← Back to context

Comment by boringg

2 years ago

I assume that is how most people get through high-school and university? Intense focus on the couple days before finals / final projects. I too did that. Is that not the case or is that warning lights for ADHD?

High school you can get away with it because the course content is easier - college is much more challenging...

5 comments

boringg

Reply
jihiggins  2 years ago

i did that all throughout university and graduated with honors in an engineering program. it really depends on your coping strategies / personality / luck / etc. i definitely have adhd, it just took a few boring jobs for it to blow up my life in any real way. (i completely burned out, turns out relying on adrenaline as an adhd medication is not a great long term coping strategy.) some people will hit that wall earlier or later than others.

once, i accidentally dragged a lab partner into doing work the way i did. we turned in the assignment with less than a minute on the clock, and he nearly had an anxiety attack (i was feeling pretty great about things)

  • boringg  2 years ago

    Fair - I also graduated from an engineering program - though the intensity around finals was grueling. Somehow I think the 80-100% finals weighting might have made it that way.

    Why does the boring job blow it up? Not enough stimulation?

    • jihiggins  2 years ago

      it ended up being a confluence of personal life stuff plus how pointless the jobs felt (especially after what a slog university was, i was basically already burnt out going into my first job.) i think boring meant adrenaline didn't kick in as much, and my first few jobs didn't really try to incentivize caring about work in ways that weren't blatantly exploitative or "on trust."

      honestly, idk that it was really anything specific, so much as a bunch of different things finally catching up to me mixed with some bad luck

tpmoney  2 years ago

At least for me it wasn't just finals and final projects, it was everything. No assignment was done until just before it was due because (looking back now and applying an adult's logic to it) it wasn't high enough priority until then. It didn't matter whether it was every day/week assignments, long term projects or final exams. The only way I could make any significant progress was to be under a hard and short deadline.