Autistic Inertia (problems with switching task) tips?

I do this too! If I don't get out of bed immediately after becoming consciously aware that I am in bed I get trapped in bed purgatory until I either absolutely have to get out of bed to meet the deadline to get to work (minimising as many elements of preparation as possible) OR some other urgent need (usually the bathroom, or hunger) makes me get up. This does tend to end up with very sudden waking movements which can be a little... startling. 

I use the sleep cycle method as well and aim for around 7.5 hours of sleep a night. I'm trying to get better at getting up as soon as I am conscious as I really do feel the effects of laying in with lower mood and lethargy. 

Hi Ice Swimmer! I'm the same, I very much struggle to move from locations particularly going from inside to outside. 

The sleep cycle thing has helped and also knowing that your deepest and most restorative sleep is in the first stages of sleep. Also understanding the half life of caffeine.  Oh and I'll say it again - lions mane. A meowing cat is a most pleasant alarm. Post viral fatigue irons out poor sleep habits but is most definitely not recommended. 

I'm the same.

Currently I sleep and awaken whenever the heck I want to. I'm exploring naturally timed sleep these days, because I can. Some days I awaken early and do stuff, (like today) some days I go to bed at five and awaken at lunchtime.

I erected my new aluminium access tower yesterday, set it up ready for repainting the window ledges and promptly have named it "The wobbly scaffolding of death". It's assembled right & tight alright, BUT it resonates at the period of my personal fear of heights... I HAD to get a grip real fast, as the oscillations were getting wilder and I seemed to be facing a bio-feedback loop of doom up there...

I reckon it needs outriggers to be less fear inducing, but I haven't got any. Fortunately I'll be painting with brown wood-stain anyway...

Very interesting and helpful.  Thank you mate.  Unfortunately, my life (and sleep) is more like surfing...it all depends on the metaphorical weather as to how long I can stay up for.....and when the waves are good, I stay up and in riding them for as long as I can.  Then again, I am bona fide weird.

Sure. My usual approach is to just spill all straight off, I just felt like varying the presentation style today.

What I did was, decide to get up when the alarm went off, BEFORE doing any other thinking.

In practice that meant literally leaping out of bed, and getting a cup of tea into my hands in the shortest possible time became my aim, and I grew a ninja like skill for turning off the alarm and leaving the bed super quick all in one movement without waking the sleeping G/F next to me. I had to, she complained about the noise involved with my early efforts to throw myself out of bed.

As an Autist, normally between waking and arising one desires a period of peace in order to "get your head together", but in practice that proved to be just a method of failing. The change I made was to establish a new routine, where I replaced that horrible period of "waking up and getting ready for the day" with "Immediate actions" which replaced any requirement to think and make decisions whilst half asleep. 

PLUS I learned about cycles of sleep. YOU sleep though several cycles during the night typically 1.5 hours long. IF your alarm goes off during the middle part of the cycle, it feels more horrible than if you DELAY the onset of sleep so as to time your alarm with the approximate end of a cycle. Get it right, as I do, and you then start occasionally waking up a few minutes before the alarm goes off.. Seriously, if you are looking at only getting 2 hours sleep before that trip, then spend another 15 minutes or so, reviewing your travel arrangements or preparations, (my cycles seem slightly longer than 1.5 hours) you'll be both better prepared AND wake up easier (still going to feel like crap cos you didn't get enough sleep but you won't have that horrible wrenching feeling that you get when you wake up in the wrong part of your cycle.

With sleep, quality beats quantity, every time. 

And for all you insomniacs out there, Yoga and Self Hypnosis techniques are the tools you need. I tried to teach my G/F and she was (as ever) resistant until eventually she happened on those "help you go to sleep broadcasts" Most of the ones she listens to contain embedded hypnotic suggestions and routines, which of course work like gangbusters.I learned most of what I know on those subjects between the ages of 10 and 13 whilst following my curiosity, and I guess probably seeking ways of escaping my life which was horrible back then, peak violence and unpleasantness. Being able to go to sleep on demand was a welcome escape, from the long periods of enforced boredom, which was one of the more psychological punishments I received during my youth.  

