I tend to do things the "wrong" way, very much unlike the classic NT way of getting things done.
In the poll I would like the participant to choose the option that most closely describes your "approach" to things.
I chose "Somewhat practical". I follow advice if I agree with it. Sometimes what's advized doesn't work for me. I do get distracted easily, but I rarely, if ever, lose sight of what I think is important- which may be different from what others think is important.
I'm so all-over-that-scale that I can't say what's right/wrong without leaving out important aspects.
I try to get things done as fast as possible and efficient as possible. Wasting time enrages me unless I have nothing else to work on then I can fool around a bit. (watching the red wings NEVER counts as a waste of time, not watching is a waste of time, well just to me anyways :p)
But I have limited forward thinking and I never set up goals for myself. As long as things get done and I have enough time to watch the Red wings play then im content.
'Practical' is such a vague word. I'm practical when it comes to achieving a certain goal or completing an immediate task. Maybe 'pragmatic' would be a better word for that though. I certainly don't live my life in a practical way every day. I always do things my own way. I definitely only take advice when it supports what I *want*, and I'm ridiculously, insanely, mind-bogglingly disorganized. I constantly forget what's important to my day-to-day life; I'm always either looking at the teeny-tiny picture (i.e. where's my favourite hair elastic? I can't leave the house without my favourite hair elastic... I don't care if I'm an hour late for work!) or the Really Huge picture (i.e. the fate of humankind and the Universe).
Yeah, maybe "pragmatic" would be a better word for this poll.
How 'bout the rest of you folks who haven't voted, mentally replace "practical" with "pragmatic"?
Keep the votes coming.
None really fit - I am a very hands-on practical person but I don't really do things based on advice or instructions. I need to see how things work and are done etc.
If I was to replace practical with pragmatic, and the top option was most pragmatic with the bottom one the least, where do you think you would fit?
In both practicality and esp. pragmatism, I would be the last option. I'm so short sighted and unable to connect things to the Big Picture of my own life, it almost feels like a genuine disability, in this area. I wonder if it actually is a genuine disability?
It kinda "feels" like there's things I should know by now, about how to instinctually improve my scenario, that I'm blocked from seeing.
As said before, how about the rest of the voters adopt the Pragmatism model here, as "practical" is indeed too vague.
I try to get things done as fast as possible and efficient as possible. Wasting time enrages me unless I have nothing else to work on then I can fool around a bit. (watching the red wings NEVER counts as a waste of time, not watching is a waste of time, well just to me anyways :p)
But I have limited forward thinking and I never set up goals for myself. As long as things get done and I have enough time to watch the Red wings play then im content.
If you're ADHD, then you've got to be distractable when doing schoolwork, etc... at least part of the time. It would probably be most evident in subjects you find boring, or subjects you're not good at, though.
I'm a very likely case of ADD and I know it was that way for me. I just couldn't bring myself to do work in subjects I wasn't good at, so any kind of good distraction was a welcome relief. Of course this might also be the same as procrastination, I did have a serious habit of procrastination all throughout school.
I think clinically significant distractability is an actual requirement within the AD/HD diagnostic criteria, as far as I know.
Here:
prag·ma·tism (prăg'mə-tĭz'əm)
n.
1. Philosophy. A movement consisting of varying but associated theories, originally developed by Charles S. Peirce and William James and distinguished by the doctrine that the meaning of an idea or a proposition lies in its observable practical consequences.
2. A practical, matter-of-fact way of approaching or assessing situations or of solving problems.
prag·mat·ic (prăg-măt'ĭk)
adj.
1. Dealing or concerned with facts or actual occurrences; practical.
2. Philosophy. Of or relating to pragmatism.
3. Relating to or being the study of cause and effect in historical or political events with emphasis on the practical lessons to be learned from them.
prac·ti·cal (prăk'tĭ-kəl)
adj.
1. Of, relating to, governed by, or acquired through practice or action, rather than theory, speculation, or ideals: gained practical experience of sailing as a deck hand.
2. Manifested in or involving practice: practical applications of calculus.
3. Actually engaged in a specified occupation or a certain kind of work; practicing.
4. Capable of or suitable to being used or put into effect; useful: practical knowledge of Japanese. See Usage Note at practicable.
5. Concerned with the production or operation of something useful: Woodworking is a practical art.
6. Level-headed, efficient, and unspeculative.
7. Being actually so in almost every respect; virtual: a practical disaster.
I think "pragmatic" is the better choice of words for what I was looking for in this poll. You decide.
I've cast my vote for being Impractical. I'm a pack rat. I even keep clothes that I've worn out. To take them with me when I go out to the waste areas where I hunt for corks. I'll light up a cozy little fire and burn things that I don't want to keep, mostly old clothes.
