Posts Tagged: Distraction

ADHD Traits — 1 Comment
16
Apr 12

You Might Have ADD If…

Jeff Foxworthy does this stand-up comedy bit where he goes through a list of things that, if true about you, might make you a redneck. My personal favorite is, “If you mother does not take the Marlboro out of her lips before telling the state trooper that he can kiss her ass… you might be a redneck.”

My dad’s, who grew up on a farm, favorite is “If you have ever unloaded a pickup truck by driving backwards really fast and slamming on the breaks… you might be a redneck.” He’ll then add, by way of explanation, that that is the fastest way to unload a pickup truck.

I’ve often thought of doing a set of these for ADD. “If you ever <did something>, then you might have ADD.”

Unfortunately, I often forget them before I can compile any sort of list. I figured that if I started chronically them here as I came up with them, then I might get my list of funny ADD traits together faster. Ironically, I had a really great one yesterday that is currently playing hide and seek with my mind. I’m sure it will come to me, again, when I’m somewhere that remembering it will be totally useless to me, like in the shower, or in the car, or while giving a presentation.

Anyway, I had an ADD Moment today that I think would make a decent one. Here goes:

“If you’ve ever been to the fridge to get something you just bought at the store and been unable to find it… because it was still on the counter, you might have ADD.”

It’s a work in progress.

This one came to me because I went to the store this morning. I did not forget the groceries in the back of the car (Score!), but I did have to go to the bathroom as soon as I got them all into the house. After finishing my restroom business, I went about my daily business, only to come back a half an hour later to be surprised by all the groceries still on the counter.

Fortunately, everything was still frozen or cold, as necessary, and I got them all put away.

At times like these, I try and replay what happened in my head. I like to see where I got distracted or where my train of thought derailed. This was one of those times where everything was so rote that I’m not sure I was actively thinking anything at all. At least I can’t remember anything running through my head.

I probably just threw on the autopilot to go into the bathroom and didn’t resume full control until I had moved on to something else.

Update: I just thought of another one.

If you remember that you haven’t eaten lunch yet… at dinner time… you might have ADD.

How’s your Monday?

ADHD Traits — No Comments
6
Dec 11

ADD Blogging Writing with ADHD

I sat down nearly two hours ago to write a post for this oft neglected ADD blog. What happened? Well, not to put too fine a point on it: ADD.

Let me start by saying that I don’t “blame” my ADHD for things. That is neither productive, nor completely accurate. However, it is often the case that I look back and smile when I can see the ADD traits unfolding as I recall recent events.

Let’s start by clarifying what I mean by sitting down to write a post.

English: Symptoms of ADHD described by the lit...What I really mean is that I was looking at the analytics for my personal finance blog at FinanceGourmet when I noticed that the traffic had blipped back up here at Addessories. Curious, I got distracted (Hey, look! Something shiny) and started looking at what posts here were getting increased traffic. Eventually, I hit the big Addessories text at the top of the screen to get back to the home page where I noticed that is has been a very long time since I last wrote here. Doh!

Thus, I decided to write an ADD tips post for this ADHD blog.

To write the post, I entered the WordPress dashboard. So far, so good.

I noticed that a few of the plugins needed to be updated (Uh, oh.)

Of course, I don’t want out of date plugins, so I checked them all and clicked update. When they were finished updating, I should have gone right back to writing, but it seemed like one of my usual plugins was missing. Unable to determine which one, I went and logged into my freelance writing blog in order to look at what plugins where installed there.

If you don’t know how this ends, you must be new here.

Anyway, long story, short, I ended up installing a new plugin, writing a blog post about it (Zemanta WordPress Plugin for Online Writers) at the writing blog and then found about a dozen other things to do including checking Facebook, looking to see when the Broncos play this weekend and checking my Google AdSense earnings.

If it makes anyone feel better, that graphic came from the Zemanta plugin, so it was worth installing :)

 

At this point in time, it is well after 10:00 p.m. and I have numerous things I must do before going to bed, some of which have been urgent for an hour or more, including getting a drink, and ironically, going to the bathroom.

What is the point of all this?

Nothing, other than further proof that I am definitely one of us. Oh, and, now I don’t feel so bad about not actually writing that update even though this one isn’t really too much of an update.

