Fixations and focusing

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I tend to fixate on things and try to learn all I can about them, but only on thing at a time. For example I may be interested in ancient history and spend a month or more going through all the ends and outs, but nothing else. I may spend a week or two editing my web page but then I move onto another field of interest and leave my page sitting while I'm doing something else. Some interests are temporary and some are more all throughout, but I have difficulty focusing on anything I'm not interested in.

I was once very interested in catapults. I learned the math relating to trebuchets and made plans to build one, however my dad wouldn't buy the materials so I built a little onager out of two 5Lb dumbbells, a spoon, and 20 large rubber bands. Sure it could only launch pebbles about ten feet, but I still loved seeing them fly. During this time my whole focus was on catapults and partially to related topics, but not much of anything else.

Does anyone else have similar issues focusing on only one fixation at a time and leaving all else to sit and wait until later? Has anyone a similar issue?

I'm struggling with that kind of thing right now. My library science program requires a management course. For the final, I have to write three short research papers, one of which includes some scary accounting stuff. It's giving me a lot of anxiety. I'm having trouble understanding it because it doesn't interest me at all.

For me, it's very easy to focus.

Tim

Trying to learn something I have no interest in is very frustrating for me. I can do it, but I am only able to focus very short moments before everything becomes blank and I get too exhausted to even try. I that sense I am lucky that one of my passions in life is writng, specifically writing in English. At my school I have been able to sometimes learn easier simply by the teachers letting me read or write a text in the English language instead of my native one.

I am able to divert focus to learn of things outside my areas of interest. But I find it hard to devote enough time to get any more than a very basic understanding of the topic before my focus drifts back to what I am interested in. I have developed some self-discipline though.

One thing that I do do is to reward myself. I.E. if i'll just concentrate on topic x for a certain amount of time... then I will let myself concentrate on topic y for a certain amount of time as a reward. In this way I was able to pass high school

Even with that method learning topic x is very laborious and tiring. But it does get absorbed after a while.

Yep, I can only focus on my narrow/focused interest, nothing else. Apart from the social impairment, it's the second most defining characteristic in Asperger's; it's a gift and a curse.