There are times in my life where I’ve wondered if I’m ADD or ADHD. I don’t mean that is some sarcastic, jerk way. Really, I don’t.
Just a few minutes ago I sat down at my laptop with the goal to do some more work on my podcast website. It seems simple enough, but throw in the fact that I’m listening to the nearly-new Walking Dead novel, I’m converting the Steve Jobs book into MP3s so I can listen to it this week while I’m at work, I have three tabs open in Chrome (including the one I’m typing this in), and I’m typing this. That’s a lot of multitasking, which isn’t really something you can be good at.
One second. I need to pause this book… Ok. Now where was I…?
As I said, I wonder about being ADD/ADHD. It’s not a chronic thing, I don’t think, but I feel like I always have to be doing multiple things at once. This isn’t only while I’m using my laptop, either. Look at my hobbies, for instance. I love designing, but I need to listen to music while doing so. Also, while I’m designing and listening to music I need to have my TweetDeck tab open so I can check it every few minutes, just in case there’s something to inspire me. I also have a tab open to find reference photos if I’m drawing. In the end, I may totally forego the design I’m working on for my portfolio and wind up watching a video review about Spider-Man on YouTube.
Now, I understand that may be typical for some people, but it has really started to bother me. I can’t ever seem to get anything finished that way. Another example is this whole podcasting thing.
I started Geek This! Podcast in December with the intention of focusing solely on geek culture. I’ve done a pretty good job of it in the few episodes that I’ve released. What I find aggravating about it is the research that I have to do for each episode. It’s not that researching comic books has been hard, but it takes me so long to do it because I can’t stay focused on the task at hand. My wife has suggested that I make a list of talking points for the episode I’m working on and just work my way through them. I’ve tried this and it’s been the best system so far, but I still find myself becoming like the child who is told, “Put your shoes on,” and does, but half way through putting the first shoe on gets entranced by whatever cartoon is on the TV.
Even this post has turned out to be that way. I wasn’t going to write about my lack of focus. I was planning on writing about my hobbies and side projects and how I feel like I do too much. I guess that will have to wait, huh?
So, having said all of that, I’ve got a question for you: Do you struggle with focus? If so, how do you deal with it? Please leave a comment below and attempt to break this awful curse on my productivity. I’ve got to go find out what these other tabs are doing open in my browser…
I’m sure we all struggle with a lack of focus to some degree–you’re not alone! The one biggest mistake I personally found I was multi-tasking to feel more productive but all this was causing was induced ADD for me. Instead I now pick a single task and block a set amount of time for it and focus solely on it until it is complete. This keeps me more focused.