Not even close to strange - I was all the Latin stuff too. The lightbulb for me was learning that ADHD doesn't mean you can't focus, it's that you can't focus appropriately. So in the same way you can't focus on stuff you don't care about, you hyperfocus on stuff that interests you. Luckily for me, that was most academics (my freshman year of college I got so engrossed in a calculus problem set that I lost three hours -- I could have sworn it was 15-20 minutes).
The problem is that it's hard to replicate that in the work world, when you don't have papers and problem sets each week, and where classes don't change every few weeks. The only way I have found to replicate that in the job world is when I am overwhelmingly busy and the boredom is superseded by panic. Luckily, cramming is my superpower, so I have managed to get by without crashing and burning. :-). But it does take a toll, and I'm finding it harder and harder as I get older.
This is so me. I'm interested in any resources you found helpful.
Hah -- I only wish. The first bit was reading about ADHD, specifically the inattentive version, to really see myself and recognize the behaviors/thinking patterns. There are a variety of books that focus on organization for teens/adults with ADHD, which have specific useful tactics, but I have found those more helpful for daily non-work life and for managing all the kid stuff (e.g., put everything you need for work in front of the door so you literally can't walk out without it). In terms of job/career, most of what has kept me going is an irrational fear of poverty and an equally-sized fear of failure -- that's what kicks me into gear at the last minute. The best I have done is to try to recognize what motivates me and what doesn't and work with that instead of against it.
For me, some of the things that have worked at various times: I do best in jobs where my responsibilities and deadlines are externally-imposed vs. self-managed. I do better with variation instead of the same thing every day. I avoid projects that require attention to detail -- I'm a lawyer and had to learn to force myself to slow down and double-check things, but now that I am more senior, the relief of having associates to keep me straight on the facts is pretty amazing. I do better when I am too busy than too light. I do well with work that is mentally challenging; I have always been massively attracted to puzzles and logic games, and so figuring out how a set of regulations fits together, or how we are going to tell the story in a brief, tends to suck me in until I figure it out. And I do best in a job that requires me to keep learning -- a couple of years ago, I was really getting bored after 20+ years doing the same thing, so I took on a new role doing something completely different; I spent the next year scared shitless while I figured it all out, but it ended up being the best decision I had made in a long time, because it reinvigorated me. I know I work best under time pressure, so I am on the early shift at home -- I go in early and need to leave by 4 to avoid traffic, get the kids, and go home and make dinner, so at worst, that usually helps kick me into high gear after lunch every day (days when my mom gets the kids and I don't have that deadline, I can fritter away hours and hours). A job with no internet access would be helpful, but alas, my firm treats us all like grownups. And when none of that is working, I go home and do Quicken and think through what my budget would be like if I quit today to trigger the fear of poverty (unfortunately, that tactic has become less effective as my 'stache has grown). :-)
Finally, hard exercise outside in the morning before work. Seriously. I was most effective and focused when I was in a routine of running before work; it somehow made it much easier to focus for the rest of the day. Unfortunately, my back won't let me run any more, and I haven't really found a way to recapture that. Crossfit helps, but it's not the same as being outside.
I think the real key is to think of it as managing a chronic disease vs. expecting a "cure" if I can just find the silver bullet. I am just wired this way, so the best I can do is come up with a series of work-arounds. But each one is going to work for only so long. So when one approach stops working, instead of getting frustrated that I am falling back into the same bad habits *again*, I need to figure out a different way to attack it.