#I can't even focus enough to read these emails lmao

[waumpel]

ADHD STUDY TIPS

I have adhd. I'm taking all online classes this semester for college. Somehow, I'm not failing. Here's what I do that works for me!

1. I have an alarm that makes me do math every morning to turn it off, it's called Alarmy! 📚

2. It also plays a different loud sound every day from random-- I have several hundred(?) ringtones downloaded from Zedge, things like songs from shows I like or Pokemon cries or MBMBAM lines, and this helps me wake up to a different sound I'm bound to like which my brain can't get used to (and then ignore). I highly suggest godzilla roars if you need to be startled awake. 📚

3. This is SUPER HARD but I always try to force myself to sit up in bed when I'm turning off my alarm or checking my phone or whatever, so I'm not tempted to pass out again. I also like to get up and loudly tell my cats "good morning" so I wake us both up 📚

4. PLEASE STOP EATING CEREAL AND BAGELS AND STUFF. You would not BELIEVE the difference it makes when you eat things like fruits and eggs in the morning. NO MORE 10AM NAPS, I'M WATCHING YOU 📚

5. I literally schedule in Duolingo time. If you aren't learning a language you can do some other enriching activity like this, idk. I force myself to do it on my computer, not phone, so I can't lay down in bed when I'm doin it. I have a 101-day streak!! 📚

6. ik this isn't available to everyone but SPACE MATTERS SO MUCH!! I got a gaming desk that we put in our living room and I do ALL of my homework there. I also got a second monitor for my laptop with is SOOOO important if you're multitasking (and we all are, bc we're adhders ibdusvcjkn) 📚

7. HAND WRITE YOUR NOTES!!! I know this is super hard for many people-- I have carpal tunnel so I get it lmao. If you can't, at least type them. YOU THINK YOU CAN MEMORIZE INFO BUT YOU'RE WRONG!! Please write as much as you can i swear it will change ur life 📚

8. COLOURED! PENS!!! These changed the game for me y'all. I take all my notes in at least 2 colours, and I cycle through them a lot. My favs are Pilot Frixions because u can erase them :) (the highlighters are epic too) 📚

9. Make your space fun, but NOT DISTRACTING. I have a plant (his name is Yoshi) and a desk Godzilla (his name is Godzilla) on my desk, but they're out of the way so I can't zone out starin at em. But also, when I'm bored outta my gourd, I can smile at Yoshi and tell him how my day is goin :] 📚

10. SNACKING BAD *BUT*... sometimes i do it anyway... i try to associate certain foods with subjects, like I eat cocoa M&Ms (which are awesome) when I'm reading my Kaqchikel textbook. On the upside, I think it helps me recall Kaqchikel better? but also the language makes me crave mnms adkldigurvn 📚

11. LISTEN TO... CERTAIN MUSIC. I have learned that music with words, even in LANGS I DO NOT KNOW, is HELL for my adhd. Right now I'm listening to stuff like "Pokemon and Chill" (lofi album on YT), Studio Ghibli violin covers, and Night on Bald Mountain 5x on repeat ibjnvc.... I highly suggest songs/videos that are, like, 20+ minutes or else you'll get distracted with the constant change. Also, that No One's Around To Help 1hr vid is REALLY REPETITIVE and therefore PERFECT for when I'm reading textbooks. 📚

12.  EVERY NIGHT... i make a super detailed timetable schedule for the next day, down to the half hour. I don't always follow it but it's a really good reminder of what I gotta do. I write it on a whiteboard but sometimes I also write it on a sticky note and on social media so I don't forget. To do lists are so epic you guys 📚

13. THIS HAS SAVED MY L I F E: at the beginning of the semester I looked at ALL of my syllabi and wrote down EVERY daily task, test, homework, etc BY DATE. this is essentially a premade to do list EVERY DAY for MONTHS and oh my gosh it is the best thing I have ever done. 📚

