Johnny Profane Âû<p>Task avoidance.</p><p>I do emphatically NOT have a solution to offer. Or sell. </p><p>I have call... a request?... for action. </p><p>To do lists and behavior mod ain't working. Let's do something... different?</p><p>I'm autistic. ADHD. I've observed my avoidant behaviors... crippling, disabling behaviors... for some decades.</p><p>Around deadlines. Promises. External commitments...</p><p>One career they destroyed? Mental health counseling. I savor the irony.</p><p>Cuz I've read, studied, applied, and even taught so many systems... meant to support these behaviors. Tried to create a half dozen or so for myself.</p><p>I'm a slow learner of new things. But I learned one lesson. Hard. Deep. Hurtful.</p><p>Insight ain't all it's cracked up to be. </p><p>We're all full up with executive functioning here. Our CPU... and GPU...? Both red lining.</p><p>I can't add ONE monitoring task without crashing. Not. One.</p><p>Knowing deep in my bones the symptoms of my impending avoidance, their causes, many techniques that "have worked for many"... </p><p>I have not been able to change the result.</p><p>All I get to do is... watch. Time after intermittent time. That's it. Sometimes I can work. Sometimes I cannot.</p><p>Support systems that I'm familiar with have failed me. Every one. Just given me demeaning, pathological names for my inherent nature.</p><p>Please no “helpful” diagnosed of PDA in the comments?</p><p>Oddly? This reminds me of this story...</p><p>I was just trying to sell my computer magazine in the mid 1990s. Unix World. Business to business computer rag.</p><p>I'm sitting in the Berkeley Peet's Coffee talking to a tech investor guru name I won't drop. Sparing all concerned embarrassment. It's going well. We're talking numbers. Detailed questions. I'm getting excited. He's smiling.</p><p>Suddenly. He taps the table. "So this all looks... interesting." Looks up from the VisiCalc spreadsheet. I remember gentle gray eyes. "Question."</p><p>"Yeah?" I'm ready for him to talk price. For my publishing company, staff, subscribers... ya know, valuables.</p><p>"Say... I buy this thing." He pauses. "I have staff. Pros. You're editor & publisher." </p><p>He sips his straight American coffee. It was a fad for a moment. A reaction against elitist caffeine. Along with coders refusing to wear ties. Looks away. Then...</p><p>"What do see *you* doing?"</p><p>Yeah. Instant brain freeze. Tied tongue. Stammering. Hello Neuro-Darkness, my old friend...</p><p>"Well... I'm. I'm... the idea man. I'm the heart and soul...of this thing." Think. *What's he want from me?*</p><p>I blurt out, " I'll make you...I'll make you... a ton of money."</p><p>Mother of All Awkward Pauses. In this life, anyway...</p><p>"Everybody's got ideas, son. It's who can execute them." Pause. Sets his empty cup of tragically unpretentious joe down.</p><p>"Listen, let's both think about that. I might like to buy your idea." Beat. Beat...</p><p>"I'll be in touch."</p><p>Never happened.</p><p>Not every article must have a moral. Or a to do list. Or a solution. </p><p>Sometimes I think a call to action suffices.</p><p>I do emphatically NOT have a solution to offer. Or sell. </p><p>I have call... a request?... for action. </p><p>To do lists and behavior mod ain't working. Not 7 Easy Game-Changing Habits I Just Invented. Not Nothing’s Getting Done(NGD™)...</p><p>Let's do something... different?</p><p><a href="https://neurodifferent.me/tags/AutismAtWork" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>AutismAtWork</span></a></p><p><span class="h-card" translate="no"><a href="https://a.gup.pe/u/actuallyautistic" class="u-url mention" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">@<span>actuallyautistic</span></a></span> <span class="h-card" translate="no"><a href="https://a.gup.pe/u/actuallyadhd" class="u-url mention" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">@<span>actuallyadhd</span></a></span> <span class="h-card" translate="no"><a href="https://a.gup.pe/u/actuallyaudhd" class="u-url mention" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">@<span>actuallyaudhd</span></a></span></p>