ADHD - Christi Style

"he is a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways."  ~James 1:8

In my fourth installment of Excuses, Excuses, Excuses, I will be exploring my fourth excuse for inactivity:  "I have too many things to work on, I don't know where to start."    I am an extremely creative person, with a huge dose of curiosity.   I love to dream and create and imagine new things, as well as learning about just about anything.    This is a huge blessing, as I see the world in vibrant color with a limitless palate of possibility.   However, there can be one major downfall....DISTRACTION.    I have a hard time focusing on one thing for very long without questions or ideas or random thoughts sneak in.   It's the craziest thing.  For example, I can be working on a spreadsheet at work, and see the word, "spectrum" and immediately I wonder what that means, and what is the color spectrum, and did you know that colors bleed into each other and are created by different things?    Paul calls it "spaghetti-ing" - I can go from one thing to another completely unrelated thing with little to no effort.    

While I could easily dismiss it as they way I am, I have found that it hinders productivity.  At work, I have had to develop a "creativity log", a place where I can jot down an idea or thought or question for me to explore later, just so I can get my work done.    When it comes to working in my calling, I have so many ideas and dreams and desires that I get overwhelmed and end up just sitting and doing nothing. 

It's not really that I don't want to work, but I get so excited about one thing, only to get excited about another thing, then another.   I have half written songs, an unopened Rosetta Stone, blog titles with no posts, and so on.    It's something I know to work on.  And it's something that I am working on.   I haven't yet discovered the answer, but I have found a few things that are helping (and that I'm being convicted of):

1.  Turn off the tv or radio.  
It is hard to focus on more than one thing at any given time.    Society calls it "multi-tasking" and praises the efficiency of doing multiple things at once.   I have discovered, however, that multi-tasking means I'm doing a lot of things half-well, rather than with all of my focus and my ability.  This leads me to number 2.

2.  Quit Multi-Tasking!
One of the biggest distractions for me happens to be anything electronic.   As noted above, turning the tv and radio off help, but I have also determined that I need to turn my phone off (or leave it in another room), close down the extra tabs I have open (Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, can I get an amen?).    If I am writing or reading, the last thing I need is to be pulled away by that great recipe on Pinterest that I will never actually cook (maybe that's because I'm on Pinterest instead of in the kitchen, but that's a different post altogether).

3.  LISTEN!
This should probably be number 1.    The question I should be asking every day is "What are You breathing on today, God?".    For those of us with a lot of interests and a lot of creativity, it's easy to get overwhelmed by everything you want to do.    I want to learn multiple languages, and read a book a week, and learn how to draw, to take better pictures, to study the Word, to write more songs, to learn how to play jazz, to..... And the truth is simply that there is not enough time in a day to do all of this and be excellent in my job and as a wife.   So, while all of this is in my heart, there is an issue of timing that arises.   Ecclesiastes 3 tells us that there is a time for everything.   So, if my heart's desire is truly to advance His Kingdom (which it is), than I need to figure out what He's breathing on and partner with Him in that.   It's very possible that there will be more productivity and less frustration in that place, but that's just a hunch!  ;-)

4.  Nike - JUST DO IT!
James 4:17 tells us, "To him who knows to do good and does not do it, to him it is sin."   Simply put, that means that when I feel the Lord say that it's time to open the computer and blog, and I sit and play a mindless game on the phone instead, than it's sin for me.    The sin is not the game on the phone, but my disobedience.    Ouch!  (Please allow me to pause here while I take some time in the woodshed with my Father.)

God loves rest.   He instituted Sabbath after working 6 days, and He says that Sabbath is a promise we have through Him.   He is not a slave-driver, who wants to drive us to work all the time.  It's never been about performance anyway.   He is, instead, a loving Father who sees the gift in His daughter and says, "I know you want to play outside, but you need to practice the piano for 30 minutes.  Then you can go play."   He has so lovingly placed so many gifts in each one of us, gifts that the world needs.   It is our privilege to partner with Him in bringing His Kingdom to earth.   It is out of this place that we move into discipline, which never seems pleasant at the time, but is a blessing and reward.     And maybe the distraction is simply that I've taken my eyes off of Him.   Hmmm....suddenly it seems pretty simple after all.