How do you throw yourself into a project you're not into? ZipLoc gallon bags: amzn.to/428MUXQ Acqua di Parma hand soap: amzn.to/3DOfNyp Anon Salon: www.anonsalon.com/ Disclaimer: Tested may earn a commission from purchases made via the links above. Join this channel to support Tested and get access to perks, like asking Adam a question: ua-cam.com/channels/iDJtJKMICpb9B1qf7qjEOA.htmljoin
One rule I've found works in a lot of situations: when you lose an item, don't look for it. Instead, take a break and *start putting things back where they're supposed to be.* I often end up with tools and materials covering all the horizontal space in my garage by the time I'm finished a job, but this one strategy has helped me mitigate that to an extent, and each subsequent search gets quicker to complete. After all, it's easied to find that lost drill bit after I pick up the cardboard box that I inadvertently set down on it.
I once read an article on human behavior it said something along the lines of when us people see an empty space we have a urge/need to fill it with items or trinkets.
My approach (as an ADHD brain) is to categorise and compress. Adam said something about making multiple trips being tedious. Boxes are the answer. I sweep around my shop with boxes. All tools, into one box. All (non project) electrical components, one box. All paint/polish products, one box. That clears about 70% of the space (making it much easier to tackle the remainder without all the visual white noise) and it means I can walk to my toolbox, my parts drawers, or my solvents cabinet, with everything that needs to go in, once and once only. Categorise everything into similar piles, compress the pile into a thing, carry the thing to the spot where all the objects live, and put them away. Hope it helps someone :)
I realized that watching Adam's video as the first thing when I go onto the internet everyday helped me set my mood of the day -- a little more energetic, creative and hopeful.
Your description of smoking was perfect to mine when I realized I needed to quit 2 years ago. There was nothing like that morning cigarette or phone cigarette with a cup of coffee in my early 20s or teens but I wasn't experiencing it for some number of years. So I literally made myself pay attention to the smoking and not my random thoughts and the focus it gave me and I quit a year later
I'm 44 with ADHD and permanently disabled, so I need to be very intentional about structuring chores, hobbies, and rest, or I'll get stuck on one thing for too long, resulting in pain. I set routines for my internet-capable light bulbs so they change colors like traffic signals on 15 minute intervals. Green for chores, red for rest, and blue for hobbies. It helps a lot to have a reminder that's not noisy like an alarm on my phone.
This is a great tip. Might try it for myself! The older I get and the more I examine myself and my life the more I come to understand and appreciate that ADHD really is a disability.
That's a fantastic idea. I'd thought about doing something similar to distinguish "work" and "play" modes at my desk, but I hadn't considered using them on a timer
I was diagnosed with ADHD as a child, and again at 18... Doing something you don't want to do, even when you know it's easy, is one of the hardest things to conquer. For me, it's testing the code I've written, so freaking hard to start
I think the key is to approach testing as a competitive game with your past self, where you're trying to come up with things that past you didn't consider. It's boring to try to prove that your code works. It's challenging to try to prove that it can be broken. As a bonus, you don't have to be tactful about finding your past self's mistakes, unlike when you're reviewing someone else's code. Also, it's easier to enjoy writing tests if they're turning up bugs you're not going to have to find later. That said, I always take a little break between writing the code and reviewing it to give myself a little distance and let present me become past me.
8:15 in the human brain, the amygdala (processes olfactory for sense of smell) and the hippocampus (responsible in part for memory) are adjacent, which is why certain scents conjur memories of events where that odor was present. If you broke up with your partner at a movie theater, you might suddenly dislike popcorn because it reminds you of that person every time you smell it.
If you haven’t already, look up the concept of “the wall of awful” for adhd. There are two good videos on the “how to adhd” channel. And the original concept is credited to Brendan Mahan
An open coal fire reminds me of family holidays as a child to the cold November seaside in Devon, UK and I love it. I also love the smell in the garage after I get home and put the motorbike away. Or at least I used to when I had a bike with carbs - the fuel injected bike doesn't do it, and I miss it. It reminds me of having been out on rides on the back of my dad's bike when I was a kid. :)
French Vanilla is my Achilles heel in the scent world. I think it probably comes from my mother, as she baked a LOT when i was a kid. There was always something baking. Fresh bread, cookies, cakes, brownies, rolls, etc. She really liked baking a lot, and there was always a mild vanilla smell in the air when she was baking. Scent and memory are strongly linked, so vanilla always reminds me of a simpler time, and delicious baked goods.
As for small triggering memories, phantom pain. I once heard a story of someone that worked in a bakery and was in an accident at work that resulted in the loss of his hand. After that every sunday morning be would feel the pain in his hand that wasn't there, it turned out his neighbour baked bread every sunday and the smell triggered the memory of the trauma causing the pain.
Wood Smell: I think most people think of resiny SPF (mixed spruce/pine/fir) construction lumber and plywood when they think of this, but there are SO many things wood can smell like: - dill and ranch dressing (fresh red oak) - barnyard (older red oak) - cat pee (elm) - mint/Olive (ash) - floral syrup (maple, birch) - flowers (apple, cherry) - that apple you forgot behind the bowl that you might eat but is probably going to taste "old" (apple, crabapple) - spiced ginger (rowan) - barbeque (mesquite, hickory?) - etc
Hey Adam, why don't you try returns bins in a rack, sort of like Home Depot has behind their customer service counter. So, when you're cleaning up, you can throw stuff in the bins as you come across it, depending on where it goes, then when you're done or the bin is full, you only have to make one trip up those stairs... And as someone over 40 myself, I'm discovering how much stairs can suck, especially after 20 trips up and down. LOL
@@osculant Agreed. We technically use this method in our kitchen but the catch-all bin basically just becomes an odds-n-ends storage spot till I get so frustrated with not being able to fit the tissues box in that I have a cleaning fit and put it all away, 3 or 4 times a year.
I keep one small, shallow return bin in one spot. When it overflows, that's usually enough motivation to get it emptied. For things that don't fill quickly (like the "to be filed" folder for home expense receipts), I make an appointment with myself to empty them every new year. YMMV, though, because ADHD comes in many flavors.
