How to fix poor attention to detail and focus?

[Tubs]

I've had time's in the past where I'd review this document that I need to send out, 5-8 times before sending it out and then only realized after I sent it that there were still mistakes. Sometimes I feel that maybe I'm in the wrong career and is why I'm struggling a lot.

I remember hearing a trick that Ben Franklin used. When he finished writing he would take the pages, and put them away in his desk. Then the next morning he would look them over to do his corrections, so he could view them with fresh eyes.

 

[BizyDad]

Hey all, so this is something I think I've always naturally struggled with but in the last couple of years it has gotten quite worse. I think part of the problem is that I can accidently rush through work without realizing and my focus is pretty bad (this is probably because the tasks I work on are boring, but I feel I should be able to get through this problem). I've had time's in the past where I'd review this document that I need to send out, 5-8 times before sending it out and then only realized after I sent it that there were still mistakes. Sometimes I feel that maybe I'm in the wrong career and is why I'm struggling a lot.

I've been working on improving it but it's still pretty bad, and not sure if it will improve. I think I'm burnt out as well which isn't helping matters lol.

Just wondering if anyone else has this problem and how they overcame it?

Sometimes I feel that maybe I'm in the wrong career and is why I'm struggling a lot

You identified the problem. The problem isn't you. The problem is you don't want to do what you are doing.

Find a way to make a living doing something you genuinely want to get better at and you'll find your attention to detail and focus improving.

And someday on your entrepreneurial journey, you might discover that even with this improvement you're just not a detailed person and you have to hire detail people to cover for a deficiency.

And that's okay too...

 

[Kybalion]

I am also not detail-oriented, so whenever I make a new mistake I catalog it and create a protocol for double-checking my work's quality in the future.

For example - I once sent out an email campaign without adding links to it... so I wrote it down in my "mistake-catalog", and now I know I am prone to making a mistake like that, so I know what to look out for. I also know I overlook margins and fonts when creating landing pages, so I double-check that as well.

This is not foolproof as new mistakes always happen, but at least you learn from the old ones.

 

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[heavy_industry]

Get better sleep and do a lot of exercise. Make sure you're not eating anything that causes brain fog.

Do the focused work in the mornings, or whenever you're feeling most sharp.

 

[Antifragile]

My first job was working in an orange juice factory, but I got canned: couldn't concentrate.

 

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[biophase]

Hey Johnny, its not just documents it's other stuff to like if I'm running ads and the settings are wrong or I missed something like the ad copy was wrong.

I don't know how to help. I just know that if it's important to me, I pay attention to it. So maybe it's not that important to you?

For example, if I said to you. I'll pay you $10,000 if there are no mistakes on this ad. But you pay me $10,000 if there is a mistake. Do you think you would make any mistakes on it?

Also, when you are reviewing stuff, are you really reviewing it? Or is your brain just skimming over stuff because it thinks it knows what it says already. You shouldn't have to review something 5 times. You just need to review it one time, but really concentrate and review it slowly that ONE time.

 

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[CharlesFinley]

Adderall

 

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[garyfritz]

ADHD is an executive function disorder that most people laugh at, ignore, or misunderstand, but for those who genuinely suffer from it - it's F*cking brutal. The best metaphor I've heard is blaming a paraplegic for not being able to walk because they don't 'want it enough', aren't 'motivated enough' or are just 'lazy'.

This, a million times.

People are different. I'm 6'4". If you're not, it's not because you're "not trying hard enough" or you're "lazy." That's just how you're BUILT, and there's not a lot you can do to change it. And everybody understands that implicitly.

But the challenges that ADHD people face -- which ARE F*cking brutal -- aren't so visible or obvious. To "normies" it LOOKS like you're just screwing around, you're lazy, whatever. And it's typical for parents, partners, bosses, etc to assume the worst and judge you harshly for it. Meanwhile you might be struggling as hard as you can to do better, and failing. ADHD people typically have horrific self-image problems because the key people in their lives are always on their case, and because THEY figure they "ought to" be able to do better. And generally they can't, no matter how hard they try.

My brother (a corner-case type-A overachiever) has lectured me about this dozens of times over the years. It's easy for HIM, so obviously it's easy for me if I would just make an effort. His harangues are usually some variant of "you're just not trying" or "well can't you just." Yes, I CAN just... be focused, be productive, use a system, whatever. I've just never been able to do it consistently. The analogy I use is "Yes, and I can hold my breath. But I can't do it for very long."

