I'm SO bad with initiation in certain areas, it's like a huge mental block even though the task is not even that bad. Like showering, getting myself to get into the shower is SO hard, even though it doesn't take long and it's pretty enjoyable once I'm there. Or studying, I honestly have a really easy time in school but I still get waaaay behind because I just can't get myself to do it.
About college: YOU'VE GOT THIS! It took me 4 years to get a 2 year degree, but I managed to get away with an almost perfect GPA. The first few weeks of every new semester will be REALLY SCARY. But once you get into the routine it gets easier, and then if you're like me you'll enter panic mode at the end of the semester, but you'll survive. What helped me was making sure I limited the number of classes in subjects that I struggle with to 1/semester, or 2 if they were only a couple credits each. I also made sure I was taking at least 1 class that I was really excited about. That motivation helped carry me through. And whenever I found a professor I liked I tried my hardest to take other more advanced classes with them. It helped a lot. I believe in you!
Initiation - ah the hardest part for me. It is true that things i don't want to do are harder, but many things i really enjoy is also hard to start. The more complex and/or the longer something will take, the harder it is for me to initiate. This sometimes will lead to me doing a number of short things instead of that one longer important think i needed to get done. Even doing fun things like watching a movie or tv show or going to a fun event is hard for me to get started at times. And the routines stuff is interesting as thats what I used to do with things to be able to do them even when I was in a bad depressive episode. The drawback I discovered is it sometimes turns 'fun' activities into work and I lose the enjoyment/satisfaction i'd normal get out of it because it becomes just another thing to check off the list.
One thing I do is to piggyback on an existing habit. For example, when I make tea I clean and tidy the kitchen. Over the course of a day it makes a significant difference.
Initiation/procrastination/over analyze all leak into projection of negative outcome. Best to envision positive outcome or look forward to STaRTING if not completing task. Usually, a very happy ending. I love your videos! So damn helpful in my life! Don’t sell yourself short. I’m HDHD,dyslexic and married to a ( undiagnosed) aspi. At your age I suffered from depression and not yet diagnosed with NO SELF-ESTEEM or previous diagnoses ( well sh!t). Anyway, I started college at 19 yrs old and finally got an associates degree 27 years later. I got an additional associates by default because I took so many classes. You, my friend, are brilliant and will kick a$$ and take heads in college! You don’t have to be confident to go to college. You don’t even have to be talented to finish a degree. You, are a wealth of intelligence,empathy (like taking time to do these videos) and best of all curiosity!! You are a wealth of hope for many of us out here! So there’s the honest truth from a 51 yr old and someone who has crawled over glass (it felt like) to do “the walk”!
It’s taken me a long time to learn how to chunk jobs into manageable sizes so that they’re not overwhelming to me. I’m the type of person that needs to finish a job all at once so instead of saying “I’m going to clean out the fridge today”, I will say “I’m going to clean the top shelf of the fridge today”. This kind of task size management really helped when I was at university.
So, I was diagnosed at a young age (brn. 1991). And no one in my family 'believes in' autism. So I haven't had alot of help growing up. Only recently have I learned so much of autism and how connected I am to it. Thank you for posting.
Love these tips! I have trouble initiating anything that may lead to conflict, and sometimes starting a conversation out of thin air depending on how difficult of a day my brain is having. There is a lot to be said about making things into straight out habits and writing things down. :D
back when i was still at school i would NEVER study cause i just couldn't do it. I would have no clue where to start. Mostly just cause of the vagueness of someone saying "go study" verses being given work to do. If i was given work I would get it done, but studying, i could just never do cause i had no clue what to do, where to start. Theres so many different ways to study, so many things to study i just didn't know what to do, and asking someone else never helped. I was given an appointment with learning support in hopes they could maybe at least give me somewhere to start on how to study or what i could do but they just said. "well i can't help you with that one cause everyone studies differently." Helpful. So i left having had no more insight left to panic cause i had exams to study for but i couldn't even study. Eventually i managed to sort something out, i made a timetable and set alarms on my phone to remind me to study so i wouldn't lose track of time or forget. That lasted.... like a week. If that. Eventually it got to the point where the alarms would go off and i'd say "i'll do it in 20 minutes" and i did, but then a few days later i turned the alarm of and... just ignored it. Let's just say im glad corona saved me from exams this year.
Now another piece in my life makes more sense... I always thought I was just super super lazy!!!! It makes sense why I have difficult starting even things I really want/like to do... Also, I've noticed that the more I think about something I HAVE TO DO, the harder it is to start it. For me, at least.
