{"id":116015,"date":"2016-01-31T11:46:00","date_gmt":"2016-01-31T11:46:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.merindab.com\/private\/2016\/01\/31\/darkestelemental616-foervraengd-eccecorinna\/"},"modified":"2018-09-03T17:08:21","modified_gmt":"2018-09-03T17:08:21","slug":"darkestelemental616-foervraengd-eccecorinna","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.merindab.com\/private\/2016\/01\/31\/darkestelemental616-foervraengd-eccecorinna\/","title":{"rendered":""},"content":{"rendered":"<div id='gallery-1' class='gallery galleryid-116015 gallery-columns-3 gallery-size-thumbnail'><figure class='gallery-item'>\n\t\t\t<div class='gallery-icon landscape'>\n\t\t\t\t<a href='https:\/\/www.merindab.com\/private\/2016\/01\/31\/darkestelemental616-foervraengd-eccecorinna\/attachment\/116016\/'><img width=\"150\" height=\"67\" src=\"https:\/\/www.merindab.com\/private\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/01\/tumblr_lz5f2tynA31qzvg5fo1_500-150x67.png\" class=\"attachment-thumbnail size-thumbnail\" alt=\"\" loading=\"lazy\" sizes=\"100vw\" \/><\/a>\n\t\t\t<\/div><\/figure>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\n<p><a class=\"tumblr_blog\" href=\"http:\/\/darkestelemental616.tumblr.com\/post\/64407163912\" target=\"_blank\">darkestelemental616<\/a>:<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p><a class=\"tumblr_blog\" href=\"http:\/\/foervraengd.tumblr.com\/post\/18094446164\" target=\"_blank\">foervraengd<\/a>:<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p><a class=\"tumblr_blog\" href=\"http:\/\/eccecorinna.tumblr.com\/post\/17740781063\" target=\"_blank\">eccecorinna<\/a>:<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p><a class=\"tumblr_blog\" href=\"http:\/\/3liza.tumblr.com\/post\/17339633447\" target=\"_blank\">3liza<\/a>:<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p>I\u2019m reposting this as a non-ask because I forgot some things.<\/p>\n<p>This is a really old question that I haven\u2019t got around to answering for months because I wanted to be thorough about it.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>As a freelancer with pretty crippling ADHD, my life is a living hell of disconnected thoughts and impulses.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Even as I type this, I keep stopping myself\u2014\u201cmaybe I should make an illustration,\u201d I think, furrowing my brow.\u00a0 \u201cNah.\u00a0 It\u2019s just a Tumblr ask.\u00a0 Who cares?\u201d\u00a0 Then, thirty seconds later, I stop again.\u00a0 \u201cBut people read these.\u00a0 They like them.\u00a0 If I add illustrations maybe it will be cooler and more fun.\u201d\u00a0 And so on.<\/p>\n<p>Then I turn away from my laptop entirely to play a few more minutes of Kingdoms of Amalur.\u00a0 That lasts 5-20 minutes, and then I\u2019m standing up and walking around and following some <em>other<\/em> impulse.<\/p>\n<p><img src=\"https:\/\/78.media.tumblr.com\/tumblr_lz5diurObj1qzv9v0.gif\" class=\"toggle_inline_image inline_image constrained_image\" \/><\/p>\n<p>I was diagnosed with this when I was 11, along with my father, and retroactively, a long, long line of easily-distractable, eternally-inspired artists and engineers and writers stretching back into the twigs and branches of my family tree.\u00a0 There were strange, twin spinster great-great-aunts.\u00a0 Institutionalized sisters here, troubled soldiers there.\u00a0 Uncles who simply got up and left.\u00a0 Anyway.<\/p>\n<p>Methods had to be developed.\u00a0 Self-policing, of various shades of severity.\u00a0 I warn you, the suggestions I outline below are not foolproof.\u00a0<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>\n<strong>NowDoThis.com<\/strong><br \/><a href=\"http:\/\/t.umblr.com\/redirect?z=http%3A%2F%2Fnowdothis.com%2F&amp;t=MjBiYjIwNGJmZDgwNDk4Yjk4N2U3NGY5OWU5YzM3YzY2YzQxZjg0ZSwxVzdqemZWQg%3D%3D\" target=\"_blank\">An online to-do list<\/a> that is stripped down to its bare bones.\u00a0 I use this so much that I actually made it my homepage.\u00a0 Every time I wake up, open the laptop and start up my browser for some sweet sweet internettin\u2019, there\u2019s my to-do list.\u00a0 It hijacks my attention away from whatever dumb thing I was about to do on Tumblr and presents me with a more interesting alternative.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li>\n<strong>SelfControl<\/strong><a href=\"http:\/\/t.umblr.com\/redirect?z=http%3A%2F%2Fvisitsteve.com%2Fmade%2Fselfcontrol%2F&amp;t=Njg1YTg5M2E0NzFhY2YwOWNmNjAzNDYwZmRmMjY5MDEzMDU0YjY2MywxVzdqemZWQg%3D%3D\" target=\"_blank\"><br \/>An absolutely brutal app for OSX<\/a> that blacklists domains of your choosing until a timer runs out.\u00a0 <em>Cannot<\/em> be turned off by the application itself, restarting your machine, or deleting the application.\u00a0 This is the nuclear option\u2014when you absolutely, positively, cannot look at Tumblr for the next four hours, accept no substitutions.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li>\n<strong>Tea, and other nostrums<br \/><\/strong>People with ADHD usually have something wrong with their brains in a chemical, physical sense.\u00a0 It\u2019s complicated\u2014it has to do with not getting enough dopamine or serotonin, but boils down to burning through feelgood chemicals a lot faster than you should, leaving you groping around for something else to stimulate your brain before you fall into ennui and depression\u00a0 Caffeine helps with this.\u00a0 It calms you down, lets you focus for longer, and recently theanine (present in tea, hence the name) was found to boost production of serotonin, dopamine, and other neurotransmitters and generally help with depression.\u00a0 This is why you find a lot of disorganized people with savage tea habits, like myself.\u00a0 <\/p>\n<p>Self-medication is allowed, folks.\u00a0 And since the majority of American artists will never have health insurance, you have to find what you can.