How do I break myself of the executive dysfunction paradox? I need to do laundry. But I haven't showered in a few days because my towels are dirty. Also: too many things on the floor, cannot put food from couch away in cabinets. Must clean sitting area so can sit and do floor cleanings. Send assist :(
I don't know exactly what variety of assist will help, but: If the bigger problem is "can't pick one thing to start with because everything requires everything else," I'd vote for taking a shower first. Unless you've been, like, using your towels to mop up mud or something, you'll still be cleaner using dirty towels to dry off than if you didn't shower, and then you'll feel better and that might help spoons enough to get the laundry going. If the bigger problem is "too many Things and everything requires something else," one thing that's helped me before is breaking it down as small as possible and tying it to something fun that gives you breaks? I use drinking-game-style rules a lot. So, like, "My room is full of junk. I'm going to watch Leverage and whenever someone brazenly lies I put one stray object back where it's supposed to be." Even if all you do is, like, shove some of the stuff on the floor out of the way a bit so you can get through to put a box of crackers back in the cabinet, that's still a box of crackers off the couch and less work when you decide to put the next thing in the cabinet.
Seconding the take a shower advice. I suggest using the pomodoro/unfuck your habitat method too, which is my goto for anything exdys. The keys is doing things in small amounts of time and taking lots of breaks; I usually do 30 minutes of work and 15 of rest. So like, in 30 minutes I would, for example, grab all the dirty towels and go do a load of laundry, or collect all the trash in the house and take it out, stuff like that. Or sort the things on the floor - not necessarily put them in place or do anything with it, like... when the floordrobe takes over I just sort of separate darks from whites from colors from jeans, stuff like that. Instead of seeing a task as one Big TASK THING, break it into smaller tasks that take less spoons than just Doing The Thing
So far, the taking shower first has helped me succeed in going to the laundromat not smelling like the rest of my (3 week) laundry pile. Am still hesitating on the kitchen / living situation, but will see if I can chunk it into bits. Having a podcast on in bg might help narrow my focus, since ADHD brain will have stimulus while the body is doing Things. Thank for help with things, folx.
Podcasts are really good. I also have issues focusing and went through a good chunk of night vale the last time I was doing a very special hoarders episode because visits were coming
I do audiobooks when I am cleaning or tidying and it does really help make stuff interesting if you've got something to listen to
