#hinris

How to be at least semi-productive when you physically struggle to be in 5 easy steps

I have been in a hole of despair for a couple weeks now. Maybe you have, too. It’s a hole of lying in bed, eating a little, being unable to do much and, most importantly, finding it hard to enjoy anything at all. If you haven’t sought help yet, I would encourage you to do so, since it may reflect an illness, physical or mental. For me it’s my mental disorder, so I can justify it. I also know why it’s acting up. And I’m happy that I can still find just a little bit of motivation to try and fight back. 1. Make a meal. Make that last frozen pizza in the fridge. Nibble on a cucumber or on a piece of bread. Chances are, if you’re like me, you haven’t gone shopping in a week and you have next to nothing at home. If you still live at home, you probably don’t have to take care of these steps. Eat something very simple (try to make it healthy, too) and drink some water or herbal tea.

2. Let there be light.

Light that candle. Light those fairy lights. Draw your curtains. Turn on the desk lamp. Make your workspace as bright as possible.

3. Work with time increments.

Lately I’ve started setting my iPad to 30 minutes. I will work for those 30 minutes and then I will either feel like I’ve done something and not the awful stinging guilt or I will feel motivated enough to either continue the task or to switch to some other task. Feel free to tinker around with the times, maybe 25 minutes will be better for you, maybe you’ll want a system of breaks and working times. I’ll leave that to you.

4. Rest.

I can’t stress this enough. If your body is acting up like this, you need rest! This is just an emergency plan for work in case you are getting squeezed by deadlines and can’t spend the whole day in bed. 5. Only plan out 1 or 2 more major things per day. I have gone to uni and started my project today, I will paint in the evening. Tomorrow I’ll continue the project and I’ll go shopping. On Sunday I am tutoring so I’m doing only that for the whole day, etc. etc. Save the little energy you have and use it on the thing that needs it the most! I hope you get better soon, you deserve to be just as functional and productive as you’d like to be! <3

I think “Finnish Tutor” is good! It covers from A2-B2, so I don’t think I could have started using it much earlier, but seems to be okay from someone who has been studying for a 1yr+ casually. 

Each chapter has some grammar explanations, then some exercises (i.e. fill in the gap with the correct word, or the correct form of the word), then a reading exercise and lastly a topic to write about. Answers are given at the back for the exercises. 

The grammar explanations seem fine to me, but are definitely more appropriate for someone who has a bit of a background in Finnish grammar already rather than someone learning it for the first time. 

The exercises and texts are definitely not easy. The book’s introduction states it is aimed at people who have studied Finnish before, so for example could be better to cover Suomen Mestari 1 and 2 (or equivalent) first before this book.

Covers lots of good topics: hobbies, daily routines, housing, life story, celebrations, education, employment, etc., etc.