Your college may have people to support you as you take classes. I think going part time is very smart. I say this as someone who taught college for 20 years.
I used to be pretty decent in this area. I would start by making a list of the areas I was to clean, the items I needed to pack, or even the exact words I’d like to say in a phone call, or at least my own phone number and address if I thought they’d be needed as my brain always got blank on phone calls. Then, for the cleaning anyway, I put on a playlist, something upbeat, and that’s my cleaning music (I often clean to abba, lol) and it helps put me in that “mode” and keep my energy up better even when I’m not in a cleaning mood. Dividing up the space helps too, if it’s a big job. And I always like to maximize effort and not getting distracted by never putting some away in a room I am not cleaning right now, unless I just finished cleaning it. I just put the thing in the room and walk out and finish the current room.
I would say that this is a big one for me too. A lot of times, I will have a task for school that I know I need to get done such as a homework assignment, writing a paper, studying for a test, etc., but being able to motivate myself to get started on it is one of the hardest parts. I feel like I tend to be a huge procrastinator, and I can only motivate myself to do things if they are on a tight deadline. Issues with this particular executive function also end up causing me a lot of anxiety which is another thing.
I sometimes find myself, where I've written everything down... Made a routine with the intention to stick to it and do it NO MATTER WHAT, and then my alarm goes off saying I have to do something in 5 minutes and I'm just for some reason instantly demotivated again... or I just can't m9ve off the bed... First I thought it was social media keeping me distracted but even when my phone isn't with me I still struggle... I've tried EVERYTHING and Im just hoping if I keep trying it's going to get better and eventually I'll be able to function normally.
I find that I have big issues with initiation when I have my non work days (now that I’m Out of college) bc I have the weekends off. I will lay in bed for 3 hours before being able to get up even though I realllly want to play a game on my computer I cannot physically make myself get up and get on the computer and it’s so frustrating and idk what to do
Relationship wise I have no Physical contact at all becuz of cationic depression I freeze up on the thought of initiating . I just stay stuck in my head and can't move. Idk what to do
I don't think so. I think it would fall more under self-awareness or self-motivation (monitoring oneself and continue to stay on task to finish or motivation in order to even want to make it to completing the task)
@@StephanieBethany Ok, I see. I have ADD and it is difficult for me to stay on a task until it is finished. I think mainly because of motivation, and I trying to help that, do you have any tips?
@@NoirFelis Unfortunately I don't right off hand, but you might try searching for ways to help self motivation executive function and that might narrow your search a bit
Aw man. I'm terrible at initiation and follow through. I have no real routine, like I maybe brush my teeth 10 times a year and I have finally been able to get to at least one shower a week. I've tried making lists but I noticed that alarms freak me out and make me angry and then I turn off my phone and it doesn't help anything. Do you have any tips? I am undiagnosed.
Have any studies been done on what is actually happening in the brain when we are struggling with initiation? Years ago I heard about how people working with mules would become so frustrated when the animals would refuse to move that they would build a fire under them. How cruel. But the animal still wouldn't move. It should be obvious that for some reason the poor animal COULDN'T move because there was more going on in their brain than "stubbornness". When it comes to initiating actions, I refer to my "mule brain" and then try not to be too hard on myself. There is so much more behind executive functioning than will power.
So far alright. I learned I like in-person classes more because the schedule forces me to be more on top of things. Of course, now everything's different bc of the virus.
What do you mean by pictures? I'm super tired so my verbage of my question probably doesn't make sense. I stayed up way too late. I love this video by the way. I hope you can do a video showing us examples of what you mean by pictures of things that can help us function.
I think she means a schedule with pictures of the tasks instead of writing the words. A picture of a washing machine instead of the words: laundry day.
I'm SO bad with initiation in certain areas, it's like a huge mental block even though the task is not even that bad. Like showering, getting myself to get into the shower is SO hard, even though it doesn't take long and it's pretty enjoyable once I'm there. Or studying, I honestly have a really easy time in school but I still get waaaay behind because I just can't get myself to do it.
Me : Wants to get a painting done today
Also me : Watching a TH-cam video on Initiation instead of actually Initiating what I want to do
About college: YOU'VE GOT THIS! It took me 4 years to get a 2 year degree, but I managed to get away with an almost perfect GPA.
The first few weeks of every new semester will be REALLY SCARY. But once you get into the routine it gets easier, and then if you're like me you'll enter panic mode at the end of the semester, but you'll survive.
