Adult ADHD and giant work project

[xigris]

Hi

I am as sure as I can be that I have ADHD: my DD has it and when she was diagnosed the psychiatrist asked me if I’d considered being assessed myself.

When I told my Mum, in a haha guess-what-the-doctor-said kind of way, she told me that looking back on my childhood / school days that she’d agree and that my DD is just like me.

I’ve researched loads about ADHD to support my DD and a lot of it is like a light bulb in terms of my own behaviours.

For a variety of reasons I haven’t spoken to my GP / done anything about being formally assessed. I’ve been incredibly luckily in that I found my career niche in a full on, demanding profession that is physical rather than desk based. Day to day, I have 4 DC and a brilliant DH. I thrive on being busy busy and on my feet. I do not do well behind a computer or being sedentary.

So all great and I’ve managed by learning to be hyper organised and on the go.

But now there’s a problem: I have been given a big work project to do and it involves a lot of desk work. In terms of the people side of things and the organising, I’m good. But the actual sitting down and doing what I need to do? Not so good. AT ALL. I believe the term is ADHD paralysis. I LIKE the work. I’m INTERESTED in it. I just can’t START it in terms of the stuff I have to do by myself.

I could get the Nobel Prize for Procrastination.

I work really well under pressure but this deadline is months away and could never be done last minute so I can’t even rely on my trusty hyper focus which has always served me so well at the 11th hour with exams and essays etc.

If you’ve got so far then thank you loads! Please, do any of you have any suggestions? I’m getting really twitched as a lot rides on this project.

Can you put a daily meeting in your diary that you use for the project. So at 10am or whatever time, you only concentrate on that?

Can you create a plan, with a series of deadlines? You can then use your hyperfocus to meet each mini-deadline, rather than trying to think of the whole project.
It might only work if you can convince yourself that each mini-deadline is absolutely essential (which it actually will be in terms of finishing the whole project!). Is there anyone who could hold you accountable, week by week? Someone you could send your work to?

Thank you so much to both of you!

@Purpleavocado - this is a good idea and could work for me. I think part of the problem is I’m a shift worker so it’s difficult to have a routine where I can have a specific time / day. I annoy myself because I WANT to do this project it’s just the doing it aaarghhh

@Bubbleswithsqueak - this is great and I’m going to try and make a plan with deadlines tomorrow. It would actually work very well for this project as it can be broken down very easily. I would love to have someone to send stuff to but at my level this would be viewed as very strange and probably not in a good light. That said, you’ve made me think of one person who’d probably be very sympathetic to the idea as she has a ND child herself. Hmmm. That’s something to think about.