struggling spoon trying her best

So you know how you can't make yourself put your hand down on a hot stovetop? There's a part of your brain that stops you from doing that? That's what Neurodivergent Can't Do Task Mode™ feels like

Even if we want to do it, there's a barrier stopping us from doing it, and it's really hard to override

And why does our brain see the task as a hot stovetop? Because when neurotypicals finish a task, they get serotonin, but we don't get that satisfaction after completing a task. A neurotypical wouldn't get serotonin from putting their hand on a hot stovetop, it would just hurt. When we can't do a task, it's because our brain knows that the task will hurt (metaphorically) and wants to avoid that.

It's not that we're choosing not to do the task, it's that our brain is physically preventing us from doing it.

Neurotypicals can and should reblog but please don't add anything

&I am a mentally-ill student who has struggled with school since high school. Over high school and a year and a half of university, I’ve found this is what works for me.

This is a guide of things you can do for yourself, but I am no mental health professional and I always recommend seeking a professional to help you. 

Reminders

You are a good student.

You are not lazy. 

Your mental illness and the stress of school just makes things difficult for you, but it isn’t impossible.

You’re allowed to fail and make mistakes - you’re only human. You are more than your illness and you are so much better than you realize.

Take care of yourself. You deserve it. Your mental health is more important than academics. And your mental state won’t last forever.

Deal with your mental illness!

Medication. Medication is an important part of recovery. Don’t be afraid to try medication if your doctor suggests it. Medication will balance your out-of-whack brain chemicals so you can work on taking care of yourself. It’s a trial-and-error process and you will find what works for you after some trials.  

Get professional help. Don’t be afraid to ask for help. Seek a counselor/therapist who works well with you. There should be a myriad of mental health resources on campus, and if not, check the Internet or your local community.

Journal. Or draw. Or play music. Express yourself creatively to get those emotions out. Friends/family won’t always be available for you, so learn to deal with your emotions by yourself.

Let your professors/TAs know. Hopefully you have some sort of accommodations plan set up with the university, but if not, DO IT. I don’t like to disclose my mental illnesses to them, but I let them know my academic struggles. 

Do not fall behind - stay as productive as possible.

(source)

Try to go to class no matter what, no matter how anxious or depressed you feel. Unless you’re so sick that you can barely pay attention in class, try to attend class. You can always leave early if you need to. If class makes you anxious, go anyway to train yourself that you’re safe, you’re okay, and it’s never as bad as it seems. Here are some tips on how to stay calm at school. The mere act of going to class can give you a boost. Try paying attention and be productive. Don’t worry about taking in absolutely everything the prof says. Just take the time to learn. Use relaxation techniques, such as deep breathing (in four seconds, hold four seconds, out eight seconds), tense and release your muscles, count down from 100, etc. If all else fails, doodle things related to the lecture. You’ll feel better. Skipped a lot of class? Get back on track in one day.

Write everything down! I can’t stress this enough. Whether it’s a planner app on your phone or a bullet journal or a cheap planner from the dollar store or even a sticky note on your wall, keep track of everything you need to do. Make to-do lists. If you’re easily overwhelmed, write down only three things you need to do that day. Make it as simple as possible. Check your planner every day. You don’t want to miss a deadline because you forgot it.

Do something everyday. Anything, even tidying your desk, to give you a sense of accomplishment, to not give you a “zero day” and make things worse. Just do that thing. Review your notes every so often, even if it’s only for 5 minutes. If you have a big assignment to do, break it down and work on it a little bit. How to start working when you don’t really feel like it

Use the 2-minute rule(s). This is probably the most effective rule I’ve ever used. If it takes you less than 2 minutes to do something, do it right now and finish it.  There is another rule with this name: only do the task for 2 minutes. If you can’t get started on something, just do it for 2 minutes. After 2 minutes, you can stop. Chances are, you’ll keep doing the task for more than 2 minutes. And if you don’t? Take a break and try again. You’ll get something done.

Start on an assignment right away. Even if it’s just an outline for what you plan to do with it. Or make a very rough draft to edit. 