What helped me was making sure I limited the number of classes in subjects that I struggle with to 1/semester, or 2 if they were only a couple credits each. I also made sure I was taking at least 1 class that I was really excited about. That motivation helped carry me through. And whenever I found a professor I liked I tried my hardest to take other more advanced classes with them. It helped a lot.
I believe in you!
💛💛
Initiation - ah the hardest part for me. It is true that things i don't want to do are harder, but many things i really enjoy is also hard to start. The more complex and/or the longer something will take, the harder it is for me to initiate. This sometimes will lead to me doing a number of short things instead of that one longer important think i needed to get done.
Even doing fun things like watching a movie or tv show or going to a fun event is hard for me to get started at times.
And the routines stuff is interesting as thats what I used to do with things to be able to do them even when I was in a bad depressive episode. The drawback I discovered is it sometimes turns 'fun' activities into work and I lose the enjoyment/satisfaction i'd normal get out of it because it becomes just another thing to check off the list.
One thing I do is to piggyback on an existing habit. For example, when I make tea I clean and tidy the kitchen. Over the course of a day it makes a significant difference.
Initiation/procrastination/over analyze all leak into projection of negative outcome. Best to envision positive outcome or look forward to STaRTING if not completing task. Usually, a very happy ending. I love your videos! So damn helpful in my life! Don’t sell yourself short. I’m HDHD,dyslexic and married to a ( undiagnosed) aspi. At your age I suffered from depression and not yet diagnosed with NO SELF-ESTEEM or previous diagnoses ( well sh!t). Anyway, I started college at 19 yrs old and finally got an associates degree 27 years later. I got an additional associates by default because I took so many classes. You, my friend, are brilliant and will kick a$$ and take heads in college! You don’t have to be confident to go to college. You don’t even have to be talented to finish a degree. You, are a wealth of intelligence,empathy (like taking time to do these videos) and best of all curiosity!! You are a wealth of hope for many of us out here! So there’s the honest truth from a 51 yr old and someone who has crawled over glass (it felt like) to do “the walk”!
It’s taken me a long time to learn how to chunk jobs into manageable sizes so that they’re not overwhelming to me. I’m the type of person that needs to finish a job all at once so instead of saying “I’m going to clean out the fridge today”, I will say “I’m going to clean the top shelf of the fridge today”. This kind of task size management really helped when I was at university.
So, I was diagnosed at a young age (brn. 1991). And no one in my family 'believes in' autism. So I haven't had alot of help growing up. Only recently have I learned so much of autism and how connected I am to it. Thank you for posting.
Love these tips! I have trouble initiating anything that may lead to conflict, and sometimes starting a conversation out of thin air depending on how difficult of a day my brain is having. There is a lot to be said about making things into straight out habits and writing things down. :D
Would love you to expand on each of the executive functions
back when i was still at school i would NEVER study cause i just couldn't do it. I would have no clue where to start. Mostly just cause of the vagueness of someone saying "go study" verses being given work to do. If i was given work I would get it done, but studying, i could just never do cause i had no clue what to do, where to start. Theres so many different ways to study, so many things to study i just didn't know what to do, and asking someone else never helped. I was given an appointment with learning support in hopes they could maybe at least give me somewhere to start on how to study or what i could do but they just said. "well i can't help you with that one cause everyone studies differently." Helpful. So i left having had no more insight left to panic cause i had exams to study for but i couldn't even study. Eventually i managed to sort something out, i made a timetable and set alarms on my phone to remind me to study so i wouldn't lose track of time or forget. That lasted.... like a week. If that. Eventually it got to the point where the alarms would go off and i'd say "i'll do it in 20 minutes" and i did, but then a few days later i turned the alarm of and... just ignored it. Let's just say im glad corona saved me from exams this year.
Good comment, very relatable struggle for me
Now another piece in my life makes more sense... I always thought I was just super super lazy!!!! It makes sense why I have difficult starting even things I really want/like to do...
Also, I've noticed that the more I think about something I HAVE TO DO, the harder it is to start it. For me, at least.
Your college may have people to support you as you take classes. I think going part time is very smart. I say this as someone who taught college for 20 years.
I used to be pretty decent in this area. I would start by making a list of the areas I was to clean, the items I needed to pack, or even the exact words I’d like to say in a phone call, or at least my own phone number and address if I thought they’d be needed as my brain always got blank on phone calls. Then, for the cleaning anyway, I put on a playlist, something upbeat, and that’s my cleaning music (I often clean to abba, lol) and it helps put me in that “mode” and keep my energy up better even when I’m not in a cleaning mood.
