1y ago

Atomic Accountability

www.raptitude.com /2023/08/atomic-accountability/

If I can’t bring myself to get around to an important task, such as filing a tax thing or making a doctor’s appointment, I invoke my nuclear option: I give my best friend three hundred dollars in cash and tell her to spend it if I don’t prove to her that I’ve done the thing by a certain date and time.

Anyone try this? Sounds fruitful.

11 comments

Sounds like I'd be short $300

I prefer to accept that I'm not going to do some stuff and it's OK. I treat myself kindly and with gentleness. When I am feeling strong and positive thats when I attempt to do the things that got away. Forcing myself to do tasks has never worked well.

Sounds like a terrible idea. To many things could go wrong.

Before getting medicated, I had a multi-step process for getting those things done. On a typical day I'd struggle, but I would have good day/days where I was able to feel motivated and get things done. So I would plan ahead for these good days.
Break the task down into as small of tasks as possible. For taxes or making appointments, this usually also means having a lot of documents ready and if there's a phone call, an outline of what I want to go over during the conversation. Maybe some research on what the expected thing would be like if it's a new thing.
Don't try doing all of that at once, back to back. Just do each part, one or two at a time in the days (or weeks if there's time) leading up to my deadline. Get all the docs together in one place. Look them over to make sure they're all there and I understand them. Organize them in order of need. All separate tasks for separate days.
Then, when I hit a good productive day, knocking it out is much less overwhelming and draining because the tedious work is done. It's just the action of the task that remains. It's worked for years. I still do it without realizing it often. I think it's just a good plan of action in general for everyone to makes tasks manageable.
- Goblin tools will break stuff down into small steps, it’s super handy.
  https://goblin.tools/
- I like that -- good tip!

I prefer positive reinforcement. If I do a task, I reward myself with a dopamine hit. I play a game or hit Lemmy or Mastodon for 15 minutes after.

Please do not do this. The person that came up with this idea is a quack.
- Why not -- whatever works?
  
  Why do you think this would work? Who said this works? It sounds like a good way for your friend to make money.
  You aren't forgetting things because you are losing money. That is not how ADHD works. If consequences made you remember you wouldn't be forgetting in the first place.

There's a website called Beeminder which basically does the same thing, it can integrate with a bunch of other sites if you've got something that can be tracked online
I use it with a sleep tracker to make sure I go to bed at a sane hour

11 comments