@@osculant doomboxes i deed, soon they will not exist anymore in my brain lol. Or I don't remember what's in them, and that idea of not knowing what you'll find in the box is soo overwhelming that it just gets impossible to even look at it. Which is totally dumb and illogical, I know, but it happens, just pure black out/paralysis kind of feeling...
My brother was the cause of me stopping smoking. He asked me to have my two nieces for the weekend. I asked him to bring me some cigarettes. He didnt. I spent the weekend with 2 kids under 5. After the weekend, i thought " No more smoking " . That was 21 years ago. Never had one since. Right now ? Im working on my Phds to get them down in number . ( Phd stands for project half done 😂😂). My favourite smell .... The smell of my late fathers work overals . When I could smell that mix of oil, grease and flux i knew he was home. Strange I know but its just personal to me.
CA activator is also one of my favorite smells. Takes me back to my father building model airplanes. The smell has not changed. I now use it for my RC aircraft (as well as other things). I think I like it purely for that reason.
The smell of streaks and tips has always been one of my favorites, we used to use it all the time in film production but hardly ever any more. that and Burning gels. Times gone by.
Part of the reason I make is to fulfill something I don’t get in my career and that’s to see something complete. There is a start middle and an end I can visualize. So cleaning and organizing is part of that but, it is a project in its self. Normally I have 5-10 projects going at once. Before starting any more I have to do a deep clean and organizing.
There is a smell that I miss from my childhood. I grew up on the Oregon coast and when I was young, you could still walk on the docks. The smell was a mix of many different things. Salt water, the moisture in the air, diesel fumes, fish, and 2-stroke motor oil from the outboards. It was a glorious childhood smell! As an adult I loved to go back and take photos. With film! A jumble of abstract lines and colors. The miracle of being a child!
ADHD 57yr old engineer here, I totally clean my shop at the end of the day, put all tools away, set it straight to start fresh next day, its so much easier to walk into a nice shop in the morning, that's the reward I'm about 12 yrs into recovery too, COPD is a great motivation tool, plus as Adam says, be honest with yourself, do you actually enjoy those things, are are they not serving you anymore? Smells are totally my thing, methanol fuel burning, cutting oils, and many more. The problem is I'm now nose blind to the wonderful workshop smell I work in
Holding in your head the idea of the clean space as a goal, I think that makes the difference between cleaning being a slog and it being at least doable.
Wait, Adam... Do you have ADHD?! How did I not know/realize this? Do you know how SEEN I feel knowing that, as little me grew up watching you guys on TV?! Your show, your additude, your cadence, your compassion, your explanations never made me feel stupid and always explained not just the HOW but the WHY of what is happening, and I could never put my thumb on what felt so comforting. God, I feel so validated as someone with a late diagnosis. Thanks for sharing your stories Adam, and thank you for being you. I appreciate seeing my reflection out there in the world.
Adam, you sound just like myself when it comes to projects, even sitting and looking at it. I must consider I have ADHD. It explains a lot I think. The only smell we share is newly cut wood. Instead I enjoy newly baked goods, fresh air after a rain, and favorite flowers.
Idk why exactly, but Adam is one of the only people I can listen to for hours (and actually pay attention). I wasn't even really a huge mythbusters fan, as I was born the year it began... Anyway, thank you for this channel. You too Norm, and everyone else at Tested ❤
Extraordinary people have ordinary problems too! Thank you Adam, for sharing your experience and insights in dealing with ADHD challenges, especially the bright shiny object vs. dull gotta do. Maker, making us all a bit better!
this is so exactly how I feel right now: I pile of 50-60 youtube-videos I wanna make, a pile of 10 I *should* make, some actual work that will make me money that I *have* to do, and it all whirrrrs around in my brain even after writing it all down and prioritizing it based on necessity … and I *know* that if I spend that 1 day doing the thing I *have* to do, I will have a week or two where I can do some of the *want* to do … yet still I faff around and do «tiny, unimportant things» … it’s driving me mad indeed - and then of course it’s the studio upgrades …
The solvent that our teacher used when I was in primary school to make copies of our work sheets. She wrote the texts on a special paper "packet", the upper one a kind of plasticky foil, the lower one had some kind of ink to it that transfered the writing on to the back of the upper sheet. Afterwards the upper sheet was put into a * magical * machine, where the solvent helped to transfer the text or the equations onto our work sheets. My father was a painter, and his paints and solvents were stored in the basement, so everytime you had to go down there, you got immersed in this faint aroma of surely rather poisonous chemicals. Ah, childhood.
how I get around committing to putting stuff away. is to take a staged approach to cleaning up. When you have a bunch of crap in your workspace, spend a few seconds grouping the items into stuff that lives in a similar location. This not only enables you to take multiple items at once, cutting down on repeated trips. But, it converts several smaller items into 2 or 3 bigger items. now developed a habit of combining taking a bundle back, with a trip to that space to get something else. this doubles the reward - not only do you have a managed workspace, but you have a new thing in the workspace
The original question was "how do you balance between what needs to be done (organizing) and what you want to do (creating)." For me this is a balancing act and can be different in every situation, but always feels kinda like reeling in a fish. Sometimes you gotta pull on the line and kick yourself in the butt to do the thing needed, sometimes you have to give it slack and engage the creative things, or whatever it is you feel like doing in that moment. An organisational system does not need to be picture perfect, it just needs to work for YOU. Organize as much or as little as you need to feel like you are in control. Sometimes just a big whiteboard with all the projects scribbled on it somewhere might be enough. And sometime these things change over time, if you realise it doesn't work anymore, it is time to find something else that does. And accept that procrastinion for things you don't feel like doing is part of the process. It is easy to feel guilty for not doing the thing but also not doing anything else, and not enjoying yourself either, but realise this is part of the process, this is the time needed to get the thing done. And sometimes you have to stop pulling that line and let it go, do what you feel like doing in that moment. If something needs to get done, eventually you will do it. And medication and professional help can help too. (Need to mention I have asd as well as add, so your mileage may vary)
Hello Adam, I've been watching you for a very long time now and as a model creator and maker, I'm always enthralled with whatever you're creating. So often, I totally relate. The issues with shop cleanup and smells are again where I totally relate. I used to be terrible at cleaning up my space with tools, parts, paints snd various other elements of completed projects taking up and piling up sround the periferry. I do hate the time it takes to do it, but love the feeling of organization sfter its done. Thus I'm motivated and inspired to keep it cleaner snd organize it more frequently. As for smells, I'm pretty much in line with you on the smells. I don't necessarily feel the same way about CA kicker. If there is a good smell memory with it, it is that finally, I won't need to hold the friggin peice in place very long at all. Take care and Thank you. 👍
When I've got a lot of buildup, what usually works is to organize the stuff and then put it away. Makes the putting it away part less daunting, because I only have to use my brain for one thing at a time
For cleaning up things that go in various places I pre-stage them. So if I have a pile of things that go to different areas I sort them into what goes to a given room, then I only need to take a few trips with many things instead of many trips with one thing. Though I'm also not great about daily tidying in the workshop, I make sure to clean up sawdust and woodchips from where I'm working (mostly the lathe and bandsaw) fairly well after every use.
