Help me stop wasting weekends procrastinating leaving the house (ADHD)

[Question183]

I feel like I am wasting my life every weekend by procrastinating and wasting hours before I eventually get ready and get out the door

I am an early riser and I love the quiet mornings. I want to get up and just get out early to get on with plans, but I find I sit down and have a cup of tea to start the day and then find ways to put off getting ready and leaving the house. Then suddenly half the day is gone and the weekend has been wasted.

I’d love to be able to get up and just go for a short walk to start the day before I get ready for the day properly, but I’ve never been able to do it

I have ADHD which is where most of this problem stems from and I wish it was as simple as ‘just doing it’ but unfortunately isn’t..

I am a true homebody and I do think I also have some anxiety about leaving once I’m inside, but once I’m out the door I love it and feel frustrated that I’ve wasted so much time inside!

Can anyone relate? Any tips to help me just get out the door?

Book something in early eg coffee with a friend or gym class.

Would you consider medication OP? Are you properly diagnosed ?

Same here. Sometimes I get up and drive 15 mins to the woods for a walk. Then I go home have breakfast, shower etc.
If I don’t I’m rotting all day.

Get everything ready to go out the night before. Clear the obstacles out of your path.

Yes, diagnosed and just started medication! I am on the lowest dose and will be going up to next dose next week to see if it improves, I’ve had varying success day to day (eg, yesterday I felt the effects of the medication much stronger than today).

I am hoping this will help me in the long term, but I’d love to have some physical/real life coping mechanisms to help me change my habits.

I do know my phone is one big problem - I have deleted all social media to reduce my temptation to doom scroll, which has helped for sure - but I find I am just replacing it with different websites to pass the time

Yes this is a really good point - I do find that if I have to wash my hair in the morning, I then sit around for ages afterwards and it’s much harder to transition to ‘get ready and go’ mode - it’s much easier for me to get up and go if I have showered the night before.

yes medication does depend on how you take , e.g empty stomach or which meal etc hence the impact changes day 2 day

I always take empty stomach otherwise it doesn’t work for me

with regards to habits , once you’ve stabilised on your meds and can see positive impact, perhaps consider adding in some good habits (walks, exercise, meet ups or similar). For me either meds or strong protein only diet help, so I do need to enforce one of these two , to get mental stability and get things done

good luck , not easy !

Op, get washed and dressed before you do anything else. Get your stuff ready the day and keep your phone away from your bed.

Yes another good point, every evening I tell myself that I will wake up and brush my teeth/do skincare etc as the first thing when I wake up instead of waiting until I’ve sat down with my cup of tea as I know this is hindering me. But I’ve never been able to do it yet!

I will try again tomorrow.

I also do want to buy an alarm clock so I can completely remove my phone from my bedroom. I wake up and scroll on my phone for ages which makes me feel awful - I hate it and it starts the day off badly

@Question183
Some things that help me to get going early:
— hanging my towel on the bedroom door so I literally roll out of bed, pick it up and go straight to the bathroom for a wee then shower.
— plugging my phone in downstairs
— hanging the next days clothes on my wardrobe door the night before
— having a smoothie ready to blitz in the fridge

Anything to reduce morning friction so I can get up and out quickly. I like the routine on work mornings but still struggle a bit at weekends.

Get a travel mug and make the tea into that. DON'T SIT DOWN.

Thanks everyone! These are some great tips - I am determined to action some of these for myself, sick and tired of wasting time and feeling awful about it

I use chatgpt...tell it what I want to achieve and it gives me a schedule for the day. I'm not good without a plan

Following for tips as I'm very similar @Question183

If anyone finds a decent alarm clock that can replace the phone please post here 🙏

It’s awful isn’t it @Scorchingmed? I desperately want to get up and outside and enjoy life but I can’t just seem to get my brain to do it, and it makes me feel awful

It really is awful.

I'm only good when I have work or meeting someone. Last year I was working 6 days a week to keep myself within a routine but wasn't great for my health. Have scaled back work now however end up wasting loads of time on my days off and feel horrible about it.

I’m not officially diagnosed, OP, but I highly suspect I have inattentive ADHD. I could have written your post word for word, so I will be making sure to read all of the comments left by others. I know I am stuck in a loop, but I just can’t get out of it.

Agree, having to get up and go to work regulates my brain. Think being a nurse and having to be punctual and organised has helped me over the decades
The last few days and working part part time now means I just stay in bed with a dialogue in my head

ie where to walk the dog,
which supermarket to go too
what to wear ,changed my clothes 3 times today!
Which cupboards to sort out
Am exhausted and not really achieved anything today …I realise this has been my life but have kind of ignored my problems until now!

I have the same problem. I sometimes get around it by booking to go for a morning walk with a friend.

But also, first thing, I make a cup of tea and go outside. I feed the birds, do some stretches, dead head some flowers or pull some weeds - all tiny jobs that last 5 minutes each but it gives me a bit of time in the fresh air, early on.

Also - a bullet journal. Write down three small tasks and do them.

And make a note of what you did do at the end of the day - however small. I spent hours today binge watching TV. But I also cleaned, tidied, hoovered, did three laundry loads, line dried and folded them, did a bit of ironing, repotted some plants, fed pets and birds, walked to the shops for food, went for a walk with DH, cooked a healthy dinner, discussed DS's wedding plans with him, did a short kettlebell and weights workout. Writing that down makes me feel better than if I listed the hours I spent watching TV and scrolling online.