This may or may not be used often, who knows tbh | Harley | They/She | Freshman in College with ADHD | Main is Harley-the-pancake if you want that chaos
this is your gentle reminder to stop fighting against your adhd and instead structure your life around it
buy a pack of chapsticks and put one in the pocket of all of your coats and jackets because you always forget to bring one and chapped lips is sensory hell
leave important things where you can see them. if they go in a box or a drawer you will forget they exist
put any appointments or deadlines in your phone calendar As Soon As you get them. set a reminder for a week before, a day before, an hour before, as many as you need as often as you need them.
when that little voice in your head says "i dont need to write that down, ill remember it" that is the devil talking!!! write it down anyway!!
plan for down time. have a few hours at the end of every day to just do fun stuff like engage in your hyperfixations. even if you didnt get all of your work done that day, have the rest anyway. you probably spent the whole day beating yourself up for not doing what you Should be doing, so you still need the break.
if you never eat vegetables because its too much effort to chop and cook them, get the frozen or canned shit. it doesnt go off for ages and you just have to microwave it. theres no point buying fresh vegetables if they just keep going off and being left to rot in the bottom of your fridge
if you struggle to decide what to have for dinner every day, take the decision out of it. choose a set of meals and eat those on rotation until you get sick of them, then choose some new ones and do it again.
its not stupid if it works! our brains literally have a chemical deficiency. you are allowed to accommodate yourself. go forth and stop making your life more difficult than it has to be because "this shouldn't be this hard". it is hard, so make it easier.
If you're someone who struggles with interoception (knowing/understanding what your body is feeling):
if there's a task, especially a recurring one, that you find difficult to do and that you keep avoiding, check whether you're in pain or physical discomfort.
For a long time I would avoid doing tasks like showering because they nebulously made me feel 'bad' or i just instinctively felt like avoiding them. It wasn't until I got a shower chair that I realised standing to shower was causing me pain. My bodymind knew that on some level but didn't tell the conscious me.
Similarly with sensory aversions (things you don't like). Before I got kitchen gloves, I did the dishes but it took me a long time and I never wanted to. Afterward, it got a lot easier to motivate myself.
"But how can you not know you're in pain/uncomfortabke?" Extremely easily if your brain is wired a specific way or if you were taught, intentionally or not, to downplay your own experiences or distance yourself from your body.
There's no shame in struggling with these things. hope y'all are having nice days and you're able to do something today that makes it a little easier.
once i master my adhd and stop believing that iâm waiting for my life to begin and accept what i cannot change and finish cleaning my room and stick to a productive schedule and drink enough water and meditate and organize all the important papers in the paper pile and start being consistent and say the nice things to myself and gain confidence its OVER for you bitches
Grian is modern Kermit - He tries to keep things together, he's often instigating the plot and organizing things, but occasionally crashes out in a hilarious fashion
Scar is Fozzie - I mean this one is just really, really obvious to me. Like I'm not even gonna explain. Waka waka
Etho is Gonzo - A mystery creature, in the most positive and beloved way. Every time you learn new lore about him you're like ?????
Gem is Miss Piggy - I'm not saying it because like ha ha girl character, but because of the duality between "I am god's favorite princess" and "HI-YAH!" No need for further elaboration so I will not
Bdubs is Jim Henson era Kermit - yeah you wondered why I said "modern" Kermit above, didn't you. My initial thought was Bdubs as Kermit, but then I remembered how different that some more recent iterations of Kermit are from the OG Muppet Show era Kermit. OG Kermit as played by Jim Henson himself had more of a biting edge and sharp tongue, but still in a silly and lovable way. Still crashes out hilariously
Zedaph is Bunson Honeydew - he is up to EXPERIMENTS and you will never know what he is going to do
Mumbo is Beaker - THIS IS NOT A DIG I LOVE MUMBO SO MUCH, but I couldn't get the image out of my head of him nervously going "mee mee mee mee" while Zed does an experiment on him, so now you have the image as well
Impulse is Scooter - This one isn't one of those "I refuse to explain! >:D" ones, this one I wish i could explain but I simply can't
Cleo I struggled with but I have settled on them paired with Joe Hills as Statler and Waldorf - These two really excel in metahumor and sarcasm, and their jokes are usually on an entirely different level
Cub is Rawlf - This one also just felt obvious to me, they're both a calming presence among some chaos, often offering wisdom
Ren is Dr. Teeth - They have that cool guy vibe, dude. They're both just so groovy
I know that's not all of them (Muppets or Hermits) but that's all I got for now, I really just needed to talk about the first couple or I'd explode
If you struggle with anxiety, overwhelm, or just plain feeling like a failure, I have a mantra for you thatâs been really helping me out lately:
Just show up.