I do that as well. Sometimes I have room totes that I carry from room to room and grab stuff to take it back. I also implemented a box for stuff I'm not immediately sure about. It will eventually tell me where it goes
I really feel this. I have been alternating between editing two videos all day. The one that I am really into but isn't due yet gives me energy which I then spend to progress on the one I need done today!
The smell of a Ribeye being grilled over charcoal, Leather and cutting oil. The building of energy to finally do something that has been put off, so very real to my world also. More often than not at the end of it I find myself thinking it wasn't that bad and why did I wait so long. A good Psychologist could probably pick it apart but I'm not really sure it would change a thing...
CEE Cutting Edge Engineering is a great UA-cam channel. I enjoy watching Curtis tackle the large jobs especially repairing hydraulic cylinders. His precision is spot on. What a great guy. And then at the end he shares his bloopers during the taping of his videos. Great guy. Has a great Australian Accent. Smart guy like you Adam. I’m sure it would make his day to know you follow his channel.
I’m 39 and medicated for adhd and I still have the same problem…. I find myself debating on quitting the medication. I feel I achieved a lot more with my spar-attic behavior, but I was alot younger aswell. I still feel that drive inside but it’s tamed down from medication that helps me focus on the task in hand. But it also makes me feel a bit lazy at times. Not sure what direction to take. I’m sure there’s many fellow adhd and ocd friends on this channel.
Building energy toward an unpleasant task. Good way to frame it. The one that helped me was to think of doing Future Me a solid. And to help keep it going I remember to thank Past Me for the solid when I reap the benefit of not having to do the other thing and I can move on to something else.
I had to pause the video and tell you what I have said before that you definitely have been a source of motivation and I have been dealing with a lot lately so I'm just letting you know something.,. maybe it's the crazy hair that you were blessed with ? I.know I'm going to be having a cheese burger more often too 🍔🥗🍟🥤 P.S. Late 70's - early 80's walking into the BMX shop in downtown Wayzata I'll never forget the same exact smell from what I assume was the rubber tires & this place was just tiny but pretty packed with stickers and everything everywhere I looked was brand new and beautiful and last amazing scent was around the same time and it was when I opened a new package of KISS trading cards..That was a smell I have never had any wiff of since I was 8 - 9.yrs 🍓🍉🍑
I've noticed my executive function rises and falls like the tide. When it's low I can't get off the sofa and do the things I enjoy let alone chores. I used to berate myself about not just getting of my arse and doing something, anything. Sometimes I would get up and do the things but then after a very short time I would be exhausted - really exhausted and then feel even worse berating myself even harder. The next day the tide will be high and I'll have all the energy and knock off each thing boom boom boom and be done in 15 minutes. Now that I've recognised it's tidal and that I can identify when the tide is out and I know it will come back in as sure as the ocean's tides I don't berate myself anymore, I simply accept it's not going to happen today, maybe not tomorrow, but it certainly will happen when the tide comes washing back in.
Great smells? JET FUEL.......... But not the jet fuel used today. I remember the kerosene smell from jet airliners from back when they were first flown. It was awesome. Fuel formulas these days are much different, so hardly any smell......
EMCO is Austrian and was marketed in North America as American Edelstaal, Inc (350 Broadway, NY NY 10013) and sold the Unimat, Maximat 7, 10 11, and 13.their colors were if I recall, a hammertone "gold" on the Unimats, and a lovely Germanic machine tool green on the larger units.
I broke one of the side castings to my hydraulic metal shear in a moment of stupidity a few months ago. It took weeks just to decide what to do, and how to proceed. I ended up spending about 20 hrs and a considerable amount of money on building a replacement piece out of 3/8" steel plate. Stronger now than it ever was. There's a Deckel mill for sale here in Washington state for 10K right now. I've been keeping an eye on it, but just not justified for my shop at the moment. I too sold my little Compact 5 a while back and wish I still had it to play with..
Often, I have to ask myself if the unfinished project is something I actually want when I get annoyed tripping over it going on 3 years. Usually the answer is I wanted the idea of doing the thing but not the actual process, or I wanted to solve one or two problems involved with making the thing but not really anything else about it. Sometimes it's ok to let a few go, be thankful for the lessons they taught, and recycle them into something better.
inspired by you i have been looking for a hobby size mill and lathe, and now you just named the two brands i most commonly come across here, myford and emco. thats enough for me, i will get one of them. if they are good enough for you they are definetly good enough for me.
a little bit unrelated, but i used to have a studio and my rule was no wires on the floor or stepping on wires, i cleaned for 6 hours, for 1 hour recording session i had so much equipment
Funny hearing that Adam had a compact 5, I just bought the CNC version of the Compact 5. It's currently torn apart and spread around my office because I'm pretty sure it hasn't seen a drop of oil or dab of grease in at least a decade (but fortunately no serious rust somehow(
Something that works well for me is the concept of "little messes". Big messes are usually just a lot of little messes piled up. So if I can't tackle the big mess, can I do five little ones? If those five go quickly, maybe five more. So I'd do something like five little messes every morning, and over time it really added up.
