Why Is It So Hard to Do Something That Should Be Easy? (Wall of Awful pt. 1)

How to ADHD · 2.1M views · 2019-03-28 · 6:34

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Overview

A short How to ADHD explainer, featuring Brendan Mahan, on why simple tasks can feel impossible for people with ADHD. It introduces the 'wall of awful', a pile of past failures, shame and anxiety that builds up in front of a task and blocks starting it.

On Hacker News

HN commenters use it as the go-to name and explanation for task paralysis and procrastination, and say it helped them see why they avoid tasks.

Recommended by 6 HN people across 6 months · HN mentions 2020–2022

Topics

Mental health & neurodiversity Productivity & self-improvement

What people said

nullsense · 2021-01 · Strong recommendation
My 2 favorite videos on How To ADHD are: Wall of Awful [VIDEO] The ADHD Tax [LINK] Driven To Distraction is available on Audible and I think you get one free book if you create a new account. That's how I read it anyway. This video is hands down the best explainer video Ive found out of all that I have watched [LINK] Also this video highlights some really interesting research which shows why we get distracted. Basically the Default Mode Network and Task Positive Network are supposed to anti- correlate and in ADHD brains they don't perfectly do that. [LINK]
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sosuke · 2020-06 · Strong recommendation
Looks like I'm late the party but I submitted a YouTube video talking about this as "The Wall of Awful" emotions and experiences you need to get through in order to start a task that has negative emotions associated with it. It totally changed how I approached my procrastination by simply asking myself "why" I was avoiding a task. [VIDEO]
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sosuke · 2020-06 · Strong recommendation
I haven't been able to find a "final" solution. Most recently I've been writing things down with pen and paper to keep me on task. To make the ethereal physical and break it down into steps and checklists. Again totally recommend this video on the wall of awful for ADHD procrastination [VIDEO]
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Sources

Video by How to ADHD, played through YouTube.

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