Yes, I know... I am often complaining about the challenges of having a scattered mind and struggling to focus — what modern psychology likes to label "ADHD."
That said, it's really more about awareness than just about complaining!
It wasn't really much of "a thing" when I was a grade school kid, but these days it sounds like virtually everyone suffers from ADHD. Heck, even society suffers from ADHD, as we seem to move towards a world increasingly centered on nothing deeper or more detailed than 256-character tweets and 30-second Tiktok reels.
Whether people reflect societal trends, or society reflects people trends... that I do not know.
What I do know is that I was never formally diagnosed with ADHD... primarily because I was resistant to the idea of spending my life drugged into oblivion. After all, that's what we do in this world... we no longer give people coping skills, we just throw pharmaceuticals at them.
Am I one of those "self-diagnosed" idiots, proclaiming myself an expert, courtesy of Dr. Google? Nope... these thoughts are based both on experience as well as on a long string of medical doctors and a couple of therapists asking me "Have you ever been tested for ADHD?"
I mostly flew under the radar because I never had the "H" (Hyperactivity) part of the equation.
That is, I was never that unruly and destructive kid bouncing around class disruptively and readily getting labeled as a "problem child." So I slid into adulthood, well knowing that concentration was a problem but nobody seemed to care, so I gradually developed a set of "tools" that helped me continue to fly under the radar.
Well, sort of.
One of my greatest challenges has always been "getting started" on projects and tasks, and then staying with them past the first five minutes.
If you're not afflicted with ADHD, you might wonder how that even is a thing, so I'll try to illustrate.
A lot of it — at least for me — has to do with incorrectly assessing how much actual time and effort will be needed to do something, and particularly something that I am not looking forward to doing.
For example, recently I had to start working on a tax return, which is due on October 15th. Getting started was greatly hampered by my (false) PERCEPTION that the task would require HUGE amounts of organization and was going to take me at least 8-10 days of working 10-12 hours a day, without a break... and in needing to commit to that, having to forego doing anything else for a week and getting hopelessly behind in all other aspects of life, which might take weeks to catch up on!
While our taxes are complicated — due to Mrs. Denmarkguy and I having four home businesses between us — the reality is that the tax preparation and attendant paperwork might take about 2-3 half days to complete... in large part because I am already pretty well organized, ahead of going through similar freakouts every year for a couple of decades.
I won't get into a lot of detail here, but these time misperceptions are ultimately the result of "childhood lessons" from perfectionistic parents who would criticize and shame any outcome less than a perfect one... and so I ended up in an adulthood where my "estimates" of how much time and effort is needed to complete a task is based on imaginary perfection rather than tangible reality.
I resist starting things because it feels like an overwhelming death march to complete whatever is at hand, and the expected outcome is failure, criticism and shame regardless of what I do.
Totally irrational, of course... although it is something many with ADHD deal with.
So what's with this "five minute rule" I mentioned?
It's basically a bit of psychological trickery, in which I "make a deal with myself" that I will start on something and just promise to work on it for five minutes. I can even set a timer, if needed, although I just use my computer clock.
It works because of how ADHD brains tend to be wired.
I can do things when I have the knowledge that I can quit in a moment. But what then happens is that when five minutes is up, is that I'm often "in the middle" of some process... and I choose to "just finish this." Which leads to doing "just one more thing." And then another. And so forth.
The OBJECTIVE here is to make it through the first 30-40 minutes of something, which is how long it takes before the resistance pretty much melts away and I instead arrive at "hyperfocus," a state in which I become determined to "just knock this out."
This is not all about psychology, either... there's some brain chemistry involved, as well.
In "neurotypical brains dopamine, norepinephrine, and glutamate (neurotransmitters) are released when we really need to focus on something with extra concentration and energy. Perhaps you are familiar with how that works, in anticipation of starting a competitive sporting event.
Now imagine instead that when you start to really concentrate and focus, your brain also floods with adenosine and serotonin (neurotransmitters that make us feel sleepy) and you suddenly start feeling like you haven't slept in 48 hours.
Hardly what you want when you're trying to work really hard!
Here the "Five Minute Rule" comes back into play because it's really a self-deception:" concentrating for five minutes is no big deal, so the neurotransmitters released are far more modest... because it doesn't really feel like I am "trying to" anything.
I am basically tricking myself.
But why does it still work when I know what I'm doing? Honestly? I don't know. And as long as it keeps working, I'm OK with simply knowing THAT it works, without knowing WHY it works.
By the way, I even experience this when trying to write blog posts, which is why I often create the "bare bones" using voice-to-text that I can then polish up and flesh out, later.
Bottom line is that we just have to figure out what works for us!
Thanks for stopping by, and have a great week ahead!
Comments, feedback and other interaction is invited and welcomed! Because — after all — SOCIAL content is about interacting, right? Leave a comment — share your experiences — be part of the conversation! I do my best to answer comments, even if it sometimes takes a few days!
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Created at 2025.10.12 19:15 PST
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