One of my favorite smells is the Pokemon Red instruction booklet freshly unboxed. I don't know what was in that ink but I haven't smelled it lately on any printed products.
To find something don't look for it again, where it's supposed to be, look where it is not supposed to be. Cheers from the Pacific West Coast of Canada.
I switched to vaping and never looked back but when I quit nicotine was the hardest thing I ever did and I cried everyday until two weeks later I was done and that will be my greatest accomplishment. I still thank myself almost everyday.
Hello Adam my father passed away when I was five years old and I I have smell memory of his body odour when passing certain people in the street..I’m now 68 powerful memories!
climbing the wall of shame is a daily routine in ADHDer life, u just know u should have done something already, u know it would be better right now if u did, but the wall sometimes is steeper then anybody would imagine, including yourself. Just gotta learn to not actually believe in the shame, and remeber that u always end up doing the thing, and u just need some more time, and that's ok. As u said some things in life don't give u that time, and ofcs u just need to brace for it and just push trough.
Bronchitis in your 40s is a great motivation to quit smoking. Yes, it sucks, and you feel like you're going to die, but there's no way you can smoke through that, and once you break the physical addiction (I think it only takes three days; at least that's what I told myself) if you can channel your fidgeting into another form when you recover, it's all downhill from there. I quit eight years ago. But yes, focus on how it makes you feel in the moment, not what you used to feel about it, and do it ASAP..
Cyanoacrylate kicker does smell like a strong floral perfume. Glycol/Glycerin smoke machines smell like high school theater for me. I like the smell of Hoppes #9 gun bore cleaner. I even went looking for a fragrance that was similar and the closest I got was a scent from "Humphrey's Handmade" called Carbine. 3-in-1 oil is great too I also like the smell of new sneakers
As a fellow maker I can relate to you except its not a partner but its my family when they come over they say my workshop is a disaster, but they understand iam a maker and am constantly working on things when I have free time, Iam not sure if I have ADHD but when iam in the middle of a project my space can become hectic then once I complete that project I take the time to clean up and organize although ill admit sometimes I start up another project right away or I tackle two projects at once, that said Iam glad my family puts me in my place on the occasion that my space gets cluttered, because otherwise it would probably get out of hand.
Undesirable projects...or quitting smoking...yeah I did that exact thing bac in February 2017...still on the wagon but damn it's not easy even nearly eight years later but the benefits of NOT smoking far outweigh the drawbacks of smoking.
The smell when the dusty forced water radiators kick on after a long season of sitting dormant. It signified winter was coming, and thus cozy times with snow iminent. Sounds bizarre but it has a profound emptional impact. Another one is rain on a summer night, specifically when it stops and has that humid and musty smell... Invigorating.
My big thing is not working until either the last possible minute, or to exhaustion. Cleanup needs time and energy at the end of the day, and if you destroy yourself the tools sleep on the bench.
microdosing is entirely different from doing drugs. The entire point of a microdose is to not take enough for there to be any 'recreational' effects, and only the health benefits. Similar how drinking a glass of wine or a single beer over dinner is actually good for you, while drinking a 24-pack of beers is not. You wouldn't call someone having a glass of wine over dinner an alcoholic? Besides in such small quantities, even if it wasn't good for you, it would still be infinitely better than smoking tobacco. TLDR: Microdosing isn't the same as doing drugs.
@tested, Adam, with the close of the Star Wars Skeleton Crew series, could you discuss what blew you away about their practical effects and creature designs in the show? The BTS of the crab creature Tet'niss created by Tippett Studios was a special treat for anyone interested in stop motion photography. Have you, by any chance, had an opportunity to collaborate with them previously? Have a magnificent day.
You know how many times I had to rewind this so I could could just soak up your wisdom 😅😅. My ADHD just wrecks a lot still as far as my projects and even just personal life. I mean once I'm done with things it always turns out pretty great. But keeping anything organized is my biggest downfall. Would love to hear any other thoughts you have on scheduling times for yourself to do things. I'm working on quitting smoking. The early COPD is enough for me lol but yet I get it.
How do you throw yourself into a project you're not into?
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Adam i really wish you could get back together with Jamie and test the states vehicle strike theory in the Karen Read case.
One rule I've found works in a lot of situations: when you lose an item, don't look for it. Instead, take a break and *start putting things back where they're supposed to be.* I often end up with tools and materials covering all the horizontal space in my garage by the time I'm finished a job, but this one strategy has helped me mitigate that to an extent, and each subsequent search gets quicker to complete. After all, it's easied to find that lost drill bit after I pick up the cardboard box that I inadvertently set down on it.
My strategy as well
Great! Tnx for the advice!
I thought I was the one that lost shite by putting stuff on top of it.😵💫
I once read an article on human behavior it said something along the lines of when us people see an empty space we have a urge/need to fill it with items or trinkets.
I don't look for it because I can't remember what it was most of the time.
My approach (as an ADHD brain) is to categorise and compress. Adam said something about making multiple trips being tedious. Boxes are the answer. I sweep around my shop with boxes. All tools, into one box. All (non project) electrical components, one box. All paint/polish products, one box. That clears about 70% of the space (making it much easier to tackle the remainder without all the visual white noise) and it means I can walk to my toolbox, my parts drawers, or my solvents cabinet, with everything that needs to go in, once and once only. Categorise everything into similar piles, compress the pile into a thing, carry the thing to the spot where all the objects live, and put them away.
Hope it helps someone :)
I realized that watching Adam's video as the first thing when I go onto the internet everyday helped me set my mood of the day -- a little more energetic, creative and hopeful.
Wow. Thanks for the kind comment - we will pass on to Adam.
@ thank you Tested, and thank you Adam!
Your description of smoking was perfect to mine when I realized I needed to quit 2 years ago. There was nothing like that morning cigarette or phone cigarette with a cup of coffee in my early 20s or teens but I wasn't experiencing it for some number of years. So I literally made myself pay attention to the smoking and not my random thoughts and the focus it gave me and I quit a year later
Congrats on quitting smoking!
The smell of when my dad did maintenance on his trumpet. It's been almost a decade since he passed and I can still remember that smell.
