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Obsessions taking over my work time

MichaelaS

Hi everyone, I just wanted to ask for some help and see if others shared the same experiences.

I have a part time job in a pretty big "career" type industry, and generally cope well as I can be highly focussed, I'm good at making sure I know what I'm supposed to deliver, and I like the people a lot now that I know them all well.  I do struggle with new people, or situations where I don't feel in control like going unprepared into meetings, and I prefer to stick to emails rather than face to face / phone conversations.

Anyway, what I wanted to discuss is special interests / obsessions and their interaction with work.  In the past I've always been able to keep things separate - I have leant not to "get onto one of my topics" because I don't shut up when people expect me to, and I think I can bore people.  So I generally enjoy my interests outside work and try not to talk about them in work much.

Recently I've been composing fiction in my head, all based on universes of characters from books / films, its something I like to think about when I have spare time.  I'm finding it is starting to take over whilst I'm at work too.  I guess its because my mind is bored and I'm not very engaged at work right now (tough times in the company, redundancies likely, mood generally negative and lots of people disengaged and working below full potential, myself included).  I am really struggling to keep my mind on the job.  I find I'm daydreaming a lot, my head is off in my little story universe and I forget to get on with the work i'm supposed to be doing.  I find this quite stressful because I want to do my best at work, they are paying me to use my mind on work tasks and I don't feel I'm being fair - but I'm not doing it deliberately.

Does anyone else struggle with this sort of thing, and do you ahve any tips for getting back to being focussed?  I want to feel useful and like i'm contributing again, rather than just waiting out the time to the next paycheck without getting "caught" for messing about.

It does seem that many NTs at work don't worry about wasting time having a coffee and a chat - is this an equivalent sort of thing?  I only go for coffee with people if I have something to discuss like career coaching or a specific problem with office life.  How much "wasted" time is reasonable? So tricky!

Parents

  • I am a classic day dreamer, which isn't good because I work in hospitality where you have to things very quickly, so I can work slightly slower than others, but I think I can cope, I need to focus on the goals more, I think that is good advice, I have to remind myself to focus on the work as well, sometimes someone says, get a move on then I can come back to earth and focus on the work,  I think enthusiasm is very important, but it is very hard to get enthusiastic about work when you arent doing a particularly interesting thing, but bear in mind, a focussed mind leads to promotions, good references, and many other benefits.

Reply

  • I am a classic day dreamer, which isn't good because I work in hospitality where you have to things very quickly, so I can work slightly slower than others, but I think I can cope, I need to focus on the goals more, I think that is good advice, I have to remind myself to focus on the work as well, sometimes someone says, get a move on then I can come back to earth and focus on the work,  I think enthusiasm is very important, but it is very hard to get enthusiastic about work when you arent doing a particularly interesting thing, but bear in mind, a focussed mind leads to promotions, good references, and many other benefits.

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