Knowing how it actually works and having the DIY skills however, means I can pull off advanced sleeping feats, like the day I woke up in an aeroplane 30,000 feet up in the air, to the sound of people screaming, immediately decided, "I don't want any part in this" and promptly resumed my sleep. (we'd dropped 3000 feet due to meteorological stuff it transpired, I sleep strapped in, so I was merely thrown against my straps which woke me up and not around the cabin, which was the source of the screaming I believe.

I can "disassociate" very well in the dentist chair or any other situation where being "in the moment" is really unhelpful.

But until I learned how to bring sleep to and end when I need to, I only had half of the toolbox...

What Tamsyn said!  Did you realise you were being a tease?

For the first 37 years of my life I had AWFUL trouble arising from my slumber.

Then one day, my boat came in. I got work that paid enough to actually support my life desires, roof over our head, bills paid, dentistry, reasonable quality clothes, and the ability to give £20.00 to a street person, maybe once a month, and buy a magazine occasionally on whim. And if I'm gong to be proper honest, tobacco and about an eight of hash per week.

Heck I got all that, PLUS actual money to waste on eBay tat or microsoft training courses! As I saw fit to choose!

All I had to do was overcome that "waking up when the alarm goes off" issue! (then drive 75 miles to work, do my day plus as much extra as they'll let me do then drive home to put the sprog to bed..)

I figured out a workaround, and getting out of bed stopped being a problem from that point on.

Still isn't, unless I wake up in a really miserable mood, in which case I might still say "*** that" and go back to sleep... 

Effing and blinding is how I switch to unwelcome diversions of my attention. Not the most ideal one to be sure, even if this occurs alone

Fascinating.

I recognize the difficulty in switching tasks - I have frequently been told that I am a procrastinator par excellence.

Where I notice it most is in my reluctance to move from one location to another. If I am at home, I want to stay at home. If I am in the supermarket I want to stay in the supermarket. The same is true for sports club and pub and was true for work.

I am training my dog to respond to an alarm and keep pestering me until I move. This is building on behaviour he initiated at bed time. When the TV automatically switches off, he lies across my face, until I get up. Now to associate this with an alarm sound and I will have am alarm I cannot ignore. 

Good suggestions! I have problems sticking to the vast majority of what you describe, or forget to set reminders or update lists. They in theirselves become some sort of demand. I know if i set a timer i would more than likely turn it off and continue with what im doing. Please tell us where these magical coaches are!

Autistic inertia, as you've described it, is the difficulty in starting, stopping, or changing tasks. This is a common challenge for many people on the autism spectrum, and it can certainly have a significant impact on one's life. Here are some strategies that may help with this issue:

1. Use Visual Schedules or Lists: Having a visual schedule or list of tasks can help provide structure and make it easier to transition from one activity to another. This can be a physical list, or you can use an app or digital tool.

2. Break Down Tasks: Large tasks can feel overwhelming and may contribute to inertia. Break down larger tasks into smaller, more manageable steps. This can make it easier to get started and to move from one step to the next.

3. Use Timers: Timers can be a great tool for helping with transitions. You might set a timer for a certain amount of time to focus on your current task, and then when the timer goes off, that's your cue to switch to the next task.

4. Self-Care Practices: Ensure you're taking care of your physical health, as things like sleep deprivation, hunger, or physical discomfort can exacerbate feelings of inertia. Regular exercise, a healthy diet, and adequate sleep can all help.

5. Mindfulness and Grounding Techniques: These can help you stay present and focused. This might involve deep breathing exercises, progressive muscle relaxation, or other mindfulness exercises.

6. Work with a Therapist or Coach: If you're finding it particularly challenging to manage autistic inertia, working with a professional who understands autism and can provide personalized strategies could be beneficial.

Remember, what works for one person might not work for another, so it can be helpful to try different strategies and see what works best for you. Also, it's important to be patient with yourself. Change takes time, and it's okay to move at your own pace.

never use an old fashioned kettle.I used to boil the same water so often before I'd manage to end up with a tea. A instant hot water machine is the way to go.I'm on my third tefal quickcup.. (I now know a small spring breaks, if you habitually let 'em run dry, so one day when I get a small bag of stainless steel springs I'll have three working ones again...

Not only is the tea making process continuous with no waiting involved, the finished tea isn't so hot that it scalds you on your first attempt to drink it. I.E. it doesn't always get forgotten, before you get some joy out of it. 

Quickup changed my life for the better. I don't know if they still make them.