I used to skip class because the whole thing was so overwhelming: I had to get dressed in something clean even though I never had the energy to do laundry, walk to school, sit in class for up to three hours, plus pay attention, take notes, and participate in discussion. In reality, I was being a perfectionist, and life would have been a lot easier for me if I had Just Shown Up. By staying home because of my depression and anxiety, I wasnât giving myself the chance to do any of that. I was such a perfectionist that being a âbadâ or average student was unthinkable, so I stopped being a student at all.
If youâre having trouble getting something done, Just Show Up. You donât have to be employee of the month. You donât have to be valedictorian. Just Show Up.
ime it also helps to be like âyou dont have to stay the whole time, you just have to goâ bc most of the time once youre there itâs fine. a lot of things are like that, like⌠you dont have to finish the dishes, just start them. a lot of the time once you start a task itâs easier to finish than to stop, especially if you can trick yourself like âafter five more minutes if i still feel bad iâll go homeâ or âafter washing two more dishes i can stop for todayâ
even if you donât finish the task, you started it, and by completing part of it you lessened your future workload and ALSO taught your brain that things may not be as daunting as they seem
There's a bunch of adhd advice out there that's like "people with adhd tend to work better under deadlines due to the anxiety so here are ways to artificially induce a stress response in order to get you to get work done" and it's like well what if I don't want to be stressed out all the time in order to function
hey loves, Iâve been reading through the comments and loads of people are asking how to not fall into this pattern because thatâs all they know. so, hereâs some advice from Auntie Pan whoâs been in the trenches (stress-caused disabilities and chronic illnesses).
context: grew up in an abusive, controlling home, escaped to uni, had a prolonged mental breakdown, became a teacher and worked in a dysfunctional school with amazing kids and nightmare management for years. I did not realise I have adhd and autism for a long time. (You might even be able to scroll back through this blog to find the time around which I did realise lol.)
ANYWAY, things that have helped me because my body can no longer handle any kind of stress without flaring up:
If youâre doing anything that requires you to do a lot of prep before you begin the actual thing (e.g. cooking, deep cleaning a room, moving house), mise en place. Thatâs a fancy french way of saying get everything ready before you begin. So if Iâm cooking idk spaghetti carbonara, that means fry and chop the bacon, separate the egg yolks from the whites, put water in the kettle, put dry spaghetti into a pan. Once everythingâs ready, it reduces the mental load and means I can focus on the actual cooking and any clean up that I can do along the way. H/t to @ms-demeanor for this, you changed my life!
the Might As Well rule. This one works really well for me but you gotta be careful otherwise youâll get sucked into the Vortex. Basically, letâs imagine youâre in the bathroom, brushing your teeth. You notice that the extra roll of toilet paper has been used. instead of thinking, âIâll get to that laterâ, and then forgetting about it until you sit down on the bog (no judgement, weâve all been there), you think âMight As Well put an extra roll while Iâm here!â This tends to help with the little tasks that build up over time. This Does Not Work for big tasks.
Leading on from no.2, Do It Immediately/ASAP really helps me too. My current boss will email me on a Friday and say, âdonât reply to this now! Leave it til monday!â But she and i both know that if i leave it til monday, I will forget and get stressed and this will make me Very Ill. So, instead, the moment i receive the email, Iâll either schedule in replying to it as soon as Iâm done with my current thing, OR Iâll reply to it immediately.
