sometimes i notice that really weird, small things trip me up, eat up my time, and contribute to my struggle to stay on task and get shit done. when i notice them i am going to document them here bc i have no short OR long term memory and maybe u will find it helpful too

did this one bc i caught myself doing it. bet i caught you, too

this one includes checking notifs. checking your notifs tab/page/whatever counts as one of the 3. go away. go do what you're supposed to be doing

sometimes, especially when you're a creative, things really AREN'T working and you have to step away and stop forcing it. but it's up to you to figure out when you're actually "blocked" vs when you're just giving up on what little time you have left bc you've had a hard day

are you basing your concept of how much you “should” be getting done on some kind of magical frictionless best case scenario, where you can just Seamlessly Do Things Back To Back + there are no incidental time losses in between tasks, no setup time, and no followup needs? stop it

something that helps me be realistic abt this is i use a pomodoro app called forest. u set a timer, + if you try to use any other apps on your phone during it it kills your tree. it shows u what ur timers add up to each day which i use to gauge how long i’ve actually been Working

to be completely honest? sometimes that number is really embarrassing and disheartening. sometimes i feel like i’ve been sitting at my desk all day but when i actually check the app it’s like “you’ve stayed focused for 150 minutes today.” but it also helps me be reasonable

instead of “ive been here all DAY why do i only have one task completed” it’s “well, yeah, i only got one thing done bc ive only actually been WORKING for like two and a half hours. let’s try to figure out where all that extra time went”

drawing is my job and if you're finding the stuff i post helpful + can spare a buck or two, there are a couple ways you can support what i do, and it would mean a lot.
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i guess this should have been either at the beginning of the thread or the end for Aesthetics but i don't know when or... or honestly IF i'll be done posting these (i'm enjoying it and i'm sure i'll never run out of problems to talk about) so i'm just shoving this in here now

i dont really know if this is Hashtag Relatable or if it's just a me problem, but i've been running into it a TON since switching to setting my own schedule at home a few months ago

sometimes you do have to work your days off. that's just how life is. but this becomes a problem for me bc i struggle to work my day off when im tired, and only get Some work done, then the next day i go "well you still didn't work a full day yesterday," etc etc.... see?

it turns into a vicious cycle where next thing i know, it's been like 2 weeks of me burning myself out and i can't remember the last time i took a day off. so for me it's important to respect my days off as a time to regroup, not something i have to sacrifice for poor performance

i also think that especially when you struggle w stuff like executive dysfunction, it's easy to think of the time you spend sitting there putting ALL your effort into trying to do something and just not managing it as "doing nothing" but. that's not relaxing. it's not fun

fighting and fighting and fighting your brain and then ultimately failing is not the same thing as RESTING. losing a day to mental health problems =/= taking the day off, so try not to think of them as equivalent.

this is something i only noticed i was stressing myself out w, like, today. (i even kind of talked about the way i fixate on this earlier in the thread!) i have to remind myself that a corporate 8-hour workday isn't the LAW, and tbh NOBODY can focus for 8 hours straight

some of the days when ive gotten pissed at myself for "not making the most of my day," i was fixating on a number when in reality i did get a normal amount of tasks done. if you find yourself stressing yourself out over time, maybe measuring productivity in to-dos would be better

idk about you guys, but my brain TELLS me when i’m fucking done. i start getting irritable, i get upset every time my drawing program freezes up for a second to autosave, i can feel myself tensing up and losing all ability to focus –

it doesn’t matter if you hit that point less than eight hours in. once you hit it, it’s time to step away and chill.

we talk a lot abt not comparing ourselves to others as a creative, but also be mindful of comparing yourself to like, some kind of perfect superhuman version of yourself - a mythical you who works for 8 hours without breaks and uses up every single scrap of available time

that person doesn't fucking exist! they're fake! you made them up! what can the REAL you do, with the amount of time you can realistically put in per day? focus on building a workflow around that instead.

i think this one is really really a case-by-case/personalized thing - not only bc it applies more to self-employment but also bc i can easily see this not working for everyone. but for Me it's been much better than tossing myself into a yawning stretch of hours w no plan

when i have a lot to do - especially a lot of DIFFERENT things to do where most of it is about as important as everything else - i don't do very well at getting ANYTHING done unless i make a really rigid plan for what order to do things in, and for how long

also re planning a schedule: i've personally found trying to rigidly plan breaks doesn't work for me. i THOUGHT it would, bc planning LEISURE time works for me (i.e. set a timer for an hour and command myself "go relax! go knit or read!)

but when i try to schedule in "ok start work at 12, take a 15min break at 2:30" - half the time i either don't need a break yet then and i don't want to fuck up my flow, or i needed the break an hour ago and i've spent an hour restless and distracted!

but if i have no structure at all, i'll take what was supposed to be a 5 min break and accidentally stretch it into a half hour. what i've been doing instead is i can take as many microbreaks (to refill water/use the restroom) as i want, whenever i want, but they have 2 be brief

obviously i don't stick to any of this stuff like a robot and also everything i've put in this thread is stuff i'm TRYING to do, not stuff i've mastered sticking to. but having benchmarks to TRY for has been helping me a TON