\u00a0 I will refrain from recommending anything more potent than tea due to potential liability issues, but there are options.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li>\n<strong>The \u201cDad With an Egg Timer\u201d Method<\/strong><br \/>Get a timer.\u00a0 <a href=\"http:\/\/t.umblr.com\/redirect?z=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.online-stopwatch.com%2F&amp;t=OGVhMmQ5Mzg5NmM1MDc3ZTJlYzk0NWUzYjQzMGNlYjRiOTA2ODUyNSwxVzdqemZWQg%3D%3D\" target=\"_blank\">Online Stopwatch<\/a> works, if you don\u2019t mind how incredibly ugly it is.\u00a0 Set the timer for 20-40 minutes.\u00a0 Work until the alarm goes off.\u00a0 Now set a new timer, for 5-15 minutes.\u00a0 You get to fuck off and do whatever you want for this period of time.\u00a0 When your break is over, set a new work timer for 20-40 minutes.\u00a0 Repeat.\u00a0 Make sure the actual timer is facing you at all times\u2014egg timers are nice because they make a little whirring sound.\u00a0 The trick here again is <em>hijacking yourself<\/em> so the stopwatch catches your attention before Tumblr, Gmail, or staring at a wall does.\u00a0 Dad used to do this to me when I had to do something that required more than 15 minutes of focus\u2014say, writing a research paper on space stations\u2014and it does help when there\u2019s a second party keeping you focused.\u00a0 Which brings me to\u2026<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li>\n<strong>Super Nag Bros\u2122<\/strong> \/ <strong>the Accountability Buddy System<\/strong><br \/>Sometimes all you need is someone to be accountable to.\u00a0 Designate one of your friends as your Accountability Buddy (Accountabuddy, if you\u2019re nasty) and stay in contact via SMS or instant messenger.\u00a0 Run each other\u2019s stopwatches.\u00a0 Offer encouraging remarks, including but not limited to:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>\u201cYou call that a cover letter?\u00a0 I\u2019ve seen more personalized greetings on boxes of tampons.\u201d<\/li>\n<li>\u201cYour gesture drawing look like a dishrag.\u201d<\/li>\n<li>\u201cI bet Andrew Hussie would be re-opening Flash right about now, instead of crying and puking like a babyman.\u201d\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li>\n<strong>Chore Wars<\/strong><br \/>Taking accountability buddies to their logical conclusion, <a href=\"http:\/\/t.umblr.com\/redirect?z=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.chorewars.com%2F&amp;t=ZTAxMzhjMWNhNDgzY2I1M2VkZjZlYjM0MmJhMWYzNTM2ZWE2YTY3OCwxVzdqemZWQg%3D%3D\" target=\"_blank\">Chore Wars is a doofy website<\/a> that allows you to make your to-do list into a faux-D&amp;D campaign, and embark upon it with your friends to earn XP, gold, and items.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li>\n<strong>Bribes<\/strong><br \/>Recently I promised my friend Cosmic Tuesdays a drawing if she finished her cover letters.\u00a0 It worked, and since she had no idea it was going to be <a href=\"http:\/\/3liza.tumblr.com\/post\/17249797007\/cosmic-tuesdays-asked-for-motivation-to-finish-her\" class=\"tumblr_blog\" target=\"_blank\">a stupid drawing<\/a>, she was suitably motivated.\u00a0<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>That\u2019s about all I can think of right now.\u00a0 Good luck, lil\u2019 buddies.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>reblogging for reference<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>Reblogging because I have ADHD and is more or less a freelancer.<\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s a shame that I happen to dislike tea &#8211; no matter the taste; it\u2019s all warm water for me :C<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>That explains a lot, though I tend to get distracted even from the Chore Wars-type websites after a while. I\u2019ll stick with tea and try the rest.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>darkestelemental616: foervraengd: eccecorinna: 3liza: I\u2019m reposting this as a non-ask because I forgot some things. This is a really old question that I haven\u2019t got around to answering for months because I wanted to be thorough about it.\u00a0 As a freelancer with pretty crippling ADHD, my life is a living hell of disconnected thoughts and &hellip; <\/p>\n<p class=\"link-more\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.merindab.com\/private\/2016\/01\/31\/darkestelemental616-foervraengd-eccecorinna\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"gallery","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[67,14058,10377,14057,4],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.merindab.com\/private\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/116015"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.merindab.com\/private\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.merindab.com\/private\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.merindab.com\/private\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.merindab.com\/private\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=116015"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.merindab.com\/private\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/116015\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":116017,"href":"https:\/\/www.merindab.com\/private\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/116015\/revisions\/116017"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.merindab.com\/private\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=116015"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.merindab.com\/private\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=116015"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.merindab.com\/private\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=116015"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}