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Hey Lainanons I have ADHD and I really can't manage time. Everyday I end up losing more of it than gaining it. I'm still in high school as a sophomore and I want to work harder, but I just can't balance it without finding a way to fuarrrk it up with pointless distractions. It's slowly ruining my life and i don't know what to do about it.

Accept it. You just need to find things that are interesting enough to you that you can focus on them. Please don't let them put you on medication. You're too young to be using amphetamines and it's just a scam to rope you into being dependent on the medical industry for life.

You are the person who must force yourself to live by a clock. There are many occasions in your life where you will be forced to endure unpleasant situations. Make this your training time. Force yourself to put both feet on the floor, use mindful meditation to improve focus time. Do it now, before it matters.

>>14489 Use a pomodoro timer.

Tape a cattle prod with a timer against your scrotum?

>>14489 Time management is an acquired skill. When I was your age I thought that wanting something badly enough meant it would fall into place as long as I tried really hard at it, but, it's more realistic to put a steady effort into something than it is to give 110% for as long as you can be bothered. So start getting organized, trial and error your way to a more productive everyday life. Recognize that leisure time is an important part of being productive, and that keeping the two in balance makes both mode rewarding. Eg. If you only have a couple hours a day for vidya, then you can be damn sure you’ll cherish those two hours. Recognize hour patterns of behavior, figure out how you spend your time, what you get out of it, and whether the value you get from it is worth the time youre spending on it. If youre spending a lot of time watching youtube videos for example, ask whether you’re taking away anything long-term from that time(new knowledge, new perspectives) or whether you are just using it as an escape. As an aside, it’s important to realise that your emotional perception of things is not the same as an objective perspective, so strive to use factual language rather then emotional descriptors. Eg. Emotional "it’s ruining my life" Factual: "it makes XYZ harder, or impedes XYZ" Not to undermine your circumstance, as I don’t know your actual circumstance. Good luck anon, life is great outside of highschool. (It’s harder but more rewarding.)

get a calendar and start setting goals. check off the days you achieve something productive, like doing art or something self-fulfilling. it helps me, i'm in the same boat

>>14489 acquire drugs but mostly *phenidates

I have ADHD and am a superhuman at learning new stuff and figuring soykaf out. Have you not yet harnessed obsessive hyperfocus? Are you wanting to check boxes at accomplishing stuff or actually produce useful stuff? That also makes a diff. I was diagnosed at age 7, but I think that, while there is a difference, it is not a deficit. Rather there is a misunderstanding on the part of the psychology community and general public about people who flow differently. Couple things: avoid drugs, video games, and most importantly tv st all costs. Learn to be disciplined about sleep, diet, exercise, and social media. Don't excuse yourself because derpa herpa derp adhd-tard desu. It's hard for everyone.

>>19089 I've already been trapped by video games, am I a lost cause? I also draw a lot...

>>19394 Just set a timer for yourself and avoid games with intentionally addictive mechanics.

Don't let anyone treat your condition without it, and every alternative, being completely explained---down to the last detail---and you explicitly agree to it. Don't just trust that they know what they're doing: keep vigilant about everything that's happening. I usually refuse general anesthesia when it's offered, but you might demand to have someone that you know represents your interests to witness---e.g. record---everything that occurs.) OK. Maybe they are competent. Even if they are competent---know all about each treatment, and are able to execute the treatment you choose as close to perfectly as humanly possible, the choice of expected best treatment may depend highly on many details about what you are. That means that to make the proper choice of which treatment is expected best for you would need to understand each treatment given the relevant details about what you are. The doctor ought to guide you through each possible treatment so that you can determine for yourself which are expected better than which. Presently, our medical system doesn't let you keep these details private e.g. the doctor keeps your medical record, instead of you. Too bad. The reward of getting the best treatments for you is probably worth the risks of those details being exposed to someone that might use those data to do something that hurts you more than if the data wasn't exposed. In this medical system, the doctor learns as much as he can about you that might be relevant to a treatment, and guides you through each treatment, letting you determine (without pressuring or persuading you towards any treatment---the guidance should be based on all the hard facts: it might be easier for the doctor to point you to a good document that explains everything and answer any questions you might have about it) which are expected better than which. So you would be the one who chose the treatment, with professional guidance. The doctor might already know which treatment is best, but always it should be the patient's decision. If the doctor did his job right, the patient will choose the best treatment anyway.

