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"Decision Paralysis Procrastination". I've been going round in circles for 3 days trying to decide where to go travelling. I can go pretty much anywhere I want to and there are lot of places I want to go. I've even found some /really/ good deals but couldn't pull the trigger.

> One thing to consider is that thinking in your head is inherently circular, because you have a limited working memory, and you will inevitably start going in circles

That REALLY resonates. It's crazy how much I will put off writing things down. Like my mind keeps telling itself "that's too simple to actually help"

Oh wow this spoke to me - do it a lot …

I've tried several to-do apps, but centralized systems didn't work for me. I now use multiple to-do lists across different media: some on paper, some on my phone, others in markdown files within project folders... sending email to myself. It may seem messy, but it works for me. One system doesn't fit everyone. And any customization and tweaks are encouraged.

Books that helped me:

Atomic Habits by James Clear emphasizes small, consistent changes. Over time, they build into significant improvement. It’s better to improve your system gradually than attempt a major overhaul.

The Now Habit by Neil Fiore offers tools to overcome procrastination and start tasks. It helped me understand my resistance and find ways to move forward.

Getting Things Done by David Allen focuses on reviews and planning. I struggle to make time for them regularly, but even occasional reviews help.

Marcus Aurelius' Meditations, especially annotated versions, provide a Stoic perspective. His reflections on virtue and responsibility inspire me. He seemed to dislike being emperor, preferring philosophy, but accepted his role out of duty. That example helps me do necessary tasks, even when I don't feel like it.

> The first-line treatment for ADHD is stimulants. Everything else in this post works best as a complement to, rather than as an alternative to, stimulant medication. In fact most of the strategies described here, I was only able to execute after starting stimulants. For me, chemistry is the critical node in the tech tree: the todo list, the pomodoro timers, etc., all of that was unlocked by the medication.

This means: You do have to see a physician and psychologist to get diagnosed and to get a therapy plan. Just reading articles or books about managing ADHD won't do the trick.

ADHD may present with many brain-network anomalies, but I believe the classic case is one where there is more default-mode activity, less executive control activity, and ineffective switching occurring from the salience network. Mindfulness meditation is honed at training the salience and attention networks towards playing closer attention, which offsets the deficits observed in ADHD.

That's my lay interpretation; but actually, I believe that people who suffer from ADHD probably have even more to gain, relatively, than those who don't from taking up the habit of mindfulness meditation. It's not an easy fix--I've read that it takes about twice as long for those with ADHD to benefit from the practice. But it seems like it's worth it; after all, your mind is really the only tool that you have.

Those interested in this topic should read about ADHD and it's relation to the salience and executive networks; and how mindfulness sharpens the function in these areas.

[0]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salience_network

Now the hard part is getting myself to fill out the paperwork required to get the NHS to pay someone to look at it.

However. The article encourages a diagnostic approach—it asks the reader to introspect and identify the root cause of their inaction. But by omitting both PDA and RSD from its list of potential causes, it creates a "diagnostic trap" that can lead to misdiagnosis and self-blame. The omission is particularly damaging because PDA and RSD are two of the most powerful (and often invisible) drivers of severe, persistent avoidance.

If you finish a task that wasn't on your TODO list, don't fret. Just add it but don't check it off. Then when you come back to the list later, you check it off. This reminds you that you did it and gives you the gratification of completing it. Otherwise, the finished task will slide into oblivion and poke at your self-worth along the way.

A visual indicator for task age works wonders for me. I use parentheses to show the age of a task. As the parentheses accumulate it's very obvious what I'm behind on. e.g. ")))))))))) respond to important email".

Works especially well for recurring tasks: the parentheses disappear when the task is marked complete.

I try to keep my lists as small and up-to-date as possible and this serves as a staleness indicator as well.

I use Todoist and have a script to manage the parentheses. https://github.com/leroux/todoscript

Credit to intend.do. I shamelessly stole the concept from NotDone Propagator. https://intend.do/features#notdones

I don’t have a history of ADHD symptoms. But I’ve been happier and arguably more productive since I abandoned the idea that I must complete projects just because I committed to them at the start. Sometimes you learn, halfway through a book, that it doesn’t contain the info you thought it would; then it’s best abandoned. The same applies to many commitments, I think. We learn more about them as we undertake them. Something might stop being engaging because deep down we’ve realized that it won’t serve us as we expected.

But maybe I’m able to discern productive vs nonproductive commitments because I don’t have ADHD? I just hate to see people beating themselves up about not following through with ideas which really don’t deserve follow-through.

1. My brain drifts away very easily. Even in an important work conversation, my brain just starts thinking about a completely different project or upcoming meeting. 2. I have a hard time remembering things/events that my spouse and others can easily recall (ie: which restaurants we have been to) 3. I can't seem to form an opinion on very basic things like do you like restaurant A or restaurant B better? do you like option A or option B? I can't decide or come up with any heuristics.

