I'm hoping someone can help me, I tried a couple of Facebook groups and just got care emojis. I can't believe I'm the only person this impacts.
I work in a job that is about 80% admin across 4 or 5 different work streams. However the other 20% requires me to be called away from my desk quickly with no notice or time to wrap up what I'm doing. When I come back to it, getting back on track, remembering what I was doing, finding my flow etc is hard. It has also progressed from stimulating admin of setting up new processes and procedures to comfort zone nothing to keep me motivated admin.
This is l generally fine and I've been ticking along. However I have a private diagnosis and when I moved my new GP (same city) wouldn't honour my shared care. Medicating privately just isn't an option for me long term so I am having to stop my meds.
So I'm looking for advice, strategies, hints and tips for how you all stay focused on admin, how you don't drop the ball too much and get behind, how you don't irritate your colleagues too much etc
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I think the easiest and most effective first step is for you to find a GP willing to accept shared care. Without medication everything becomes more difficult. It may be you've tried to do this, in which case you may have to persevere in your search. You might also consider, if you do eventually find a suitable GP, making an application to be diagnosed on the NHS. Although there are long waiting lists everywhere your turn will come and you would then eliminate the risk associated with requests for shared care. Indeed, I would go so far as to say the option of shared care altogether cannot be taken for granted - it would only take a concerted campaign by a populist politician backed up by a populist news outlet to put the whole concept of shared care at risk.
As for your work issues, I wish I had a pearl of wisdom to impart. What you describe sounds distressingly familiar and I haven't found a way to return to a task without it being a struggle to do so. I feel the involvement, once interrupted, is hard to recover - even small tasks seem to have so many strands that picking up where I left off presents such a challenge that the struggle to resume it sets off a train of anxiety and self-reproach that only serves to make things worse. Nevertheless, medication does help in this struggle.
Sadly there is only one GP in my catchment area accepting folks at the moment (because it's the NHS owned one and can't turn people away) but every few months I check whether other practices are accepting folks.
I'm now on the NHS waiting list but rumours of wait list length for my area are between 5-8 years! I went private initially as I have trauma that ties to the NHS and half expected the meds to do nothing and it all be trauma anyhow. My previous GP accepted the shared care so quickly and easily it never even occured to me it would be an issue elsewhere.
I pretty much begged them to let me stay as an out of area patient as I'm literally the other side of the boundary. Outlined my trauma and how long it has taken me to trust them but was told the health board were cracking down on out of area so no.
That's very frustrating. I'm sceptical, but I have tried to check whether one can register out of area and it is, in theory, possible. However, GP practices seem to have a huge amount of latitude in what they do, how they do it and the rules they can impose. I did note that it may be possible to register with a GP near one's place of work. Might that be an option for you?
Before you are called away from your desk can you make a brief note about where you were up to & what you were doing?
I think also taking 5 min break when you get back to your desk gives your brain time to switch gears again. Drink some water etc, then read over the note you left yourself.
Quite often I have to drop things and just go but yeah it might be worth a try. Some of it as well is just the mental effort of getting back in to the flow of what I was thinking even if I know what I was working on.
I'm the owner of an ADHD virtual assistant agency (LOTS of admin) and was an executive assistant to a CIO, CTO, and CFO for 16 years, all with undiagnosed (and thus, unmedicated) ADHD. As an EA, most of the time I was still undiagnosed (and had zero idea ADHD was even a possibility), so I had to set up systems to keep me on track and from dropping the ball all the time.
I highly recommend that you look into using some kind of task/project management tool - like Trello (they have a free version that works just fine). May not work for you, but it's magic for me, so thought I'd mention it. I add EVERYTHING I need to do to Trello - including things I've already done - so I have it there to reference. You can add in all kinds of details, the due date, reminders that the due date is coming up, who else in involved, etc.
I keep Trello open on one of my screens with the task open that I'm working on at the time. That way, if I get suddenly called away - which happens frequently - I can type in the briefest of notes in the Trello comment section that will tell me where I was at when I come back.
The second thing having a task management tool does for me is clear out brain space. I don't have to try to keep everything in my memory or search through emails if I know it's been recorded under my "To Do" column in Trello. It actually relieves a lot of subconscious stress.
Like I said, I don't know if it'll work for you, but it's definitely worth giving it a shot if you don't have any other ideas.
It may be one of those ADHD fads of THIS IS THE BEST THING EVER!!! and by next week the dopamine hit will be gone and I'll never touch it again but...
I made a Trello board for one of my work streams and it's fantastic! Having my "to do" list there in a visual format rather than just a list (and the colour coding etc) wors so well for me. Also love being able to see what's in progress and trying to limit how much is in that column.
I shared a shot of it with someone and they suggested looking up Kaban style organising. The idea of the "to do" list actually being "backlog" was also great as "to dos" make me really anxious and overwhelmed when they get long as it becomes a list of things I've failed to achieve as I don't have capacity whereas "backlog" is more here's a pile of things that people are asking of me and I'll clear that as fast as my capacity allows.
Thank you for this suggestion and I hope I can make it stick. I also used your suggestion of having it on my second screen with the thing I was working on ope, helpful not only when called away from my desk but also for bringing me back from in office distractions!