Don’t worry, I’ll be back tomorrow (or the next day). Procrastination is the enemy of all, but especially those of us with the inattentive form of ADD.

See you later.

Uncategorized — 2 Comments
9
Feb 11

Twitter: Automated Distraction for ADD

Twitter is a case lesson in ADD.  Tiny snippets of thought appear out of nowhere, exist for a second or two and then are buried beneath an avalanche of new snippets that pour in.  Each snippet claims to be interesting or important enough to exist, although that is actually true for only a handful of them. 

Some of the snippets have links that point in another, supposedly, interesting direction.  While following those links to glean information or entertainment, the snippets of thought continue to pour into your Twitter stream, each with their own information, entertainment, or links to other stuff.

In reality, the more people you follow on Twitter, the more tweets you have to ignore.  There are methods for determining which tweets should get read and which ones should be dropped into the ether or nothingness.  There are lists to help you organize your tweets, programs that allow you to flag certain people or topics as important, and methods for sending yourself emails or reminders.  Sounds a lot like organizing life!

In the end, however, there is only one lesson to be learned from Twitter, and that is that you can either pay attention to the endless stream of thoughts and distractions that continuously beg for your attention, or you can pay attention to that spreadsheet in the window behind Twitter.  Which one wins out at which particular time determines how productive you will be.

Guess who is writing a blog post about how distracting Twitter is because he just spent a bunch of time ignoring the spreadsheet instead of his new Twitter client?

Have a productive Wednesday!

ADHD Traits — 6 Comments
1
Feb 11

Distraction versus Do It Now

One of the trickiest things about dealing with ADD is that it happens inside of your own brain, which makes it incredibly difficult to be truly objective.  In turn, that lack of objectivity can lead to making bad decisions.

The most important symptom of ADD is being chronically distracted in a manner above and beyond the norm.  This condition is often referred to as distractibility.  Once you have been diagnosed with ADD, you spend a fair amount of time searching for that distraction occurring within your own mind.  This in itself can become a distraction, but we’ll leave that aside for today.

How To Tell If It’s ADD Distraction

add-focus-adhdToday I was working at my desk.  I am a freelance writer who works from home.  I have created a small office in a closet in my basement as a way to both block out the distractions of working at home — TV, Internet, kids playing — and a way to focus on my work.  My desk fits against a wall.  On either side are shelves with office supplies, books and printers.  All in all, as distraction free of an environment as you can get without resorting to blank walls, empty desks, and soundproofing.  Still, as an adult with ADD, distractions pop into my brain all of the time without any additional stimulus.

On this particular morning, the thought that showed up uninvited in my mind was that I needed to make a phone call that I had been putting off for a few days.  Like many people with ADHD, I would think of making the call, decide to do it "in a minute" and then forget all about it.  So, when it came up during a time when I was both willing and able to make the call, I grabbed the opportunity.

When I returned to my desk, I started beating myself up about getting distracted while I was supposed to be working.  Then, it hit me.

Was I really distracted, or did I finally take care of something that needed to be done by doing it right away.

This is, of course, a trick question.

  • Doing something that needs to be done right away is a good thing.
  • Stopping what you are supposed to be doing in order to do something else is a bad thing.

The trick is that it was not a "bad" thing to take care of something that needed to be taken care of.  What was a "bad" thing was not doing it before during all of the other windows that were available so that I didn’t have to interrupt what I needed to be doing to finally take care of it.

As ADDers, we beat ourselves up too much anyway.  Be sure that you are at least trying to correct the right thing.

In this case, I should have been proud of myself for returning immediately to work after making the call and glad that the task had been completed.  The correction that I need to make is getting to these things before I should be focusing on something else.

Oh, and the other thing I need to work on a bit is not writing blog posts whenever I have a thought about ADD instead of getting back to work on the paying freelance writing gig that is due this week :)

ADHD Traits — No Comments
8
Jun 10

Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder – Distracted By Boring Stuff

boring-wall When I first envisioned what the addessories.com website would be like, I pictured a site where both adults with ADHD and teens with ADD and even children with ADHD could get ADHD tools, products, tips and yes, accessories for ADD lifestyles. The idea was that of the many books, magazines, websites and organizations for ADHD out there, there was, and still is, a lack of actual useable tools and products for helping with ADHD symptoms and making time management and organization easier for people with ADD.

