Why Autistics Can’t ‘Just Do It’
An insider look at autistic inertia and why we struggle with starting or switching between tasks
Procrastination is my middle name, or so I’ve been told.
Everyone who knows me knows that I drag my feet and have a hard time just doing ‘The Thing’. I often simply stand and stare blankly into space when there are pressing things that need my attention—like making dinner to feed my family, getting dressed for work, and (especially) doing a load of laundry.
On the flip side, once I do get around to doing ‘The Thing’, I struggle to stop or switch to a different activity. Interruptions can be incredibly annoying when I’m engaged in hyperfocus. Then if I’m forced to turn my attention to something else other than the task at hand, I get sucked back into the loop of not being able to start ‘That Other Thing’ and just end up doing nothing at all.
Why am I like this?!
For the longest time, I believed that my ‘laziness’ was a moral failing. I bought into the notion that I was willfully avoiding tasks that I didn’t want to do. Inevitably, my harsh inner critic would shame me endlessly for not being able to do simple things as my to-do list got progressively longer and grew more unmanageable. These unhelpful thought patterns…