Dividing up the space helps too, if it’s a big job. And I always like to maximize effort and not getting distracted by never putting some away in a room I am not cleaning right now, unless I just finished cleaning it. I just put the thing in the room and walk out and finish the current room.
My personal issue is not only initiation but also the "follow through!"
Did your ideas help you in college? Did you come up with more?
This video is awesome
Google Calendar has been super helpful. I like the reminder option and that it syncs with my computer and phone. Thinking about getting a smart watch!
This is helpful, thanks! Initiation is always a challenge for me
Awesome insight into the baffling dilemma. Please consider doing another episode with more ways to address this skills deficit. So helpful.
SOOOOO true about initiation NOT having to do with interest... though sometimes I've that also!
Thank you, for years I wondered why I couldnt do something. Thank you for help with initiation.
I would say that this is a big one for me too. A lot of times, I will have a task for school that I know I need to get done such as a homework assignment, writing a paper, studying for a test, etc., but being able to motivate myself to get started on it is one of the hardest parts. I feel like I tend to be a huge procrastinator, and I can only motivate myself to do things if they are on a tight deadline. Issues with this particular executive function also end up causing me a lot of anxiety which is another thing.
I sometimes find myself, where I've written everything down... Made a routine with the intention to stick to it and do it NO MATTER WHAT, and then my alarm goes off saying I have to do something in 5 minutes and I'm just for some reason instantly demotivated again... or I just can't m9ve off the bed...
First I thought it was social media keeping me distracted but even when my phone isn't with me I still struggle...
I've tried EVERYTHING and Im just hoping if I keep trying it's going to get better and eventually I'll be able to function normally.
Thank you! I hope college is going well! 💙
This is valuable information! Thank you.
👍take them out of the realm of executive functioning and turn them into routines 👍
Ty for this soecific on initiation
This is important, my mother is badly crippled with iniation i struggle too, .The return of t he great hair!
I find that I have big issues with initiation when I have my non work days (now that I’m
Out of college) bc I have the weekends off. I will lay in bed for 3 hours before being able to get up even though I realllly want to play a game on my computer I cannot physically make myself get up and get on the computer and it’s so frustrating and idk what to do
Relationship wise I have no Physical contact at all becuz of cationic depression I freeze up on the thought of initiating . I just stay stuck in my head and can't move. Idk what to do
Does Initiation cover finishing tasks?
I don't think so. I think it would fall more under self-awareness or self-motivation (monitoring oneself and continue to stay on task to finish or motivation in order to even want to make it to completing the task)
@@StephanieBethany Ok, I see. I have ADD and it is difficult for me to stay on a task until it is finished. I think mainly because of motivation, and I trying to help that, do you have any tips?
@@NoirFelis Unfortunately I don't right off hand, but you might try searching for ways to help self motivation executive function and that might narrow your search a bit
@@StephanieBethany Thank you
Have you ever looked into Catatonia in autism, i was recently diagnosed with it and executive function initiation is one of the main symptoms.
Aw man. I'm terrible at initiation and follow through. I have no real routine, like I maybe brush my teeth 10 times a year and I have finally been able to get to at least one shower a week. I've tried making lists but I noticed that alarms freak me out and make me angry and then I turn off my phone and it doesn't help anything. Do you have any tips? I am undiagnosed.
Have any studies been done on what is actually happening in the brain when we are struggling with initiation? Years ago I heard about how people working with mules would become so frustrated when the animals would refuse to move that they would build a fire under them. How cruel. But the animal still wouldn't move. It should be obvious that for some reason the poor animal COULDN'T move because there was more going on in their brain than "stubbornness". When it comes to initiating actions, I refer to my "mule brain" and then try not to be too hard on myself. There is so much more behind executive functioning than will power.
One of my biggest issues!!!
initiation: domain of executive function. ty informative
I definitely have trouble with initiation and switch between tasks.
My hot autism tip is that i write my to do lists on my fridge and mirrors in dry erase marker
How is college going?
So far alright. I learned I like in-person classes more because the schedule forces me to be more on top of things. Of course, now everything's different bc of the virus.
Out of curiosity, why you're in college part-time rather than full?
Cant afford full time haha
What do you mean by pictures? I'm super tired so my verbage of my question probably doesn't make sense. I stayed up way too late. I love this video by the way. I hope you can do a video showing us examples of what you mean by pictures of things that can help us function.
I think she means a schedule with pictures of the tasks instead of writing the words. A picture of a washing machine instead of the words: laundry day.
Suggested a visual board
Getting up early
I have a hard time initiating date nights and going out with my partner. Anyone else struggle with that?
I can initiate....but follow through........ eh