My ADHD was a major contributor to my divorce. My ex (another corner-case hyper-productive type) felt I was goldbricking and expecting her to support the family. (Ignoring the fact that I was making a healthy full-time income, AND doing 98% of the child raising, cooking, cleaning, yard work, ...) After she dumped me, I went through a very rough time income-wise -- for several reasons my consulting income almost totally dried up. And I told her "Look, I'm trying to support myself now. And I still can't stay focused enough to finish this project and bill it. I wasn't just trying to freeload off of you."

Long-winded way of saying: @LiveEntrepreneur, you might not be wired well for entrepreneurship. I've realized I'm not. But I didn't want to go back to a job. So I've been self-employed for over 30 years, and I've done pretty darn well for myself, considering what a basket case I am. I could have done SOOOOO much more if I could be better organized and more focused, but I worked with my strengths and weaknesses the best I could. Find what YOUR strengths and passions are, find a job or an occupation that works well with those strengths, and you'll be a lot more likely to succeed.

 

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[Walter Hay]

I've had time's in the past where I'd review this document that I need to send out, 5-8 times before sending it out and then only realized after I sent it that there were still mistakes.

Ever heard the saying: "Familiarity breeds contempt"?

This is a very real problem in the website building and copywriting industries. When viewing websites I frequently see evidence of this contempt for common sense editing procedures.

When someone has prepared a document he/she already knows what is written, with the result that while the author is reviewing it the familiarity with those words and the structure of the text leads the author to gloss over the words and the text structure.

The safest remedy is to have another person critically edit the document. A paid editor is worth considering.

I am writing from experience. In my first business importing B2B promotional badges, my son and I carried out extensive advertising including multi page brochures for direct mail.

Our policy was that copy and designs that I wrote and prepared were reviewed critically by my son and those written and prepared by him were reviewed critically by me.

The result was that our Yellow Pages (YP) print advertisements (according to YP monitoring) yielded a response rate 11 times better than any competitors' ads, and our direct mail letters consistently yielded a response rate exceeding 4%.

I am convinced that our in-house critiques helped achieve those results.

Walter

 

[Aditya Gunjal]

The problem with attention span is faced by almost everone, but it has various causes(and each has different solutions) As you said burnt out, poor diet, wrong profession.
First of all if you are using social media especially- instagram (reels), YouTube (shorts), Facebook (whatever they call it,30sec video) you have to quit them and i mean totally. because research has shown these type of 1min video have reduced attention span significantly with decrease in focus.
Then comes the profession problem, you can solve it on your own, same goes with diet.
And i would like to tell you that(by my experience) you should not do resistance training unless you want to build muscles and maintain them. This is because after resistance training body releases certain hormon that make you sleepy(because we need rest for building muscles and all). You should do cardio or yoga or something that hepls with health and refreshes you.
And if you are feeling burnt out you should take a week out or atleast some days and spend some time alone or with family so that you can get out of that burnt zone(i am not professional physiatrist so please contact to someone professional who will help you with such condition).
Finally if you want to know more about focus and stuff you should refer book named " Deep work" , i havent read it but got suggested from a good reliable source.

 

[heavy_industry]

My first job was working in an orange juice factory, but I got canned: couldn't concentrate.

Next time find a job with a better salary orange.

And if you're still in the juicing business, try to squeeze more focus out of yourself. You will get to enjoy the fruits of your labor.

 

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[JAJT]

Adderall

I don't know if this is a joke or not, but as someone with diagnosed ADHD and a son with ADHD - medication has literally been the "missing link" in my efforts to overcome the issues the OP faces.

ADHD is an executive function disorder that most people laugh at, ignore, or misunderstand, but for those who genuinely suffer from it - it's F*cking brutal. The best metaphor I've heard is blaming a paraplegic for not being able to walk because they don't 'want it enough', aren't 'motivated enough' or are just 'lazy'.

That's not how physical disabilities work and it's not how mental disabilities work. The brain isn't ethereal - it's a physical thing. It can be "broken" just as much as your liver, heart or lungs can be. You just can't "see" the issues of the brain so everyone just assumes mental problems can all be solved with intangible things like positive thinking, reading, or being motivated enough.

It's depressing and anxiety-inducing as all hell to go through the kind of existential crisis that comes from a complete mismatch between what you want, what you know you're physically capable of, what you understand, and being unable to mentally get your shit together in order to actually do it. Especially when everyone else around you is doing it just fine. "Look at Bob, he was a lazy sack of shit who got his life together and is successful now - why can't I do that?". Well probably because Bob doesn't have a mental problem - he has a working brain and only needed a kick in the a$$ and a wake up call to consider actually using it properly for a change.