>There are many occasions in your life where you will be forced to endure unpleasant situations. There may be situations, enduring which would be beneficial. They'd have to be extremely beneficial to make months or years of such `training' worth it. >You just need to find things that are interesting enough to you that you can focus on them. Finding interesting activities isn't generally sufficient. I think it's probably highly beneficial, and it is highly beneficial to me, but it's not enough for me. Some behavioral therapies have helped, and some pharmaceutical therapies have helped. Yes, even when I was ``too young to be using amphetamines.'' That brings me to my next point: >You're too young to be using amphetamines and it's just a scam to rope you into being dependent on the medical industry for life. There are plenty nonaddictive stimulants on the market. I happen to be on one---it's less habit forming than caffeine. I know because I've stopped `cold turkey' many times. (And no, caffeine is not addictive---it's habit-forming.) How about a suggestion for you for the future: if you have something helpful to add, then add what really can be helpful, without mixing that bovine manure into it. At best, someone will painstakingly remove each atom of good stuff form your bovine manure, and compose a message that keeps that good stuff free for bovine manure. More efficiently, you'll be ignored. At worst, someone will swallow your bovine excrement, mistaking it for a cogent idea---you'll be misleading someone.

>When I was your age I thought that wanting something badly enough meant it would fall into place as long as I tried really hard at it, but, it's more realistic to put a steady effort into something than it is to give 110% for as long as you can be bothered. I think your error was putting more effort into it that you even can have. Never give `110%' of your effort to anything---you'll have to go into debt, and you'll be forced to repay with your health and longevity. Maybe some debt is worth it, but make sure you pay it off quick---nature charges steep interest rates. I sometimes pull all-nighters, but then I have to do literally 0 work for the next few days. It works out when I have to do it, because I use the `rest' time to catch up on my cultural affairs---movies to watch, books to read,, It's like taking a sick day or two from school or work. By ``work'' I mean activities that I have to make myself do. Really, I try to avoid them, because I always procrastinate until I have to cram it. What I do is I set up anything that I have to do so that it's part of an interesting project. When something is part of an interesting project, I'm eager to do it---even if it's something that would be laborious to do otherwise. If I can't make it interesting, I try to psych myself out by making me feel like (a) the deadline is much sooner than it really is, and (b) that not completing the work is equivalent to death (in a sense, it is, because any lowering of the value of my existence is essentially the same as killing that part of me). Periods of intense work punctuate my otherwise free life.

>getting organized I'm well organized, but my organization is chaotic. If you know the principles, then everything is obvious and easy, but if you don't, you might have a hard time learning it. What I do is I try to see how I do things naturally. For example, by defualt, my phone rests only in it's holster. That's so that I can quickly use it. There's just no other place that makes sense for it to rest---unless it has low battery. When it has low battery, it's put on the charger. If I reach for my holster and it's not there, I go to the charger. When I'm done using it for the time being, I reholster it. If I am aware that it has low battery---meaning it might lose charge before the expected next chance to charge it, I put it to charge. Because I don't need to use it while I am asleep, I put it to charge at night. I wake up to an alarm on my phone, so I start the day nominally using it (and subsequently reholster it.) A full night's charge lasts the whole day. OK, but something might go wrong. For example, what if I put my phone down for a second while still using it, but forget to pick it up and continue using it? What happens is that next time I need to use it, I reach for the holster, but it's empty, and I check the charger, but it's not there. So where is it? This is why I am sure to remember every detail of everything that happens. Well, not exactly. What I do is I start thinking. I think about the latest time that I still had it, and spend maybe a few minutes, maybe a few hours, recalling all my thoughts, all the events,, that have occurred since then. Then I simply go to the place where it is. Association is a powerful mental tool. It doesn't matter whether the things are related, I'll pay attention to some very different things at one time, so even thought my thoughts are very digressive, I can recall the trail of my thoughts. Usually I recall a thought, and I ask ``how did I get to this thought?'' which reconstructs both the trail of thoughts that I had and any perceptions or activities. It's actually a fun activity---asking how I got to this thought that I'm thinking now. I get to explore my thoughts and see how interesting they with more consciousness because I'm thinking through them again. >trial and error your way to a more productive everyday life. This. Everyone told me this, and I didn't believe them, because they didn't explain why it's a good thing to do. I was always a rationalist who wanted to come to the conclusion by using reason. Sometimes I didn't have the data, and trial-and-error is a way to get the needed data to come to the conclusion. There are other ways to gather the data e.g. by reading about others' experiences or ideas, but it's important to figure out which combination of different ways to get the needed data works best for you. What I do is usually a sort of selective trial-and-error, where I figure out which trials might be most instructive, but I do sometimes do an arbitrary (and sometimes I ensure the trial is not just arbitrary but random) trial just to see what else is out there.