At first I chalk it up to I am being too critical about myself and others are having the same issue. But that doesn't seem to be the case. Can these all be rolled up in the same conversation with my doctor?

How exactly is this supposed to work?

(Even assuming a health care system that actually cares about ADHD in adults, "just get a diagnosis" seems like a much higher bar than "just clean your bed every day".)

For me, most of the time, the challenge is lack of energ and motivation to do anything outright. Even on 50mg Lisdex.

I was diagnosed with ADHD as a child and spent several years in special classes as well as receiving a lot of private therapy/tutoring. I'm not a self-diagnosed adult (as is common). I've managed my situation in various way for a long time (50 years) and refused medication the entire time. Phone alarms really helped me when I started using them.

There may be good reasons for drugs but there are also bad reasons - especially, they're a quick "fix" allowing a care provider to do this and wash their hands of the situation.

Further, of course ADHD has a biological cause - human beings are biological beings so every human behavior has a biological cause when you come down to it. But the implication that proscriptions drugs designed based on a deep and verified understanding of the mechanisms of ADHD is completely false - ADHD drug prescription, like all behavior-altering drug prescription, is based on just "bucket chemistry", maybe-educated guess work. Which isn't implying drugs don't work for some people. But I think it's important to be clear the various drugs aren't ADHD cures in the way that antibiotics are cures for infection. But again, I support the right of people want ADHD drugs to have them. But I think drug use shouldn't be automatic.

> If you are very OCD

Please educate yourself, OCD is serious shit: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Obsessive%E2%80%93compulsive_d...

Some people with OCD literally starve to death, because they can't leave their house. Commonly you find those affected washing their hands repeatedly until they bleed... and then some more. It is absolute not a "what makes you feel good" kinda thing, it's a dysfunctional and irrational mental world model enforced by a crippling sense of doom, anxiety and shame, which will consume life (especially if "very OCD").

Most importantly, for those with actual OCD, you absolutely aren't advised to embrace that destructive, irrational world model by leaning in on compulsions. You cannot really exploit it for good, by definition. And by definition, it isn't benign.

I wish people would stop attributing a quirky/controlling personality, a desire for order, symmetry and tidy rooms to a serious mental disorder. You wouldn't twist major depression, schizophrenia, or cluster B disorders like that. If you feel left out on the identity game, go read Lord of the Rings, or Das Kapital, try horse riding, or golf.

Quite honestly, for me this casts serious shade on the whole article. Because "ADHD" is similarly misattributed and casually "self-diagnosed". Maybe the author just got very ADHD by browsing too much Insta and later found stimulants to be stimulating. Much easier to cure that kind of ADHD through abstinence and structure. (Although coming up with elaborate routines and revolutionary hacks, which are a total breakthrough for a whole month, is a very ADHD thing...)

My longest friend is hyper, smartest dude in the room but could not stay out of trouble. Right now, he is literally climbing up a mountain. Even today, I get so pissed at my adult peers who don't understand that that distracted kid is just wired different, not undisciplined. You can't change your neurology anymore than you can change your eye color.

Stims helped much more that antidepressants, but I burn thru catecholamine quickly. Vyvanse lasts maybe a few hours, by example. I've had days where I could take a stim, then fall asleep waiting for it to kick in. Its burn-out, and it sucks.

One thing that helped was NALT and Phenylalanine. Initially, 700mg of NALT was miraculous. Doesn't help so much any more, but I continue to take it. I suspect there are other things causing dopamine production bottlenecks and-or low storage of dopamine.

Gene test indicates I may not convert folate to methylfolate, which is important for the stress hormone cycle. You can supplement methylfolate but so far I've not seen improvement.

The ASD makes it very difficult for me to not call a spade a spade, especially around touchy-feely people. My ASD daughter is now in college, like me, struggling greatly with social. She's as liberal as it gets in a free society, but when the college offered group therapy she refused for the same reasons I hated all that groupology crap; you can't really speak your mind without getting ostracized.

I need the higher doses, so I'm practically screwed. Makes me so damn frustrated, cause I'm 4-5 months down without meds and I'm REALLY STRUGGLING. Depression, zero motivation, practically no executive function. Really needs to be accountability on these companies to ensure they can supply.

>> The symptoms of ADHD and thyroid disorder are similar.

Ask your doctor to check that first before ADHD.

Edit: Oh also want to mention that I generally prefer privacy oriented apps - so if there is something, even paid, that will keep my notes on device without sharing them with a server I'd love to hear about it.

anyone from India willing to share some pointers on how to get an evaluation

signed - someone who has been procrastinating on it for a few years now

Insane.

Eat a proper human diet, and your ADHD symptoms will mostly go away.

Google Tasks has the advantage of allowing you to manage your Todo list through its web interface, while Samsung Reminder is a mobile app only.

Does this also work in the opposite direction?