Anything that canât be actioned immediately, i mark as Unread. Anything Unread in my inbox is a future action, and i check those Unread emails/texts/whatevers Every. Day. To make sure whether today is the day i have the info to action it. (This also means i have to stay on top of my inbox. I read all my emails and then mark them accordingly. Iâm also brutal with unsubscribing)
The House Always Wins. Both in a literal sense, because i am in a constant battle with keeping my house clean, and i know now that Iâll never get it as clean as i want it. Itâs impossible, i no longer have the energy or stamina to vacuum and scrub everything. But also just in a life sense. Iâm never going to achieve things to perfection, and perfect is the opposite of done. And getting things done is that much more important when you have limited energy and strength. Accept that you often have to half-arse life in order to Full-Arse the few things that really matter to you.
Have multiples of everything, everywhere. I wear support gloves, so i need to have handcream at every sink and everywhere i sit down in the house. I try to keep it unobtrusive, but it means i donât have to trek upstairs just to moisturise my hands. Gum, phone chargers, pens and pencils, water bottles, hand sanitizer, whatever you need.
Work with people, even if itâs online. Body doubling actually works. Also Iâve found that if Iâm working on assignments, taking myself to a library or study area that isnât my bedroom helps so much.
Show off! Tell people on here or elsewhere in your life about the fact that youâve just written 100 words! Or that youâve cleaned the fridge and thatâs a really big deal for you. Celebrate your wins, no matter how small.
Basically, youâre aiming to reduce the mental load as much as possible. Wear the same types of clothes all the time to minimise the amount of laundry. Eat the same three lunches so decision fatigue doesnât take over.
All of this takes time to implement and it is cumulative, but i hope it helps. Reading the comments on this post, i finally understand why adhd is comorbid with so many other conditions. letâs take care of each other <3
For anybody looking for resources from someone dealing with actual ADHD, I have an incomplete but ever growing list of ADHD tips, tools, and suggestions on my website.
A lot of the pages on that site are adapted from my tumblr posts, for instance I'm adapting this post about car repair projects with ADHD into a guide on project management and completion with ADHD.
(Red links are stuff that I've got planned but haven't published for reasons that are probably clear to anyone looking for ADHD advice online)
Pissed you can't read books the way you used to when you were a kid? Sick of the same old stupid tips that never work? Here are some methods that have helped me, your local chronic ADHDer. This will be written in short chunks that are easy to digest and bolded in key spots for the sake of my readers. Let's dive in.
-ACCEPT THAT IT'S GOING TO BE CHALLENGING
I mean it. Really sit with yourself and accept that this is going to be harder for you than it will be for people without adhdâbut also understand that challenge does not make something impossible. Expecting it to be easy is just going to piss you off and make the experience unpleasant, and as we all know, an unpleasant task is one that usually doesn't get done.
-PUT YOUR GODDAMN PHONE AWAY
Even just having your phone in your field of vision reduces concentration (Anecdotal evidence. This may not be true for you.) So put it away. Put it behind you. Put it in your pocket. Put it on the shelf. You don't have to lock it away in the depths of the underworld or anything, but make sure it's not too easy to pick it up and "just check a few notifications."
-USE TIMERS
Set a timer. In the beginning, I want you to stick to five to ten minute increments so you can retrain yourself to sit still and concentrate. You can stack as many of those five/ten increments as you want, but don't go over that until you feel like you're readyâand also be aware that on bad days, you're going to have to drop back down to the smallest increments. That's okay. ADHD is a roller-coaster. We know this.
-GET THE DAMN BOOK OUT
Just get it out, even if you're not sure you want to actually read. Once it's out, it'll be easier on you because that's one less task you have to initiate and complete to actually get to reading. Which brings me to a related tip...
-TRICK YOURSELF
Tell yourself you're not going to read, you're just going to get the book out. Once you've done that? Tell yourself you're just going to find a comfy spot to sit. Then you're going to open it to where you left off. Then you're going to read just for five minutes. Before you know it, you're absorbed!
-FOCUS ON WHAT YOU LIKE
Don't focus on how hard this is, how much you need/want to do this, how frustrated you are, or any of that. Focus on what you like about reading. The sense of accomplishment. The peace of mind and expansion of your worldview. Getting to see the blorbos do stuff. Whatever it may be, let that be the dominant thought in your mind, because initiating a task is not going to generate the feel-good chemicalsâbut doing something you like WILL.
