Stuck
Posted this in the general forum and it was usggested I might want to post it here even though it is not strictly ADD/ADHD related.
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I have LB on a PC and my Palm. My problem/issue is how often to check my Palm during the day to figure out where I am going.
I have issues with depression and mania. I am a driven person who has the idea that I can keep things in my head and not depend on lists too often. I tend not to be able to sit idle (sitting at the beach reading abook is my idea of hell). So I am always doing something. I have this false belief that I can get everything done.
So I want to use LB to free my mind a bit and become more at ease with not being perfect and realizing I can't get it all done. I am just having a really hard time developig the habit of letting LB be the tool rather than my own mind. I don't seem to want to take the time to do brain dumps during the day into LB to capture stuff. I am too busy getting things done.
Now I don't expect metal health advice (I have a therapist for that. :-) ). Just looking for some tricks /encouragement to making LB usage a habit.
Comments
RE: Stuck
Thanks for saving me the trouble of saying be sure to talk to your doctor and/or therapist. :-)
Here's a simple rule of thumb, check Life Balance whenever you are getting ready to "switch gears." For instance, When you first arrive at work and are getting ready for the day. Then again if you have been working in the morning, and you are getting ready to go to lunch and might run some errands.
If you are at home, and are switching from one project to the next, you might want to make sure that you pick a project from the top of the list that will contribute to your goals and wellbeing.
You don't have to check with Life Balance constantly, just when the situation is changing, and you might want to do something different.
--Catherine--*
Catherine E. White
President
www.llamagraphics.com
Creators of Life Balance software
for Palm OS, Macintosh and Windows.
RE: Stuck
It's unclear whether Dilbert is ADD, but for others who might be and who are reading this, it's important to factor in that "switching gears" is exactly the point where ADD interferes. Either you switch gears too easily, or you don't switch gears at all.
So while Catherine's advice is good, some people might find it useful to augment it with other tools. I keep a timer application going logging the time I've spent on a task; the point of this is not so much the timer, but the visual reminder of what I'm doing. If I find myself doing something different than what I'm timing, I get a conscious decision point to change the timer or go back to what I was doing. I can do either; the point is that I make a deliberate choice.
On the other hand, that doesn't prevent you from staying too long on one task -- so it's useful to set an alarm on a countdown timer to create a second decision point. This is especially important for tasks that are open-ended and could theoretically take forever (read/reply to email, surf web, organize LB outline <wink>).
RE: Stuck
Hi Civitan,
Very helpful answer - the transitions are hard for a lot of people, ADD or not. All artists have that problem - getting started and stopping are both almost impossible without help. Thank you for your thoughtful comment!
Best wishes,
Jean