The Good, the Bad and the Ugly: ADHD & Taxes

Posted on March 1, 2012 by Bonnie Mincu

Results from the ADHD and Taxes SURVEY

In my last post, I invited you to take a survey about how you deal with Personal Income Tax filing, due every year in April.  I knew that filing yearly taxes is a painful subject for many ADD / ADHD Adults, not surprising since it requires organization (or at least holding on to records and receipts), patience, and the necessity to get tedious calculations done by a deadline.

The survey results were not totally surprising to me, but still a little scary!  I only hope that people with ADD have a much higher rate of non-compliance than the general population.  If a quarter of the general population didn’t file for taxes, as a country, we’d be in big trouble!

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Posted in Follow-Through, News and Views, Procrastination, Productivity | 9 Comments

Has anyone with ADD / ADHD filed their taxes yet?

Posted on February 27, 2012 by Bonnie Mincu

Silly question?  Take a survey and find out

Inevitably around this time of year I am reminded of a personal marathon weekend coming up shortly.  It’s the weekend when I’ll have to spend mega-hours preparing my taxes to send figures to my accountant.

My accountant makes a point of asking me when he can expect my information around November or December, so I enter a weekend — usually the first weekend in March — in my calendar.  That means he has entered in HIS calendar exactly when to expect my figures.  If I miss his deadline… he may not get my return done in time.  That kind of accountability is helpful for someone with ADD.

Tax filing is often a sore subject for people with ADD / ADHD.  Want to find out how you stand in relation to other ADD Adults?  Take this short survey on ADHD and Taxes and find out!

How I deal with Income Tax preparation

I know many people would consider my method of recording a year’s worth of statements, broken down by category on a pad of paper, to be unnecessarily labor-intensive and time-consuming.

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Posted in Follow-Through, Overwhelmed and Stuck, Procrastination, Productivity | 16 Comments

How to Walk Your Wild Dogs

Posted on February 24, 2012 by Bonnie Mincu

Those Boring Tasks that ADD / ADHD Adults  Avoid

In the last post, I described the concept of “dog tasks:” the mundane, tedious type of work that give ADD / ADHD Adults such a hard time.  Without a strategy, we would put off walking those dogs forever!

Have you been waiting for a sudden burst of motivation to handle your dogs? This may work for a once-in-a-while dog. But what about dogs with deadlines, a promise to someone else, or an obligation to a client?  You usually can’t count on motivation for a boring or unpleasant task.  With a deadline, we’re often rescued by a last-minute rush of ADD adrenaline to get the work done.

The toughest dogs for most people with ADD/ADHD are open-ended projects, where there’s no definite deadline to drive you to action.

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Posted in Avoidance, Follow-Through, Productivity | 23 Comments

Handling the Dogs of ADHD

Posted on February 22, 2012 by Bonnie Mincu

Routine Tasks that Inspire Procrastination

ADHD Boring Dog Tasks

What are your dogs?

First of all, this column is not about dogs of the canine variety. I’m using the phrase “dogs” in the sense of “dog days,” referring to dull, routine, uninspiring tasks that you tend to procrastinate on. Your “dogs” are the day-to-day necessities that aren’t interesting, but are necessary to you or your business’s survival. We ADD / ADHD Adults have the most trouble getting started and following through on these unmotivating dog tasks.  This season, wouldn’t it be great to handle those dogs with a fresh approach? Continue reading →

Posted in News and Views, Planning and Scheduling, Procrastination | Tagged , , , | 27 Comments

Do ADD Adults procrastinate often? Only 93%!

Posted on February 10, 2012 by Bonnie Mincu

You’re not weird, just normal for ADHD

It’s a known fact that procrastination is a big factor in people with ADD / ADHD.   So last week I put out a 2-question survey to see just how much we really do procrastinate.  I also wanted to see if there might be some truth to the idea that some of us sort of enjoy the rush of last-minute panic.

Here are the results from ADD readers:

The great majority — 93% — said they “often procrastinate.”  A full 83% said they come up against deadlines (only 9% didn’t have deadlines in their lives).   This would seem to indicate that most of these procrastinators are not feeling very stressed about the deadlines.  Why not?

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Posted in Procrastination, Productivity | 22 Comments

ADD and Addicted to Stress?

Posted on February 3, 2012 by Bonnie Mincu

It could be why you procrastinate!

We generally think of stress as a bad thing.  With ADD / ADHD, the word stress often goes hand in hand with being overwhelmed and paralyzed, — not a good feeling!

If that’s the case, why do people with ADD so often create situations that are stressful?   In the ADD / ADHD Work Challenges survey sent out last week, “Procrastination” was reported to be the number one problem people experienced at work.   Generally, when you procrastinate on starting a work-related project, you’re going to end up stressed in a number of ways:

  • Scrambling to finish on deadline
  • Hiding from your boss or client to avoid admitting the work hasn’t been done
  • Feeling ashamed of your lack of productivity

So why do we procrastinate so often? 

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Posted in Avoidance, Procrastination, Productivity | 23 Comments

ADD / ADHD in the Workplace – SURVEY RESULTS are in!

Posted on February 1, 2012 by Bonnie Mincu

Procrastination beats them all

Thank you to the more than 600 ADD / ADHD Adults who filled out the Thrive with ADD survey on Workplace Challenges last week!

Once again, Procrastination takes the prize as the number one problem.  Here are the most troublesome issues for responders who were asked to indicate their top workplace challenges.  (The percentage indicates what percent of responders checked it as one of their top 3 to 5):

  • Procrastination – 53%
  • Mentally Staying on Task – 46%
  • Overwhelmed – 42%
  • Disorganization – 37%
  • Follow-Through – 37%
  • Prioritizing – 36%

Most valuable were heartfelt comments by responders, who were encouraged to elaborate in their own words throughout the survey.
Click here to see the Survey results.

Why conduct a survey?

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Posted in Procrastination, Productivity | 15 Comments

QUICK SURVEY: ADD / ADHD Traits at Work

Posted on January 26, 2012 by Bonnie Mincu

What are your biggest challenges with work?

Have you found ADD / ADHD traits are causing you difficulties with your job, or in your career?

If you’re like most people with typical ADD traits, you’ve probably become frustrated at some point with the habits and tendencies that seem to undermine you at work.  You may have felt like you were somehow sabotaging yourself, despite your abilities and your best efforts to do well.

I believe this is a particularly important issue for ADD Adults, and I will be giving “Thrive with ADD” training on how to overcome the most pervasive ADD / ADHD WORK-RELATED CHALLENGES. 

To do that, I need your help!

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How do you judge success and failure?

Posted on January 18, 2012 by Bonnie Mincu

How about simply BEING the best human that you can

A coaching client of mine in Europe touched me this week in a special way.  He said that, when he feels frustrated about his ADD / ADHD, he regains inspiration from a poem called “Success,” attributed to Ralph Waldo Emerson.

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Don’t procrastinate filling your ADD / ADHD medication prescription…

Posted on January 12, 2012 by Bonnie Mincu

Or your wait may be longer than you think!

Are you having trouble getting ADD / ADHD medication?   It’s not your pharmacy’s fault.  There is currently a real shortage of ADHD stimulant medication, particularly Adderall and Metadate in both their brand and generic forms.  According to ADDA, the world’s leading Adult ADHD organization, the U.S. Food & Drug Administration is getting hundreds of complaints daily about people’s inability to get their prescriptions filled.

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