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How to motivate or force an ADD student to self-study?

  • I'm a college student with pretty serious ADD who's doing an Independent Study contract in a sink-or-swim situation on a topic I love and am motivated to research. However, I can't actually bring myself to start to do it seriously, and have wasted nearly half the quarter. Stress is mounting, time is nigh, my ability to follow my own schedules near-zero so far. How do I salvage this? I'm getting so stressed, and so close to 'no going back, can't do it anymore stage' it's ridiculous. It's the 5th week and at the end of this week I'm supposed to have an outline for my thesis paper done. I haven't even gotten through one of my readings yet. If I go 100% full-steam ahead, I can probably do it (mostly), if I just kill myself for the second half of this quarter, but I don't know how to put myself there. Stress *alone* doesn't keep me going long enough. It gets me through last-minute pushes that last a week or so. In creative writing, it's stress + obsession that gets me through. Usually, once I really get going, I'll keep going out of sheer interest and burning fixation. I'm not at that point yet-- that's the post-35%-in point (or so). It's not like this is anything new: anytime I've had an independent writing/reading project in a class setting, I always put it off till the absolute last second, spending weeks feeling awful and avoiding. I was supposed to break that cycle by doing this Independent Study project the whole quarter, but no dice. 1) I have a 'work space'. In fact I have 2-- desks available in the library and my own cubicle in the arts building, where I even got an electric kettle. I mean, I even decorated it. 1a) I have an abstract 'how to': I've been told on how to break up my time (3 hour reading blocks, 2 hour rest, or 4 hours morning and 4 hours evening). I know about the theory of scheduling, and I've scheduled out my quarter (I've just ignored it). At this point, my schedule is one of my stressors,and it's not making me feel 'with it' but the opposite, as with each day it's not 'what I have to do' and more 'what I know I haven't done', and it keeps adding up. 2) I'm very motivated, fascinated by the material, good at research, think it's fun, etc. Unfortunately, this manifests as constant self-nagging which leads to feelings of pressure and therefore stress --> avoidance --> more stress --> more avoidance... But normally I just tell myself 'later'. 2a) I mean to do it. I always 'mean' to do it. But because I don't 'have' to, I don't. Like... when I set my alarm clock to say, 8:30am and I have a class at 9am, I wake up (barely on time, but I wake up). If I set my alarm clock to 8:30am and I know I'm the only one demanding I wake up... I wake up and then (sleepily) tell myself 'just a few more minutes' and go back to sleep. It's not a question of more alarms, because I can desensitize myself or sensitize myself depending on my subconscious knowing 'the real deal'. I don't know how to fix it. 3) I do have ADD, and delayed-release Ritalin I haven't been taking lately, partly 'cause it doesn't have the omg-burn effect of immediate-release and doesn't force me to do things anyway, or keep me awake. That was sort of the point, but because it's relatively mild, I don't get the 'need' to take it on the same visceral level (I've been misusing the fast-release Ritalin to cram and forgetting the rest of the time, even though I do have strong ADD... which is why I switched... but I'm not using the mild version almost at all). Nor do I think it's 'the solution'. It's probably part of the solution, though. I mean, I've been forgetting about it. 4) I've been told to focus on what I want to learn/discover rather than what I 'need to read' in a dry fashion to motivate myself (like, 'oooh, Lucifer' to read Milton rather than '3 books of Paradise Lost tonight'). But I'm so easily distracted and go 'ooh' about much more brainless things so easily... ('ooh manga' + feel-good factor drowns out 'ooh Lucifer'). 4a) I've been having one tutor meet with me weekly to discuss, though we're skipping this week, but it's not enough. I can't rely on my sponsoring professor 'cause she's busy this quarter. I can only rely on myself-- that was the point-- and 'myself' is falling down on the job. 5) There is probably no magic bullet except Ritalin + brute force. But telling myself that doesn't help (only adds to stress). What is 'brute force' when I can't even wake up if I tell myself I will? Maybe I can just bury my laptop somewhere, only carry my needed books and go blindly to the library first thing each day to either read or stare into space.... Gah. Help?

