Yes, and it's an absolute TORTURE. I can't say I have any good advice other than maybe trying to structure things so you are forced to get around to it. Or just embrace the fact that you're flighty and jump from one thing to another. Anyways, I should stop scrolling lemmy and finish that book I started last month.

Well that's peak ADHD for you right there. New thing=dopamin. No dopamine any more = abandoned projektets. My best advice is to pick something that you can keep itterating on infinitely and keep interesting. For instance i like making smoothies and its something you can vary for ever and never run out of recipes to try. Basically food is a good hobby because there's so much to learn from the entire world

For gaming something like Minecraft can be fun because infinitely projects, but maybe harder to stay motivated.

3d printing is also good because there's something new constantly.

Someone said a beautiful thing on the internet: think of playing a game like visiting a friend. You casually pop by as often as you feel like it. Some friends are really once-a-year material.

I recently picked up Derail Valley after an 8-month hiatus, and almost doubled my hours in that game over the course of two weeks (it was a lot of playing). I just felt like it.

that I really should finish

That word "should" is a tricky little fella, he implies a judgement, the question is what's the source of that judgement?

Wayne Dyer discusses the issues and challenges of words like "should" in his book "Your Erroneous Zones" by using a Cognitive Behavioural Therapy approach: examining and rewriting how we think about things.

When I find myself using that particular word, I ask myself "should, according to who?". Almost always I find I have an old "script" in my head about priorities, values, etc, that upon re-examining I find it's no longer useful. Like "I bought this game, therefore I must get maximum value from it".

Sometimes things run their course, and that's that.

Yeah my dude. I am surrounded by stimulus and I can't get interested in anything.
Trying Cyberpunk again but I doubt it'll last.

What helps me with those kinds of things is to focus on enjoying the thing, whatever it is. Especially digital stuff that occupies no space in my home, I accept that it's ok to do something as long as I enjoy it, and when it becomes repetitive or boring I can just stop.

Of course sometimes you need to push against this a bit when you know there is a slightly unpleasant section blocking more enjoyable content. The big takeaway is that it's ok to stop if you're not enjoying yourself anymore. No one is gonna check or care.

I just keep 5-10 projects and rotate between them.

I generally only have this problem if I don't enjoy the thing I'm doing.

Like learning a skill. Having the skill is what I am interested in; practice and all the boring shit to get the skill does not always keep my brain interested. Learning musical instruments is a struggle; but I have managed to do it.

Meanwhile learning a new language has been fun as hell even with the "boring" parts. My mind's always been fascinated by words and writing; I now know it extends to words and writing in other languages, too.

I find when I get like this I have to give it a bit of a rest for a bit. I figure either I've blown out my dopamine receptors to the point of non functionality, or I just need to rest. I find that only doing a small handful of things at a time helps not get in this state, easier said than done though.

I am this way until I come across something that really draws my attention because if it’s endless potential. That has come to be East Asian languages, then Buddhist studies, and most recently Linux and selfhosting ie maintaining my own servers. All allow me to obsess with endless depth and learning.

Plenty of failed interests as well

It's because:

start of thing == dopamine

finish of thing != dopamine

We yearn for the brain juice and hop from hit to hit

Neurotypical people do not have this issue, I'm told

I recently realized that many of the things I end up sticking with are those I didn't pick up on a whim, but that I planned to take a look at for a while and pushed back on. For example, I've owned Elite Dangerous for more than a year, I was barely touching it for the first six months, and played extremely occasionally otherwise. This lasted until last November, when something just... clicked, to the point my wife got together with my mother to buy me a HOTAS this Christmas.

Rest assured that your experience does sound extremely familiar. It's very difficult to stick to something. The dopamine rush I get from the very act of figuring out something new just doesn't last past the novelty phase.

I struggle with this and it's definitely because of my ADHD. I get round it with games by using WeMod. It's not that I want to cheat but that I just get bored of repetitive fights and time wasting bs. I've just sunk 130 hours into Assassin's Creed Odyssey and it's been awesome. I just set it to infinite health, adrenaline, unlimited oxygen, instant cooldown and one hit kills and just have fun. People who say what about the challenge? Yeah I love a challenge, I just don't like the same challenge a thousand times. Also I've learnt that we ADHD people hate being told we "have to" do anything so WeMod is like a giant FU to anyone trying to tell me how to play the game hehe.