How To Complete Tasks?

@LittleHopeInDark

Hi. Regarding your thread questions:

• Hi, so I was wondering:

  Anyone with ADHD or otherwise, how do you go about completing tasks? Even when you’re bombarded with ideas that you are unable to multitask with or the urge to not begin at all.

  Also, with me there are the odd days where I’m productive as can be and the those where I crash. What can I do on the darker days where I don’t have energy to do my hobbies or to promote self-hygiene? I’d rather not stay in bed all day.

  Finally, how do you combat over-planning or overthinking the near to short-term future when it hasn’t come around yet? All this time thinking really puts a stop to what I’m doing sometimes.

  I’d like some concrete activities please rather than anything too vague or philosophical. Awesome, it really helps!

Here are some ideas:

• how do you go about completing tasks?
  
  - Set up regular routines to follow each day
  so no thinking required, just do them
  
  - Create tiny habits or mini habits or atomic habits
  so no decisions required and
  so no motivation required
  because tiny/mini/atomic habits are extremely easy and pre-designed
  
  - Keep a simple journal and log activities
  so stay aware of focus in the moment
  and also log emotions that cause distraction in the moment
  by writing it out and dealing with them directly in an effective way
  
  
• What can I do on the darker days where I don’t have energy to do my hobbies or to promote self-hygiene?
  
  - Create routines and tiny/mini/atomic habits as mentioned above.
  Keep the habits alive by keeping them extremely simple
  so almost no motivation required.
  
  Take the Tiny Habits growth path here and get free coaching too:
  https://www.7cups.com/path/playlist/tiny-habits-intro/
  
  Also get the free Atomic Habits 30 day email course
  11 very very short lessons here:
  https://jamesclear.com/30-days
  
  Also listen to Mini Habits author Stephen Guise
  explain about his solutions for procrastination and mini habits here:
  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s83OTgYwsSc
  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dcvdFvbk6WU
  
  Develop healthy living habits for exercise, diet/nutrition, hydration, socializing
  
  Keep a log of all major concerns so they are written down
  also write down the decisions or conclusions or next steps
  
  Keep a calendar or spreadsheet to automatically notify when things have to get done by.
  Have notifications sent in-advance so enough time to do tasks and so don't have to worry about keeping track of them.
  
  Overall, create better systems to manage life efficiently and effectively as explained in Atomic Habits book.
  
  - Set up regular routines to follow each day so no thinking required, just do them
• 
  - Create tiny habits or mini habits or atomic habits
  so no decisions required and
  so no motivation required
  because tiny/mini/atomic habits are extremely easy and pre-designed
  
  - Keep a simple journal and log activities
  so stay aware of focus in the moment
  and also log emotions that cause distraction in the moment
  by writing it out and dealing with them directly in an effective way
  
  
• What can I do on the darker days where I don’t have energy to do my hobbies or to promote self-hygiene?
  
  - Create routines and tiny/mini/atomic habits as mentioned above.
  Keep the habits alive by keeping them extremely simple
  so almost no motivation required.
  
  Take the Tiny Habits growth path here and get free coaching too:
  https://www.7cups.com/path/playlist/tiny-habits-intro/
  
  Also get the free Atomic Habits 30 day email course
  11 very very short lessons here:
  https://jamesclear.com/30-days
  
  Also listen to Mini Habits author Stephen Guise
  explain about his solutions for procrastination and mini habits here:
  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s83OTgYwsSc
  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dcvdFvbk6WU
  
  Develop healthy living habits for exercise, diet/nutrition, hydration, socializing
  
  Keep a log of all major concerns so they are written down
  also write down the decisions or conclusions or next steps
  
  Keep a calendar or spreadsheet to automatically notify when things have to get done by.
  Have notifications sent in-advance so enough time to do tasks and so don't have to worry about keeping track of them.
  
  Overall, create better systems to manage life efficiently and effectively as explained in Atomic Habits book.
  
  
• how do you combat over-planning or overthinking the near to short-term future when it hasn’t come around yet?
  
  - Get unstuck as explained for question just above this question
  
  - Get unstuck as explained in the steps here for procrastination and overthinking etc.
  (whatever applies):
  https://www.7cups.com/path/playlist/get-unstuck-simple-solutions/
  

@LittleHopeInDark

I struggle with this to provide a little hope in the dark. Me, I acknowledge that my ADHD sometimes gets in the way of efficient task completion; I have a strict to-do list that I note down every minor task, so that I get a boost of dopamine every time I complete something (it can be something as simple as filling up my water bottle or going to the bathroom). I move on from one task to the next like machine where necessary, actively trying to shut my mind off after realising my thoughts stream in all directions like a high-pressure water pipe with a gazillion mini holes in it.