Writing With ADHD

At 8:30 AM, I sit down to write for an hour and a half.

Suddenly, I feel thirsty. “No”, I tell myself. “You cannot get up to get a drink of water. You are just procrastinating.”

As long as I am distracted, I might as well check Facebook, just one last time.

I look at the clock and notice it is now 8:42AM.

Damn Facebook all to hell. I got caught up reading about the “Top 11 Pop Culture events of 2011“.

(Is it just me, or is it cold in here?)

The problem is the internet, obviously. It’s then I remember, earlier this year, Seth Godin had written about a program you could install on your computer that shut down the internet for a predetermined period of time, thus eliminating the distraction of the internet.

It has gotten critical. I must have this program, if any writing at all is to get done.

The next 10 minutes is spent searching Google for things like “Seth Godin Internet Distraction” and “Kill Internet”. Eventually, I find it: Freedom.

The premise is, it kills the networking aspect of your computer for a predetermined period of time, thus keeping your undisciplined ass off the internet. So, I decide to drop $10 of Christmas money on it. Money well spent, if it will get me back to writing.

Download. Pay. Register.

8:55AM.

I fire up trusty Microsoft Word 2007, get that drink of water I wanted 30 minutes ago, shuffle back to my spot in the hallway and put my fingers to the keys.

Dammit, it is cold in here.

I cannot write if I’m cold. I get the space heater and put it beside my desk, plug it in and bask in the warmth exuding from it.

9:10AM.

I have found when I write, it helps to set a timer for 20 minutes, so I can focus on that one thing. I generally use Egg Timer. I already have it bookmarked in my browser and everything. I open up my browser and…

Dammit, I have no internet. Oh yes, the program I just paid $10 for is keeping me off the internet for the next 45 minutes.

Maybe there is a countdown timer for my phone? I pick up my phone, hit the Market icon… NO! I must get to writing.

It was then, at 9:25AM, that the lights go out.

First thought: Did I pay the light bill? Then I hear the gurgle from the fish tank and notice the Christmas tree lights are still on, so I know that isn’t it.

Must be the circuit breaker.

In the six months we have lived in this apartment, I have had no need to go to the breaker box. I have no idea where it is. The next 10 minutes are spent finding out it is not in the pantry, any of the closets, the basement or in any of the kitchen cabinets. I find it in the entryway to the back porch – I have walked past it three to four times a day for the last six months and never noticed it was there.

Having flipped the circuit breaker, I come back in the house, sit back at my desk, now bathed once again in artificial light courtesy of the Sylvania Light Bulb Company and Progress Energy.

I write less than 20 words when the breaker flips off again.

Ahhh. It is the heater. I guess I will just have to write in the cold.

At 9:50AM, the heater is put away, the circuit breaker flipped back on, bathrobe put on for warmth.

I think briefly about the things I am supposed to do today. Writing today isn’t going well, so maybe I should stop trying to write and start in on them now? Then I look at the clock and see I only have 10 more minutes of writing left to do and decide to gut it out. After all, I can do anything for ten minutes, right?

Right?