In my practice we see many individuals for issues relating to attention, focus, planning and most of all, procrastination. Often this is when we see an individual who suspect they have ADHD. Especially an adult. While all of these other symptoms are closely related to ADHD and deficits in executive functioning, procrastination is a different animal entirely.
Patients are often surprised why I don’t suggest a book about ADHD, or one about scheduling, to help. Instead I set up a very basic intervention that helps them do a few of the things that they have been procrastinating about. That’s where we always start. This intervention is usually related to using a timer and one change in their daily routine. Yes, ONE CHANGE that they work on for a while. It’s a complicated process because it’s more about anxiety and mood than anything else. The research has been clear for a long time that procrastination is more about mood than we would think, but you seldom see intervention programs that focus on this issue. We use one of the oldest, and most effective, interventions for anxiety and mood problems: exposure therapy.
This week the New york Time’s published a wonderful article about just this issue. Its plain english will make it easy to understand, and help you understand what we are doing in treatment. Because the real problem is there is no pill for fixing procrastination. Please, click the link below to go to the NYT website and read. It’s a short article. Later this week I will post another method we use to address procrastination using techniques from Robert Kegan and Lisa Laskow Lahey’s book: Immunity To Change: How to Overcome it and Unlock the Potential of Yourself and Your Organization.
Click here for the New York Times article: https://www.nytimes.com/2019/03/25/smarter-living/why-you-procrastinate-it-has-nothing-to-do-with-self-control.html?smid=nytcore-ios-share
In our practice in Burnaby we provide children, adolescents and adults with diagnostic assessments for Attention/Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD), Autism Spectrum Disorder, Learning Disabilities and Psychoeducational Assessments, among other services. Please check us out at www.relatedminds.com