What a lovely sentiment and story. Thanks for sharing.
I'm 44 with ADHD and permanently disabled, so I need to be very intentional about structuring chores, hobbies, and rest, or I'll get stuck on one thing for too long, resulting in pain. I set routines for my internet-capable light bulbs so they change colors like traffic signals on 15 minute intervals. Green for chores, red for rest, and blue for hobbies. It helps a lot to have a reminder that's not noisy like an alarm on my phone.
This is a great tip. Might try it for myself! The older I get and the more I examine myself and my life the more I come to understand and appreciate that ADHD really is a disability.
That's a fantastic idea. I'd thought about doing something similar to distinguish "work" and "play" modes at my desk, but I hadn't considered using them on a timer
Brilliant idea!
I was diagnosed with ADHD as a child, and again at 18...
Doing something you don't want to do, even when you know it's easy, is one of the hardest things to conquer.
For me, it's testing the code I've written, so freaking hard to start
I think the key is to approach testing as a competitive game with your past self, where you're trying to come up with things that past you didn't consider. It's boring to try to prove that your code works. It's challenging to try to prove that it can be broken. As a bonus, you don't have to be tactful about finding your past self's mistakes, unlike when you're reviewing someone else's code. Also, it's easier to enjoy writing tests if they're turning up bugs you're not going to have to find later. That said, I always take a little break between writing the code and reviewing it to give myself a little distance and let present me become past me.
8:15 in the human brain, the amygdala (processes olfactory for sense of smell) and the hippocampus (responsible in part for memory) are adjacent, which is why certain scents conjur memories of events where that odor was present. If you broke up with your partner at a movie theater, you might suddenly dislike popcorn because it reminds you of that person every time you smell it.
Brain scientist chiming in here, LatterDay is right!
If you haven’t already, look up the concept of “the wall of awful” for adhd. There are two good videos on the “how to adhd” channel. And the original concept is credited to Brendan Mahan
An open coal fire reminds me of family holidays as a child to the cold November seaside in Devon, UK and I love it. I also love the smell in the garage after I get home and put the motorbike away. Or at least I used to when I had a bike with carbs - the fuel injected bike doesn't do it, and I miss it. It reminds me of having been out on rides on the back of my dad's bike when I was a kid. :)
French Vanilla is my Achilles heel in the scent world. I think it probably comes from my mother, as she baked a LOT when i was a kid. There was always something baking. Fresh bread, cookies, cakes, brownies, rolls, etc. She really liked baking a lot, and there was always a mild vanilla smell in the air when she was baking.
Scent and memory are strongly linked, so vanilla always reminds me of a simpler time, and delicious baked goods.
The smell of lit fireworks are my jam!
As for small triggering memories, phantom pain. I once heard a story of someone that worked in a bakery and was in an accident at work that resulted in the loss of his hand. After that every sunday morning be would feel the pain in his hand that wasn't there, it turned out his neighbour baked bread every sunday and the smell triggered the memory of the trauma causing the pain.
Wood Smell: I think most people think of resiny SPF (mixed spruce/pine/fir) construction lumber and plywood when they think of this, but there are SO many things wood can smell like:
- dill and ranch dressing (fresh red oak)
- barnyard (older red oak)
- cat pee (elm)
- mint/Olive (ash)
- floral syrup (maple, birch)
- flowers (apple, cherry)
- that apple you forgot behind the bowl that you might eat but is probably going to taste "old" (apple, crabapple)
- spiced ginger (rowan)
- barbeque (mesquite, hickory?)
- etc
A very specifik wood smell is rotting Alder, it's like root beer . Sweet and spicy
I would love to experience a workplace like that. I am a IT Professional, but love nature's smells of woods etc.
Hey Adam, why don't you try returns bins in a rack, sort of like Home Depot has behind their customer service counter. So, when you're cleaning up, you can throw stuff in the bins as you come across it, depending on where it goes, then when you're done or the bin is full, you only have to make one trip up those stairs... And as someone over 40 myself, I'm discovering how much stairs can suck, especially after 20 trips up and down. LOL
They just turn into doomboxes. Once the stuff is in a container it is thereby stored negating any further placement.
@@osculant Agreed. We technically use this method in our kitchen but the catch-all bin basically just becomes an odds-n-ends storage spot till I get so frustrated with not being able to fit the tissues box in that I have a cleaning fit and put it all away, 3 or 4 times a year.
I keep one small, shallow return bin in one spot. When it overflows, that's usually enough motivation to get it emptied. For things that don't fill quickly (like the "to be filed" folder for home expense receipts), I make an appointment with myself to empty them every new year. YMMV, though, because ADHD comes in many flavors.
@@osculant doomboxes i deed, soon they will not exist anymore in my brain lol. Or I don't remember what's in them, and that idea of not knowing what you'll find in the box is soo overwhelming that it just gets impossible to even look at it. Which is totally dumb and illogical, I know, but it happens, just pure black out/paralysis kind of feeling...
My brother was the cause of me stopping smoking. He asked me to have my two nieces for the weekend. I asked him to bring me some cigarettes. He didnt. I spent the weekend with 2 kids under 5. After the weekend, i thought " No more smoking " . That was 21 years ago. Never had one since. Right now ? Im working on my Phds to get them down in number . ( Phd stands for project half done 😂😂). My favourite smell .... The smell of my late fathers work overals . When I could smell that mix of oil, grease and flux i knew he was home. Strange I know but its just personal to me.
Petrichor.... Love it. Rains so often here but you don't often get that scent. I need a way to get moving on multiple craft projects!
CA activator is also one of my favorite smells. Takes me back to my father building model airplanes. The smell has not changed. I now use it for my RC aircraft (as well as other things). I think I like it purely for that reason.
I'm sure it probably dissolves brain cells but that CA accelerator smell is fantastic
The smell of streaks and tips has always been one of my favorites, we used to use it all the time in film production but hardly ever any more. that and Burning gels. Times gone by.
Part of the reason I make is to fulfill something I don’t get in my career and that’s to see something complete. There is a start middle and an end I can visualize. So cleaning and organizing is part of that but, it is a project in its self. Normally I have 5-10 projects going at once. Before starting any more I have to do a deep clean and organizing.
