I'm sorry for posting actual self-help, it's not my intention to be toxic, but your mention of "first draft" has triggered a kind of fixed action pattern in me, where I am compelled to share this axiom that I find reassuring: The first draft is always perfect.
This actually made me feel bettee. I have to print this on my wall so when my elaborate idea doesnt turn out perfect on first try I can remember it's not supposed to be perfect
"I really don't want to cut the legs out from under my fellow people so I can get my bread. That's mean."
"Well hey now we just call that 'being competitive in the workplace'. How are you going to hold a basic job and keep paying your bills under this system then?"
Sadly a lot of this stuff is a snowball effect though. You just have to push through and do it, and over time it gets easier and easier. I know this is easier to say than it is to do but it's the sad reality. For some, meds may be what they need to give them that first initial strength to get the ball rolling, some may need support from friends or family or some may be able to just power through despite feeling shitty to do so. Keep fighting the fight! The wall will crumble eventually.
Great job being the sucky books. You completely nailed it and proved why this post exists by saying the same obnoxious things I've heard 5,000 times. I have an incurable chronic illness, that wall ain't crumbling anytime soon short of a major advance in medical science. If I'm too exhausted to get to the toilet without help, how am I supposed to push through that?? Oh wait, I've tried pushing through that, you wanna guess what happens? I pass out, fun times.
The sad reality is people like you making assumptions about why someone they do not know is struggling. You are telling me I need to do something that is physically impossible. So yeah, saying it is easier than doing it when it can't be done. I push through so much crap, an absurd amount of it, but when I hit my breaking point I stop. Pushing through has caused me more harm than good. And then people like you come along and tell me I "just have to push through". NO! I'm gonna stick to respecting my body enough to listen to what it's telling me.
One even refused to write me a prescription and insisted I just needed to get outside more after listening to an hour-long recounting of how my ADHD makes self-care difficult to impossible.
I had a psychiatrist send me off with the helpful suggestion to start working out, I was a lifeguard and literally had to work out to keep my job. He also told me I couldn't have ADHD because I'd graduated high school, without checking if I actually had. Like I did, but he just assumed that. The kid who showed up twice a week and turned in work never also graduated. My school had an excellent graduation rate, just ignore all the people who graduated unable to read past a 5 year old level.
I'm still undiagnosed, though not for lack of trying. One doc wanted me to stop literally every medication I was on for like an entire month "to get a baseline", and when I refused he prescribed me something I couldn't take anyway, and I never went back. I'm chronically ill, that would literally land me in the hospital.
Does anyone have any recommendations for books like that? A productivity book written for people who can't for the love of god stick to any system? I've tried a lot of them. Read a bunch of books, implemented gazzilion of systems, but everything seems to last only for a few days (during which I procrastrinate by setting it up), then it holds for a while, before being forgotten almost instantly.
And most importantly, all those books just assume that if you plan your day, you're actually going to stick to that plan. And once you start moving tasks from one day to the next, the whole thing falls appart...
Use your productivity moments to set up the realistic reminders about must do things and automate what can be automated.
Practice triage. "I've let the dishes go for 3 days but if the trash doesn't go out in the next 3 hours then it will be a week therefore trash comes first"
Enlist cheerleaders that get you and be your own cheerleader to celebrate overcoming things that are obstacles to YOU. "I was feeling physically for a few days which put me behind on doing a bunch of important things around the house, and that made me feel s***** mentally. I fell off the rails with diet, sleep and exercise, and was feeling overwhelmed by all the things waiting for me to get done, but I did triage. I managed to get the trash to the road, and after doing one important thing I also did the dishes that were 3 days behind. I didn't really crush it the rest of the day, but I feel good about how the morning went." " Hey, that's really great. It's hard getting going again isn't it? Good for you! Sometimes getting the dishes done is impressive as hell!"
I never really was able to summon the initiative to read a book about organization etc.
But I have learned that short term accountability is really effective to me. The system that has evolved and seems to be working okay is:
Every week I have a meeting with my boss to talk about ongoing projects and what specific tasks I am going to complete on which dates in the coming the coming week.
Every night after the kids are in bed my wife asks me if I have completed everything on my list for that day. (She doesn't need to know what they are)
What works for me is that I'm not overburdening any single person with what's traditionally considered personal organization, and my boss isn't micromanaging me, and doesn't have to follow up with every task. But, I'm still getting the micro accountabilities that give me that sense of urgency because I don't want to tell my wife I didn't succeed.
Not a book but I love the Cortex podcast (website, youtube) for a more vibe-centric approach to productivity and it's great to listen through the back catalogue to see what changed over the years, because neither Myke nor Grey just had a productivity system that was perfect from the start and Grey is very open with his struggles. Episode #101 has a bit of a primer on how to get started, but don't get hung on the apps discussion and more on the parts where they talk about what if someone needs to organise their life. Yearly Themes is also great, especially since the new year is almost here, and you can expect an episode on it this month.
Little warning upfront though, the target audience is very much people who have a lot of tech in their life. You might need to filter through that, and it's easy to bounce off because it's a lot of two relatively rich guys talking about how spending money is solving all their problems. If that's too much, I understand.
From that podcast I've gotten the recommendation of Getting Things Done, which is about the trappings of organising your tasks in your head (especially relevant for people with ADHD, I think) and Triggers, which is about how the environment makes certain tasks easier or harder. Both are good, but both are business books.
It's meant to be used like a field guide while you're in the shit. It's broken down by section (overwhelmed, unmotivated, etc) and you flip to that section and it helps you break it down further to get going.
My favorite is all the "time management / your own business / quit your job / you can follow your dreams too" books.
Every inside cover:
"Bob McBourgoi was just like you, making $500k a year in a soulless corporate job, but like you, he wanted something more from life.
He decided to quit that job (so scary!) and use a fraction of his $80k in savings and a humble plea for a $100k loan from his parents (so brave!) to start on his dream life of being a (game designer / pet stylist / interior vibe checker / indie band frontman / painter).
It was super risky. Could he really tell his Real Housewife that he was turning down the cashflow for a few months? But he took the leap. What a brave guy.
He even wrote this book. All by himself. Definitely. It includes such advice as "If you just believe in yourself" and "manifest that dream" so you too, can do something with your life that's actually your choice."
Bonus points for "Have you tried using a calendar?"
And "The clock is a useful tool to know what time it is."
Obvious for everyone else, and ADHD kids go screw (y)ourselves basically lol.
If something is relevant to having and living with ADHD, it's relevant to this community, regardless of whether you think it's 'political' or not. This is relevant. Dealing with life with ADHD means dealing with so-called 'political' bullshit every day, so...
Cool comic but I'm not sure I would characterize ADHD as a mental illness. Like, I'm not delusional or suffering from anxiety or whatever. I'm just struggling with focus and with doing boring tasks (okay, there's more to it but that would be the gist of it).
ADHD is a mental illness due to it being a disorder. The lack of dopamine uptake is a disorder, as well the symptoms negatively affecting day to day activities and lifestyle is a disorder. I understand the dislike of the term "mental illness" because it has a negative connotation, but it's the truth, and overcoming it requires treating it as such. I've had to come to this realization myself after years of self hate and blame, and my therapist really helped put it into perspective.
The self hate and the blame (and the depression etc.) are mental illnesses and I, too, have benefited greatly from tackling them as such with therapeutic help. But these are comorbidities; they're secondary to ADHD which to me is a neurological issue.