To be clear - I'm not a "pill-pusher" by any stretch - I'm a BIG fan of exhausting other means before introducing medication to your life. Most people's issues in life can be "cured" with regular exercise, proper diet, and good sleep. And some do just need to stop being lazy and get their shit together. It makes no sense to jump to medication when you still eat fast food 9 times a week and sleep 4 hours a night. That's the definition of "I've tried nothing and nothing's working!"

 

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[Metz]

I don't know if this is a joke or not, but as someone with diagnosed ADHD and a son with ADHD - medication has literally been the "missing link" in my efforts to overcome the issues the OP faces.

ADHD is an executive function disorder that most people laugh at, ignore, or misunderstand, but for those who genuinely suffer from it - it's F*cking brutal. The best metaphor I've heard is blaming a paraplegic for not being able to walk because they don't 'want it enough', aren't 'motivated enough' or are just 'lazy'.

That's not how physical disabilities work and it's not how mental disabilities work. The brain isn't ethereal - it's a physical thing. It can be "broken" just as much as your liver, heart or lungs can be. You just can't "see" the issues of the brain so everyone just assumes mental problems can all be solved with intangible things like positive thinking, reading, or being motivated enough.

It's depressing and anxiety-inducing as all hell to go through the kind of existential crisis that comes from a complete mismatch between what you want, what you know you're physically capable of, what you understand, and being unable to mentally get your shit together in order to actually do it. Especially when everyone else around you is doing it just fine. "Look at Bob, he was a lazy sack of shit who got his life together and is successful now - why can't I do that?". Well probably because Bob doesn't have a mental problem - he has a working brain and only needed a kick in the a$$ and a wake up call to consider actually using it properly for a change.

To be clear - I'm not a "pill-pusher" by any stretch - I'm a BIG fan of exhausting other means before introducing medication to your life. Most people's issues in life can be "cured" with regular exercise, proper diet, and good sleep. And some do just need to stop being lazy and get their shit together. It makes no sense to jump to medication when you still eat fast food 9 times a week and sleep 4 hours a night. That's the definition of "I've tried nothing and nothing's working!"

As someone who just got diagnosed with ADHD after 19 YEARS of being bounced around from different therapists who only focused on the anxiety and depression aspect of my mental health (which those are usually comorbid with ADHD and can effectively mask it), just wanted to say thank you @JAJT because THIS.

Even my post history talking about multiple projects and trying to move things forward, a lot of it was me just trying to cope with executive dysfunction because I figured "fine, if I can't focus on Project A, at least I have Projects B - G to fall back on and cycle through." But, of course, a lot of growth (especially with business) relies on consistency so even though I can have some semblance of consistency on the long-term, it's not consistent enough to make any difference -- kinda like doing a single set of push-ups once a year is all nice, but a single set of push-ups daily is gonna make a much bigger difference.

Back to OP though, @LiveEntrepreneur if you can (and if you're unsure), I'd highly suggest getting screened for ADHD just to rule out if your executive dysfunction stems from that. Everyone deals with it at some point to some extent but if it's a chronic nothing-I-do-works-no-matter-how-hard-I-try kinda situation rather than an acute situation from time to time.. well.. like I said, it's better to identify the source of the issue rather than just try to cover symptoms.

That said, a lot of the advice given in this thread's useful. But for me, whenever I tried things like meditation, cognitive behavioral therapy (i.e. being able to kinda observe yourself and identify behaviors and triggers), and a whole bunch of other tools, it always felt like there was some other obstacle lingering in the mist keeping me from using these tools as effectively as possible. When I started applying ADHD to the equation though, EVERYTHING started to make so much more sense and I've been maneuvering that much better -- and that's before starting medication (which I'll be on a non-stim med beginning next week so Adderall or Ritalin aren't the only options).

Just my two cents.

 

[Janhvi]

Hey all, so this is something I think I've always naturally struggled with but in the last couple of years it has gotten quite worse. I think part of the problem is that I can accidently rush through work without realizing and my focus is pretty bad (this is probably because the tasks I work on are boring, but I feel I should be able to get through this problem). I've had time's in the past where I'd review this document that I need to send out, 5-8 times before sending it out and then only realized after I sent it that there were still mistakes. Sometimes I feel that maybe I'm in the wrong career and is why I'm struggling a lot.

