I thought a #GanttChart would help me to manage my #ADHD but the pressure of seeing my deadlines move further and further out as I fail to stick to plans paralyzes me instead.
Having my entire life charted out is the kind of existential pressure I cannot handle. Has anyone else with ADHD had success with Gantt charts? How do you use them?
What has helped me is a #toDo manager. There are many such apps out there. Go through them until you find the perfect one for you. I ultimately landed on Tusk—it has all the functionality I need and is monetized thru a sale rather than subscription model. https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.ulsoft.tusk
A to-do list is not going to cure your ADHD but it does help, especially if it's always with you on your phone and automatically notifies you about your responsibilities. That takes much of the organizational burden off of you and helps you to focus on simply completing tasks instead.
I have the same issues with todo lists. I end up adding everything, then suffering paralysis.
I feel like I need a tool that tells me what I need to do, but even then, I might just do what I want.
#ADHD ers take action when faced with novelty or urgency. Maybe keep those due dates set. But then... you know they are malleable.
@excavist I think the key to making the most of planning for #ADHD brains is to make your tasks really small so you can do them effortlessly to gather momentum, confidence, experience.
Often you can break really big tasks (Run a marathon) into really small tasks (Put on trainers, go outside, walk a little or run a little, repeat and do a little more every day, until you can run the marathon). Make it as easy as possible. Make it so easy you feel silly about it. And then do that easy thing until you can do even more with the same level of minimal effort. Repeat as necessary.
That's how I went from, for example, not being able to do a single pull-up to being able to do five in a row in just four months.
By breaking things down into tiny tasks, even when you lose track thanks to your ADHD, you can get back on track really easily.
@dimi thanks for the great advice. I'll see if I can put it into practice.
Any ideas for getting your priorities straight though?
@excavist Is prioritization important? I think the only time it's important is when you feel time-crunched or overwhelmed. Then, I like to write everything I have to do down. That way I don't have to keep it all in my head. And then I decide which are the one or two most important things on the list and attend to them, ignoring the rest until the most important stuff is done.
If you're not feeling harried or overwhelmed, don't worry about prioritizing. Just focus on doing your little tasks that will build up to goals. You don't have to do the little tasks in a particular order. Just get them done one by one.