>As an aside, it’s important to realise that your emotional perception of things is not the same as an objective perspective, so strive to use factual language rather then emotional descriptors. No, that's not good. Emotions are useful for directing activity. Without emotions, I'd hardly do anything. It's always some emotion causing the activity. But I don't just let my emotions grow wild, because that's not productive. What I do is I channel my emotions towards something more useful. That's why I always say to be cautious of meditation, because you shouldn't try to be perfectly calm, but to have more ability to direct which emotion you'll experience, and to be able to direct the emotion to a task that you want to do for which that emotion would be useful. Of course it's important to use objective descriptions, but don't eschew emotional ones. It's alot quicker to say ``this is stupid'' than to explicitly go over all good and bad things about it. Of course it's important to be objective about whether it is something to avoid, but if you've already determined it once, then you can just say ``this is stupid, so I won't do it'' and not do it because you think it's stupid. Replace ``stupid'' with whatever bad quality will make you want to avoid it. Sure it means that, in the moment, you'll be dishonest to yourself, but it's not lying if everyone is aware of the falsity. It's like a useful fiction. That's why I'm not against religion per se, though sometimes religion is harmful. Now, looking at your specific example: >Emotional "it’s ruining my life" >Factual: "it makes XYZ harder, or impedes XYZ" That's specifically to elicit an emotional aversion from the harmful thing. Of course it's important to not make the emotion apply to classes of experiences that contain beneficial experiences.

>I have ADHD and am a superhuman at learning new stuff and figuring soykaf out. Have you not yet harnessed obsessive hyperfocus? Are you wanting to check boxes at accomplishing stuff or actually produce useful stuff? That also makes a diff. I was diagnosed at age 7, but I think that, while there is a difference, it is not a deficit. Rather there is a misunderstanding on the part of the psychology community and general public about people who flow differently. Maybe you only got the upsides, but there are some downsides. Overall, I think my way thinking is superior to the `neurotypical' way of thinking. It's only when things are imbalanced that work can be done, because the universe naturally tends towards equilibrium. The way I see it, when I'm distractable, I can still try to swing things back and forth, to gain momentum, so that when I get into a `hyperfocus' mental state, it'll be a strong push in one direction. Then, when the hyperfocus fades, I am far out of balance. This is good, because I can use that imbalance to swing the other way. Often, I ride one hyperfocus after another, like swinging from one vine to another. One thing to beware is to try to keep the thing I'm focussed on closely related to many other things I hyperfocus on. A good series hyperfocus mental states can last weeks or months. If I keep returning to related topics, then I grow, but otherwise, it's as good as being distracted, just on a grander---more wasteful---scale. Sometimes a hyperfocus lasts a few hours, but usually it's at least a day---probably a few days. What I have to do is remember is that hyperfocus fades because I get tired of the activities, so I should make it so that the next thing that I hyperfocus on is something that will exercise different faculties, otherwise I might get burned out, which stops the hyperfocus series.

>I've already been trapped by video games, am I a lost cause? So quit. Cold turkey. And don't touch them for at least a month. If you think you'll be compelled to start playing them, then maybe you need some external thing to prevent you. Maybe you go camping for a month. Or you have your friends monitor you to make sure you aren't doing it---just be sure they won't falter for any reason. After you've gone through it, you might try reintroducing them into your life, because they can be useful, but if you think the temptation will be too great, have a friend enforce your rules about video games.