Can't leave anything unfinished?

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This seems to define very much the way I get to do things in life. Once I am dedicated to achieve a given task / purpose (say, washing dishes, finising a client design -in my case-, tidy up my room, etc) I need to get it done in full as soon as possible (no "leave it for later"), even if it is a highly complex task to be solved in a single day as say, assembling an entire web site or solving programming issues as I often do at work. And obviously, since I wanted to see it finished ASAP, I get sort of frustrated when I can't achieve that.

In practice, however, this is better said than done. Let's say I am deeply working in an assignment for client A, however out of the blue there's a request from client B to solve a completely different matter... "and has to be done in the next hour". Almost instantly, I feel out of place, angry and frustrated not only because the concentration I was having on project A was disrupted, but also because I have to switch mindsets almost immediately ("changing tapes" I often say) and that, as many of you know, is practically impossible for an Aspie. I have displayed such severe reactions to this in the past that I was once asked why I got upset of doing work if that's what I'm being paid for.

They obviously won't get it - because for that urge to get things done and in linear fashion, I am quite the workaholic guy (not something I'm exactly proud of)... I wish I could say "wait until I'm finished with A, then I will go on with B" but more often than not this doesn't happen. But that's life, for better or worse

I guess I'm not alone with this, right?

I used to throw tantrums about this when I was young. My mother would tell me to do something like clean up my room and then later tell me to do something else like take out the garbage. Then she'd ask me why my room wasn't clean yet and I'd just blow up. It seemed like I was constantly being forced to accept a change of priorities without knowing why the priorities had changed. Sure, it's hard to break the inertia and start something new on short notice, but what really got to me was the frustration of feeling lost when something had changed the relative importance of the tasks and I didn't know what or how. Given enough task changes, I would eventually lose all my initiative and respond only to specific directions.

Eventually I just got used to it, I guess. Not in the sense that it doesn't still bother or me when I'm interrupted, but in the sense that now I can usually just take a deep breath and let the feelings pass without losing control. This is much easier at work, because most of the time I can see why the priorities have changed and deal with my feelings by intellectualizing and rationalizing. At other times I tell myself that it doesn't matter why the priorities changed because it's my employer's job to manage that, and "they're paying me for my time whether they use it well or not". At home I still dump on people sometimes.

I am quite the opposite.. I always half finish things and get bored with them.. I have a really short attention span.

It stresses me and upsets me when I have to finish something in full.

I like to get things out of the way as soon as possible too, Ebi. What is your job?

Web developer/programmer/information architect (I just hate the term "Webmaster" - too pompous and pretentious for what I actually do)