I've been working on improving it but it's still pretty bad, and not sure if it will improve. I think I'm burnt out as well which isn't helping matters lol.

Just wondering if anyone else has this problem and how they overcame it?

This does happens especially doing multi tasking , brain exhaustion , having less excitement for the work one does.
This happens with me too. But I do know what will fix it. Like taking breaks in between so long hours won't harm my work. And I just try to be relax nd leave whatsoever is happening in my mind aside on table , I k it won't run anywhere ill get back to it when I want.
Hope I try to put it down as simple as I could.

 

[msufan]

I am also not detail-oriented, so whenever I make a new mistake I catalog it and create a protocol for double-checking my work's quality in the future.

For example - I once sent out an email campaign without adding links to it... so I wrote it down in my "mistake-catalog", and now I know I am prone to making a mistake like that, so I know what to look out for. I also know I overlook margins and fonts when creating landing pages, so I double-check that as well.

This is not foolproof as new mistakes always happen, but at least you learn from the old ones.

Kybalion's post is a better version of what I was going to say: I use checklists to help myself overcome known weak spots.

 

[Antifragile]

Next time find a job with a better salary orange.

And if you're still in the juicing business, try to squeeze more focus out of yourself. You will get to enjoy the fruits of your labor.

You are such a good friend that, if we were on a sinking ship together and there was only one life jacket, I'd miss you so much and talk about you fondly to everybody who asked.

 

[DNA]

I would recommend you start meditating. You can start with as little as 1 minute of focused concentration on your breathing, and specifically the air flow on the tip of your nostrils. You will notice how difficult it is to stay there, so aim to notice that you are distracted and then return to your breathing. Do this again tomorrow. And the day after. Make it a habit. Then make it 2 minutes, then 3 and so on. It will help you. It has helped me a lot and changed my life. I can meditate now for up to 20mins without a single thought. That's FOCUS and you will find it easier to stay focused on everything you do in life as you become more and more mindful...

 

[JAJT]

Even if you've "exhausted" other means such as sleep, diet and exercise, you should keep using those three as much as you can, in conjunction with the medication (not as an alternative).

Totally agree.

IMHO and experience - taking medication when those three are out of whack is not going to be nearly as effective. You'll just end up playing video games and dooms scrolling the news all day - except with intense focus.

Your brain benefits massively from diet, exercise and sleep. That is the fuel of your brain (healthy or not). If a car's engine is broken, fixing it won't help if your tires are flat and you're putting the wrong fuel in the tank. The engine will probably work better than it did, sure, but you aren't going to be going very far.

 

[RussRussman18]

I'll copy paste this from a post I made in another thread:

In terms of relevance to entrepreneurship, learning and applying the science of dopamine metabolism is the most useful thing.

Most people who "struggle with motivation" have a disfunctional dopamine metabolism.

There are even many people who think they have some kind of cognitive ability issue, who actually just have a dopamine issue, because many functions of the brain require a certain net dopaminergic factor to activate. These people supplement with cholinergics like Alpha GPC, racetams etc and feel that they are 'non-responders,' but the truth is their problem was dopamine all along.

"Dopamine fasting" has been popularized as a way to deal with this, but for many people this will not be enough, and they will need to supplement with vitamins and specific nootropics over a long period of time to correct their problem which was caused by years or decades of an unnatural lifestyle which warped their brain.

Some supplements to look into would be cordyceps mushroom, inositol, ALCAR, uridine monophosphate, l-tyrosine, 9-me-bc (careful with that one)

Fasting is great and has been talked about a lot on the forum

Cold showers can also be helpful but they should only be done every other day or you will become cold adapted and it won't work.

Testosterone is another essential part of the dopamine equation you should look at, but it's too complex of a topic to get into here, and has been discussed ad nauseum elsewhere.

Stimulants can be used as a "band-aid solution" in the interim as you heal. But, contrary to most American perspectives on psychology, they should not be viewed as a long term solution. I do not recommend using stimulants more often than every other day. The mildest and OTC options are xanthine-type, like caffeine, teacrine, dynamine, and theobromine. Amphetamines and methylphenidate are effective and relatively easy to get prescribed, but they have many side effects and will slow down the dopamine metabolism repair. The afinils are a better option for most people; adrafinil does not require a prescription but is not as effective as modafinil and armodafinil. It would be a battle to get prescribed an afinil for ADHD, so it would be better to say you need it for shift work or a sleep disorder. Some people have success with Mucuna Pruriens, but be careful with L-dopa. Again, keep in mind these are short term solutions while you take steps to repair.

