{"version":1,"type":"rich","provider_name":"Libsyn","provider_url":"https:\/\/www.libsyn.com","height":90,"width":600,"title":"From Now to Not-Now: ADHD and Temporal Discounting","description":"The many ways professionals with ADHD find to externalize their executive function and get %$#@ done. TRANSCRIPT OF PODCAST \u201cHang on a minute,\u201d my coworker said through the zoom. \u201cI need to take care of this now, or it won\u2019t get done.\u201d I nodded and sat back in my office chair. \u201cI get it. Let me know when you\u2019re done.\u201d The task was small, tedious, and crucial to the success of our upcoming fundraising campaign for the rape crisis center where we work. I\u2019d mentioned it in passing as we were covering a different topic. Now it had interrupted the flow of the meeting, not even a third of the way down the agenda. As I doodled in my notebook, listening to the clicks of them typing through my laptop speaker, I wasn\u2019t annoyed at all. Like me, my coworker deals with ADHD every moment of every day. Unlike me, they\u2019ve known about it for most of their professional life, and this was how they compensated for time blindness: when a task was essential, it took priority, because they couldn\u2019t trust their brain to take care of it later. That method worked for them; they are very good at their job. My own coping strategy had unconsciously developed decades ago, before I really even knew about ADHD in anyone. It takes the form of the little notebook I carry with me almost everywhere, full of little dashes for tasks needing to be done that turn into plus-signs when complete. Of course, my system relies on my ability to go back to the notebook on a regular basis and actually review my lists. My coworker, on the other hand, just gets shit done. I can\u2019t say whose is better, but it occurred to me at that meeting that both of us were trying to deal with the same problem. No matter when it is, now you are. \u201cFor people with ADHD, life is either Now or Not Now\u2026When projects are due in the future, we engage in temporal discounting: You know you need to get going on it, but there\u2019s no sense of urgency and your mind focuses on other matters until the day before. Temporal discounting is no longer a factor when what was in the future is now. \u2014 Susan Lasky, M.A., BCC, SCAC If the term \u201ctemporal discounting\u201d is new to you (it was to me) it basically goes back to that %$#@ marshmallow experiment. You know, the one where supposedly a child\u2019s success in the future was determined by whether or not they could resist eating a marshmallow long enough for a second marshmallow to be delivered, or if they succumbed to the immediate gratification of eating it now. There are all kinds of problems with that study, starting with the fact that in 2018 when researchers tried to replicate it, \u2026they did not see a significant correlation with how long kids had been able to wait and future success and performance\u2026waiting only the first 20 seconds accounted for the majority of what was predicted about future academic achievement. Waiting longer than 20 seconds didn\u2019t track with greater gains. \u2014 Psychology Today Another issue is that it\u2019s more to do with the confidence in authority figures:if a child doesn\u2019t believe that the promised second marshmallow will ever be delivered, they are likely to go for the arguably smarter idea of one in the mouth is worth two in the nope, sorry, we\u2019re all out of marshmallows. In some ways it feels like the entire rise of civilization is one marshmallow experiment after another: can you hold on to your resources long enough for them to be leveraged into something more? Take a look at the gleam in a financial planner\u2019s eyes as they talk about the magic of compound interest. If I can keep from spending that money, put it in a savings account and wait, it will be worth more in the end. (I know, high inflation and low interest rates have kind of ruined that idea, but it used to be true). What if you don\u2019t believe in \u201cthe end\u201d? Or at least, can\u2019t really intrinsically understand it? Then that money is just sitting there, doing nothing, and meanwhile the world is filled with stuff that I want! Mix in a little scarcity mentality, and you end up with a whole lot of paycheck-to-paycheck or, worse, robbing-Peter-to-pay-Paul monetary strategies. \u2026research, commissioned by the digital bank Monzo and conducted by YouGov, found that those living with ADHD are four times more likely to frequently impulse-spend than those who do not have the condition. \u2014 Rupert Jones in the Guardian, June 2022 Compound interest doesn\u2019t just apply to money. Temporal discounting is like impulse buying, but with tasks rather than cash. When you can\u2019t intuitively feel what task should have the highest priority or the most impact, all to-dos seem equal \u2014 which means that looking at a long list of them is like being in a supermarket: overwhelming choices, all clamoring for your attention. My co-worker was not giving in to an ADHD impulse when they decided to do that task in the middle of our meeting. They were using a tactic to counter it; experience had shown that when a task was labeled \u201cimportant and essential\u201d, the best way to make sure it got done was to do it now. Any other method, for them, was too much of a risk. My own strategy is demonstrably less effective at getting things done, because it relies on a combination of tactics and what ADHD researchers call \u201cscaffolding.\u201d What it comes down to \u2014 both with financial acumen and task management \u2014 is executive function, and that\u2019s what we have trouble with. My personal mantra is a hybrid paraphrasing of Dr. Russell Barkley and fictional Martian astronaut Mark Watney: Executive function? I\u2019m going to externalize the $#@% out of it! So when I hear that something is essential, unlike my coworker, I whip out my notebook and my multipen, selecting the red ink, and dash something off: do this later. But that\u2019s dependent on a lot of things: I have to have my notebook ready. I have to have a pen as well (been burned by this before) I have to write the task both quickly and legibly, which is often a difficult combination. Most important: I have to have a time set aside to come back to my notebook and process that task. Oh, and then the task itself has to be actually done. That\u2019s a whole lot of executive functioning going on inside that error-prone system, and if you\u2019re wondering to yourself \u201cwhy doesn\u2019t he just remember to do it later? then you really need to read this article \u2014 or at least understand that time you start a sentence with \u201cwhy don\u2019t they just-\u201d it is a sign that your empathy needs some work. My strategy is more fragile than my co-worker\u2019s just do it tactic, but it\u2019s not necessarily better. We both go to the trouble of interrupting our meeting to make sure that the important task that we can\u2019t trust to stay in our brains still gets done. The only slight advantage I can see to my system is that it doesn\u2019t derail the flow of the meeting \u2014 but at the same time it\u2019s got a lot of points of failure. It\u2019s all tactics for the same strategy: escaping the tyranny of Now. Part of the reason I feel so seen and included now that I have my ADHD diagnosis is that finally my decades-long obsession with time management, scheduling techniques, and productivity hacks makes sense. While not all ADHD coping strategies are about escaping the tyranny of now, it\u2019s a pretty high percentage. I would even argue that our trouble with time-blindness and the associated effects are the first symptom of ADHD we have to deal with \u2014 because otherwise we won\u2019t have time to deal with any of the others. (Even as I write that, my brain is arguing What about emotional regulation? Don\u2019t you have to be calm enough to take a look at your strategies in the first place? Maybe that\u2019s another article. I\u2019d love to hear your thoughts in the comments). Most of all, though, while the strategy may be universal, the tactics are personal. It\u2019s not about finding the best productivity system or time-management app; it\u2019s about finding the best one that works for you right now. And it\u2019s especially important to have those last two words, because thanks to hedonic adaptation and a %$#@-ed up dopamine distribution system, the one that works today might not work tomorrow. There very well may come a meeting when I see my co-worker narrow their eyes, pick up a pen, and scribble something in their notebook, even while I\u2019m opening up another window next to Zoom to take care of something now. It\u2019s ok. We\u2019ll still get %$#@ done.       ","author_name":"ADHD Open Space Podcast","author_url":"https:\/\/adhdos.substack.com\/podcast","html":"