applying the wire brush of perspective...

[rmd]

so, i've been freaking out for part of today because my attempt to write a 5-7 page paper for my class has turned into a complete throwback to my previous kind of ADD-style study habits. i've been doing okay until now, and all of a sudden, when it moves from 'discuss' and 'read' to 'research and write', it's like NAILING JELLO TO THE FUCKING WALL. and then we had two rounds of monsoon. and then, i went downstairs to grab some big trash bags and i had a whole nother round of freakout because my basement had water in it (no higher than it's been in past floods - the sump pump was running but utterly overwhelmed). and i couldn't find the trash bags. and my house is a pit. and and and. *rmd flails around*

so, i went upstairs and had a moment of meltdown at clauclauclaudia. she asked if i'd seen the tree across the street. the what?

a very large tree (largest on the street, i think) across the street had come down on the two houses next to it. the powertool noises i'd been vaguely aware of were people chainsawing it apart. the damage was pretty much as minimal as could be hoped, considering -- had it fallen in any other direction, there would be damaged cars, or it would have taken down all the power/comm lines for the street.

but man, way to go, universe! that, right there, is how to serve up a big serving of perspective for me.

having finished my freakout and had a nice glass of water, i'm feeling much better. plus, a tree didn't fall on my house, so things could be much worse.

Comments

[kjc.livejournal.com]

If you need help with someone sitting next to you & reminding you of writing behaviors that are good for papers and also that work for ADD-types, let me know. (Outlining, quote scrounging, thesis writing, support statements, no new data in the conclusion, etc.)

I know you're mostly past the ADD stuff, but one trick that might help you is to time how long you can concentrate. And whatever it is (10 minutes, 20 minutes, 23.5 minutes), you can use that to work, then take a 3 minute break, then a work chunk, break, etc.

And I'm a professional now! My students all love me when I do this! It won't suck, I promise.

No charge of course. I owe you so much karma, I can't think of a metaphor big enough.

Also, WOOT! FOR NO TREE ON THE HOUSE nor downed power lines.

Second that strategy

[kellyjmf.livejournal.com]

That used to work for me as well. And we use that with Susan when she's in that dithery state. I suggest she set the timer for 20 minutes and she's able to (mostly) focus for that long. Then she sets the timer for a break, 5-15 minutes depending on how much she has to do and how well she's been doing so far. Sometimes I give her a choice of 5 minutes to do whatever or 15 minutes to clean her desk (she often chose to clean, which has the added bonus of making it easier to focus on the next round). But always with a timer.