Finishing something / the last thing

[orange86]

It's impossible for me to finish something completely, as if I need part of it to remain on my mind, lest my mind be calm. Also, can only do a task, if I know there's another one afterwards.

Help!

[Gettingittogether]

You might need to go to therapy to work on this one. You will have to retrain your brain to get more comfortable with completing tasks. Sometimes we just have to learn to endure the anxiety if that's the price of doing something really good. I had a hard time submitting mediocre work and so I would slave over details to try to make every piece of work really good ... And that was destroying my career and my sanity.

But it took time and therapy really to systematically practice getting comfortable with submitting B work on time (sometimes B- and C+ work on time) rather than fiddling and missing the deadline to submit A work.

What I noticed is that I got better at working faster. But it started with making peace with a B- submission. Keep in mind that people with ADHD also have all kinds of other things going on. This disinterest in finishing might have to do with something else you felt in your family or with your worth than with ADHD specifically.

I recommend therapy or coaching because this is a problem you cannot fix overnight. Literally you have systematically practice finishing things over time. And noting the feelings that come up when you finish (or when you don't) and then putting those feelings through some Cognitive Behavioral Therapy questioning.

[DW44]

So relatable! Try having another task at the ready for you to do as soon as you finish the one you’re working on, and use indentures and rewards to encourage you to complete them! Best of luck

[MarikaBe]

Try focusmate, I read about it just yesterday somewhere here, and today already completed two tasks that I was postponing for a while. The idea is that you schedule 50 or 25 mins with another person from the focusmate community and you do video call. You have 1 min in the beginning to say what you are going to be working on and then mute your mics and work. Then after the end of the time you have 1 min to say what you managed to accomplish. There is some science behind it as of why exactly it is useful. But if I may, I’d recommend anyone to try it out. It works wonders in my opinion at least.