[utefan001]

My Dad didn't.

As for me, for some tasks, such as writing documentation for something I knew nobody would ever read, my brain would refuse to focus. I would look for more important things to do and never get a page of documentation done.

[miguelrochefort]

How is writing documentation that nobody will ever read a thing anyone should be motivated for?

Do people without ADHD agree to do useless things because they're told to?

[cstrahan]

If it's that or be fired, I think most people would do what they're told.

There are some people, however, that will, in sheer determination to do what is expected of them, stare anxiously at their screen, hoping to focus their attention to the task at hand. No distractions, just a text editor waiting for some text. The problem is, the thoughts just don't surface. They try to psych themselves up, remember that their lively hood depends on it, that they don't want to let their coworkers down, etc. Sure, their gut tells them that they're working on the wrong solution to the wrong problem, but they remind themselves to keep a good attitude, remembering that this is what their employer deems both valuable and necessary. The hours tick by. It's 6pm, but they're convinced that they'll be able to turn it around. A couple more hours pass by. "If I just get this done, I get to spend time with my family, or go see my friends, or have some semblance of balance." It's 10pm. They cry for a bit, manage to get a bit of work done, and shortly after 1am, they hop in bed and call it a day. As they doze off, they lament their inability to power through uninspiring work (particularly work that they know could be obviated by better practices/tools/business-sense/etc.)

If you've _never_ experienced something like that, then I suppose you either don't have ADHD, or you've only had phenomenal working experiences.

[miguelrochefort]

I usually find a way not to do what I consider not worth doing.

I usually ask why the task is worth doing. If they can't come up with a valid response, I try to show them why it's not worth doing. If I can think of a better thing to do, I let them know. If this doesn't work, I will delegate or trade the task with someone else. If that doesn't work, I will often just ignore it. Usually, nobody realizes the job wasn't done, mainly because it wasn't important in the first place. Rarely will I go through the pain of doing something that I realize is not important.

Although I have never been diagnosed with ADHD, I feel like I can relate to some of the symptoms.

[ktsmith]

The above example isn't the only case where this is relevant. In this case it's something the author doesn't want to do and is pretty boring and pointless and any sane person isn't going to want to do it. Some people can power through it and others won't be able to. You can rewrite the text where the work to be done is maybe not "boring" but tedious and rather than "pointless" it's actually critical that it be done. I've changed the descriptive text above a bit.

> There are some people, that will, in sheer determination to do what needs to be done, stare anxiously at their screen, hoping to focus their attention to the task at hand. No distractions, just a text editor waiting for some text. The problem is, the thoughts just don't surface. They try to psych themselves up, remember that their lively hood depends on it, that they don't want to let their coworkers down, etc. The hours tick by. It's 6pm, but they're convinced that they'll be able to turn it around. A couple more hours pass by. " This is such a critical project I just have to get it done. If I just can just get started, I get to spend time with my family, or go see my friends, or have some semblance of balance." they tell themselves. It's 10pm. They cry for a bit, manage to get a bit of work done, and shortly after 1am, they hop in bed and call it a day. As they doze off, they lament their inability to power through their work and lament their repeated failures.

This was me. I'd have some project to work on, interesting or not and I would have the hardest time getting started. Just getting the first bits and pieces done. Or I'd have a clear picture in my head of how I wanted to do it, what needed to be done, and how I needed to attack it to accomplish it. Then I'd try to get started and fumble about not being able to get that mental picture out into real productive work. I'd spend hours breaking tasks down into smaller bits but not get any of the bits done. I'd think to myself, I'm focused too much on this and I can't think straight any more I'll just take care of another task for a bit and come back to this. Six hours later I've forgotten about it completely and then panic when I realize it. Once it was crunch time, or it was so late the only way to finish was to pull an all nighter I'd some how miraculously get things done well enough to stay out of trouble. I powered through these problems in my 20's by pouring in 15+ hour days regularly. I nearly destroyed my relationship with my wife. I had friends and colleagues that knew I'd get things done but couldn't count on it always being the best quality or on time. I couldn't do that any more when I hit my 30s, started a family, and the toll of the hours and lack of sleep really hit harder. Speaking to my Dr and getting an ADHD diagnosis, some medication and some tools to approach my issues from different angles have been life changing.