  • Answer:

    Sadly, there is no magic bullet. That being said, here are two random things to think about: • Maybe it would help to spend a little more energy approaching this from a medical/pharmacological perspective? You've been diagnosed and prescribed various medications that could help (not solve of course, but help) with this situation, but you haven't been taking it and/or it isn't helping in the way that you want. It's awesome that medication might be able to help you here, but it can't do anything for you if you don't take it or its not the right drug and/or dosage for you. Can you get in to see anyone who you can work with to come up with a new medication plan that can more effectively and reliably help? Fortunately, the problem of forgetting to take your medication is the easiest to solve. We can help you come up with something specific, but for a lot of people, there's a good way to fit it into your morning routine to help jog your memory. Perhaps you can keep the bottle on top of something you use every morning or even ruberband it to your toothpaste or similar item. Or maybe set your cell phone alarm to go off every morning as an extra reminder to take your pill. I bet the doctor who prescribes your medication has some tips for this too. • Fuck the schedule. Yes, that sounds counter-intuitive–I mean you're having trouble getting stuff done, so shouldn't you be making even more detailed and mandatory schedules?–, but, for me at least, that path is just a trap that exacerbates the problem. If you're like me, if you try to dig yourself out of a procrastination situation with schedules, you will just look at the overwhelming schedule, feel even more doomed, and decide you're too stressed to get anything done, thus worsening the problem in a vicious circle of viciousness. What can help, at least for me, is to do the opposite and set your own expectations really low. Right now, you feel pretty crappy and stressed right? You're kicking yourself for getting into this mess? That's all ok, because you have no real expectations right now anyway. Acknowledge that you have minimal control over your own brain at the moment. It's all ok, because your only goal at the moment is to be alive 24 hours from now, and in that time, to read one sentence at random from somewhere within your reading. I told you we're setting the bar low here. Since there are no hungry saber-tooth tigers in your neck of the woods (should you reside in a region of the world where tigers do roam freely, kindly substitute a non-local predator of your choice here), we're going to kick that goal's ass. You might want to tell yourself that you have tons of other short and long term goals, but you're not going to do that because everyone deserves a one day vacation from their goals sometimes. The key here is that you're turning the "I need to buckle down and get this done" mentality on its head. Instead of setting yourself up for disappointment and more stress if you get distracted, you're setting your goals so low that you're able to massively surpass them. And if you fail, you've fallen such a short distance that it's easy to pick yourself back up again. It might all feel futile; how does reading one sentence at random get you any closer to getting your project done? Just remember that right now, you essentially are at the starting point, so reading one sentence puts you infinitely closer to finishing. Might as well read a second sentence and you can stick a great big 200% in the "percent completed" column next to your goal. How often do you get to do twice as well as you planned on something anyway? From there, you can keep nudging the bar a little while still maintaining the theme of massively low expectations. Maybe tomorrow you'll try writing one note down about the reading. Tell yourself, "by the end of the semester, I will write a one sentence paper on my topic." Heck, actually open a Word document and type something vaguely resembling a crappy sentence that could be somewhere in the middle of your paper. Plenty of papers have been written from the inside out. Once you've crossed that off the list, you can promise to yourself that you'll write a one paragraph paper that your 2nd grade self would be embarrassed to turn in. Keep it up, and eventually you'll reach that 35% (or so) point and fixation can take over. Finally, a bonus thing to think about: it might feel like you're the only person in the universe who could screw this up so badly, but that is far from the truth. In reality, I can think of dozens and dozens of folks from my own (quite recent) college career, all of them super smart and talented, who could have written pretty much exactly the same post at one point or another. Furthermore, your point 2) has got to be shared by basically everyone at your college; I heard some minor variation on that point from basically everyone when the topic came up. Heck, I know plenty of really successful people who often fall into the very same trap you describe. There's no moral failing here. Let me say that again; nothing about this situation involves any kind of moral failure on your part. The goal here is to better understand how your brain works and how you can best use it to accomplish certain tasks. P.S. Showing off my own scatter-shot tendencies here, I bring you an extra bonus thought: social forces can be a really powerful tool to help with this. Can you study alongside a friend or two? You can even just say "hey I'm having a really hard time focusing and have got to get this done, so don't let me get distracted." This can backfire if you're with the wrong people, but I've found that the social pressure of "ok we're all going to sit here and get through this reading and not get distracted" can be really useful. You don't all have to be doing the same type of work at all either. Picture you and two friends all working quietly in the living room/common room/library space/middle of the quad/whatever you have. All you have is your reading, highlighter and notecards, and you've left your computer and similar diversions elsewhere. In that situation, it is a lot harder for you to do anything besides your work because of the social pressure to focus.

