Increase Follow Through For ADHD Adults
Topic: Follow Through. The costs of not doing it, why we ADDers have more trouble following through, and what you can do to increase your rate of follow through. See the other Adult ADHD Issues.
Facilitator: Pete Quily
Thanks for Kat for taking notes.
May 5th 2015 Meeting Notes for the Vancouver Adult ADD Support Group
Warm up
Think of a task or project you often have trouble following through on that you learned how to follow through on without nagging or externally imposed deadlines. Explain how you did it.
What are some of the costs of not following through?
Being judged (unfairly)
Depression
Emotional and psychological costs of clutter
Financial troubles
Having to restart project
Leads to clutter
Losing your job
Loss of respect/credibility
Lost opportunities
Organized, circular, systematic insanity
Overload and overwhelm
Physical safety (reckless behaviour, health)
Reduced productivity
Rejection and alienation
Relationship problems
Self/external disappointment
Wasted potential
Why do ADDers have more trouble than others following through?
Anxiety
Attached to past patterns
Details are boring
Difficulty making decisions
Don’t feel the benefit
Easily discouraged
Emotionally overwhelmed
Focus problems
Have trouble sustaining motivation
Having too many possibilities
Lose interest
Not clear on steps/instructions/goal
Not knowing when the task is finished
Overanalyze
Overly frustrated too easily
Overresearch
Pessimism
Poor working memory
Self-defeating thoughts, beliefs and behaviours
Sequences
Too attached to the path/outcome
Too hyperfocused
Trouble with transition
Underdeveloped reward system
What things can you do to increase the chances of following through?
Colour post it notes in order of priority
Create a plan
Dream board (visualization)
Embody that visualization
Get support/teamwork
Go over notes
Grouping specific behaviour/activities with productive activities
Hyperfocus binge
Learn how to delegate
Learn to say no
Less multitasking
List specific steps
Make every step fun
Meaningful (to you) rewards
Measure and track your outcomes
Reality filters how much time, money, energy, resources does it cost?
Set alarms to set alarms
Share with others to keep you accountable
Visualize outcome
White noise/focus music
Group exercise
Pick a goal/problem you have following through on
Why is it a problem?
What makes it worse?
What will help you do it?
When and where, date, time?
How will you remember to do it? Vs the tradition ADHD magical thinking.
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