14. I use the Forest app to track my productivity AND lock me out of apps ndsjv... podomoro timers work well too!!! 📚

15. Ok so for me this is like... a religious thing bc my Patron (my God) is a deity of fire AND working, but I like to light a candle (scented like FALL!!) and do a little prayer on it and I have it next to me when I'm workin on terrible, terrible homework. It helps me feel like my Patron is here with me, but also it’s GREAT for grounding and I can just kinda. Stare blankly at the flame and then get back to tryin to focus. 📚

16. Please drink water lmao, to make sure I drink enough I set little goals like "take a sip after every paragraph you read" 📚

17. Each of my classes has a different coloured notebook which I'm consistent with! Like, all my German notebooks through the years have been green! Also I take notes w green pens a lot in Deutsch 📚

18. HELLA STICKY NOTES... I put em on the bottom of my monitor, on a shelf by my desk, in my books as bookmarks (bad idea lol), on Yoshi. When I wanna go look up something random but I need to focus, I like to write it down on sticky notes to look at later. 📚

19. I'm the most annoying student ever. I like to do a bunch of assignments at once so I don't have to budget my time later, so I'll turn in like 5 things in an hour and then NOTHING for a week. ALSO i email my teachers constantly if I have any questions at all. I work at a pace that works for me!!! 📚

20. I turn off my sound on my phone until I'm done with work bc otherwise I WILL open that notification 📚

22. I make a loooot of chai (and also some overpriced herbal teas). It makes me feel fancy, it's better for me than coffee, and it helps me ground and focus! Plus it's a samefood! 📚

23. Hyperfixating on classic literature would be awesome, except I'm hyperfixating on Gothic and I'm taking a lit class for More Than Just Gothic. But I'm figuring out ways to connect them, which is really helpful, cause I get to enjoy my hyperfixation while learning for school! PLZ TRY TO DO THIS (harder when you're hyperfixating on godzilla :pensivecowboy:) 📚

21. When I have extra time I write my notes like I'm plannin to put em on Tumblr and taggin em as #darkacademia... I never post my notes, but when they look nice it's easier for me to look over em later. Plus it takes me longer to write so I remember it a lil better!! 📚

24. I'm in an awesome academia + studyspo server!! We sometimes study together on call and it's SUCH a good motivator! Here's an invite link if u wanna join, we are nice https://discord.gg/fjuX7TN (this wasn’t meant to be a promo post I just really like this group lol) 📚

OK I hope that helps!!! Feel free to add more if you have any tips that work for you :) Neurotypicals, feel free to RB respectfully!

(pics are: syllabus list, daily schedule, Yoshi the plant, and some fancy notes)

#studyspo #studying #studyblr #study breaks #study tips #study motivation #adhd #adhd study tips #adhd studyblr #long post #dark acadamia aesthetic #light academia #dark academia #grey academia #chaotic academia #actually neurodiverse #actuallynd #academia

[roseymoseyberry]

Hey.. I need your help. So I've been writing fic for awhile now but have never posted them online until recently. And i got positive feedbacks right which made me love writing even more. My readers are all so nice and they're patiently waiting for updates which i had written halfway. Anyway life kept me busy for awhile buT now i can't get back into fics.. Rereading my fic i only see flaws and now with each new comment i received i just get overwhelmed. Kinda wanna delete my ao3.. What do i do

I’m so sorry it took my a couple days to get back to you anon. Life has been... well, life, lmao.

But ok, listen. I absolutely feel you. I went through a writer’s block as recently as this past summer/early fall for... I want to say two or three months at least? It was rough. I hated reading over my own stuff because it all just read as terrible to me, the pace rushed and dialogue bad, etc etc etc. (and lord almighty, don’t get me STARTED on how I felt when I realized I was abandoning a fic from an old fandom oops)

It’s hard to get out of that. And ultimately every writer is a little different, so I can only tell you how I get out of ruts.

Before we get to how to start writing again though, I want to say that if you’re overwhelmed by the stress of thinking of reader’s waiting for more? Officially put the fic on Hiatus. Edit your summary to say “This fic is on Hiatus” so that you know that anyone reading it knows it could be a very, very long time, if ever. I have only really needed to do that once, but found it helped to take the pressure off. If you receive email notifications for comments, maybe turn those off for a while. Come back to them later.

