I was supposed to do boring life stuff today but I got heavily sidetracked by trying to model a physics problem.
This sort of distraction happens a lot to me, when I’m meant to be doing one chore but drop it and do a different one when I see it needs to be done. Like needing to clean the stove, then noticing the cupboards aren’t clean, and then staying up late cleaning my kitchen from top to bottom. The sort of thing where it’s hard to find motivation but once I do then I’m unstoppable.
I have a friend on adderall, and how he describes that drug it wouldn’t work to help this because it helps you focus, but not necessarily on the right thing. He once took it to finish an assignment and then got fixated on a videogame instead and played it until 5am.
I find that I need to write a list of tasks that I need you achieve that day and I block out rough timeframes for the major tasks, as well as things like break time and meals. I use my phone’s calendar because it need it to organise my thoughts and for the clear visual representation and flexibility. You might find that a digital calendar is too liable to cause distraction and so you might prefer to use pen and paper or a whiteboard that is something along the lines of this:
This provides external structure and accountability but it also helps guide my focus because I’ve set my intention.
Timers and alarms are also useful in this too.