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.
In terms of drugs Ritalin kind of works for me. Trying to do it by willpower is hella draining and will fail sooner or later I found.
What works best for me is setting a routine and then learning that routine till I can do it blindly, then I can go through that routine on autopilot, so I can dream about whatever and can’t get distracted by other chores because I dont notice the world around me. Then set a weekly schedule where those routines are done. So for instance every friday between 10-12 I’ll clean the floor. I have a set way of doing that. Every evening after 8pm I’ll clean the kitchen. I know exactly what I’m going to be doing. I still need headphones to tune out how much I hate what I am doing for that one though.
But it requires practice and planning ahead. So you need to assess what needs and can be done routinely, what exactly that requires, implement a step-by-step plan, plan it into a weekly routine and then do that for a couple weeks until it sinks in. It’s way easier to do with person you trust, best with a behavioural therapist. Failing that I’d set a time and date when I’d be planning to do that and then do it on that time, dropping whatever I was doing no matter what. Like if the house is on fire that sucks for the house but I need to do that now.