Photo by Colin White on Unsplash
When I Have All the Tools, I'll Be Productive.
Procrastinating like there is no tomorrow? Join the club.
You think to yourself I can’t get to it, I can’t work in this environment, I live in a third-world country, the internet is bad, I don’t have a proper desk, my parents won’t stop asking me to do chores, not to mention how much I love to procrastinate on my own.
Hi, sorry if I misled you so far, but this is not an article to tell you how to get out of the cycle of procrastination, I’m still in it, even though I moved out, I’m alone with just a roommate in a university dorm, I’m completely responsible for my screw-ups. Writing helps me think, and hey maybe I’ll find a good enough solution and write it at the end or link you to another article (check the content table!).
Some Context About Me
I was born and raised in Sudan, you don’t know Sudan? It’s just a third-world country with war and all the baggage that comes with it, good for me I was mostly away from the conflict until last year when it really went to sh*t.
Long story, short. Decent family, school-smart, sarcastic, computer nerd kid, didn’t get bullied much, and didn’t bully… much, loved technology but settled on software (for now), failed every project I started in my life, and somehow maintained some confidence to start more (now that I think about it I probably do this to convince my self that I’m not giving up though I already gave up on said projects, and started others, and yes I did cling to some of those until I couldn’t anymore but maybe I should’ve clung even harder, like with my software project I should’ve at least published them before I ditched them, but I couldn’t make payment from Sudan to release on the play store, but I still had social media and GitHub, which is also grouped with social media for some…), my latest attempt after the war caught up to as, was getting a scholarship my mom had found online to Indonesia, and guess what…
I Got The Scholarship Now What?
Finally, something worked out my way, I have Strong to decent internet, I can make online purchases, I’m not broke, I have a quiet room and roommate, and I can manage my time…. My Brain: ADHD.
Me: what!?
My Brain: you have ADHD.
Me: No! I might have ADHD, and what does that have to do with managing my time?!
Me: *goes on with different plans and strategies to manage time*
Me: Oh!
Yeah maybe it’s on my ADHD (if I really had it), I still need to get sh*t done, how you ask? I don’t know, let me think about it.
Thinking
okay, let’s say I have ADHD, lots of plans and strategies didn’t work out, but I also give up quickly and switch to another. I can also get a bit obsessive and hyper-fixate on getting some stuff done. But I can’t follow my plans, maybe I should have a system that doesn’t need me to follow plans that have pre-decided times and duration for the tasks. I probably do that because I get distracted by the easy dopamine early in the morning and I keep wanting more. Maybe I can
Wing it and do things last second like I always did.
Try and keep true to a strategy for a month and track myself maybe write about it, that’s what I built Time Logger for.
Make my tasks extremely small and quickly go over them.
Do one thing a day. I believe I read/watched something like this, something called Theme Days. It’s exactly what it sounds like: You do a group of things that share similar characteristics and/or need specific conditions.
Keep away from my phone and social media (YouTube) in the morning.
Try dopamine fasting… again.
Completely forbid unnecessary dopamine?
Seeking help, maybe sign up with Betterhelp?
I don’t know, all of these sound perfect like they’re the solution I’ve been looking for but if the past is any indicator, they won’t work!
What I’ll be doing for now
I guess I’ll go with a combination of these ideas, so here is the plan.
I’ll start dopamine fasting for a week to possibly take control and then regulate the dopamine I’m allowed to have and when I can have it.
I’ll try the theme day strategy.
after I overview my financial situation I think I’ll give BetterHelp a go for two weeks or so.
If you are still reading, you might want to stick around to see how things turn out, I’m probably going to upload the actual plan I’ll be undergoing.
