for anyone who needs to hear it:

if something you can’t seem to control is chewing on your mental space and negatively impacting your life - making it hard to think positive, get out of bed, get work done, remember what you need to do, clean your spaces, etc - you are NOT:

• making things up
• being a lazy bum
• making excuses
• deliberately ruining your life
• a bad person

you ARE:

• noticing something is wrong with your health
• in need of assessment and treatment to get better!

aka why tf am i procrastinating on The Thing (more like a flowchart, actually)

lots of people who have executive function difficulties worry about whether they’re procrastinating on a task out of laziness/simply wanting to be a jerk or mental struggles. this checklist might help you figure out which it is at any given time! (hint: it’s almost never laziness or being a jerk.) (obligatory disclaimer: this is just what works for me! something different might work better for you.)

1) do I honestly intendto start the task despite my lack of success?

• yes: it’s a Brain Problem. next question
  
• no: it’s shitty to say one thing & do another. better be honest with myself & anyone expecting me to do the task.
  

2) am I fed, watered, well-rested, medicated properly, etc?

• yes:next question
  
• no:guess what? this is the real next task

3) does the idea of starting the task make me feel scared or anxious?

• yes: Anxiety Brain. identify what’s scaring me first.
• no:next question

4) do I know how to start the task?

• yes:next question
  
• no:ADHD Brain. time to make an order of operations list.

5) do I have everything I need to start the task?

• yes:next question
  
• no:ADHD Brain lying to me about the steps again, dangit. first task is ‘gather the materials’.

6) why am i having a hard time switching from my current task to this new task?

• i’m having fun doing what i’m doing: it’s okay to have fun doing a thing! if task is time-sensitive, go to next question.
• i have to finish doing what i’m doing: might be ADHD brain. can I actually finish the current task or will I get trapped in a cycle? does this task really need to be finished?
• the next task will be boring/boring-er than the current task: ADHD brain. re-think the next task. what would make it exciting? what am I looking forward to?
• I might not have enough time to complete the task: ADHD brain wants to finish everything it starts. (if task is time-sensitive, go to next question)
• i just want to make the person who asked me to do it angry: sounds like anxiety brain trying to punish itself, because I know I’ll be miserable if someone is angry at me. why do i think I deserve punishment?
• no, I seriously want to piss them off: okay, i’m being a shithead

7) have I already procrastinated so badly that I now cannot finish the task in time?

• yes: ADHD brain is probably caught in a guilt-perfection cycle. since I can’t have the task done on time, i don’t even want to start.
  

reality check: having part of a thing done is almost always better than none of a thing done. if I can get an extension, having part of it done will help me keep from stalling out until the extension deadline. i’ll feel better if I at least try to finish it.

• no, there’s still a chance to finish on time: ADHD brain thinks that I have all the time in the world, but the truth is I don’t. 

reality check: if i’m having fun doing what I’m doing, I can keep doing it, but I should probably set a timer & ask someone to check on me to make sure I start doing the task later today.

8) I’ve completed the checklist and still don’t know what’s wrong!

• probably wasn’t honest enough with myself. take one more look.
• if I’m still mystified, ask a friend to help me talk it out.
  

hope this helps some of you! YOU’RE DOING GREAT SWEETIE DON’T GIVE UP ON YOU