lunch out of the fridge on random days, save on money and get better food then you'd have afforded. Not even the office fridge. Find out where they live and walk there, because save on the gas money yo.
ADD-wise, it's more uh... hrrm... I'll get back to you on that one.
I'd offer advice, but I'm an ADD insomniac with poor diet and exercise habits on minimum wage. I'm just barely staying afloat financially and haven't posted a new story in four months. So not really in much of a position to suggest anything.
I have been told to try using this to set goals and stay on task, but then I forget to use it.
This is brilliant. Awful, but brilliant.
Ritalin?
3837428
See the final sentence of the post.
3837429 Well, that sentence covers a multitutde of sins, but from the way you describe it, you shouldn't have any difficulties getting a prescription. Especially in the states. If you're lucky, they might bump you up to adderal straight away. ;)
I'm no stranger to being easily distracted when I'm left to my own devices at work and stuff (I've spent more than a few man-weeks doing nothing but slacking off on the Internet without even realizing until I notice it's time to go home), but I wouldn't say I've got ADD. For what is worth I do have a two tips I follow when I need to focus on something that work really well for me.
First is working out a little before work or before sitting down in front of the computer at home to do something. Nothing too strenuous, maybe 15-20 mins, enough to get some sweat going and burn off some excess energy.
Second is I do need something to be my assigned distraction, because my mind WILL wonder off if all I'm doing is staring at the screen. I cannot listen to music, it's both boring and distracting to me. Boring because there's rythm that's you follow in a few seconds and therefore not grabbing my attention at all anymore, distracting because if it's a song I like I abandon my work because "here comes the good part".
So what I do is I listen to podcasts. Not funny, loud podcasts, or even necessarily interesting podcasts. Something long and droning and slow paced, but with actual content to be consumed, like Hardcore History or international news or some audiobook I'm only mildly interested in. Interesting enough to grab my attention but also easy to listen to and long winded and that I don't care for enough if there are gaps on my retention of it. My subconscious is basically hooked on it and I can use whatever's left of me on my work.
With the right stuff I can go from being basically useless unless I'm under pressure to working for hours at the time.
Anyway, good luck with your appointment!
Go cry, emo kid.
Did Fimfic suddenly turn into your personal therapy chair? Want me to post you naughty pictures disguised as ink blots or ask you about your mother?
Fuck that. Go watch some Statham movies and then write moar pone. Problems solved.
3837551
You seem to have more energy than usual. Have you seen the sun again for the first time since 2015?
3837583 The what? Nonono, I just crept to the local grocers and emptied their energy drink counter. With a shovel.
I like to think as I get older I find out how to work around the mental blocks. Preeeeety sure i'll just add more of them though. Now I don't know your situation, I barely know my own, but when i'm at my worst focus wise I can no longer keep track of my thought process. I'm trying to think about something like math or whatever, and my mind makes connections with slightly simmer concepts, I start to think about those and suddenly I am contemplating if margarine has actual butter in the ingredients. I don't know how I got there, I don't know at all what process was involved. I don't have the memory to keep track of anything more then exactly what I am thinking of at the time. Maybe this is a personal problem, though I think everyone has it to some degree. ah well. I'm not invested in this comment on an obscure post on an obscure website enough to continue.
Ritalin is the thing that worked for me. Stark difference. Good luck.
Tragic irony
Only thing that genuinely helped my ADD was getting on a regular sleep schedule. This may or may not be an option for you, and even if it is it can be easier said than done without outside pressure (ie needing to get to work each day at 9 am or whenever) but once I was sleeping the same times each day, everything else improved,.
The other stuff - helps, -ish. In general. But not, like, a lot.