Indeed.  It all goes by many names and by many differing theories.  "Pervasive Demand for Autonomy" is another thing that links into this too.  Some with PDA feel that these words describe their core feeling more accurately than as a "Pathological Demand Avoidance."  I think both phrases are pretty short of the mark.

Like you say, all this stuff does make you think and re-examine = good, but taxing !

It's making me think again!

And you can't always put laziness down to inertia! "Blame it on the 'spergers". Sometimes it's like trying to push a big rock to get going, other times I want things done yesterday. 

Thanks! It's certainly been a fascinating experience albeit a little draining. I get the 'burst open' thing if someone else is involved like, I want to do this thing NOW, I don't want to wait for them to slowly get themselves together. I'm very Clumsy so relate a lot to the accidental self- injury!

Laziness or mild PDA or autistic inertia problem.  Those are three labels that are hard to unpick properly - and then even harder still to try and mitigate against.

To be fair, those wise words are worthy of a repeat entry.  I think those are excellent suggestions and advice from out_of_step.  I often need to "burst open" when I need to start the next thing.  It can scare people when I jump up and REALLY just get the whole damn thing started with some gusto.

This doesn't always work - sometimes people run away and sometimes I sprain my ankle or bump my head - or both - or all three !

Thanks for sharing, AuTricker! Weirdly enough I saw and read this message yesterday but couldn't bring myself to reply. I thought about the response and then left the tab open on my phone until now. I often get what you said about the message going cold. I get LOTS of tabs on my phone and end up with duplicates, do a big cleanout then the cycle happens again.

The visualisation is agood idea but, and I think this might be related to my suspected ADHD, is that I am VERY susceptible to daydreaming/ fantasising. If I'm feeling a little spacey It will achieve the goal of switching task but the new task ends up being fantasising instead of whatever I intended to do.

Discomfort can break me out sometimes but not always. If it's bladder- related I am very hyper-aware but I've let my foot go numb or let my arm tingle etc. from being in awkward positions and not moving. I'm sorry to hear about your arthritis though, that sounds really difficult. I'm the same with cleaning. I'm Ok once I start BUT I Cannot stop or I will STOP.

I also end up writing a lot so I think you might be onto something there.

I have this! Even smaller examples than the cup of tea, if I am absorbed doing something on the laptop, reading this thread for example, I don't even want to stop to move my eyes aside to check the time! I have to force myself to do it, and it is slightly easier when I just look in the corner of the screen than glance behind the laptop screen at the clock on my desk. Or just having a drink of water from the glass beside me.

But then sometimes the thread I am reading becomes too interesting or overwhelming with too much info/too many thoughts, and I have to stop reading it. Like the hyperfocus suddenly got blocked. Weird. Or if I want to reply but want to read not write then I might leave that thread open in one tab but open another to keep reading the forum, and then I might not get back to the one I wanted to reply to for days... by which time it has gone cold so I probably don't reply at all, but I usually leave the tab open so end up with fifty trillion tabs open...

Not sure I have any good tips for breaking it or switching tasks, not very good at that. Maybe closing my eyes for a bit (seems easier than actually looking away!) moving my head aside with them still closed so when they open I am not looking at the thing any more, just letting my brain catch up, then gently try thinking about the next thing. I thought the imagining doing it was actually somewhat helpful though, like how sportspeople use visualisation to achieve their goals! So actually picturing myself getting out of bed, putting on my slippers and walking to the bathroom might help motivate me to actually go to the loo!

The other thing that does break me out of hyperfocus is unfortunately pain/discomfort. I am more on the hypersensitive side of things, so although I can kind of understand people not noticing hunger, my arthritis can become too insistent to ignore. Then I stop and realise just how much the pain has built up behind the dam before it overflowed, ouch! Plus when that happens I usually also have a rather urgently full bladder! It doesn't help with housework either, yesterday I was vacuuming the stairs but the pain got too much after only 5 of them and I had to stop for a youtube break. Then of course I didn't want to go back to it as the pain made it somewhat aversive, but I really wanted to get it finished (they hadn't been done for a while due to the vacuum being blocked so were badly in need of it, and quite satisfying to clean) so did manage another few steps, but had to give up after only 8 so there are 4 left which I have not gone back to yet...

Haha, now I am struggling to stop writing this post even though it is rather long! I wonder if that is part of why we write so much sometimes? As well as thoroughness of course.