Being affected by ADHD often means struggling to get things done especially if we perceive the tasks as tedious. Aside from coaching those affected by ADHD I put out a weekly podcast, blog and newsletter. Some aspects of getting them done each week are tedious at least to me. Each task involves multiple steps so to help me remember the steps and get them done I made checklists for the blog, podcast and newsletter. These three checklists really helped me not forget anything and get all the steps done. Until they didn’t!
Many people affected by ADHD get bored easily and I got bored of my checklists so I stopped using them and that was OK because by then I knew the steps to get the blog, podcast and newsletter out. So that worked out for awhile. It was new doing the tasks without the checklists. Counting on my memory to remember all the steps for each task. But then that wasn’t so new anymore either and I got bored again.
The next step was mixing up what order I did each task. I think you get the idea here. We struggle with repetitive tasks often due to boredom. It is hard enough for us to get tedious stuff done but add doing it over and over again and it gets even harder.
My advice is to keep finding ways to mix it up when you start getting bored doing a task one way. Try doing it a different way, then a new different way. At some point you will run out of ideas and ways to do the task differently but by then probably enough time has elapsed that you can go back to the first way, then the second way, and so on. It is not a perfect solution but there are few of those in ADHDland. Mixing it up a little when you have to do a task repeatedly can help you get through it. Be creative and challenge yourself – it might make the difference in getting the task done.