I mysteriously had trouble handing in assignments. I was the queen of procrastination. I had trouble getting good at musical instruments because I couldn't get myself to practice. I was late for everything. My mom was always bugging me about cleaning things up, taking too long for things, making people late, etc.

THIS. You could be describing me with this. The difference for me was that in 7th grade, my science teacher noticed what was up and how I liked to fiddle with stationery-type items and tried an easy, small intervention first: she wrote a note to my parents asking them to purchase me a planner. We went to Wal-Mart and I picked out a small planner with weekly and monthly calendars. Yes, I would probably open and look at my planner more often than was necessary, but it was sort of a good type of distraction. Every time I opened the planner to mess around with it, all my assignments were right there in my face because I'd written them down. I didn't need to pay that much attention in class anyway. I know that would not have worked for a lot of students--people who truly needed medication for a disorder, for example--but it worked for me. By the time I got to college, I was so good at managing my own shortcomings that I graduated there with honors as well.