There is a smell that I miss from my childhood. I grew up on the Oregon coast and when I was young, you could still walk on the docks. The smell was a mix of many different things. Salt water, the moisture in the air, diesel fumes, fish, and 2-stroke motor oil from the outboards. It was a glorious childhood smell! As an adult I loved to go back and take photos. With film! A jumble of abstract lines and colors. The miracle of being a child!
My favorite smell is fresh cut grass, but I never loved it enough to enjoy mowing my lawn.
Ha!
ADHD 57yr old engineer here, I totally clean my shop at the end of the day, put all tools away, set it straight to start fresh next day, its so much easier to walk into a nice shop in the morning, that's the reward
I'm about 12 yrs into recovery too, COPD is a great motivation tool, plus as Adam says, be honest with yourself, do you actually enjoy those things, are are they not serving you anymore?
Smells are totally my thing, methanol fuel burning, cutting oils, and many more. The problem is I'm now nose blind to the wonderful workshop smell I work in
Holding in your head the idea of the clean space as a goal, I think that makes the difference between cleaning being a slog and it being at least doable.
Wait, Adam... Do you have ADHD?! How did I not know/realize this? Do you know how SEEN I feel knowing that, as little me grew up watching you guys on TV?! Your show, your additude, your cadence, your compassion, your explanations never made me feel stupid and always explained not just the HOW but the WHY of what is happening, and I could never put my thumb on what felt so comforting. God, I feel so validated as someone with a late diagnosis.
Thanks for sharing your stories Adam, and thank you for being you. I appreciate seeing my reflection out there in the world.
Baseball glove is my #1 favorite smell.
Just started doing this exact thing over the last 6 months and it’s been hugely beneficial. Whether it’s the best way or not. Still works
I recently got an Emco Unimat 3 with milling attachment, completely restored it and got a lot of accessories for it. It is indeed a great machine!
Adam, you sound just like myself when it comes to projects, even sitting and looking at it. I must consider I have ADHD. It explains a lot I think. The only smell we share is newly cut wood. Instead I enjoy newly baked goods, fresh air after a rain, and favorite flowers.
Idk why exactly, but Adam is one of the only people I can listen to for hours (and actually pay attention). I wasn't even really a huge mythbusters fan, as I was born the year it began... Anyway, thank you for this channel. You too Norm, and everyone else at Tested ❤
Extraordinary people have ordinary problems too! Thank you Adam, for sharing your experience and insights in dealing with ADHD challenges, especially the bright shiny object vs. dull gotta do.
Maker, making us all a bit better!
this is so exactly how I feel right now: I pile of 50-60 youtube-videos I wanna make, a pile of 10 I *should* make, some actual work that will make me money that I *have* to do, and it all whirrrrs around in my brain even after writing it all down and prioritizing it based on necessity … and I *know* that if I spend that 1 day doing the thing I *have* to do, I will have a week or two where I can do some of the *want* to do … yet still I faff around and do «tiny, unimportant things» … it’s driving me mad indeed - and then of course it’s the studio upgrades …
The solvent that our teacher used when I was in primary school to make copies of our work sheets. She wrote the texts on a special paper "packet", the upper one a kind of plasticky foil, the lower one had some kind of ink to it that transfered the writing on to the back of the upper sheet. Afterwards the upper sheet was put into a * magical * machine, where the solvent helped to transfer the text or the equations onto our work sheets.
My father was a painter, and his paints and solvents were stored in the basement, so everytime you had to go down there, you got immersed in this faint aroma of surely rather poisonous chemicals. Ah, childhood.
how I get around committing to putting stuff away. is to take a staged approach to cleaning up.
When you have a bunch of crap in your workspace, spend a few seconds grouping the items into stuff that lives in a similar location. This not only enables you to take multiple items at once, cutting down on repeated trips. But, it converts several smaller items into 2 or 3 bigger items.
now developed a habit of combining taking a bundle back, with a trip to that space to get something else. this doubles the reward - not only do you have a managed workspace, but you have a new thing in the workspace
The original question was "how do you balance between what needs to be done (organizing) and what you want to do (creating)."
For me this is a balancing act and can be different in every situation, but always feels kinda like reeling in a fish. Sometimes you gotta pull on the line and kick yourself in the butt to do the thing needed, sometimes you have to give it slack and engage the creative things, or whatever it is you feel like doing in that moment.
An organisational system does not need to be picture perfect, it just needs to work for YOU. Organize as much or as little as you need to feel like you are in control. Sometimes just a big whiteboard with all the projects scribbled on it somewhere might be enough. And sometime these things change over time, if you realise it doesn't work anymore, it is time to find something else that does.
And accept that procrastinion for things you don't feel like doing is part of the process. It is easy to feel guilty for not doing the thing but also not doing anything else, and not enjoying yourself either, but realise this is part of the process, this is the time needed to get the thing done. And sometimes you have to stop pulling that line and let it go, do what you feel like doing in that moment. If something needs to get done, eventually you will do it.
And medication and professional help can help too.
(Need to mention I have asd as well as add, so your mileage may vary)
Hello Adam, I've been watching you for a very long time now and as a model creator and maker, I'm always enthralled with whatever you're creating. So often, I totally relate. The issues with shop cleanup and smells are again where I totally relate. I used to be terrible at cleaning up my space with tools, parts, paints snd various other elements of completed projects taking up and piling up sround the periferry. I do hate the time it takes to do it, but love the feeling of organization sfter its done. Thus I'm motivated and inspired to keep it cleaner snd organize it more frequently.
As for smells, I'm pretty much in line with you on the smells. I don't necessarily feel the same way about CA kicker. If there is a good smell memory with it, it is that finally, I won't need to hold the friggin peice in place very long at all. Take care and Thank you. 👍
When I've got a lot of buildup, what usually works is to organize the stuff and then put it away. Makes the putting it away part less daunting, because I only have to use my brain for one thing at a time
For cleaning up things that go in various places I pre-stage them. So if I have a pile of things that go to different areas I sort them into what goes to a given room, then I only need to take a few trips with many things instead of many trips with one thing. Though I'm also not great about daily tidying in the workshop, I make sure to clean up sawdust and woodchips from where I'm working (mostly the lathe and bandsaw) fairly well after every use.
