Jason,

Your life sounds a lot like mine. If it wasn't for the oil dummy light, I'd be hurting for certain. Thankfully, none of my engines have met your doom, but I'm amazed nothing has ever happened in all honesty. :)

I have a problem doing simple things as well. There really is no reason. I can get on spurts where I can nailed out 30 things, and other times where the whole day can begin and that long list of "next actions" just staring back at me, and literally nothing gets done.

While I have not figured it out, I suspect I know what the issue is, and it might be yours as well, if not a variation thereof.

I get into ruts and my routine. Getting my hair cut, is a chore. I hate the unknown of if I will have to wait 10 minutes or 60 minutes to get my hair cut, so I just don't go. Plus, it takes up time I could be staring at my todo list, hoping it will get done on its own. If I chose a barber that scheduled times and made appointments for me, I'd probably go without any issue. I hate the dentist, I don't like going at all, I avoid it to the point that, I am probably going to pay for it later. The issue of Oral health is a concern, but like your engine being destroyed so many times, you'd think you'd learn your lesson, but we are people of habit, and if the dentist called me and said, your appointment is tomorrow at 4pm, I'd probably go.

When it comes to things that don't require appointments, the "pain" factor kicks in. For example, if you received your paycheck in the mail every other week, you must deposit it into your account, or you will run out of money or worse yet, overdraft and pay super high fees. That is painful. So, getting to the bank to get money into it is a motivational factor. Your probably more likely to pay a creditor on time who charges huge late fees, vs those who don't charge or the charges are minimal. When it comes to paying bills, auto-payments from my bank are good because they happen w/o my interaction. Less things for me to schedule.

For things which are just daily tasks you have to do, or projects at work, or things with soft or even hard deadlines, I will typically wait until the last minute to get it done if it has a deadline. Even if I can get it done right now, in 5 minutes, if its not due for 3 months, I'll wait 3 months. For things I must do, which have consequences if I don't complete them, but don't have any hard deadlines, then I will typically take those things and drag them out, finding excuses to keep them justified as being in progress, until I can't justify it anymore and get it done, just to get it off my back.

As you can see from these examples, while someone might see a common thread in these, I see them as different reasons, based on the situation.

I read recently from an ADHD coach, that for those of us with ADHD, we should do things we enjoy and want to do first, and the things are don't really want to do for the afternoon or post-fun projects. This has potential, because your not side-tracked working on something you hate, looking forward to something you enjoy. It helps w/ focus or so they say.

I've come of come to an empass, where I need to master my issues or I'm going to fall hard. I can't live my life building mountains, then getting mad they are too big. Even if I sat down and worked just to get out of the valley, so-to-speak, and finished a bunch of things that are weighing me down, I have a bunch of less important projects waiting for me on the other side. More mountains.

While I could solve dental issues, and hair cuts, and even probably auto-maintenance, by having the service provide schedule things for me, it is the (no one else required) issues I need to figure out, and quite honestly, if I figure that out, then the service appointments, may be resolved as well.

Depression is known to keep you from doing even the simple things in life. But, I know in part, my depression is caused by my ADHD and the inability to start and complete things, and that in and of itself is depressing.