Tips for when caught daydreaming
*This is my personal experience so it might not come handy to you. And warning, this is way too long compared to it’s usefulness.
Basically all you need to do is tell people obvious white lies. The type: “What are you doing?” “Nothing”. Cause it helps. A LOT. Also there’s a lot of downright blatant lying. I know, it makes you feel guilty but as I said. It helps a lot. The next examples work best if someone who knows you walks in on you.
Caught talking/muttering to yourself: I was thinking out loud about this super funny thing./ I’m memorising something out loud.
(It’ll be good if you think of something beforehand to always use if you’re not good at lying.)
Caught pacing in your room: I’m feeling a bit stuffed so I thought pacing might help.
Moving or shaking arms/legs: My muscles were feeling stiff./ I was feeling pinpricks.
Staring/Lost in thoughts: I was thinking of something. (I know this one’s tricky because that’s what all madders do and when people ask what were you thinking, it takes hell to answer. So what you need to do is take your time. Blink a bit, shake your head a little, just take your time coming back from your thoughts while thinking of what you “were thinking”.)
Caught listening to music: Helps me memorise things. (Having a page of notes etc. comes handy)
Do some other small gesture: Oh, it’s a bad habit of mine, and actually it runs in the family (come up with ancient family members, I prefer dead ones).
Do some other big gesture: Usually the workout/stiff muscles etc. excuses work fine.
And then my motto: Don’t lie to them, but don’t tell them the truth either.
Basically change the topic to something entirely different. Don’t get mad at them for walking in on you. Don’t let the awkward moment of silence take place either. Try to be quick and change the subject.
And when you have to tell them then act like it’s no big deal.
“Oh, pfft, it’s nothing. I was thinking about something silly. (Why you thought I was going mad? Not today hun.)”
And if they ask what you were thinking pretend to start telling what you were thinking then go blank. “Yeah, actually I was thinking about. Wait, what was I thinking about again. Damn, I forgot when you interrupted me.” (My personal favourite)
And these tricks might not be useful when you’re outside but I personally find them handy.
- Have your headphones on even if you’re not listening anything. In fact don’t listen to anything. That way you’ll be more aware of your surroundings while you can pretend you’re singing along in case you slip into daydreaming.
- When pacing (ofc it depends how deep you get into it) try to act bored or frustrated, as if your date told you they’d be there in 2 minutes but are taking 2 hours.
- For both muttering/talking and pacing you should also remember it’s not as bad as you think. There are plenty of non-madders who do both. They might be in a hurry, or they might be pissed, or they might have a habit of literally talking to themselves (not paras). So just be calm. But if you still want to just try to slip into that attitude of a busy business person, or the forgetful parent who talks to themselves etc.
- Depending on what you’re wearing you can point at your ears or do some other obvious gesture to point that you have wireless headphones on.
Although in school I don’t have that much experience, usually it’s good to just let it slip by. No one really sticks to it as much as you fear they do. However, if there’s someone who does bug me about it I usually tell them that I listen to what the teacher’s saying but then there’s always something I don’t understand and while I try to figure it out I miss on rest of the stuff. And if they ask you why don’t you just ask the teacher you can always play the shy/embarrassed card.
As I said these were/are handy personally for myself and you lot might find them useless, offensive and mean. I get your point. But yeah, I just hope that at least one of the points might come handy to at least one of you :)