I do that as well. Sometimes I have room totes that I carry from room to room and grab stuff to take it back. I also implemented a box for stuff I'm not immediately sure about. It will eventually tell me where it goes
I really feel this. I have been alternating between editing two videos all day. The one that I am really into but isn't due yet gives me energy which I then spend to progress on the one I need done today!
We feel you.
💜 Thank you for this!
The smell of a Ribeye being grilled over charcoal, Leather and cutting oil. The building of energy to finally do something that has been put off, so very real to my world also. More often than not at the end of it I find myself thinking it wasn't that bad and why did I wait so long. A good Psychologist could probably pick it apart but I'm not really sure it would change a thing...
CEE Cutting Edge Engineering is a great UA-cam channel. I enjoy watching Curtis tackle the large jobs especially repairing hydraulic cylinders. His precision is spot on. What a great guy. And then at the end he shares his bloopers during the taping of his videos. Great guy. Has a great Australian Accent. Smart guy like you Adam. I’m sure it would make his day to know you follow his channel.
Adam visited Curtis in his shop recently!
Both the "Hell Yeah! Now This Thing Motivation" and "Shame Motivation" are *very* real 😂
I’m 39 and medicated for adhd and I still have the same problem…. I find myself debating on quitting the medication. I feel I achieved a lot more with my spar-attic behavior, but I was alot younger aswell. I still feel that drive inside but it’s tamed down from medication that helps me focus on the task in hand. But it also makes me feel a bit lazy at times. Not sure what direction to take. I’m sure there’s many fellow adhd and ocd friends on this channel.
A very poetic way of describing procrastination
Love it ❤
Building energy toward an unpleasant task. Good way to frame it. The one that helped me was to think of doing Future Me a solid. And to help keep it going I remember to thank Past Me for the solid when I reap the benefit of not having to do the other thing and I can move on to something else.
I had to pause the video and tell you what I have said before that you definitely have been a source of motivation and I have been dealing with a lot lately so I'm just letting you know something.,. maybe it's the crazy hair that you were blessed with ? I.know I'm going to be having a cheese burger more often too 🍔🥗🍟🥤 P.S. Late 70's - early 80's walking into the BMX shop in downtown Wayzata I'll never forget the same exact smell from what I assume was the rubber tires & this place was just tiny but pretty packed with stickers and everything everywhere I looked was brand new and beautiful and last amazing scent was around the same time and it was when I opened a new package of KISS trading cards..That was a smell I have never had any wiff of since I was 8 - 9.yrs 🍓🍉🍑
My favorite tool and die maker has a Deckel mill. The thing is a tank & the work Otto can do with it is amazing.
I've noticed my executive function rises and falls like the tide. When it's low I can't get off the sofa and do the things I enjoy let alone chores. I used to berate myself about not just getting of my arse and doing something, anything. Sometimes I would get up and do the things but then after a very short time I would be exhausted - really exhausted and then feel even worse berating myself even harder.
The next day the tide will be high and I'll have all the energy and knock off each thing boom boom boom and be done in 15 minutes.
Now that I've recognised it's tidal and that I can identify when the tide is out and I know it will come back in as sure as the ocean's tides I don't berate myself anymore, I simply accept it's not going to happen today, maybe not tomorrow, but it certainly will happen when the tide comes washing back in.
Great smells?
JET FUEL.......... But not the jet fuel used today. I remember the kerosene smell from jet airliners from back when they were first flown. It was awesome. Fuel formulas these days are much different, so hardly any smell......
Stopped smoking in 2018, after about 30 years of enjoying cigarettes - Purely by willpower, happy to say I have had no slips.
EMCO is Austrian and was marketed in North America as American Edelstaal, Inc (350 Broadway, NY NY 10013) and sold the Unimat, Maximat 7, 10 11, and 13.their colors were if I recall, a hammertone "gold" on the Unimats, and a lovely Germanic machine tool green on the larger units.
Agree about the burning coal smell, but mine is not trains. It's the forge. And the hot iron.
I broke one of the side castings to my hydraulic metal shear in a moment of stupidity a few months ago. It took weeks just to decide what to do, and how to proceed. I ended up spending about 20 hrs and a considerable amount of money on building a replacement piece out of 3/8" steel plate. Stronger now than it ever was. There's a Deckel mill for sale here in Washington state for 10K right now. I've been keeping an eye on it, but just not justified for my shop at the moment. I too sold my little Compact 5 a while back and wish I still had it to play with..
Often, I have to ask myself if the unfinished project is something I actually want when I get annoyed tripping over it going on 3 years. Usually the answer is I wanted the idea of doing the thing but not the actual process, or I wanted to solve one or two problems involved with making the thing but not really anything else about it. Sometimes it's ok to let a few go, be thankful for the lessons they taught, and recycle them into something better.
inspired by you i have been looking for a hobby size mill and lathe, and now you just named the two brands i most commonly come across here, myford and emco. thats enough for me, i will get one of them. if they are good enough for you they are definetly good enough for me.
After working at Heathrow Airport, I love the smell of aviation fuel.
A nice bud hits the spot too.
a little bit unrelated, but i used to have a studio and my rule was no wires on the floor or stepping on wires, i cleaned for 6 hours, for 1 hour recording session i had so much equipment
that's what I do too! it totally works!
I’m going to be doing a lot of cleaning over the next two weeks.
Pine needles, eucalyptus, and new leather are my favorite smells.
I always thought CA activator smelled like wasp spray. I love the smell of creosote.
