Are deadlines the only way you can get things done?
What if you can break free from them?
Particularly for those with ADHD, those creative powers waiting within can be a wonderful resource when freed from fear.
“I’m fine. The report’s not due until Friday… I’ll watch a show to relax…”
It’s Monday.
Maybe you write “Do report” on the refrigerator white board, or even nicely place it on a list, complete with an assigned due date for Friday.
Tuesday, the pressure mounts.
It’s “Important, but not Urgent”. But I’m stressed and other important things are going on now. I’ll get to it soon.
Maybe you consider “being nice to yourself” and head out for the evening, spend some time with friends.
Wednesday.
You grumble your way out of bed. Before heading out the door, you look at the note on the fridge:
“I need to do this. Hmm, I’ll put it in bold, maybe circle it in a different color for good measure, too.”
Back home at the end of the day, you get to the closet. You move that one out-of-place thing. Then you move another. Soon, you’re neck deep in fully reorganizing the closet, maybe forgetting to eat dinner along the way.
Thursday afternoon…
“Uh oh… the report…”
And the mad scramble begins.
While it seems that you have been kind to yourself in trying to manage anxiety, the entire system is based in fear. Fear builds until you can no longer contain it, at which point you work. “I’m fine” is only a damper.
Fear often appears to be the only lever that works and so you create a Fear-based system.
But when relying on fear, for example by deadlines, one repeatedly falls into fight-or-flight, relief appearing only in momentary collapses into exhaustion.
Health concerns of such repeated stresses are ignored or prayed away.
Further, deadlines hardly care about each other. They can easily pile up, change with little notice, and appear from out of nowhere. The shameful and awful feelings that strike from missing something yet again crush.
But Non-fear based methods do exist. You can feel it when hanging out with friends, doodling in the corners of a report, or playing around with new tools. The conditions for creativity are there.
The same ideas work in different forms for just about any type of work. It’s about learning those conditions that help you avoid force or leverage fear.
Rather than be driven be fear, you engage from a relaxed space. The powerful forces waiting within begin to stir, explore, and discover.
– Kourosh
PS The Fourth Module of Waves of Focus, Winding Down – Maps, Lighthouses, and Distant Voyages is now up and running. When you learn how to step away from work *without the fear of having to finish it immediately*, you’re more able to distance yourself from deadlines, take on longer projects, and create supportive environments.
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