Motivation/Executive Functioning

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Hello,
I'm starting my second semester in my third year of college now and I just want to say that I've noticed over the past year no matter how hard I try or pray, I just don't have the internal strength or motivation to do my work. The workload is very heavy and voluminous and major moves really fast, so by the time I would start one task, another task would due and I would end up missing so many deadlines or going to class late. In my 2 hours lectures, it was so hard for me to stay awake and stay focused the entire time. It was just so boring and my brain couldn't handle the information overload. My mom and my therapist suspected I possibly have mild ADHD, and while it's possible, since my mom has it to a degree (not officially diagnosed) and so does my sister (ADHD), I feel it's more motivation issues and executive function issues than attention issues because if I'm playing a video game or watching Netflix or doing something fun, I'll do it all day (even though I'm not very organized and i lose stuff a lot). I do think it's boring however, to be in a 2 hour lecture learning about "hepatic function". I'm on Adderall now and I definitely have more strength to do my work and my speed has increased. I actually feel like I'm geytting more done. Was just wondering if anyone had the same issues and/or if you have received treatment for it?

To be blatantly honest the whole damn system is idiotic. Education isn't actually about education. It's about how hard you can work and how many people you can please. If someone isn't highly charismatic and hard working they're not going to get anywhere. And that's just...oh, the first 40 years of our lives. I am dealing with the same BS at the moment.

I would love to spend my life in a library reading TRUE (not false hard-worker socialite based propaganda) information about history and mathematics and sciences, in a nice serene setting with trees and parking lot and semi-cloud skies. I'd also love to live in nature, outside of a state, where there is no other filthy disgusting humans around me. I can't get that because they (the system) don't want us to have our way, or else we'll start exposing their system and pretty soon everyone will want to live quality, reality, and efficiency in their education and before you know it you have an educated population on your hands.

I...didn't really expect that response lol. But I do agree with you. I wish I had my own freedom with what to learn and how to learn it rather than people telling to suck it up so I can pay my bills.

Our education system in the UK is pretty poor, especially primary school education. Thankfully sixth form is better, but I do sympathise. I feel like everyone else is doing so much more revision than me, but when I try to do as much as them, I get bored, or I forget about something important, or I can't remember what I've just read, or just get stressed...

I'm also terrible at organisation, which makes my choice of product design as a subject for A-level a bit ironic.

Yeah it's totally not you. Keep in mind that you've been there pretty much forever at this point and you're probably over it. The classes you're probably in now have more reading than first year classes, which makes them harder to pay attention to.

If you're overloaded, I recommend laying out everything you are supposed to read/know and then separate it out by what is most interesting. Closely read the interesting stuff, and then skim the boring stuff. A trick I learned is to read boring stuff out loud, sometimes as though you were reading a script for a movie, like with a lot of intensity, so you can remember it better. Skim it by looking it over and saying to yourself, "THIS part is about X, and THAT part is about Y, THIS OTHER part is about Z." I would also physically print out readings and put notes in the margins. Comical notes and drawings if need be.

A last ditch method if you absolutely cannot get through something is to youtube the subject and watch a 5 minute video about it. This will even work for advanced math. Trust me. You may not get an A (maybe you will), but you'll get through it and will have a level of understanding about it.