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Try this TONIGHT. Set a timer for 30 seconds. Work for 30 seconds, then read a page of manga. When you finish the page of manga, set the timer again for 30 seconds. Very soon, you will start feeling like you actually want to increase the amount of time on your timer. Set it for 1 minute. Repeat. You will get into a groove again and want to increase your timer. Increase it of increments of a minute or two at a time, max. After an hour of this, get up and do something that feels physically refreshing, like exerting yourself physically or taking a shower. I think if you train your brain like this to associate working with the IMMEDIATE rewards that you've trained it to be used to, you can work with your brain. And you can slowly train your brain to expect its rewards to be less and less immediate.

Ashley801

Get off the internet. ADD or not you're an adult and you have to get out of bed and do the work, no-one's going to do it for you. Get off the internet. Do a logical plan then write a first draft on that basic framework as quickly as possible. Get off the internet. It's much easier to edit something which already exists, no matter how rough or inadequate, than it is to start on a blank new page. Get off the internet. The work comes first, everything else - manga, friends, everything and anything - comes after you've done the work. Get off the internet. Work is ten hours a day, not two and a half. Get off the internet. It takes less energy to get stuck into the work than it does to sit around worrying about what you haven't done yet. Get off the internet. Forget about stress. Stress is watching your baby die, not writing a paper for school. Get off the internet. You can't cruise on potential any longer, either do the school work or get a job. Get off the internet. The internet? Get off it.

joannemullen

I've been there! I was getting nowhere on my thesis in September, and the stress of not getting things done made me get less stuff done. And my supervisor pretty much refused to give me any useful direction. What worked for me, was first admitting there was a problem (which you seem to be on top of). Then I made an arrangement with my supervisor where every Monday I would send him an itemized list of things I planned to get done that week. Then on Friday I would send him another email with what I had actually accomplished (and I made myself be honest). I don't think he every read the emails (only reply I ever got was "Looks great!" every week), but it forced me to plan and be accountable. And making the list in the first place really helps you to organize your thoughts, and you get the positive reinforcement as you check stuff off. I think the same idea can work if you have a SO or parent or close friend that you can email; anyone who you don't want to disappoint. You could also make the schedule daily or every other day, or whatever works for you. Hope that helps!

auto-correct

May I pass along to you the Half-Assed Effort method? Given to me by a wise Mefite in the past, it goes like this: Commit to doing a half-assed effort at the task that is daunting you. Ta-dah! You've started! Seriously. Right now, I'm putting off exercising... waitaminute... just did three pushups. Not my usual 20+, followed by other exercises. Just enough to force me off the "I haven't started yet" ledge. The Half-Assed Effort won't always work. But sometimes it will, and every time it removes the onus of "I haven't even started yet." If starting is a big block for you, as it is for me, this method can help.

