| any times have you said to yourself, or had someone | | | | If you’re going to try to sidestep boredom, |
| else tell you that you "should" do something. If you | | | | we’re not saying to shirk here. We're not |
| have ADD, it's probably often. We don’t know | | | | saying to become a slacker. I’m not saying do |
| about you, but we hate the word | | | | nothing instead. No. You probably need to the boring |
| “should.” It’s terrible, and it makes | | | | things done worse than anything else in your life right |
| people with attention deficit frustrated and confused. | | | | now, because your ADD has you procrastinating on |
| The only person who “should” ever be | | | | them in most cases. |
| telling you what you should or shouldn’t be | | | | We want to avoid that, no matter what, for a couple |
| doing is you. | | | | of different reasons. Number one is that when you |
| Why is it that you "should" be doing something that | | | | have attention deficit, you’re not necessarily |
| your ADD decided you shouldn't? | | | | good at doing repetitive tasks or tasks that you deem |
| When your attention deficit kicks in and says | | | | to be boring. It’s not a strength, so as always, |
| you’re bored, you get frustrated really easily, | | | | you have a choice. You can go with your strengths, or |
| right? And this happens, especially when you’re | | | | you can work against them. At the moment, you keep |
| telling yourself you should do something that’s | | | | forcing yourself; you’re working against them. |
| boring. Then, you get even more frustrated. | | | | It’s okay not to want to do the boring stuff. |
| When you’re frustrated, unless you’ve | | | | The first thing is to take a look at some of the boring |
| gotten good at reframing frustration (which is a whole | | | | things that you’re doing on a daily basis. Focus |
| other topic), boredom slows motivation to a crawl, or | | | | your ADD brain on what's going on right now. How |
| even sometimes puts it in reverse. These are major | | | | many boring things are you doing in your life? How |
| stumbling blocks that people with ADD face as a result | | | | many fun things are you doing in a day? |
| of boredom. When you’re unmotivated, when | | | | The vast majority of your day should be spent doing |
| you’re frustrated, when you’re jumping | | | | things that really excite you. Hire people that don't have |
| around from thing to thing, while you’re trying to | | | | this ADD issue, outsource tasks, and barter with |
| force yourself to do that thing that’s driving you | | | | people—depending on the situation—to do |
| absolutely insane, how do you feel about yourself? | | | | the things that bore you. |
| You feel miserable, don’t you? | | | | It can’t actually happen until number one, |
| We don’t know about you, but we’ve | | | | you’ve taken a look at what you’re |
| had plenty of times where we were jumping back and | | | | doing, and number two, you focus your ADD and write |
| forth because we were bored, not necessarily aware | | | | these things that you're doing down. Do that for a |
| of that we were exhibiting that ADD behavior. When | | | | week. Are you looking at email, doing the laundry, |
| this happens to you, you may say to yourself, | | | | scrubbing the floors, feeding the dogs, working in sales |
| “There’s something really wrong with | | | | and marketing, or writing a book? What are all the |
| me, because everybody else seems to be getting | | | | tasks that you are doing? |
| stuff done, and I’m not getting anything | | | | Next, you’ve got to categorize. You’ve |
| done.” | | | | got to know how much of your time is being spent |
| But you’re bored. That’s it. | | | | doing different kinds of activities. If you’re ADD |
| So, how can you just crush boredom? | | | | frustrated and you’re spinning right now, or |
| You need to sidestep it. Some people would say, | | | | you’re feeling stuck, those are all indicators that |
| “You’re just using your ADD to get out | | | | you’re bored. |
| of it.” Yes, you’re absolutely trying to get | | | | We'll talk more about this in our next article to help you |
| out of doing things that make you bored. We all do it, | | | | overcome that easily reached attention deficit |
| whether we have ADD or not. Some people | | | | tendency for boredom. |
| don’t want to admit it. | | | | |