Trouble Doing Stuff?

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Does anyone else struggle to do tasks which they need to complete?

I'm at university, and I find I can't get things like essays done until the pressure has become so traumatising that I'm suddenly 'freed' up and can get my work done. I wonder if I'm just being lazy? Sometimes I work myself up almost to the point of suicide before I can get past whatever it is that stops me working. It's as if I need to prime myself emotionally or something??

It isn't just university work either though. Even basic chores like cleaning or cooking I put off until the very last possible moment. I put off going to sleep in the same way too sometimes until the morning.

Is this something anyone else here can relate to? Or is it just me maybe being lazy and not trying hard enough? I sometimes feel as if I'm trying to hide from a terrifying fear or something. Hiding from emotions that break out as soon as I contemplate trying to complete a certain task.

Me too.

story of my life.

Have you ever found a way to make it more easy to get things done?

Adderall

Very much so , I managed 4 years of distance courses with only one or two lapses and late assignments however everything was done last minute. I've submitted end of course assignments with 3 minutes to go before now. I started a course in herbalism this year and have only managed to get halfway through due to a lack of solid deadlines for assignments.

Unfortunately I also do this with pretty much every other part of my life and although I have my good days when I suddenly jump into action and get loads of whatever done it's rare and most of the time I just lapse into doing nothing much of anything.

I'm trying to develop some sort of strategy as I'm getting older and need to get things done!

I have coursework due on Friday and all week I've been trying to start it. But there are things I want to do so much more - like at the moment I've got a real thing going with charcoal drawing so when I try to do some reading for my coursework none of it is going in because my brain wont shut up about doing charcoal sketches. Most of the time I can't even work myself up enough to open the book but now the deadline is 3 days away I'm at least getting that far.

How would any of you describe the process that has to happen before you get something done? Is it like a fight with your mind? Do you have to get super-stressed first?

Whenever I talk about this with NT people, they say that everyone leaves it until the last minute.

But I don't WANT to leave it to the last minute. Yet no matter what I do, unless I'm feeling like I'm about to explode, I make no progress whatsoever.

I can't get my head around what goes on in my head to stop me doing what I want to do. And why I have to go through the regular ritual of a predictable trauma in order to get even the simplest of things done...

Yes, and that goes for my 'special intrests' too.

Another vote for "sounds just like me." <-(That's a link to a recent post I made, since this board is apparently too cool for underlines. There's some links in that post to other articles you might want to read, too.)

It's gotten worse for me over the years -- or possibly my circumstances have changed to make it more noticeable. Either way, it's a problem, and I'm putting a lot of thought into trying to solve it. I've been setting up some organizational software on my Palm that I'm hoping will help, by allowing me list everything I need to do, and then break it all down into simple steps. It seems like part of the problem is that I whenever look at something I need to do, my brain has trouble figuring out the first step to take. I end up seeing the task as a whole, and I just feel overwhelmed. (Or more accurately, I avoid attempting or even thinking about the task, to avoid feeling overwhelmed.)

So, yeah, my current goal is to separate the "figuring out how to do things" into a separate step, and then just mindlessly follow my checklists. I'll post about it here if that ends up helping me.

Interesting to hear that Modafinil didn't do anything for you... I've been curious to try it.

Oddly enough, I didn't have any trouble with large school tasks and work is easy for me, but I sometimes have trouble doing things that others consider "easy." It embarrasses me a lot.

Executive dysfunction.

This is only true of me with papers. I have such trouble getting started, but once the pressure's on, it flows out.

Stuff everywhere, parts for many projects, sitting, then one last part, I remember where everything is, put it together, Then put it on the shelf.

Sometimes this goes on for years, then I have everything for some idea from long ago. The idea may have passed, the steps to do it ran on automatic.

I have several thousand and several years in the best micro photography system ever made, Olympus SZ 4045TR with OM 4t camera, I have never used it. I would have to buy a roll of film, never got to that.

I know if I start, I will go through lots of film, till I master the art, then quit. Much later someone will come along, with a problem, and guess what it would take to solve it!

On projects that have deadlines, I am always on time, not early, not late, on time.

I wash my clothes promptly, when they are all dirty, and I can no longer stand the ones I am wearing.

When I need space I will rearrange the whole house one day, but other than that, house work is a waste.

I will go from a total mess, to stripping out a room, grabbing parts from here and there, and set up a very efficent office, then walk on the same waste paper on the floor for months.

I put off things I want to do, till I have all the parts. Then I do nothing else till it is done. Then it sits, I watch it, touch it, talk to it, and sometime later start using it.

The steps in the process seem to be more than labor/work, they have a meaning. It is not a ritual, but I do the best I can, when I do. If I wrote a school paper a week early, I would re-write three hours before it was due, or three times during the week. Deadlines stop that, good as I could in the time left.

It seems hopeless, but then all converges, several major projects get completed, and I have a new world.

Each one is a level above the last. Change is not gradual, but in steps, which change how I view myself, I suddenly change.

Each step takes all I can come up with, like all money over a year or more, then I make that much a month. There is nothing to be seen, but it works. I do not have a firm plan, but when I find it, I just happen to have the money in my pocket.

I also goof off. If I feel like taking a nap, I do.