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Have you considered if you might have ADHD? If you feel like you have great potential but can never apply it to anything productive, or only for short periods o

Have you considered if you might have ADHD? If you feel like you have great potential but can never apply it to anything productive, or only for short periods of time, then it might be worth first doing an adult ADHD self-assessment checklist (easily available online from official medical sources) and then if you score highly on it, book yourself in for a psychiatric appointment. You may not have it but if you do then it can be a life changing diagnosis and subsequent medication and learned coping mechanisms/coaching.

dlivingston 4y ago
Do you have any good ADHD coping mechanisms or other tricks and tips?
- BirdieNZ 4y ago
  Use alarms and your calendar religiously, alarms for unmissable events, calendar for every appointment. Use your phone for this, you're probably addicted to scrolling or games on it anyway. Exercise and get good sleep. Caffeine helps but isn't as good as ADHD medication. Remove distractions aggressively. Don't beat yourself up when you fail; expect it and move on. Use people in your life to help be your executive function for you. It isn't really fair on them but if they love you they may be willing to anyway. A gym buddy or sports team is another way of achieving this without needing them to love you particularly. Block all the sites you lose hours to, aggressively. You're not smart enough to build a system you can't get out of but you can make it high friction. Same for games or media or whatever it is. Pair programming is tiring but it works for using an external party as your executive function. Keeps you on track. Negative external consequences are motivating but stressful, use sparingly. Try find a job with or structure your life with enough variety to keep you entertained; I find people to be stimulating but YMMV. Medication is far more effective than any coping mechanism.

dlivingston 4y ago

Do you have any good ADHD coping mechanisms or other tricks and tips?

BirdieNZ 4y ago
Use alarms and your calendar religiously, alarms for unmissable events, calendar for every appointment. Use your phone for this, you're probably addicted to scrolling or games on it anyway. Exercise and get good sleep. Caffeine helps but isn't as good as ADHD medication. Remove distractions aggressively. Don't beat yourself up when you fail; expect it and move on. Use people in your life to help be your executive function for you. It isn't really fair on them but if they love you they may be willing to anyway. A gym buddy or sports team is another way of achieving this without needing them to love you particularly. Block all the sites you lose hours to, aggressively. You're not smart enough to build a system you can't get out of but you can make it high friction. Same for games or media or whatever it is. Pair programming is tiring but it works for using an external party as your executive function. Keeps you on track. Negative external consequences are motivating but stressful, use sparingly. Try find a job with or structure your life with enough variety to keep you entertained; I find people to be stimulating but YMMV. Medication is far more effective than any coping mechanism.