(What is with switching between ADD and ADHD all the time? – What is the difference between ADD and ADHD?)

For example, every book about ADHD or ADD article you read is going to tell you to do things like make lists, use reminders, and of course get a calendar or organizer to help you get more organized. Of course, unless you are incredibly un-self-aware (Whew, too many hyphens!) chances are that you already have tried tons of planners and calendars and lists and various organizational systems. If you were diagnosed with ADHD as an adult, chances are that you have desperately tried buying calendars and Palm Pilots and BlackBerries and the like hundreds of times in an effort to work better, organize better, and be a better husband, father, dad, wife, mother, or mom. After all, one of the symptoms of ADHD is not liking to be disorganized.

That is why I have started work (again) on the ADHD Planner which will be a calendar and organizational system specifically designed for people with ADD to use. Since no two cases of ADD are exactly alike, the ADD planner will be customizable based upon your particular case of attention deficit disorder.

What Is It Like Having ADHD or What Is ADD Really Like

Along the way, to creating my utopia of the best ADHD gadgets and top ADD tips and tricks, I’ve gotten side tracked.

Now, I know what you are thinking, and yes, I get distracted just like everyone else, both with and without ADHD. However, in this particular case, the distraction has been a bit of a good news / bad news sort of thing. The delay it has caused in making this ADHD website what I want it to be is the bad news. The good news is that much of the distraction has come in the form of increased work for my freelance writing business, which until I get all of these products created, manufactures, and sold, pays the bills.

However, there has been an unexpected distraction in the form of visitors to this website. They come here for many reasons. Almost everyone who ever lays eyes on this website for attention deficit hyperactivity disorder comes here via results for queries made on search engines. When that happens, there is a log of information that basically says what the keywords were that were used to search for ADHD or ADD. This is, of course, why I constantly shift between using ADD/ADHD and why I also try and spell out both acronyms at least once per post.

The really odd thing is that a lot of the traffic to Addessories comes from searches for things like:

  • What is ADHD really like?
  • What does ADHD feel like?
  • Is ADHD a real things?
  • How Do I Know If I Have ADHD?
  • and so on…

The weird part is that this is isn’t really a broadly covered topic. Read any of the major ADHD books out there and you will get a clinical description of ADHD as well as a handful of what I have come to call either "Me too stories," or "Sob stories," depending on my mood. These are the "examples" or "cases" that the PhDs that crank out these books write about where a patient or client of theirs relates how ADHD has affected their life in some way.

What is almost always missing from these writings is an indication of what ADHD actually feels like, or what it is like inside the ADHD brain. I don’t know if this is due to the difficulty in describing it, or if it not scientific enough to relate in formal writings, or (if I’m feeling jaded) if the authors of these books really don’t know because they don’t really have ADHD or it is something very minor to their overall life.

Whatever the reason, people keep coming for answers about what ADHD is like in the real world, outside of the clinics and counseling sessions. Therefore, I will endeavor to keep exploring this avenue in detail and welcome your help in doing so. After all, I can only tell you what it is like inside of my brain.

With all of that being said, I think I may have finally gotten into words a key concept about what ADHD is like and how ADHD is different from everyone getting distracted sometimes.

As I have said in the past, and most ADHD authorities point out, ADD involves an unusually high level of distractibility on a chronic (on-going) basis, not just getting distracted sometimes by distracting things. Which brings me to my pseudo-epiphany which we will cover in more depth in the next post.

The difference between ADHD and regular distraction is that people with ADHD get distracted all of the time by things that are NOT distracting.

Put another way, ADDers get distracted by boring stuff just as often as they do by exciting stuff.

If you have ever brought home a brand-new DVD release that you have been dying to watch and ended up cleaning the dust bunnies you noticed under your TV stand instead, you know what I’m talking about. I needed to be reminded a half-dozen times not to use up all of the already minimal time we had for "date night" because I was trying to get a laptop to play the DVD onto the TV so that I could show her some of the new features in Windows Media Center. Instead of eating popcorn, laying on the couch, and watching the movie I desperately wanted to see (and which she has no interest in, but agreed to watch for me) I was trying to find the online manual for my laptop. Instead of fun, I was troubleshooting keys, software, and S-video cables.

