Or, you really enjoy a hobby but your hyperfocus makes you research the hobby instead of doing it. E.g. you like photography and your hyperfocus kicks in researching places to go take photos, or gear to buy... Or you spend hours choosing the best cycling route until it's too dark or the weather changes and you go "What happened to my beautiful afternoon??".

My hyperfocus tends to kick in whenever the ADHD gremlin inside my brain chooses, not always when I'm doing whatever I enjoy. I wish that was always the case.

[–] Varyag@lemmy.dbzer0.com 7 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Fuck. This is me with music production about a month ago. I produced exactly 5 seconds of music trying to learn it after several days of endlessly learning about it.

[–] Flocklesscrow@lemm.ee 2 points 2 months ago

5 good seconds?

[–] Appoxo@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 points 2 months ago

My research time is around 20-23:00 and on weekends can end around 1-2am.
Too bad for my sleep schedule ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

[–] WaterSword@discuss.tchncs.de 2 points 2 months ago

This is me with videogames

[–] drew_belloc@programming.dev 40 points 2 months ago (1 children)

The hyper focus only kicks in when i'm doing something, the problem is to start to do something

[–] fossphi@lemm.ee 22 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Precisely. When trying to talk to others about this, I usually use the term activation energy

Understanding it doesn't help in alleviating it, though.

Send help!

[–] Appoxo@lemmy.dbzer0.com 3 points 2 months ago

We are just too much of an endothermic reaction.

[–] Tippon@lemmy.dbzer0.com 10 points 2 months ago

I don't know, I find that my hyperfocus doesn't kick in until I start doing something

[–] LovableBastard@slrpnk.net 9 points 2 months ago

Not necessarily. I definitely go through waves like this, and it doesn’t feel like depression to me.

I’ll have a couple of days (or weeks) where I want to do things, but not enough to actually motivate myself to start any of it. Then I’ll bounce back for a while and be so focused on something that I’ll forget about taking care of basic needs like eating and sleeping.

I’ve kinda learned to embrace those extremes. What I hate is the middle ground where I want to focus and get something done, but I realize about every 5 minutes that my brain is off topic again.