Five sentence summary
Problems with organizing, focusing, and motivation can all make writing a struggle. By working with our brains rather than against them and understanding what motivates us, we can remove some of the barriers and write with less frustration.
ADHD folks have difficulty writing for a few reasons: motivating ourselves to do boring tasks is an epic battle, organizing our ten million creative and connected thoughts is a marathon unlike any other, and focusing on a single task, idea, or paragraph isn't something our brains are designed to do.
We are motivated by urgency, interest, challenge, and novelty and I find it's helpful to remember this even when motivation isn't my problem. For example, maybe I can organize my thoughts better if I write an outline but work backwards. The challenge of working backwards makes the task more fun while helping me organize myself. Working with my ADHD rather than against it always works better for me. Organizing
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Five sentence summary Focusing for hours on end, especially when the topic is boring or repetitive, does not come easily to folks with ADHD. There are some steps you can take all own your own, like finding a note-taking buddy or recording the lecture (see my warnings!) and there are other steps you can take that require asking for an adjustment but not making any disability obvious, like asking for an outline of the talk in advance or asking for a break after 45 minutes. Our focus depends on a variety of factors, like hunger, ability to fidget, proximity to distractions, and it's worth thinking critically about how you focus. Identifying patterns can help us decide which tips and tricks will be most effective under which circumstances. Listening to someone talk for three hours, whether as an undergraduate student or as part of a workshop, can be daunting for those with ADHD. There are some things you can do to make focusing for extended periods of time easier, and some don't even require disclosing you have trouble focusing. Having a straight-forward, honest conversation about your needs is obviously ideal, but not every instructor, conference organizer, or speaker is disability-friendly. For one-time events, it's probably not worth your time to investigate whether or not the session leader is knowledgeable about accessibility or holds any ableist views. For longer workshop series or courses, disclosing your access needs might make more sense. I personally don't recommend saying "ADHD" at all because it's so misunderstood. That said, I do recommend, "My brain is a little different, I have a disability, etc." if you think it's safe. Steps you can take without talking to the prof or speaker:
***Recording lectures, talks, and etc. should be done with the utmost care and respect. In some cases, recording without someone's permission isn't even legal. There are often serious concerns about privacy, intellectual property, and so forth. Recordings should be used only for your own learning, should not be shared without permission, should be stored securely, and should be deleted when you have completed taking any notes. Even if you determine it is legal to record a talk without the person's permission, I advise seriously considering the potential implications and exercising extreme restraint and caution. It is better to ask for permission and explain you are recording due to a disability. Five sentence (or less) summary: Don't just set out to do something; set out to do a tiny part of it and to do it badly. Identifying the absolute lowest possible bar you could set and incrementally raising it will hopefully be humorous and result in some hits of dopamine. There are no hidden expectations here. You're not giving yourself permission to do poorly ("but I really should fold ALL of the laundry"), your goal is to do poorly. We often have trouble getting started on a task, especially if it's boring, has multiple steps, and isn't going to result in an easy dopamine hit. Like most of us, I had a paper to write that I could not possibly have been less interested in. I didn't care about the consequences of not writing the paper, so anxiety as a motivator wasn't going to work. I had scheduled out my time. I knew what I had to do, and nothing.
I. did. not. care. I was reading writing tips from a fiction author, and she recommended writing badly. Yep, you have this huge paper to write, you can't get started, setting a timer for ten minutes and working isn't going well, so write a horrible introduction. Write badly. Your goal is no longer to write "the introduction" or "an introduction," your goal is to literally write "a bad introduction." It's a variation of taking the pressure completely off and just write something, but your honest goal is to write poorly. Why? Takes the pressure off and honestly it is kind-of fun. ADHD folks often need that last part. I've adapted this as the years have gone on to what I'm calling the low bar reverse limbo. |
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