“This makes it difficult to accurately estimate how long a task will take, even if it’s a task you’ve performed countless times before,” Bloom said.
When you lack a strong internal sense of time, you might feel that putting away your clothes will take an overwhelmingly long amount of time and thus avoid the chore.
How should you deal with your floordrobe?
In his video, Rice offered a couple of suggestions for dealing with floordrobes, most notably one that addressed the lack of time awareness issue.
“Whenever I look at a basket of laundry, I think, ‘Oh my gosh, this is going to take forever to put away,’” he said. “And objectively, it’s not true. One of the ways that I attacked this was, at one point, I had three baskets of laundry sitting in my closet and I didn’t want to put them away. So I decided to check to see how long does it really take for me to put away three baskets of laundry. The answer — 21 minutes. I set a timer, and I timed myself while I put them away ― seven minutes per basket.”
Having the hard data about the amount of time required for a chore “helps control the emotional part” of his ADHD brain that builds up the process into something bigger than it is, he explained. Thus, the intellectual side of his brain can take over and allow him to deal with the mundane task.
Bloom emphasized the importance of starting with small changes and experimenting to find the best strategy for your personality and lifestyle.
“It’s easy to feel overwhelmed by all of the things that can feel harder due to ADHD, and I work a lot with my clients around acceptance so that they feel less defeated and more motivated to tackle the things that are most important to them,” she said. “That might mean deciding it’s OK if clean laundry never gets put away on time, as long as the clothes get washed. It’s also a lot of trial and error, because what works for one person might fail miserably for someone else.”
ADVERTISEMENT