 

[whitworldwide]

I was meditating for a bit but I stopped because I get this really annoying feeling on my forehead that won't go away, any ideas on how to deal with it? They said it's some third eye opening stuff, don't really believe that.

Not sure what that is, but I'd look at it as part of the challenge. Sit for 15 minutes every morning when you get up and focus on the breathing. If you get the sore forehead, acknowledge it, and focus everything on the breathing again. Do the breathing focus as much as possible. Do it every single day (15 mins).

 

[LiveEntrepreneur]

I remember hearing a trick that Ben Franklin used. When he finished writing he would take the pages, and put them away in his desk. Then the next morning he would look them over to do his corrections, so he could view them with fresh eyes.

That's an interesting idea. I used to do the same thing a while back but I'd wait 20 minutes, sometimes I still had errors haha.

 

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[LiveEntrepreneur]

You identified the problem. The problem isn't you. The problem is you don't want to do what you are doing.

Find a way to make a living doing something you genuinely want to get better at and you'll find your attention to detail and focus improving.

And someday on your entrepreneurial journey, you might discover that even with this improvement you're just not a detailed person and you have to hire detail people to cover for a deficiency.

And that's okay too...

I think that is the root problem. In a few months I'm looking at potentially getting a new career and get out of the whole entrepreneurship game all together. If I can't find another career I want to do, I might stay in the space until I find something within the space that I like.

That's also a dilemma that I've had for a long time, do I keep improving what I'm not good at or do I go with my strengths?

 

[LiveEntrepreneur]

There are good arguments on both sides.

Do you want to improve your weakness or do you want to revel in your strengths?

Only you can answer that. But, at least for a time, I say give revelling in your strengths a try and see how you like it. Come back to the improving weaknesses side at some point in the future when you have more energy and desire for it.

I think this is what I'll end up doing. Cheers.

 

[LiveEntrepreneur]

I don't know how to help. I just know that if it's important to me, I pay attention to it. So maybe it's not that important to you?

For example, if I said to you. I'll pay you $10,000 if there are no mistakes on this ad. But you pay me $10,000 if there is a mistake. Do you think you would make any mistakes on it?

Also, when you are reviewing stuff, are you really reviewing it? Or is your brain just skimming over stuff because it thinks it knows what it says already. You shouldn't have to review something 5 times. You just need to review it one time, but really concentrate and review it slowly that ONE time.

You bet your a$$, I'd review that document until perfection haha. But I'd be checking 20 times then. To be honest with you, I think you might be right. A lot of times when I have reviewed documents without even realizing it, I would subconsciously say to myself "should be fine" or I'm assuming that everything is fine. I think I'm skimming on some occasions. This bought me a smile, maybe this is the solution lol. I'm going to try this as well and not going in with any assumptions and take it slower.

 

[Move the chains]

S

I would be then outsourcing my whole job, haha. I'm taking @biophase advice now and @BizyDad advice in a few months time, and see how I go. I'll provide an update if I figure things out, hopefully make a post to help other people who are struggling to find their purpose as well.

Sound like you need to change job or launch something you can monetize asap and get to work so you're not wasting your time doing work you hate (unless it's your own business and there's payoff down the line in return for short-term suffering).

 

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[heavy_industry]

@JAJT
100% - If you need it, take it.

I'm a BIG fan of exhausting other means before introducing medication to your life. Most people's issues in life can be "cured" with regular exercise, proper diet, and good sleep.

Even if you've "exhausted" other means such as sleep, diet and exercise, you should keep using those three as much as you can, in conjunction with the medication (not as an alternative).

 

[LiveEntrepreneur]

I would recommend you start meditating. You can start with as little as 1 minute of focused concentration on your breathing, and specifically the air flow on the tip of your nostrils. You will notice how difficult it is to stay there, so aim to notice that you are distracted and then return to your breathing. Do this again tomorrow. And the day after. Make it a habit. Then make it 2 minutes, then 3 and so on. It will help you. It has helped me a lot and changed my life. I can meditate now for up to 20mins without a single thought. That's FOCUS and you will find it easier to stay focused on everything you do in life as you become more and more mindful...

I did it a while ago, didn't really see much benefit, but I'll give it another try and see how I go.

 

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[JAJT]

@hammiesink - check out the book "Driven to Distraction" by Edward M. Hallowell.

