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To no one’s surprise, I failed again. It worked for three days, then I had enough and started grabbing my phone first thing in the morning, and I’m back to square one. For more context, seeWhen I Have All the Tools, I'll Be Productive.
The first day was fine; it was really hard, but it worked out. The second day, just getting back to work after eating took too much willpower. But then it all went downhill when I discovered I could actually order some anime merchandise online.
I told myself I’d just pick myself up and get back to the plan, but… yeah, the following days were spent on Reddit, YouTube, and even Instagram, which I almost hate as much as TikTok (I’d still post on them if it comes to it ;p).
Two weeks passed, and I went to minimum effort for minimum results. I had to do some school work, but when I was free again, I allowed myself the weekend to make a more comprehensive and detailed plan because the last one was too vague.
I spent three days coming up with a detailed plan that is more suitable. I even did some research (or what I call research) to find better strategies.
The “Research”
First, from this point forward, I’m assuming I have ADHD because… lots of reasons. I looked at a few resources, and by a few, I mean only 12 or so 20+ minute videos on YouTube. I’m not going to go too deep into everything I learned, but here are my takeaways.
"Atomic Habits" is a huge book, so I checked out some summaries of it. Also, I found a video titled “How to make your life suck to save up on focus“—I mean “How I fixed my attention span”. I also checked a view lessons from the Alux app. and last but not least something about “Curated External Cues“. When I finished I ended up with the following:
The 1% Rule which I interpreted as “as long as you’re doing better than yesterday you’ll get there“.
Reducing Friction basically, do what you can to take the decision from your hands and make things as automatic as possible.
Introducing a Fun Element try to add some excitement to menial tasks, like listening to music or making a game out of brain-tasking tasks.
Meditation apparently, it works; you just have to “trust the process.” Well, I’m that desperate, and I’m giving it a go.
Adapting a Learner’s Identity Like many people, I derived my self-worth from being the smartest in the room. I thought I was being competitive when I met someone who could challenge me. I was mostly threatened. Adopting a learner’s identity teaches you that there is value to be gained, especially when you’re not the smartest in the room. I’m still working on this one myself.
Curated External Cues so this dude from ADHDVision sounds sincere but also does a great job in making his method sound too good to be true. Long story short, he made a platform where you book a session with a few strangers to keep yourself accountable for a period of time. Sessions are available 24/7. Anyway, he has a good deal right now, but I think I’m getting somewhere without needing to spend too much.
The Application (so far)
Since dopamine fasting wasn’t a great idea, what I’m doing now is having an hour of free time at the end of the day. But it isn’t enough, so I add an hour for every two productive hours of that day.
Progress: I mostly succeeded in preventing myself from consuming too much too early, but I still can’t put the phone down after I pick it up in my free time, so instead of sleeping at 11 pm, I sometimes go to sleep at 3 am!
As for the 1% Rule, I still do worse on some days than I did the days before, but I still see more growth overall compared to the weeks before. What really matters is staying positive, picking yourself up, and not fixating on the negative.
Reducing friction wasn’t easy, to be honest. I only got myself an app blocker that I pause more than I’m proud to admit. But what really worked is having an alarm on my smartwatch one minute before my alarm on my phone all the way on my desk. So if I don’t want to wake up my roommate, I at least stay awake so I can stop the alarm on my phone. After that, it’s much easier to start my morning routine, which I’m proud to admit worked more than half of the time.
Introducing a fun element might be the hardest. Boring things are just boring. One thing that worked was putting on a podcast or video with no important scenes while I did my laundry. But I have plans like keeping a certain streak on GitHub for a reward (haven’t started yet, don’t check my account!).
Meditation actually kinda works! It really helps to regain your focus, but also practicing mindfulness and gratitude can wash most of your worries away, allowing you to enjoy your days, bad and good.
So far, I’ve been doing this for the last two weeks. I assign different tasks to different days and have a free day where I do whatever I want (can’t tell if it’s a good idea yet!). Except for the morning routine, I don’t plan anything on the day right after I plan out the coming week.
This seems like it’s going to work. Whether I become the productive person I want to be or try new things, I’ll probably share it here again. So stay tuned and buy me a coffee if you enjoyed reading this!
