Guidance for: I can't leave this unfinished

Give it an ending you can live with

An unfinished thing keeps making noise. For some brains that noise is loud enough to override hunger, sleep and other people, and it isn't stubbornness — the open loop genuinely costs more to hold than the work costs to do.

Then, if you have room for it

• Define done before you carry on. Undefined, it moves every time you get close.
• Make a visible stopping point — a comment, a bookmark, a half-written sentence you'll finish tomorrow.
• Say the loop out loud to someone if you can. It's quieter once it exists outside your head.
• Some things genuinely are worth finishing tonight. Deciding that on purpose is different from being unable to stop.

Watch

• Why perfectionism isn't perfect, and how to overcome itHow to ADHD · 5 minOn the standard being the obstacle, and how to lower it deliberately.(opens in a new tab)

Read

• How to overcome procrastination and get things doneADDitudeSlideshow on perfectionism, nervous-system regulation and making tasks interesting.(opens in a new tab)
• Monotropism, from the people who named itMonotropism.orgAttention as a single deep channel. Explains hyperfocus and hating interruptions as one thing.(opens in a new tab)