Oh and I even stopped and added something a colleague mentioned in passing that they had emailed needed done. Normally I'd have gone "great, will look at it later" and things from email don't tend to migrate to my to do list
Thanks Jozlynn, that's really helpful. I'm usually better with pen and paper as the processing issues with my dyslexia mean I remember things better if I physically write them down but given I have several projects that I have to dip in and out of through the day some sort of task management thing might be worth a try.
Since pen and paper processing works better for you, look into the "bullet journal" system. It was developed by an ADHDer.It's basically a list making system that uses special marks to denote whether something you've written down is a to-do item, schedule item, or just a note.
There are lots of tutorials for this system (and if you don't like the term "bullet journal", it's also known as a "dot journal").
How it might help is that by keeping a list that has the last thing you were doing at the bottom, you can easily refer to it.
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Question:
Are these things that you keep getting called away for at the last minute things that really pop up like that?
Or are some of them things that the other person/people knew about in advance, but just didn't call on you until the last minute?
Sometimes, other people just aren't thinking of how much they are affecting your work by waiting until the last minute to call on you.
If you are getting called away to deal with matters for a scheduled meeting or event that you know about, then you might be able to get a sense of what types of scheduled events you're most likely to get called to deal with (or which people most often call you away).
Perhaps you can write up self-help guides for those people, so that they only need to call on you for things that specifically require your knowledge and assistance, not for things they can try themselves first. (Less waiting for them, and gives them self-efficacy. Less interruptions for you.)
If you can find a pattern of when you're likely to be called upon, then around those times do less critical things that can be more easily in interrupted, like busywork (those little tasks that need doing, but not at any particular time).
Part of my job is admin, part of my job is supporting volunteers who are on duty during the day so it's completely random and unplanned when they might call and it's usually a go right away as they have a person with them that needs assistance or equipment isn't working. As such there's not scope for scheduling it and rarely the option of "could you give me five minutes"
I use a method of bullet journaling but my role is spread across different areas so it gets confusing/overwhelming if I don't just keep it to the general this is what I need to do
I’d give writing yourself a sticky note a go - you might have a tick more time than you think. I’ve started timing tasks just to see how close my perception is to reality. Find a moment when you aren’t flustered and time yourself making a note for yourself. I love digital stuff but I always keep a scratch pad on my desk to write quick notes. I have no working memory and I find that having a lot of half-forgotten stuff floating around in my brain incredibly stressful. You could also try taking a photo of your desk or a screen shot. Voice memo?
You could also try talking to your colleagues and telling them you will be there in 10 minutes. Or try saying “Be right there. Let me just hit send on this email.” Which implies urgency but is a little open ended. I’ve noticed that being assertive about timing (I’ll call you back at 11, I can get this to you beginning of next week) lowers my stress.
I often (always) have a perception of urgency and it helps to reality check that. The truth is that you will also be more present for the folks who’ve called you away from you desk if you know you can safely put what how were in the middle of out of your mind. Sometimes people are more patient than I imagine. But a lot of workplaces run on drama - and of course some things are truly urgent. But even some mental space moving from one task to another is helpful.
I hope you can get the meds sorted out - it can feel so demoralizing but don’t give up.
As I mentioned above it's sadly not colleagues calling me away. I'm responsible for our volunteers and when they call 95% of the time it's because there's someone with them that needs help there and then or a technical issue needs dealt with that can't just wait.
On the timing thing, I bought a bright rainbow visual countdown timer the other day, mainly so when I have the undisturbed time I remember to step away from my desk/hydrate/move etc. I did some random estimating how long it took me to do things at home and used it to see the reality... I have a terrible habit of underestimating how long things take! Something I thought took 5 minutes actually took 18!
I am trying to be better though when colleagues ask for my time to either say things like can I finish this and then I'll be with you, or I'd love to talk through that with you but could we do it tomorrow at 11 etc so I don't just drop all my stuff to deal with other people's needs
hey! I use the Pomodoro Technique to help me get back into a project once I’ve been pulled away. I totally understand your frustration, as I also deal with this daily. I use a lot of note taking to remind myself where I was, so when I return I’m not totally lost. Please check out my other posts (there’s like 26 to look through) and hopefully will be helpful to you. I typically post on Tuesdays, and have some AI ideas I’ll be adding soon.
I've only come across pomodoro in terms of breaking things up and making sure to take breaks "ie setting a 40 minute timer then a 10 minute break" is there other ways to use it too?
As I find that a useful method for jobs around the house I bought myself the most dopamine filled visual analogue timer and currently it's proving great for realising how long tasks actually take me versus what I think they will take (sure, yeah it will only take me 5 minutes to do that... 20 minutes later!)
Will certainly make some time to look at your other posts.
Another aspect that is difficult is getting distracted by others in the office. I know I probably need to invest in headphones rather than earphones because when I use them colleagues will talk at me not realising I can't hear them whereas they would be a visual clue. If I don't have earphones in their discussions about the parts of our organisations work that I desperately wish I was involved in are always more interesting than the dull admin.
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