Does Your To-Do List Just Get Longer?

How many times do you go through the day, and at the end of the day realize you didn’t get done half of what you intended?  But, how could that be possible, you were doing stuff all day!  This is a very common problem, for everyone.  Especially for people with ADHD.

 

Don’t feel bad, this doesn’t mean that you are not doing something right, or that you will never figure it out, even though you have tried EVERY personal productivity solution out there!  It just means you didn’t figure it out today.  But hold on, there is hope.

 

For those of us with ADHD there are a few reasons that we don’t get done what we would like.  Among them are:

 

·         Setting unrealistically high expectations

·         Working in environments that are not conducive to us getting the most work done (traditional settings are often quite challenging for ADDers)

·         Being easily distracted

·         Not effectively prioritizing our daily activities at the beginning of the day

·         Because we tend to work from the whole picture down to the pieces, it can be hard to figure out where to start on a particular task

 

Though each of these reasons, and there are more, deserve, in fact, require, their own solution and attention, there are a few things you can do to help things improve.

 

First, try to be realistic in your expectations of yourself.  If you think you already are, you may be right.  Then again, maybe you’re not.  Try taking your expectations of when a certain project will be done, and giving yourself and extra 10%, to allow for unexpected surprises (you know the ones, the kitchen sink overflows, flooding the kitchen, or the microwave catches on fire when your pre-teen inadvertently puts metal in there).  This can be very helpful in allowing yourself to give yourself a break!

 

Try to be in control of your environment.  If you work best with a little background noise but your office is constantly silent, try an iPod.  Listening to background music can help tune out the little noises that so often pull our attention away from the task at hand (just make sure it’s not your favorite music.  Singing along to the lyrics at work could be bad.  Funny, but bad).

 

Next Monday I will address some of the other challenges to getting our daily lists done.  And keep an eye out for an upcoming announcement that will help you clear that age-old to do list!