u/GOATgohan

One ADHD experience I don’t think people talk about enough is becoming a completely different person every 2 weeks.

You make a plan.
You’re motivated.
You buy the planner.
Download the app.
Reorganize your life at 1am.
Promise yourself “this time is different.”

And for a little while, it IS different.

Then the emotional connection to the goal fades and suddenly the person who made all those plans feels like somebody else. I'm not even sure if this is an ADHD thing or an everyone thing, but ADHD people feel it more.

Thing that has helped me most (and the reason for this post) hasn’t been productivity tools. It’s been holding myself more accountable. Framing it as being honest and rebuilding self trust. Being forced to constantly look at my behavior over a longer period of time instead of trusting motivation in the moment. Stop moving the target, or negotiating with myself. I do this through a system called 'Twice A Day'.

In the morning I commit to tasks, (no edits!)
In the evening I reflect.

I see my patterns, progress and my excuses.

Curious if anyone else relates to this specific cycle and have tried something similar or wanna adopt this system.

If you are serious about your goals and need accountability, I am starting an accountability pod. Its a small group of 10 people.

🌅Every morning we commit to tasks
🌙 Every evening we reflect on our day.

At the end of each week we reflect on our overall progress towards our goals.

We optionally have a group chat (whatsapp) if folks want to stay connected, but i’ll be checking in one on one with everyone.

If this sounds interesting drop a comment and send me a DM!

You know that feeling at night where you have clarity and suddenly your whole life makes sense? You make plans and believe that when you wake up in the morning you will actually act on them and everything will fall into place.

Then tomorrow comes and somehow you become a completely different person. You somehow forget the person you were last night. All the motivation and clarity gone and you fall back into your old habits.

Night me vs Morning me or Current me vs Aspirational me.

Apparently this is a well known phenomena called 'Bedtime Optimisim' or 'Projection Bias'.

I think this happens to a lot of it but the core it is due to the lack of accountability. The lack of undeniable data about what you do vs what you say you do overtime. Most people over estimate themsleves and underestimate tasks and think with enough motivation they can just do it all in a day, the next day. That they can be a bum for a years and all of a sudden muster up the motivation, work ethic, discipline to knock everything out in a short time span.

It is because they don't have a reciept of all the times they've tried that before and failed. They forget and think this time is different. This used to be me and I'm just ranting about it, because it almost sounds obvious when I write it, but you naturally make more realistic achievable plans when you have more data on yourself. You can see the gaps and work on them. To be productive you need some form of accountability

I realized something uncomfortable looking at my stats.

I can have a "productive" day lots of tasks checked off, inbox handled, random errands done and still have completely failed the three things I actually cared about that morning.

Conversely I can have a messy day and only finish two of four commitments and feel like I let myself down, even though my app says I was "80% productive."

Most tools are built around volume. Tasks completed. Streaks. Categories. Colors. Very satisfying dashboards.

None of that answers the question I actually care about now: did I do what I told myself I would do this morning?

That's a different metric. And when I look at it honestly, my number is surprisingly low and starts to explain why I am where I am in life currently (not the best place lol).

Has anyone felt this way? Anyone tried redesigned their system around commitment instead of output? What did you track, and did seeing the real number help or just make you feel worse?

You know that feeling at night where you have clarity and suddenly your whole life makes sense? You make plans and believe that when you wake up in the morning you will actually act on them and everything will fall into place.

Then tomorrow comes and somehow you become a completely different person. You somehow forget the person you were last night. All the motivation and clarity gone and you fall back into your old habits.

Night me vs Morning me or Current me vs Aspirational me.

Apparently this is a well known phenomena called 'Bedtime Optimisim' or 'Projection Bias'.

I think this happens to a lot of it but the core it is due to the lack of accountability. The lack of undeniable data about what you do vs what you say you do overtime. Most people over estimate themsleves and underestimate tasks and think with enough motivation they can just do it all in a day, the next day. That they can be a bum for a years and all of a sudden muster up the motivation, work ethic, discipline to knock everything out in a short time span.

It is because they don't have a reciept of all the times they've tried that before and failed. They forget and think this time is different. This used to be me and I'm just ranting about it, because it almost sounds obvious when I write it, but you naturally make more realistic achievable plans when you have more data on yourself. You can see the gaps and work on them. To be productive you need some form of accountability