Dummy task as an avoidance inhibitor?
Hello fellow ADHD people!
I had a weird idea today. I've noticed that sometimes I have a single specific task that I avoid incredibly painfully, to the point where, even on my best days, I basically do everything else. And it makes other things easier because the more I think about the task that I'm avoiding, the more my brain is running away to do other things.
It made me wonder, maybe I can make a dummy task that isn't really critical, but make myself think that it is, and avoid it, therefore increasing my motivation to do other tasks as a form of avoidance.
Any opinions or experiences about this?
7 replies
Your brain after you thought you can trick yourself: "Am I a joke to you?"
I've found that in order to become comfortable doing something routinely I need to find my reason for wanting to do it. Forget about the usual reasons people do these things and find your own. I have found that trying to trick myself or bargain with myself really doesn't work.
The simplest example is wanting to do something not because it needs done, but because I know doing the stuff I like will feel better with everything else taken care of beforehand e.g. sitting down to play games on the PC feels great, but it feels even better knowing I've done the dishes etc.
I've also found that it takes me a long time to introduce something into my routine but once it's there it's pretty rock solid. So I try not to put pressure on myself. If it takes months to adjust my routine for one thing then so be it.
I feel like the "make yourself think it's critical" bit is the hard part.
it has been my experience that avoiding these type of tasks leads to me completing my personal "backlog" of projects. so if you are struggling with how you feel after avoiding said task, try to look at what you did get done and take those minor victories.
Doesn't work for me, just as ineffective as self-imposed deadlines unfortunately.
I suppose it would have to be something truly more challenging than anything else you could be doing. Maybe 'save the world'? But it has to be something specific and actionable.
Been struggling with this