How to focus on boring but needed tasks?

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Greetings!

I am new in this forum. I am not sure if I have Asperger Syndrome but I seem to have some Aspie traits, as they call it. I also seem to have more of these traits when I was younger (I am twenty years old), but I seem to have adapted quite well. Thus, I don't think a diagnosis is necessary.

Anyway, I have a question. I can focus well on the things I like to do, but I have difficulty focusing on tasks I am disinterested with. The problem is that I have many things I need to do but I am disinterested with (e.g. class lectures, school projects, household chores, etc}. Is there a way to deal with this? I try my best to focus but I find myself daydreaming during class lectures, or procrastinating my projects. This trait makes me unproductive in school; I can spend hours doing impractical things while my tasks pile up.

Thank you very much for reading this and for your help.

I wish I knew. I only get to my laundry about once a month and I only have 3 pairs of pants. And now one has a hole in the knee so I can't wear it to work.

I can relate. I always run out of clothes because I procrastinate doing the laundry.

This one is a problem for me too. I can't help with classes but for chores and stuff
- I usually batch them together, I can't do a 10 minute job but I have less of a problem doing a 2 hour job.
so I'll wash dishes and my clothes and a few other things that do well together.
- If it's menial I put on a podcast or some music as I go.

This helps a little but I'm still terrible.

It depends on the type of task for me. If it's a repetitive task or a physical task, I can usually keep myself amused with my own thoughts or with music. Maybe I'll turn it into a game of sorts and see how quickly I can complete the task. If it's something a little more mentally rigorous, I rely on the pressure of a deadline to complete it. As for meetings or lectures that I'm disinterested in...uh...I don't know how to help you on that one.

This is funny. I have no problem doing the laundry. It's putting the clean clothes away that I have a problem with. My boyfriend is just as bad, so most of the time we're just taking clothes out of the clean laundry basket (rather than out of our dressers/closets.) Haha!



That's what I tend to do, too. Except sometimes my game isn't always "scored" by how quickly I complete the task, but rather by how accurately I can get it done, or by how much I can do by the end (as in the case with dishes- some things need soaking before they can easily be scrubbed, so timing it isn't really fair. I can do X-amount of dishes now, then go ahead and clean the counters or the stove while I wait, then return and finish with the dishes once several other things are clean.) This can also be used for the laundry situation you guys have. You know the washing machine is guaranteed to take X-amount of time. So how about see how much of the floor you can sweep/mop, how many shelves you can dust, how many dishes you can clean, etc., before the buzzer goes off?

Adding music can be either a huge motivator or an extra reason to procrastinate, I've found. It can't be my favorite songs, for example, since then I will be tempted to spend more energy on singing along than on doing the task at hand. However, if it's something with a good, fast beat but that I'm not incredibly drawn to, it can be a great way to keep pace with whatever my activity is.

Huge problem for me too. If I can't rationalize my way out of it...I'll eventually give up and do it no matter how unhappy I am about, but if I can possibly rationalize not doing it...well, it doesn't get done.

Of course, when it comes to school projects and other tasks that might be performed public, you may not be able to act the same way you would at home (such as by using music, if you're in a classroom.) I still try to make some kind of game out of it then, however.

It's been a while since I've been in school, but at work I managed to find ways to make "mundane" tasks fun. For example, at my last job, we often sent out letters with coupons in them. However, the letters were usually specifically addressed to certain people, so we had to match the printed letter with the address labels on a separate sheet (then stick the label to an envelope, put the letter inside, and seal it.) I made it into one of those "matching" games in my head (like the opposite of two pictures where you have to find the differences. Instead, I'm trying to find the similarities in name and address, to pair them together.) Eventually, "doing the mailer" became my favorite work task, since I took a lot of joy out of this solitary game that I had created in my head.

Haha, same here. I don't seem to have the willpower to take 10 minutes out for a task every day (or week, month...), but when I do get interested in getting some chore done it ends up being a large/detailed job, taking a few hours.

Thank you very much guys. I hope to try your suggestions. Music seems to work for me at first, but then yes, I tend to focus on singing along with the song than doing my tasks. I haven't tried turning a menial task into a game though. I hope it will work for me.