“Don’t put it down, put it away”. I don’t remember where I heard this, but it’s a mantra I live by.
you did a great job directing GOTG dude, nice of you to get your bro some work on it too. family first
Funny hearing that Adam had a compact 5, I just bought the CNC version of the Compact 5. It's currently torn apart and spread around my office because I'm pretty sure it hasn't seen a drop of oil or dab of grease in at least a decade (but fortunately no serious rust somehow(
Freshly printed ditto machine copies-the old prints of school handouts in purple that teachers gave to students in the 1950s, 60s and 70s.
correct on the memory smell thing
Great work
Something that works well for me is the concept of "little messes". Big messes are usually just a lot of little messes piled up. So if I can't tackle the big mess, can I do five little ones? If those five go quickly, maybe five more. So I'd do something like five little messes every morning, and over time it really added up.
One of my favorite smells is the Pokemon Red instruction booklet freshly unboxed. I don't know what was in that ink but I haven't smelled it lately on any printed products.
From the first time I smelled WD40, forty odd years ago, I loved it. Brings back memories of cleaning the road tar off my first street motorcycle.
I also love CA activator. I thought I was the only one 6:37
The smell of hot steal is sculpture welding 101 at the Portland Oregon Community College. So good.
grilled onions and charcoal briquettes
To find something don't look for it again, where it's supposed to be, look where it is not supposed to be.
Cheers from the Pacific West Coast of Canada.
I switched to vaping and never looked back but when I quit nicotine was the hardest thing I ever did and I cried everyday until two weeks later I was done and that will be my greatest accomplishment. I still thank myself almost everyday.
I love the smell of burning leaves. Whenever I smell Old Spice I think of my mom’s dad, he always smelled like Old Spice.
I'm a jeweler and we use wintergreen oil on cutting burrs. Very old tradition, you should try it🙂
2 stroke exhaust and silage are in my opinion the best smells.
Hello Adam my father passed away when I was five years old and I I have smell memory of his body odour when passing certain people in the street..I’m now 68 powerful memories!
THIS. IS. SO. RELATABLE.
climbing the wall of shame is a daily routine in ADHDer life, u just know u should have done something already, u know it would be better right now if u did, but the wall sometimes is steeper then anybody would imagine, including yourself. Just gotta learn to not actually believe in the shame, and remeber that u always end up doing the thing, and u just need some more time, and that's ok. As u said some things in life don't give u that time, and ofcs u just need to brace for it and just push trough.
I really really enjoy the smell when welding with 6011 welding rods 😂
The smell of a struck match and the smell of a fresh book.
I love the Smell of VP T4 race fuel
Bronchitis in your 40s is a great motivation to quit smoking. Yes, it sucks, and you feel like you're going to die, but there's no way you can smoke through that, and once you break the physical addiction (I think it only takes three days; at least that's what I told myself) if you can channel your fidgeting into another form when you recover, it's all downhill from there. I quit eight years ago. But yes, focus on how it makes you feel in the moment, not what you used to feel about it, and do it ASAP..
Cyanoacrylate kicker does smell like a strong floral perfume.
Glycol/Glycerin smoke machines smell like high school theater for me.
I like the smell of Hoppes #9 gun bore cleaner. I even went looking for a fragrance that was similar and the closest I got was a scent from "Humphrey's Handmade" called Carbine.
3-in-1 oil is great too
I also like the smell of new sneakers
Grüße aus NRW Deutschland👍
As a fellow maker I can relate to you except its not a partner but its my family when they come over they say my workshop is a disaster, but they understand iam a maker and am constantly working on things when I have free time, Iam not sure if I have ADHD but when iam in the middle of a project my space can become hectic then once I complete that project I take the time to clean up and organize although ill admit sometimes I start up another project right away or I tackle two projects at once, that said Iam glad my family puts me in my place on the occasion that my space gets cluttered, because otherwise it would probably get out of hand.
Undesirable projects...or quitting smoking...yeah I did that exact thing bac in February 2017...still on the wagon but damn it's not easy even nearly eight years later but the benefits of NOT smoking far outweigh the drawbacks of smoking.
The smell when the dusty forced water radiators kick on after a long season of sitting dormant. It signified winter was coming, and thus cozy times with snow iminent. Sounds bizarre but it has a profound emptional impact. Another one is rain on a summer night, specifically when it stops and has that humid and musty smell... Invigorating.
A lathe can build itself. !
Any fathers out there, the smell of your kids after playing outside all day. That is like freezing time!
My big thing is not working until either the last possible minute, or to exhaustion. Cleanup needs time and energy at the end of the day, and if you destroy yourself the tools sleep on the bench.
My first thought on favorite smell is burning nitromethane, and I've not smelled it in years.
I quit 7 years ago at 55, microdosing with psychedelics has worked wonders.
I prefer to believe you're talking about the cleaning problem. "It's not a problem anymore, I stopped cleaning altogether and now I just do drugs"
i don't think you know what microdosing is. @@Timmysteve
"I cured my tobacco addiction by taking drugs" is not the fix you think it is.
microdosing is entirely different from doing drugs. The entire point of a microdose is to not take enough for there to be any 'recreational' effects, and only the health benefits. Similar how drinking a glass of wine or a single beer over dinner is actually good for you, while drinking a 24-pack of beers is not. You wouldn't call someone having a glass of wine over dinner an alcoholic? Besides in such small quantities, even if it wasn't good for you, it would still be infinitely better than smoking tobacco.
TLDR: Microdosing isn't the same as doing drugs.
@ You seem a bit confused about micro dosing. Your morning coffee is a stronger drug.
@tested, Adam, with the close of the Star Wars Skeleton Crew series, could you discuss what blew you away about their practical effects and creature designs in the show?
The BTS of the crab creature Tet'niss created by Tippett Studios was a special treat for anyone interested in stop motion photography.
Have you, by any chance, had an opportunity to collaborate with them previously? Have a magnificent day.
You know how many times I had to rewind this so I could could just soak up your wisdom 😅😅. My ADHD just wrecks a lot still as far as my projects and even just personal life. I mean once I'm done with things it always turns out pretty great. But keeping anything organized is my biggest downfall. Would love to hear any other thoughts you have on scheduling times for yourself to do things.
I'm working on quitting smoking. The early COPD is enough for me lol but yet I get it.
Organization is a janitorial task. "I can't stop and wash, I'm busy." No, you kinda gotta or stuff stops working.
I have spent the last thee weeks shoveling out my shop, a week just sorting hardware, and I’m not half done