Is the inability to see “big picture” things a common adhd trait or just a “people are different” trait?
Example, ive never enjoyed jobs that involve long term planning because most of the managers etc have no clue how the actual work or the details of a project are done. They say they’ll “do x thing by y time” without knowing anything about it or the actual amount of work and expertise it would take.
Now im the one doing the detailed actual work. And I enjoy it because its real vs a bunch of people making a plan about something they dont even know how to do.
Same thing with “5 year plans”.I literally cannot do it because 1. All my plans involve “have money to do thing” and 2. You could easily get cancer and die in 5 years (or other big changes).
Now I do invest for long term (because its easy) but otherwise I find it very hard to look at big picture things without every single detail.
Towards the end of my degree, we were tasked with writing out detailed 5 year plans and I managed to write out six months before I got super annoyed with the assignment and started writing in vague, idiotic shit that had nothing to do with reality.
For one, I have no friggin clue what I want to do in five years. I will be a completely different person. Secondly, my field of work is fickle af and you cannot plan anything further ahead than a couple of months because the market is fucked and clients are scared of spending money even during prosperous periods.
So I felt like that exercise was brain dead and I have felt that way during every consultant program I have partaken in the hopes that I could learn something from them. 5 year plans are for people who don’t live in the real world or robots.
For someone like me who cannot plan shit to save my life and mostly live on impulse and adjusting myself to my present reality all the time, I see that type of planning as unserious and unrealistic.
That said, I do like well made plans for projects that have a shorter time frame, where the focus is on one project and how it can best be completed before the deadline and in-between other projects. I vibe hard with that shit because it makes sense, it is urgent to an extent and it is real.
Sounds very similar to me. How the heck would I know what I want in 5 years ha
I feel like I have the opposite problem. I see the big picture as a default, it’s the details I’m blind to and that get me every time.
I’m not sure if what you describe is really an inability to get the big picture or the lack of available information to really base decisions on.
For me it’s hard to make that kind of decisions because other people can’t plan well and their estimates are notoriously wrong and forget to take into account a lot of things.
But what I’m really good at it seeing the bigger picture in the sense of knowing the interdependences between things. If I see a requirement I don’t just follow it point by point. I think about what how it fits into the whole and where things can go wrong and ask if people have considered that. (90% of time the answer is no)
So I consider seeing the big picture and the details my strength, but like you I struggle to plan ahead long-term or estimate things because I don’t feel confident with the amount of information available to make such guesses.
Long term planning is a task that requires executive function. Is it difficult for you and that’s why you dislike it or is your distaste for it a separate issue?
Maybe. I mean I cant even make a plan for my own life stuff since ill probably change ge my mind about what I want in 5 years.
Example: refinish basement in 5 years. Ok. But what if I cant afford to do it how I want? If its mediocre, id rather leave it alone. Also I may want to move so then its not worth doing. Etc. Too many variables its impossible to do.
I understand the feeling of being in limbo due to uncertainty like that. I’d say if you don’t feel strongly enough to commit to large things, then don’t. For the things that you do feel strong enough about to commit to, keep smashing it into smaller and smaller pieces until they’re manageable, then start to do them. There are tools to help with this process out there. And starting towards something can help clarify if it’s something you want to put effort into. You can also take on smaller, useful pieces of a larger goal such that even if the main goal is something you decide isn’t worth it, you can still get something useful out of what you’ve completed.
I don’t really ever feel like committing to things, so I don’t plan things out like that. Sometimes things turn out well; I just kept doing my hobby I enjoyed and whoops I’ve been doing it for 20 years. Sometimes things go not so well but I try to quit things that aren’t working out early. And sometimes there’s real consequences. My life hasn’t been a straight line by any means. Nobody I know has had a life like that, though, even the planners.
Pretty sure it is a people are different trait, although it is pretty easy to get distracted by the small details.
I used to do the small detailed work which was great, and had managers that asked for estimates and ignored them and others than listened and used them, but of course estimates are estimates. Now I do project management and do my best to use the longest possible estimate, sometimes offering to add extra, because it is necessary to know when things are most likely to be done so something else that is dependent on it being done is ready. Barely anything actually meets exact deadlines of course, but planning ahead helps with keeping things from being so overwhelmed that they can’t be done.
But I can’t do both the details and the big picture at the same time. One or the other on a particular day for personal stuff and one or the other for longer periods of time at work.
Same thing with “5 year plans”. I literally cannot do it because 1. All my plans involve “have money to do thing” and 2. You could easily get cancer and die in 5 years (or other big changes).
For me, any kind of long term planning is likely to be interrupted by the unexpected but if I don’t have something to work towards then I will just be stuck in a daily loop of ‘doing something tomorrow’ and then never doing anything because everything will get done ‘tomorrow’. I have just accepted that ADHD is going to reduce my productivity for necessary things and hobbies by few hours out of every day compared to the average person and work around that.
Investing in long term is easy? 💀
Ok, that statement aside, I actually don’t know if for me this is due to ADHD or autism. I’m still undiagnosed for both but I always thought this was my autism thing. For me, I’m the person that can’t see the big picture. I like doing the work because it’s the smaller pieces that usually have a clear objective. I don’t understand things like “aligning with the mission” or the wacko lingo 'cause I can’t see it. It’s kind of like mental math for me. I can’t do it. I struggle imagining the numbers in my head—like how I can’t collage together everything needed for a successful project. Sometimes out of nowhere I’ll get a eureka moment but I for the life of me can never be a project manager.
“Synergistic management solutions”
To the investing part, its only easy because the company im with has an outside group that helps and educates you on how to do it and offers matches, so its easy. Of course I could go in there and mess with it but I have no time or want to. This is long term investing which honestly isnt very hard since the market trends up over time (except when this bubble goes, but there’s time to build it up again for me. If retirement was near id be very worried)
Anyway yes… “mission statements” and the like are kind of cringe. Like, every single one is “grow company. Make money. maybe try to get a good reputation, but no big deal if we’re scum as long as we enrich shareholders”
Investing safe will small dividends but high safety is not as difficult as it seems. You can get a mix of: • state bonds • big ETF collection that basically never got in red since their beginning 10+ years ago • some bank accounts even give you a small 2/3% just by leaving the money there. Not the best but it’s better than nothing
Exactly. Its not a get rich quick. But it may help 20 years later