Motivation...where did mine go?

ADHD is often associated with distraction.  Perhaps that is why the AD part stands for Attention Deficit.  But what the name of the disorder is missing is the fact that it is also a motivation deficit order as well.  I guess ADMDHD was too long an acronym.  Plus when you add the forgetfulness, the frustration and everything else that goes along with ADHD the acronym might be longer than the alphabet.

On days that I have a schedule or a long list of concrete to do items I do pretty well.

On other days where I know I have stuff to do, but I am either overwhelmed, don't have specific deadlines, have too many priorities or wake up on the wrong side of the bed, lack of motivation kicks in.

Yesterday was one such day.  Here is the outline of my day:

7:00am Wake up.

7:01 get up and go to the bathroom

You didn't really think I was going to draw a picture of me going to the bathroom did you?

7:03 go back to bed to wait for my medicine to kick in...I can't eat for an hour after I take my medicine so when I'm not on a schedule I figure I can hang out in bed catching up on emails, Facebook and important games on my iPad.

As soon as I show any signs of movement the cats decide it must be time for them to come attack me on the bed.

8:30ish...think about getting up (got really involved in a new game)  realize I forgot to take my medicine at 7:00.

8:31 Get up and take medicine...lay back down again.

9:00 Finally decide that I've wasted enough time today and get up to eat breakfast.

9:37  After eating a leisurely breakfast and fending off the cat all of the sudden realize I have to take oldest daughter to work in about 3 minutes.

9:38 tell oldest daughter that I will get dressed quickly and take her.  Daughter lets me know that she won't be ready for another 10-15 minutes.

9:39  Being that 10-15 minutes is too short a time to shower or start working on my project for the day I sit down to play stupid addictive game some more.

10:15  Daughter finally ready to go.  I did have time to shower...grrr

11:00 Back and finally showering

I thought about putting a drawing of me showering here, but thought it might be inappropriate.  This is a family site...cannot have any naked stick figures here :-)


11:30  Sit down at computer to work on presentation I have to give at work next month.

12:15 Presentation too overwhelming...go eat lunch.  Play more of the game.

 1:00 Time to get ready for my interview I have scheduled for 2:30.

1:30 Need to leave the house in 15 minutes...no time for anything other than stupid addictive game.  Set alarm on my phone so I leave in time...good thing because once again I lost track of time.

Rest of the day...go to interview, go to class and feel generally productive.

10:00  Get ready for bed...promise to self that I will not do this tomorrow...play stupid game some more until I'm too tired to see straight.

Time spent productively not including scheduled items = 45 minutes
Time spent on stupid game = at least 4 hours
Finishing stupid game = not worth it

**Update:  I just realized I forgot to add the most important part of this post.  The part where I share with you my secret weapon for making it look you were productive when in fact you spent the entire day playing a game on your iPad.  Here it is:

At some point during the day yesterday I realized felt guilty that my husband had been hard at work all day and I had been wasting time.  So I looked around and noticed this:

This is our sink full of dishes.  The green squares are our plates and the happy face is my favorite yellow happy face bowl that I eat yogurt out of every morning. 

I thought...a ha...I could empty and fill the dishwasher and suddenly I would look like I had been slaving away all day long.

So I spent maybe 15 minutes doing the dishes.  (Emptying the dishwasher took about 30 seconds because we had been using the dishes from there for the last few nights)  And the result was this:

Nothing like a shiny sink to make you look like you have been motivated.