this post was submitted on 16 Jul 2026
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ADHD
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I completely understand what you're going through.
The one thing that concerns me is that you keep setting reminders, and completely ignoring them. Lord knows I've started playing a game and suddenly realized it was 10 hours later, but when the reminder goes off, you must obey it.
You set the timers because YOU WANT yourself to be on time. When the reminder goes off, you're saying past me was wrong, I'll do what I want. Future you eventually realizes past you was right all along and you repeat the cycle.
I think you need to make the choice to follow your own rules. Set reminders early and often. Give yourself a 15 minute warning so you can find a good point to stop what you're doing. When the next alarm goes off 15 minutes later, you shut it down no matter what.
Living with this is not easy, but it only gets harder when you sabotage yourself.
I experience the same problem. I am a grown ass woman and functional in most areas of my life. I deliver my freelance projects on time. I've studied in the university and finished all the assignments. I keep animals and plants alive. I've raised a child. But something in my brain compels me, absolutely compels me, to ignore the good advice I give myself at least some of the time and binge on something - can be different things from substance to activities to mind obsessions. While being completely aware that 'it only gets harder when you sabotage yourself'. And that is what the whole ADHD issue comes from. That you can't will away the executive dysfunction.
So it's good for you that you manage to obey the reminder, but not really possible that easily for many people. Besides being aware that you want this for yourself (this does help me as well when I remember to remember it), what else would you say contributes to you being successful in this?
Oh I am hardly successful at it. I have certain core rules. I don't remember actively deciding that these were rules, they just developed over time.
Of course there's the reminders. If I set one, it must be important, so obey the reminders. Also, I have a spending rule. Anything that's more than a few bucks, I'm not allowed to buy it the first time I think about it. The second time I think about it, I do research. If I haven't completely moved on from the idea, then I'll buy it.
I'm still broke and running late, but it's better than it could be.
I like to set multiple cascading annoying reminders so I can choose to ignore them and 5 more minutes myself into next week