IAmBroom

Have you looked at your diet? I hate to give advice to someone in a crisis because it's difficult to know which way you'll sway the balance, but the only thing that has helped my attention problem is a major change to my diet. I omit all refined carbohydrates, but don't limit total carbohydrates i.e. I can eat all the carbs I want in the form of low glycemic vegetables--but no sugar, no grains, no legumes. The bulk of my calories tend to come from meat, eggs, and dairy. Upon beginning this diet (after a four or five day withdrawal period) I just began magically to feel in control and stopped procrastinating. YMMV. If you're a vegetarian or vegan this may be difficult or impossible. I'm just throwing this into the mix because it's made a tremendous difference in my life.

sockpup

Uninstall your internet browser and unplug the modem. Break the work up into discrete chunks, and if they're still too intimidating, even more discrete chunks until you get down to "for twenty minutes I will do X", write it out, then do it for 20 minutes, then cross it off when you do it. Crossing off is key. Committ to hand something - anything - in, no matter how bad. Utilise your campus counsellors and/or study centre in helping you do this.

smoke

When I was in the exact same situation, what worked for me was a timer. I set it up a little differently than Ashley801-- I did a cycle with twelve minutes of work, then a three minute break (it's longer than it sounds). Four cycles an hour, then a ten minute break... repeat, repeat. At first it was really freaking hard just to stay in my chair for 12 minutes. Stuff I told myself that helped me do it: --It won't be any easier to get this done tomorrow (of tonight, or in an hour, etc.) --My advisor has invested a lot of time in helping me do this and my parents have invested money for me to be here. I owe it to them to knuckle down. --Feeling guilty and stressed about not getting things done is ultimately more painful than just doing them. Those are my choices, so I have to get this stuff done. --I will feel so fucking good when I don't have this hanging over my head. I will reward myself with [x]. I also had the same problem you have with sleeping through alarm/ hitting the snooze button. I solved it by making breakfast dates with people (then I had more than just an obligation to myself to get out of bed) and by having a friend phone me in the mornings. He'd make me turn on the faucet while I was on the phone with him to prove I'd actually gotten out of bed. Good luck!

Sifleandollie

"3) I do have ADD, and delayed-release Ritalin I haven't been taking lately," 1) You really need to take it regularly even though it doesn't bump you up or you can't "feel" it. The effects of having it on a daily basis are the little things that you don't forget and the little opportunities you don't miss. That's what keeps you from being in this emergency situation. 2) You need to talk to your psychiatrist about this, because maybe a higher dose of delayed-release meds work for you. 3) You need to seriously consider whether it's healthy or wise to be addicted to the adrenaline, stress, OMG FREAKOUT, and immediate rush of short-acting meds. HINT: It is not healthy and as things get more and more challenging you will fuck up and fail more often. Some things genuinely require long, ongoing, dull attention. 4) Self-directed, low-structure and sparse-accountability is ADD nightmare time. Don't do this again unless you absolutely have to.

the young rope-rider

Is there a research component to your project? Then despite the fact that you've been told to read whatever you want, you really, really need a bibliography. A good one. Make a list of all the books you'll need (this list will grow as you go along and see other things cited). Then attack each book/article and take notes, writing down page numbers anytime you see anything relevant. I'm serious about that-- the ideal situation is reading the book once, quickly, and then not having to open it again when you're writing except to double-check when you're quoting or paraphrasing. The lazy (but still effective) way to do this is to use the index like you're SEOing: read every single page given for your topic, and then every single page given for related topics or your original topic, worded slightly differently. If you're working with secondary sources, read their bibliographies to make sure you're not missing any major works. From here, things should be easier no matter what your writing strategy is, but here's what I do: Once I know my sources, I like to physically (digitally?) arrange the quotations I'm going to use in a blank Word document, roughly following my original outline. Sometimes I end up needing to change my paper's structure at this point, but it's as easy as moving around blocks of quotation. Seeing the way the different sources engage with each other solidifies my argument, so that when I'm done, I know how my paper will look as a whole and writing is as simple as filling in the blanks. THEN, I start writing, I tackle whichever part of the paper I feel like when I sit down at the computer. I try to set a target for each session, like 200 words or so. Then I put it away. Then I repeat the next day, until it's done. This style of writing makes putting aside a couple of days for editing absolutely necessary, but it works.

oinopaponton

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