Being ADHD

On procrastination

(extracts from my January and December 2011 Newsletters)

Newsletter January 2011

Hello, it’s been a while!

I could pretend that it was always my intention to produce an occasional newsletter but the reality is that I always planned to produce a monthly newsletter. The dark forces of procrastination have triumphed over the last months, winning the battle against my desire to write the newsletter – procrastination is not pleasant, not satisfying and not at all enjoyable. Avoiding a task makes me feel like there is a dark cloud always hovering over my head, the “must get it done soon cloud”.

Grey clouds

I think all adults with ADHD have experienced this cloud or more likely many of these clouds hovering over their heads most, if not all of the time. We procrastinate, we distract ourselves, we delay, we make excuses even when we know the task needs to be done, we know why it should, we know how to do it yet we still cannot convince ourselves to start.

Bizarrely we procrastinate over enjoyable tasks too, I quite enjoy writing these newsletters, it’s really not so bad as I type up this paragraph, one eye on the TV!

So I really do not know why it has taken me six months to get back on task, I know my perfectionism and my ADHD impacted time-sense are the likely culprits.

We can intellectually appreciate the value and point in taking action but still fail to do so.

So as I write this I will keep saying to myself: “writing is enjoyable”, “it’s easy”, “this is rewarding” and hopefully this month, January, I will banish my “dark clouds” and deliver my next newsletter on time!

Newsletter December 2011

Hello, it’s been awhile!

I started the year off in the January Newsletter discussing procrastination. This December Newsletter is the first monthly newsletter since then!! I have certainly managed to demonstrate my own ADHD strengths of avoidance, distraction, overwhelm, general multi-plate spinning and occasional plate dropping!

I began writing this “monthly” newsletter on several prior occasions over the course of this year, each time hopefully changing the month in the title and over-writing the previous failed attempt. A fair proportion of what I had already written then had to be deleted as it had already become out of date and irrelevant. I would then start to write new material, only to be distracted again onto other more important/interesting tasks instead.

I don’t like being lazy

Life as a lazy procrastinator can be very disappointing and unfulfilling. I loathe the word lazy, it implies we choose or even want to procrastinate, that somehow we find pleasure in avoidance. So not true, sure it can be fleetingly more engaging to watch TV or browse the net, but long term it is far, far more miserable and unrewarding being lazy, than ever it is being productive!

Andrew Lewis

Andrew Lewis is an ADHD Coach, writer and founder of SimplyWellbeing. He has over 10,000 hours and 15 years of experience in coaching hundreds of ADHD executives, business professionals and creatives, and previously running a large ADHD support group and an ADHD diagnostic clinic. His business expertise comes from a twenty years career in software, from programming, through marketing, sales and running a few start-ups. His ADHD insight is personal, with decades understanding his own ADHD experience and in bringing up his ADHD daughter. He has published his writing primarily via this website, with interactive ADHD courses in development.