My head feels like it wants to explode. I am weepy, frustrated, overwhelmed. There is so much I desperately want to do but I don't know where to begin.
Even the birds twittering outside are freaking me out. "Shut up, I am trying to concentrate", I yell.
I am trying to decide the topic for our next newsletter which we send out every Tuesday to all our subscribers on this website.
There are dozens of articles on my computer I have started and not finished. Today is Sunday. Yesterday I frittered away the day "thinking". Nothing inspires me.
Suddenly I am so overwhelmed I literally want to throw things.
I am on diet and have given up all food containing sugar. Naturally, I make some muffins while I try and get hold of my emotions.
An email pops into my inbox and it is about Mastering Time Management.
Some of the suggestions are:
- The 5-second rule - count backwards 5,4,3,2,1 and FORCE yourself to take action
- Break the task into pieces
- Choose 1 big thing to accomplish, 3 medium things and 5 small tasks ... and GO!!
I love this last one. Have a DO NOT DO List - identify non-urgent tasks and STOP DOING THEM.
All great advice but I am like many ADDers. I can be super stubborn when I am overwhelmed and all I can do is scroll through my phone watching these mindless AI (Artifical Intelligence) created stories about marital revenge. They are so badly written they mesmerise me.
A muffin or two later, I begin to gain control again. Tomorrow I will curse my lack of dedication to my diet.
I decide to go back to basics and use the techniques I learned in Dave's ADHD Coaching Programme I did 18 years ago. As ADDers we are constantly a "work-in-progress" and I frequently have to go back to my file of Coaching notes to get back on track.
My brain is random. I do not think in an orderly manner.
This is how I empty my Busy-Full Mind
• 
We guillotine our scrap A4 paper into A5 sheets and I grab a pile.
• I use a very rough form of mind-mapping. My writing is appalling. There is no logic to the blobs that appear on the page. Words splatter onto the page like water ejected from an air filled pipe and my brain feels the pressure reducing. It sounds insane but it is true.
• As I fill one page I take another. Sometimes I am able to use different sheets when I realise the topics are different. It doesn’t matter. All that is important is that I get every thought out of my head onto paper. OK that is not possibile because there is a never ending stream but at least it slows down a bit.
• When I am calm again I take all the sheets and lay them out on my desk.
• I start to see links between the blobs and perhaps some topic headings.
• Now I am able to take fresh A5 sheets and group together items that could go together. These are still rough blobs but I am able to get a bit of a clearer picture.
• As I pick items from my first workings I cross them off to get them out of mind.
• I may need to do this several times and often I go away and do something else or have a snooze to let the ideas gel.
• Eventually I am able to pick out the headings and sub-headings and group the options together in a more logical way.
• From here I can start to eliminate what is not important and make some decisions, often after discussing with Dave or someone else what I need to focus on.
Years ago when we used to travel, Dave did an ADHD talk to 300 Grade 8 – 12 special needs learners. Dave mentioned how the ADDer brain goes at a million miles an hour. One youngster immediately put up his hand and asked if that meant that if you had ADHD and your brain worked so fast that you would die quicker.
Well sometimes I think that if I don’t slow my brain down it will simply explode and then yes I will be dead ... and I am far too young to die.
NOTE: I wrote the guts of this article in 2012 and after a bit of re-working, it is popping into your mailbox today - 20 August 2024