Breaking down tasks

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I have heard that breaking down tasks can be difficult for people with ASD.
Have you experienced that "NTs" have this difficulty as well?
I talked about this with a professional. He said that "NTs" ussually don't need to break down the tasks as much as people with ASD ussually need.
It seems that "NTs" have this difficulty in their own way but don't need to break down tasks in the same way that people ASD ussusally need.
This can be frustrating at times fot many of us. People learn things fast but we often don't.
We become very good at things if we are lucky. People who learn fast often don't become very good at something do I do not envy "normal" people.

Personally I like a bit of structure, and tend to break down even smallish tasks into smaller ones. More so, I believe, than most NTs.
I think this was particularly useful when I was working as a computer programmer.

/Mats

Breaking down smallish tasks?

I tend to break down tasks. "Divide and Conquer"

It makes it easier to understand and plan individual necessary steps.

I don't think I have much trouble breaking down large tasks. It's a fairly simple process - a big task lands on my plate, I feel overwhelmed, I think "better do it in baby steps then," I figure out what the next manageable step might be, then after a bit of umming and ahing I do it, that usually helps my confidence a bit, I figure out the next step, I do it, and so on.

My recording work started to get overwhelmingly ambitious and complicated - I was playing and recording all the instruments for a song, and doing the mixing and everything - so I made it less daunting by making the first session a preparation exercise, just getting everything ready for recording the first instrument, then I'd go to bed and when I got up the following day it was much easier to get cracking. If I wanted to record an album these days, I wouldn't try to see it as one big task, I'd just record a song, then do another one, etc., until I'd got enough to fill a CD.

I used to often feel overwhelmed at work when the management would just walk up to me at random and give me more and more responsibilities to worry about and keep track of. I often wished they'd just give me one thing to do and hide everything else till I'd done it, then hand out one more task, etc.

Sorry, what was the question?

/Mats

What do you refer to when you use the term "smallish task"?

I also break down tasks into small steps. I’ve always had an issue with common sense, I guess you could say.. tasks that people would understand intuitively I need extra instructions to do. It causes anxiety at work when doing tasks, because I tend to do things the wrong way when it’s second nature to others.

The boss want quantity but you are only a quality person?
I tried working in a grocery store but it was too much about quantity. I am more of a qaulity guy. It takes time changing from being a quality guy to being a quantity guy.
I wonder how much I would hate what I think you call the assembly line.
I would probably be better at work requiring quality than quantity.
This I do not call being disordered!

Not as small as tying the shoes, but eg mowing the lawn (getting the mower, getting the cord, mowing as effectively as possible, putting back the stuff).

/Mats

I tend to be the other way around.
If I cannot do sub tasks in (what I think is) an effective way/order, I get disturbed.

/Mats

I have a friend who loves lists. If he does something unplanned, he feels compelled to write it down just to cross it off. He says that every sub-category is the name of a further sub-category. When people began making robots, they were surprised at the detail assumed in "pass the salt."

How do you remember all the steps?
I would have to do it many times with someone else before I could remember all the steps. I can't just be told once what to do and then remember it.

I guess thats what braking it down is about.
I dont worry too much about the next step.

/Mats

Making decisions can be hard. In the past I just made a decision and stuck by it. Today I find it harder. I think after experiencing several burnouts in a little over a decade that it has effected my ability to make decisions. The more variables in the decision, the harder it is to decide.
I sometimes feel like a car coming to a fork in the road and can't decide which way to go so it ends up ploughing straight through the V of the fork as it can't make the decision in time before it got there! Often I end up with people pressurizing me to do things because they demans there ad then decisions that I have not had the time to process and I end up being forced down routes that I did not want to take.

If I've broken down the job into steps myself, it's easier for me to remember them, though that doesn't mean I necessarily will remember them. Often I just focus on the step I have to do next. Once I've done that I try to remember what's next, which often works. If I feel in much danger of forgetting, I just make a list and consult that if and when I need to.