It's a relatively short book that describes various manifestations of ADHD far better than I ever could. It really helped me fill in some gaps when I was looking into it for my son, and made me realize that maybe I also had an issue.

 

[hammiesink]

Thanks, all.

Another interesting topic that recently came to my attention is written about by Johann Hari in Stolen Focus: Why You Can't Pay Attention - And How to Think Deeply Again. Basically he suggests that modern life has stacked the deck against us. Not just social media and internet, but lack of sleep, too much sugar, etc. His talk about getting into a "flow state" resonates with me.

 

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[DougRMR]

This, a million times.

People are different. I'm 6'4". If you're not, it's not because you're "not trying hard enough" or you're "lazy." That's just how you're BUILT, and there's not a lot you can do to change it. And everybody understands that implicitly.

But the challenges that ADHD people face -- which ARE F*cking brutal -- aren't so visible or obvious. To "normies" it LOOKS like you're just screwing around, you're lazy, whatever. And it's typical for parents, partners, bosses, etc to assume the worst and judge you harshly for it. Meanwhile you might be struggling as hard as you can to do better, and failing. ADHD people typically have horrific self-image problems because the key people in their lives are always on their case, and because THEY figure they "ought to" be able to do better. And generally they can't, no matter how hard they try.

My brother (a corner-case type-A overachiever) has lectured me about this dozens of times over the years. It's easy for HIM, so obviously it's easy for me if I would just make an effort. His harangues are usually some variant of "you're just not trying" or "well can't you just." Yes, I CAN just... be focused, be productive, use a system, whatever. I've just never been able to do it consistently. The analogy I use is "Yes, and I can hold my breath. But I can't do it for very long."

My ADHD was a major contributor to my divorce. My ex (another corner-case hyper-productive type) felt I was goldbricking and expecting her to support the family. (Ignoring the fact that I was making a healthy full-time income, AND doing 98% of the child raising, cooking, cleaning, yard work, ...) After she dumped me, I went through a very rough time income-wise -- for several reasons my consulting income almost totally dried up. And I told her "Look, I'm trying to support myself now. And I still can't stay focused enough to finish this project and bill it. I wasn't just trying to freeload off of you."

Long-winded way of saying: @LiveEntrepreneur, you might not be wired well for entrepreneurship. I've realized I'm not. But I didn't want to go back to a job. So I've been self-employed for over 30 years, and I've done pretty darn well for myself, considering what a basket case I am. I could have done SOOOOO much more if I could be better organized and more focused, but I worked with my strengths and weaknesses the best I could. Find what YOUR strengths and passions are, find a job or an occupation that works well with those strengths, and you'll be a lot more likely to succeed.

I can relate to this very, very much. I also use the metaphor you use a lot about asking the legless man to try and run harder. People don't understand, and most importantly, DON'T care when you have ADD. People have asked me if I'm on drugs, why I'm so lazy, why don't I do this, why I don't do that, that I don't care enough etc. when they don't realize I'm working at like 110% of my will power lol While some do it with the genuine desire to help, most do it for the power trip of feeling smarter than you or pity. It really F*cking sucks. It also doesn't help that saying you have ADD is often seen as excuse making or retaliated with: "So what? I have it too!"

However, I can say this: if I love what I'm doing or if I know the investment will be worth it, I can focus for ungodly amounts of hours. Of course ADD will always be there but for someone like me, who's always spaced out, it feels like being on Aderall.

I also take great pains to make everything incredibly hard for me to forget. Meaning, I'll write everything (and I mean, EVERYTHING) down. From brushing my teeth, to a job task, to calling a client, to cooking a meal. If somebody tells me something I have to do, no matter how simple, I tell them to hold on so I can get a pen and paper. That has helped me a shit ton and I have actually gotten good feedback from my co-workers because of the improvement I've made. I also don't let my mind off the one task I started, no matter how pressing the other task is (unless it's an emergency). I've made a lot of improvement but my weakness is that if I get bored with a task, my mind automatically disengages and something that should be done in a certain amount of time takes a bit longer because I have to constantly nudge my focus back to what I was doing.

I hope this helps other fellow ADD peeps. It really sucks to have this, especially with the lack of empathy it receives (probably even less than depression) from the average person. I try my best to not let this become an excuse to my progress since I'm much better than a few years back. One thing I still struggle with, though, is the self-esteem aspect of it. I consider myself to have healthy self-confidence but it can be brutal to receive non-stop jabs, comments and ridicule because of a condition I can't control. And I love banter but it can really get exhausting.