How Come My Brain Won’t Stay Still?

I know I am smart. That’s what they tell me. Smarty Pants was a nickname I earned when I was a kid. And I vaguely remember my IQ was on the above average point on the smarts graph… Though all things being relative… I was not the smartest smarty pants in my family… Lots of brilliance was shining high above me… So it’s not a question of intelligence… But one of focus.

I try to do too many things at the same time and nothing gets done. I have too many ideas and I want to do them all…. In fact if I don’t manage three projects at once I get bored… My desk at work is a mess at the moment. I think I am entering a vortex moment when swirling concepts clog my synapsids and my eyes won’t stop blinking.

Is this normal?

A good friend who practices eastern meditation and an occasional yoga pose while he is driving (honest!) gave me some good words of wisdom to follow: Do what you are doing.

That’s it. Just those four words. Do what you are doing.

I have tried it, but half way through watching a training video, I start opening my email, get distracted by a question from a client, stop watching the video and then decide to fetch the snail mail, then it’s lunch, a phone call, more email, then a quick design, and then! Oh, yeah! Gotta finish that video. Where was I?… Duh? Have to start watching from the beginning.

Sigh… My brain won’t stay still. They’ve got a name for this type of behavior. And it ain’t pretty. Any advice?

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Lotta Distractions
Lotta Distractions
11 years ago

I’m sure you’ve seen this video, but here’s the link in case you haven’t…
http://www.youtube.com/watch_popup?v=6oHBG3ABUJU&vq=medium

If you followed the above links, you’ve just been distracted from whatever you were doing for quite a while. Maybe restrict doing distracting tasks and following links to non-work hours.

…And although I am sure you were a very smart little girl, I’m not sure ‘Smarty Pants’ was a name given to you for your high IQ.

CDeering
CDeering
Reply to  Lotta Distractions
11 years ago

Thanks for the referral links… I had seen the video before … Very funny… Trying to do one thing at a time…. Answering this while my system reboots…. ! That’s a trick.

Daffyhill
Daffyhill
11 years ago

All the best minds multi task. The problem comes when you can’t remember why you are doing what you are currently doing, you can’t remember how you got there in the first place and you don’t really care to figure it out. Enjoy your active brain …while you still have one (:

wsp_admin
wsp_admin
Admin
Reply to  Daffyhill
11 years ago

Thank you Daffy for these encouraging words…

wsp_admin
wsp_admin
Admin
Reply to  wsp_admin
11 years ago

I have a few other words to share…privately!

Jeanne Yocum
Jeanne Yocum
11 years ago

Sounds like adult attention deficit disorder to me. Have you considered talking with your doctor? I’m serious…not making a joke. I have a long-time friend who I once worked with. He was the company’s controller and was a great guy but always seemed a little scattered. About a decade later, he wrote to me and told me he’d been diagnosed with adult attention deficit disorder and was being treated for it and it had totallllllllly changed his life.

CDeering
CDeering
Reply to  Jeanne Yocum
11 years ago

Hmmmmm….. how does one test for AADD???? Do I have to seek out a specialist? Maybe there is a self diagnosis test on line I could take…. I’ll look that up! Thanks.