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If anyone has any tips on how to cope with this lmk. I'm medicated but still an ineffective human 70% of the time. Life is hard I'm tired.
For me that's been audiobooks or YouTube. It keeps one part of the brain distracted so the other part isn't sabotaged anymore and is now free to do the work.
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not much to it. listen to some interesting videos or books while you do other stuff (esp manual stuff) and you will be able to focus easier on both.
i find that it doesnt always work, but it works well when it does.
Echo that, just for music. Having some decent noise squelches out some of the anxiety noise.
Try the podcast This American Life while you're doing something that doesn't take your full attention. Great for exercise, household chores, and driving.
AntennaPod is a great podcast app for Android. I think it's open source?
The method-method: Keep reading about, applying and stacking methods, finding out which ones work for you.
Be meticulous about them, e. g.:
- Can't interrupt a pomodoro session, not even to pee. If it does get interrupted, e. g. a look on the phone screen when it makes a sound, the session is aborted and marked a fail.
- Work strictly by todo list. When something is done but wasn't on the list to check off, it doesn't count as done. Instead of guilt mode immediately, do ONE item from the list and then procrastinate. When there is no list, start the list and then do your procrastination.
- Guilt-free procrastination: Set a time when you stop. E. g.: I keep doomscrolling until 1:10, and then do the thing. Nice thing is that this is now "legal doomscrolling", shorter, but guilt-free.
- Get started. Instead of 0 pushups, do 1 pushup. Instead of no meditation, get into the position and take three deep breaths, done.
Tbh, with all that, I still do only a fraction of what I should. But at least something gets done. Becoming just 70 % ineffective, like you, is my current goal :-) But maybe it helps you progress from where you are anyway.
yeahhh
now time to start NEVERSe bullet 4. It takes a non-zero amount of effort. Keep showing up with only 1 effort just out of spite if you have to. But don't let it be zero.
i have not decided when to start using effort, and deciding when to start takes effort
Decide first think in the morning so you don't suffer from decision fatigue.
Even when you pick your outfit, I bet it's autopilot. I think most people can only conjure up the willpower for a few real command-level decisions every day. Make them count by doing them early, because xecisions will be foisted upon you if you wait.
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Smoke and chill turned out being my way of coping. The first step is to stop judging yourself for things that are apparently in your hand, but actually don't.
As someone who only abuses legal substances (no judgement), I honestly thought at first that you were recommending smoked meat and chili.
Which does seem like a solid approach.
I'm talking about 🥦. It helps to relax and think about the things that really matter.
However, meat and chili are a solid option, too.
I've never even attempted to smoke broccoli!
Just kidding, I get what you mean. Though I've never partaken, I hear it's a good option.
I went to Jamaica for my honeymoon and they pointed out a house where apparently Bob Marley used to smoke. It had a fairly large chimney so I honestly thought they meant meat until my then brand new wife pointed out my obvious obliviousness to me.
I always feel bad about smoking cause it feels like an attempt to "escape" the guilt and do even less, but honestly everytime I hit my vape (no joints, they make me go straight back to the couch) I suddenly get the urge to do anything productive, I might even consider doing something I enjoy, such as hobbies (that I just can't make myself do when sober, god knows why)
I always feel bad about smoking cause it feels like an attempt to "escape" the guilt and do even less, but honestly everytime I hit my vape (no joints, they make me go straight back to the couch) I suddenly get the urge to do anything productive, I might even consider doing something I enjoy, such as hobbies (that I just can't make myself do when sober, god knows why)
I think the first step is to realize that you aren't a machine, that it's ok to not be productive.
You can also reflect and see if there are any emotions getting in the way of doing the task. Are you worried about something? Feeling overwhelmed by the task? Upset at you coworker/ or s.o.? Those kind of things. If so you probably need to work through those feelings.
Another thing to consider to consider is are you setting yourself up for success for the task. Do you have your needs meet? Food ? Rest? Exercise? Does music help? Etc. Do whatever helps you.
Finally a tactic that can sometimes work is to just do the bare minimum task and then to the next bare minimum.
Ie can you still at your desk? Can you turn on your computer? Sometimes doing it that way can help me feel less overwhelmed.
That first step for me was big early on. When you feel like a fuckup regardless of how successful you actually are, it's hard to take time to rest. I found myself in cycles of sleeplessness during crunch time followed by damn near hibernation after completing a large project. Reframing has helped: the reward for hard work is not rest, but momentum for more hardwork. It gets easier to force yourself, to motivate yourself.
Mantras have been really helpful with this.
Use them to challenge that narrative. You're an effective human all of the time, first of all. And that's true as long until your metabolic and neuroelectric activty stop altogether in which case you are an effective corpse all of the time.
Right at that part of the comic where the text grey's out, that's where the effect of the mantras kicks in naturally.
Like I don't know you or what you want to do or what you do, but I know you can take five minutes in the morning to tell yourself how effective you are, even if you don't believe it, you will find yourself thinking so much less. It won't feel like such a heavy lift to get started on something, because you've already sat your subconscious down and said "listen bitch, I'm effective as fuck." It's not going to challenge you back as much. That your subconscious. You tell that bitch what's true and false, literally.
I would add introspection to this. Sometimes we are unproductive because we feel forced to do something that we might not actually want to do. Mantras help in some cases but I other cases you need to get to the core of why you're unproductive. For example I've swapped projects because the project I used to work on was soul crushing and no amount of mantras would've saved me there. Introspection helped me understand that I really hated that project.
My only trick to this is to have something more urgent and more important to do. Like an essay worth 80% of your mark in a class you can't fail for college.
I get so much done when I'm in crunch mode. Things like the dishes, cleaning, laundry, even that oil change I've been putting off for months.
Everything gets done, except that very important assignment of course.
coffee. get rid of dopamine sinks like tiktok / instagram / youtube .
Or Lemmy