Ok, and now. My big, fancy, all important advice:

For me, the number 1 objective is to force yourself to get words down on the page. To get yourself writing again, you need to fucking write.

There’s a couple different strategies I’ve try when I’m stuck.

One of the first is to reread the story I want to work on. That usually works if it’s the kind of block that isn’t about hating my writing so much as just staring at the page and not knowing how to word. In your case and with that specific kind of feeling though, it may not be so relevant because yeah. Right now your writing feels like shit to you. So this is something to consider for future blocks.

The next thing I’ll usually do is just. Brute force it. I force myself to write a sentence, and won’t let myself delete it. And I’ll keep forcing myself to write until I’ve got at least a paragraph or two. It’ll be slow, and it will be painful, and it will feel like I’m writing the worst writing in the world. Just absolute garbage.

But a paragraph or two will eventually roll over into more, and usually when I reread over it later I’ll realize it wasn’t nearly as bad as it had felt like it was at the time. And the most important thing is I’m getting back into the flow of the fic. Often from that point the rest just falls back into place.

Brute forcing it by yourself can be tricky though. If you’re not sure how to get yourself to do that, look into some writing tools to motivate you to just get down words as fast as you can! A couple suggestions I have are:

Word Sprints: This website is just one way to do this particular exercise, but I found it super helpful in the past! Word sprint/word wars/speed runs/etc are basically a game-like situation where you and other writers have a set amount of time to write as many words as you can. The Word Sprints website has 25 minute spans with 5 minute breaks, and you can either join the global one (which I don’t recommend lmao) or you can make your own group and invite other writers to it. This specific site allows you to see how many words the other folks in the group have written in real time, so it can help motivate through fun competition if that’s something that appeals to you.

You don’t have to be constrained by the site though. I’m part of a TF fan content creators discord where folks sometimes just run our own, usually with more like just 10 or 15 minute long sprints and then everyone shares how many words they wrote at the end of the sprint. It can be a really nice way to change the focus away from the quality of the words your putting down to the quantity. Because listen -- you can always go back and edit lower quality writing, but you can’t do anything with no writing to work with at all, you feel?

(If you happen to be in the TF fandom and feel comfortable messaging me off anon, feel free to do so and I’ll definitely send you an invite to the discord. It’s really nice to have a space to talk with other writers and problem solve with folks who know the pain, haha)

Fighter’s Block: If something that involves other people doesn’t appeal, no worries! This web app is basically a simple little rpg style game. You put in a word count that you want to reach (so maybe something as little as 100 or 200 words) and then you go into a fight. In this case you’re motivated to write fast because your health goes down while you’re idle, and the enemy’s health is your word count, so you defeat them by reaching your word count. It’s a fun little game and is a great alternative to word sprints.

I know there’s other similar sites, so don’t be afraid to search for a tool that fits you.

Another way you might be able to get words out is by abandoning where you left off for now and writing another scene that you’re excited about. I personally don’t do this because I have to write in order -- I just have to!!!! -- but I know a LOT of writers who bounce around and then knit the scenes together.

Or really, just mix it up in general. Do you always write at home? Try taking your laptop to a coffee shop for the express purpose of writing. That’s something I do a LOT. Always write on a computer? Try writing on your phone. I’ve even seen a post going around about changing your font to comic sans and that helping! Shake things up. Try something new. You might find something that works better for you!

Mmmmm I think that’s about all the advice I have personally since those are my go to’s. But keep in mind it’s not the end of the world if that doesn’t work for you -- all writers are different!! If I’ve learned anything from talking to other writers, it’s that we all have different ways we do it, different tools and formats and styles and all of it.

And ultimately? Don’t forget that fanfiction is about self-indulgence. It’s about you! If it’s stressing you out way too much, take a break. Put that shit on hiatus. Turn off notifications from ao3. Leave it alone for a while. You do you. Ultimately, while it may feel cruel, you don’t owe your readers anything. You’re doing this hobby because you like to, and you shared it with them by choice.

If the need is strong enough that you want to delete, look into orphaning your works. That way it’s no longer connected to you in any way, but it’s still available to readers.

I wish you only the best, Anon, and can only hope I was of any help at all, haha

#anonymous