Examples:
- Kid’s electronic toy that we loved is broken. Instead of throwing it away, I put it in a box because “surely, I’ll find the time to fix it”
- After moving, valuables are “temporarily” in plastic bags, because I’ll buy & assemble a showcase soon enough.
None of these things ever happen. I make the planning as if I did not an attention disorder. Although I had it all my life.
Now that I’m in treatment, I would have thought that my brain works in a way I’d need to get used to. But no, it just works in the way I always assumed when I made a plan.
It’s just so strange that the planning seems to assume an intact prefrontal cortex, rather than adjusting to how it actually works.
I struggle with this as well. Sometimes I let myself go into what I call “if you give a mouse a cookie” mode and do the things as they pop into my mind instead of following the list. It’s nice to not have to spend energy trying to keep my brain on task.
But usually I try to stick to my list. Things get on the list because either there’s an imminent deadline or it’s been bothering me and taking up too much of my mental bandwidth.