PS: But again, only the top option if you ignore the advice part.
I am highly independent and hands-on and have learned to deal with my communicative disability by doing everything for or by myself (including finding information etc.), apart from rare occasions where I have to rely on my partner or a parent to interact with others for me. That is, in cases where communicating to someone close to me what I need them to do, is easier than trying to communciate what I want/need to a third party.
In that respect I am every bit my father's daughter
I have a lot of trouble doing many things for myself, especially communicating to people I don't know, which is basically a requirement for daily life (esp. independent life.) I don't bother to practice these things for improvement either, because I have no natural impulse to do so.
I don't use advice, practical or non, even though a hands-on approach is the best way for me to do things. I have a tendency to just not care, at all, about things that don't interest me. Therefore I am highly impractical. The least pragmatic person I know.
For instance my interest is art/creativity. Let us say that magically I gained 10 years of technical experience in art, overnight, but that all my other attributes (social, intuitive, executive functioning) stayed exactly the same. I would probably choose to do that one thing (expressive myself creatively, within art) to the exclusion of everything else. Because mundane daily/social activities are needlessly aggravating to me, I would just want to be left alone.
What I need to do is get better at working with objects, since I prefer not to work with people.
The problem is I don't have great technical ability within art, as I am seemingly incapable of learning perspective (no matter what, that's a necessary thing to learn if you want to be technically skilled.) You would think I'd be great at something, to make up for my lack of social skills, but it didn't turn out that way. It's quite odd how I have bits and pieces of a lot of cognitive abilities, but nothing "turned out" complete.
I find it strange, as I don't know anyone like this (besides me.) I am so highly inconsistent, it becomes eerie.
By the way, keep the votes coming!
I have a lot of trouble doing many things for myself, especially communicating to people I don't know
That isn't doing something for yourself though, that is communicating your needs. Doing it for yourself would mean going out there and doing whatever you're asking that person to do for you.
I find it strange, as I don't know anyone like this (besides me.) I am so highly inconsistent, it becomes eerie.
Your self-image seems to hugely differ from how others see you, so it may be possible that you do actually know people like that. You just cant tell just by looking, just like others can't tell by looking at you.
I also meant cognitively inconsistent, in fact all through school teachers would put the comment "inconsistent" on my report card. It wasn't because I tried to be inconsistent, it was because my cognitive skills were so uneven, that I couldn't predict what I was good at. I was good at certain things within each subject (except for Math) but it seemed for the most part, anything that required too much abstract thinking was where I would falter.
This is also a kind of inconsistency, besides self-image. I have heard an uneven set of skills (overall) is very common in ASDs.
I also meant cognitively inconsistent, in fact all through school teachers would put the comment "inconsistent" on my report card.
Classic ADD. Shame on your teachers, seeing as though you were diagnosed with ADD, no point in rubbing it in all the time!!! 
I was never diagnosed with ADD. Nobody ever even suggested it to me, not even once, until I got to 10th grade in high school.
That's partly ADD, but I'm talking about natural cognitive skills being inconsistent in strange ways. For instance high verbosity, large vocabulary, excellent descriptive writing, but very poor reading comprehension, poor abstract thinking skills. I think this is a strange contradiction within the same area--at least a few teachers of mine pointed that out. "If you can write the way you do, why can't you understand a book at grade-level?"
I won't shift my opinion on this. I think this kind of thing falls into the cognitive idiosyncrasy area that is often quite typical of ASDs.. for instance you may have a math genius who can't tie his shoes, that kind of thing. Why would my example be all that different?
I also meant cognitively inconsistent, in fact all through school teachers would put the comment "inconsistent" on my report card. It wasn't because I tried to be inconsistent, it was because my cognitive skills were so uneven, that I couldn't predict what I was good at. I was good at certain things within each subject (except for Math) but it seemed for the most part, anything that required too much abstract thinking was where I would falter.
This is also a kind of inconsistency, besides self-image. I have heard an uneven set of skills (overall) is very common in ASDs.
It was exactly the same with me nearly. Except I was never given inconsistent on any report cards. I usually got "doesn't speak much, needs to contribute more to class". Anyway usually in my subjects I was very inconsistant, getting A*'s in some parts of a subject and then completely failing in other parts of the same subject, or doing good in some subjects and then doing bad in others. My GSCE results are split between 4 subjects I got an A in and 4 I got a D in.
I've been collecting screw corks for 6-7 years and I've been broadening the categories of related objects to other things. As long as they're of plastic material; have interesting colors; are parts of things; I've even started to take care of colorful schampo-containers. It haven't cost me a cent; because these things are everywhere. I think you should start collecting something. It's FUN.