In other words, I got distracted by something boring. That, my friends, is what it is like to have ADD.

ADHD Traits — 2 Comments
11
May 09

What It Is Like to Have ADD/ADHD – Adventure 2

coke-can In our continuing series on what it’s like to have ADD comes this little gem, not second hand, not from reading, or talking to people with ADD but from me, this afternoon. E

For the last 2 hours I’ve been dying of thirst.  I keep saying, “Ok, get up and get some water,” but with each mouse click and keyboard stroke there appears one more thing.  Just one more little thing, and then I’ll go.

Of course, my most pressing project has been behind all of the other Windows on my computer screen since I booted up this morning.  I’ve gotten plenty of interesting (read new, and not due today) projects done since lunch time.  I’ve re-ordered the Netflix queue, ordered decorations for the baby’s room, bought a new pre-paid plan on Shutterfly, and emailed a dozen people about maybe refinancing our mortgage or second mortgage just to see if we can save some money.

Oh, and I’ve updated Facebook about 20 times.

Back to the drink.

So, I finally stood up, mostly because the urge to drink something had been joined by an overwhelming urge to also visit the bathroom.  I have no idea how long my leg has been bouncing autonomously like that.

And what should my eyes notice, just 12 inches away from my main desk surface sitting atop the “L” on the way to the door (next to my day planner by the way)?  An unopened Coke that I had retrieved the last time I was thirsty (and the phone rang).

ADD/ADHD – It’s not just distraction, it’s not noticing.  (That’s my new slogan.  I’m working on the jingle…instead of going to the restroom….)

***************  Not bad. Just 4 minutes to find clip-art instead of my ADHD distracted by clip art!

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ADHD — 4 Comments
3
Mar 09

Ever Been Distracted By Clip Art?

While finishing up the post from yesterday about what it is like to have ADD, I went to find a picture to go with the post.  I spent over 11 minutes on this screen. (I have an electronic timing software on my computer so I can bill clients for my work, and it catches everything.)

clip organizer

I didn’t find an image like the one I wanted.  Normally, that would have sent me off on an hour long search for better clip art, but I have implemented a rule for myself that when it comes to blog posts, I am only allowed to use Microsoft Clip Organizer for clip art.  It’s not that I think it is the best source of clip art, but I know that if I start looking at other sites, I’m going to find posts and links and pictures that intrigue me, and I will end up losing a lot of precious time by following and read each interesting item.

That is another example of what it is like to have ADHD.

Even with my rule, I still spent a crazy amount of time on that one screen.  Why?

It’s not like I remember every thought I had (ADD remember?) but I do remember some of them.  In no particular order, here is what caused my own ADD brain to get bogged down on this seemingly minor task.

  • The two images at the top with the gold globe head look like skeletons, are they?
  • Previewing the images says no, but they are really kind of cool.  I wonder if there is a way to search by who created the images because maybe there are a bunch of these and you could use them as a theme sometime on some project or website.
  • Why is there an empty boardroom table, but not one with people around it?
  • The cartoon ones in the middle aren’t even in a meeting.  There is just one of them, a boy one, and a girl one, holding a pen.  Doesn’t anybody proof these?  Maybe I should build a clip art gallery site.
  • An empty movie theatre type room is not a meeting either.
  • I wonder if Microsoft pays someone to draw these so they have a full clip-art thing?
  • Maybe I should check another site…oh,wait, I’ll just get distracted – Hey, that would make a great Addessories post.
  • Note, I was only supposed to write one post today.  I have other things with pressing deadlines waiting, and until I typed this sentence, I had forgot all about them.
  • Don’t worry, they are on my task list that I printed this morning.
  • And left on the printer.
  • I should get it.
  • Ok, now where was I?
  • Oh, man, how much more time did you waste writing this post?
  • Just finish up real fast.
  • What else was I stalled by on the site?
  • .
  • .
  • .
  • .
  • .
  • .
  • Oops.  Never mind, the word counter says almost 500 words.  Just sign off and get back to work.

Um…bye.  I have to go do…well, one of these things on the task list.

Now, I just need a clip art for this post…..

(Ed. note – there is no clip art because I was out of coffee and went to get some.  When I came back I wasn’t interested in this post anymore, so I used the time / task list as an excuse and just hit post instead.)

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