And then realizing maybe it would be easier to have an AI pick similar songs for this project and then spend 2 weeks writing python scripts to do so like 75% of the final goal to only get bored with the project after the hard part is done and leave it unfinished.
only get bored with the project after the hard part is done
Ah yes, the ADHD prioritization list…
Interest
Novelty
Challenge
Urgency
It’s because ADHD people don’t get any “ah, it feels good to complete this thing” dopamine for mundane tasks, and only get it for doing big tasks.
If they’re interested in the thing, then they don’t care about the dopamine reward; The task itself is the reward. Lots of ADHD people will have their comfort games or shows that they can focus on for hours at a time.
If it’s not interesting, it needs to be novel. Learning something new rewards that dopamine in a way that simply doing the task does not. And being challenged in new ways means you get dopamine rewards even for otherwise small tasks.
If it’s not interesting or novel, it needs to be challenging enough for your brain to consider it a large task worth rewarding.
And finally, if it’s not interesting, novel, or challenging, your brain can substitute adrenaline and cortisol in place of dopamine. So the task needs to be urgent enough to trigger those stress hormones. Every person with ADHD has stories of doing a week long project in three hours, because they put it off until it was so stressful that the stress was its own motivator.
If the task doesn’t hit one of those four basic points, it simply won’t be prioritized.
A 10 page research paper with 2 weeks to complete; written overnight and realizing how much more time you should have spent on it, and why did I do this to myself again (no AI to “help” you at that time). Saving, printing, and sprinting to class because you somehow managed to complete it 10 minutes before class starts.
Never considered using “Urgency” as a motivator, but it checks out… a lot. I like to consider it just being “optimistic” about how much time I have
And then realizing maybe it would be easier to have an AI pick similar songs for this project and then spend 2 weeks writing python scripts to do so like 75% of the final goal to only get bored with the project after the hard part is done and leave it unfinished.
Ah yes, the ADHD prioritization list…
It’s because ADHD people don’t get any “ah, it feels good to complete this thing” dopamine for mundane tasks, and only get it for doing big tasks.
If they’re interested in the thing, then they don’t care about the dopamine reward; The task itself is the reward. Lots of ADHD people will have their comfort games or shows that they can focus on for hours at a time.
If it’s not interesting, it needs to be novel. Learning something new rewards that dopamine in a way that simply doing the task does not. And being challenged in new ways means you get dopamine rewards even for otherwise small tasks.
If it’s not interesting or novel, it needs to be challenging enough for your brain to consider it a large task worth rewarding.
And finally, if it’s not interesting, novel, or challenging, your brain can substitute adrenaline and cortisol in place of dopamine. So the task needs to be urgent enough to trigger those stress hormones. Every person with ADHD has stories of doing a week long project in three hours, because they put it off until it was so stressful that the stress was its own motivator.
If the task doesn’t hit one of those four basic points, it simply won’t be prioritized.
A 10 page research paper with 2 weeks to complete; written overnight and realizing how much more time you should have spent on it, and why did I do this to myself again (no AI to “help” you at that time). Saving, printing, and sprinting to class because you somehow managed to complete it 10 minutes before class starts.
Never considered using “Urgency” as a motivator, but it checks out… a lot. I like to consider it just being “optimistic” about how much time I have