Set fake deadlines. Your essay might be due in a month, but your outline for your essay is due a week after today, your research notes due a week after that, and a draft a week after that. Write down deadlines 2-3 days before they’re due. You can use those extra days to edit and have someone (your peer, a TA, an older student, the prof) look over it.

Get ahead. If you get ahead right away, by the time you fall behind you’re just on track. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve done this, had breakdowns, and still managed to hand things in on time. 

Ask for deadlines early. This is the one thing I have difficulty with. If you need extra time, ask ahead. You might not always get the extra time, but it doesn’t hurt to ask. Professors tend to be very understanding.

Are you behind anyway? Get back on track in one day.

Need to get a lot done near the end of the semester? Use this guide.

Stay motivated!

Make a “self-help kit”. Write down reasons why you need to study. Print out pictures of pictures and quotes that inspire you. Write down self-care ideas. Write down songs that make you feel better. Print out self-help guides that pertain to your mental illness(es). This kit is something you will refer to when you need a pick-me-up and you can’t bother your friends/family/significant other. (You can, however, always bother your pet.) Here are some pictures from my kit to help you get started:

Understand that motivation is a finite resource. You will never be motivated all the time. Don’t feel bad if you’re having a “blah” day.  Don’t feel bad if you have a “blah” week. This is where the self-help kit comes in handy - you can motivate yourself right away rather than breaking down.

Don’t be hard on yourself. You are capable of great things, but not when your mental illness(es) have a grip on you and you can’t shake it off, no matter how hard you try. You will probably have bad days, and that’s okay. Don’t let it deplete your motivation.

Stay organised!

Your brain may be hectic, but your workspace and your life doesn’t have to be. You don’t have to be super-organised - whatever works for you, do it.

You want to be organised so you can avoid unnecessary stress and wasting time. When you’re organised, you can be more productive and have a better sense of inner peace. Plus, an aesthetically-pleasing study environment can help you boost your mood!

Here are some posts to help you get started.

The Only Organisation Tips You’ll Ever Need

How to get organized (tips from a horrible procrastinator)

How I Organize by learhning

Organisation masterpost by elk-studies

Inbox zero for students

Take care of yourself!

Get enough sleep. Sleep is very important for your mental health. You want sleep to help you consolidate the information you’ve learned in school. And you’ll feel so much less stressed out. Obviously this won’t always happen, especially around the end of the semester, but put in effort to get good sleep. Generally, you’ll want to use your bed only for sleeping and relaxing. Try to go to bed at the same time every night and wake up at around the same time. Here are some tips on how to sleep easy.

Eat properly. You need to fuel your brain! Don’t binge, and don’t forget to eat. Try to eat some fruits and veggies every day. Eat regularly and drink a lot of water. This all sounds cliche but it really works and good foods really help you feel better. Feeling physically healthy, at least for me, helps me mentally as well. You don’t have to eat healthy all the time. You can eat junk food to de-stress. Don’t feel guilty for eating junk food. The point is to have a good balance. Just don’t make your entire diet junk food, and you should be fine. You don’t have to spend a lot of time on your food. Here are some tips for eating when you have zero time.

Exercise! For the mentally ill, exercising is often the last thing we want to do, but exercise just has too many benefits to not do it. You don’t even have to go to the gym. Take walks and do some simple exercises in your room. There are so many workout videos on YouTube - my personal favourite is blogilates, but they’re perfect if you feel too anxious at the gym. Go with friends to the gym if you can. Try to do something every day if you can, but even a couple days a week should help.

Write down things you need to do. Self-care is all about staying healthy and doing things you need to do (eg. chores), even when you don’t want to. You can always enlist the help of friends/family, but independence is key when they’re not available. If I feel like there’s too many things I need to do, I pause everything, take out a piece of paper, and write down basically everything that needs to get done. Then I tackle each item, one at a time. Even if you don’t finish the list, you’ve gotten things done, and there’s less on your mind.

