It's "I haven't done my taxes for 18 months even though it would only take a day, and I cannot force myself to do it no matter how hard I try."
It's "I've been unable to fold my laundry for six weeks even though I've alphabetized my cutlery drawer, twice."
It's "I have to document this project but no matter how much I want to just do it, I nevertheless continually find myself on imgur or Facebook or Hacker News or some random other website reading up about how switched-reluctance motors or Monte Carlo tree search or whatever works."
It's lack of executive function when you need it and it's the inability to think about anything else when something's grabbed your focus and it's a built-in character flaw that you can't "just choose to not have" and it's growing up thinking you're "just lazy" but "have so much potential" and it just. f*king. sucks.
If all you need in order to focus on the thing you want to focus on is for no-one to interrupt you, you don't have ADHD.
/rant
This is why I learned more about grain bins and low-head dams this week than I did the tool I was supposed to be building.
Yeah that wasn't what I was meant to be doing either.
https://www.agweb.com/news/business/technology/robot-replace...
I struggled throughout school, struggled even harder throughout university (it took me _many_ years to graduate) and am currently floundering in my job.
I have had the exact same experience with my taxes/laundry/reports but I have no family doctor and no way to get one. Besides a GP, the mental health options for such things in my city are limited to minors and adults in assisted living situations.
I don't know about other countries but in Australia if you meet the criteria on the above questionnaires and your psychiatrist's assessment agrees with that then you'll likely be prescribed stimulant medication (Ritalin or dexamfetamine, or the long acting variants Concerta or Vyvanse). I started on dexies and while not everyone's so lucky, for me they were life changing. I can sit down and choose to do a thing... and just do the thing! It's the first time in my life I've been able to do that. I was surviving before but... life just doesn't have to be that hard.
Well, a few years ago I rented an office space with a friend of mine, just the two of us in a very spacious (100m2), light and well-ventilated office. We received no phone calls, there were no people walking in, or cats and girlfriends asking for attention. I had less distractions than I had at home, and much less than in a traditional office. And it was a dedicated area for "work". A comfortable desk and chair, two monitors and a fast pc.
All these factors made it so much easier to concentrate and get into the flow... If I had to put a number on it I'd say I would be at least 1.5x more effective working in an area like that compared to a traditional office or at my desk at home.
I will NEVER again say that I am someone who has trouble concentrating, having worked in a place like that.
I wonder if (and how much) the lack of a proper workplace explains the decrease in output when working from home in this study. I can imagine a decrease in productivity if you have to share your home and workplace with other people or even children... But when your children and partner are at work, or if you have a seperate workspace, I wonder how the two compare then.