Don’t study everyday. You want to do something productive everyday, but it doesn’t necessarily need to be studying. Use 1-2 days of the week where you don’t study. This will help avoid burnout.

Here are some self-care posts that I recommend:

What to do when you don’t know what to do

Comic for when you’re feeling overwhelmed

Self-care masterpost

Masterpost for rough times

Other resources for getting through college with mental illness(es):

General

How to conquer college with mental illness

Neurodivergent and Studying: Tips & Resources

College and Chronic Illness: 19 Tips to Study Strong and Fight the Fog

A self-care masterpost to get you through school

Studying while dealing with stress/anxiety/mental health issues

Anxiety

Study Tips: Overcoming Anxiety

What not to do when studying with stress/anxiety

Ways to Avoid Burnout at University

How to be productive when you’re anxious

Depression

Coping with Depression at University

Studying with Depression

21 Tips to Keep Your Shit Together When You’re Depressed

Tips from bloggerforstudentprogress

3/30/100 days of productivity ~ a small trace of laziness

i didn’t post this last night because… meh, laziness. it disappeared today, but this feeling invades me a little, a few times every week.

one of my wishes with this 30dop/100dop challenge is to overcome my fear of challenge and failure. one of the topics i struggle the most with, is posting consistently and approaching other people for help. so 2021 is the year for that~

above, you can see a physics problem i enjoyed fully. also, a wide shot of my complex analysis summary notes, for this week. and as a small bonus, my favorite take of yesterday’s sunset! one of my friends helped me with editing it to recover some of the vibrance in the colors.

11.01.21

• 12|12|20 •

Today we, my boyfriend and me, made pizza snacks(?), we like to eat pizza every Saturday but we wanted a ‘variation on the theme’.

20201203

Me spending time on the subject I actually want to study? More likely than you think

2020 November 21st

● Seize time opportunities. If I have 15 minutes until your next class, I sit down and do homework in the hallway. If I have a long commute, I’ll do flashcards. This works because you most likely won’t have anything else to do anyways, so it’s easier to get your work done.

● Start something. When I get a lab report assignment, the first thing I do is pull up the directions and at least start the cover page and pull up some research links. It takes 5 minutes but it gets the ball rolling and makes it more likely that you’ll finish what you started.

● Auto-mode. When I procrastinating, it’s usually because I’m too busy thinking about what I’m going to do. Instead, I like to pretend I’m in “auto-mode” and just get started as fast as I can. auto-mode means shutting out distracting thoughts or pleas to watch one more funny cat video and forcing your hands to open your textbook. Works every time.

● Personally, creating time schedules don’t work for me because if I fall out of time, the whole schedule falls apart and I usually give up. Instead I use time games. I’ll tell myself something like “work as hard as you can until 11:00 sharp and if you finish, you can have a break”. This is great for developing self discipline because it’s in the moment so you can be more realistic and flexible.

● I don’t like writing down earlier due dates in my planner because it’s confusing so instead, it’s good to have some sort of mental rule. for example, my mental rule is to finish everything at least two days before the due date. following through with that will keep you on track.

● Do a little bit every day. If you have a big project, chip at it within a week rather than stressing out 2 days before it’s due. the same goes for studying for an exam. if you review lecture notes and attend office hours after class + work on flashcards throughout the week, then do a final review at the end, you’ll be well prepared and won’t need to cram. It’s a good habit and you won’t get stressed. Two birds with one stone.

● Use mornings too. I’m not really an early bird, but using mornings to get some work / chores done is great because it gives you a productive start to the day, which makes you feel proud of yourself for knocking out half of your tasks in the a.m. 

a. Lay out your lecture notes / worksheets on the table the night before and open your work tabs on your computer so they’ll be the first thing you see when you turn on your computer.

b. Put your computer far away from your work space and go to sleep.

c. When you wake up, the first thing that you’ll see is your ‘paper’ work, so get it done first. then start on your ‘screen’ work (you’ll be less likely to get distracted if you do your ‘paper’ work first). when you open your laptop the first thing you’ll see are the work tabs you opened the night before. Your job is to go on auto-mode and get started.