-FUCKING RELAX
I'm serious. The more worked up you get, the harder it will be. Reading is for fun, for enrichment. Treat it that way. If you can't bring yourself to read that day, or you read less than you wanted, forgive yourself. You're doing this on hard mode.
Please let me know how these tips work for youâand if you find them useful, please share with your other neurodivergent friends!
An incomplete list of reasons why crafting helps my mental health (and might help yours, too):
It stops me from doom scrolling: can't go on social media if my hands are full of yarn.
It gives me a sense of agency: a lot of things are messed up in a way that's beyond my control, but I can make something that didn't used to exist. It's evidence that I'm alive and I can impact the world, even if the impact is small.
It builds my tolerance for mistakes: I grew up a perfectionist , which is really bad for my wellness and my ability to complete tasks. But crafts are a great source of low-stakes mistakes to help me learn how to handle imperfection. And while there are certainly mistakes I'll always fix, I also have many opportunities to decide a mistake is acceptable and leave it in favor of getting to the finish line.
It interrupts rumination: even if I'm still chewing on some troubling news, it's not front of mind if I need to focus on getting this seam straight or whatever
It helps me meet good people: although there are obvious exceptions, I've found most craft-centered spaces (IRL and online) to be full or supportive, kind, helpful people in all walks of life
It encourages a growth mindset: I'm always learning new things in crafting, and that builds my identity as someone who can grow and improve.
And finally, making your own clothes is empowering: I know this is specific to fiber crafts, but it's important. When you make your own clothes, you flip the notion that you're supposed to "fit into" a certain size and instead remember that clothes are supposed to fit you. You get to learn how to dress the body you have with love and care, instead of allowing manufacturers decide how clothes should look.
â¨Welcome to the Ghoulboss Guide to Studying Without Implodingâ¨
(or: How I Trick My ADHD Goblin Brain Into Not Failing Everythingâ˘)
Hi. Hello. Greetings, traveler. Youâve stumbled upon what looks like a list of âtips,â but let me be perfectly clear:
You do NOT have to read this.
I am not your dad. I am not your therapist. I am not a productivity girlie who wakes up at 5AM to drink matcha and plank while manifesting stocks. I am an unmedicated chaos beast with ADHD, hyperactivity, and a long list of academic crimes.
BUTâI also have a deeply blessed, borderline divine study coach who helped me stop spiraling long enough to figure out a system that actually works for my weird lil spooky brain. And now Iâm sharing it with you. Because if I can go from crying into my homework to slaying my to-do list with eyeliner sharp enough to breach the veil, so can you.
Since the tips I screamed into the void a few weeks ago actually helped some of you feral creatures, hereâs a fresh batchâthis time more general, for juggling studies, writing, and staying (somewhat) organized without selling your soul.
Do I follow these tips every day? No.
Sometimes I play The Witcher Wild Hunt for 6 hours straight and dissociate.
But when I do follow them? I become unstoppable. I become a caffeinated academic hellspawn with cheekbones. I become... functional. And isnât that the dream?
So grab a drink. Light a candle. Put on that eyeliner if you dare.
Letâs get into the cursed rituals and unhinged hacks that keep me passing exams, updating fanfics, and not crying (too much).
Welcome to the Cult. We have coffee and glitter. đ¤â¨đ
đ Step One: I Make a Schedule (and then ignore it until I donât)
I start every week by making a very detailed schedule. Like, minute-by-minute level of insanity. Not because Iâll follow it (lol) but because it tricks my brain into thinking thereâs structure. Think of it as me gaslighting my frontal lobe into productivity.
Color-coded. With emojis. Because I am â¨visually motivated⨠and I will simply not look at a boring spreadsheet.
Fic-writing gets its own slot. Yes. I schedule my delulu. Donât judge me. Or do. I don't care.
Buffer time is sacred. I know Iâll procrastinate or get distracted or cry a little. We budget that in.
đł Step Two: I Eat Breakfast (This is Revolutionary)
Look. I used to skip breakfast. âNo time,â I said, while scrolling AO3 at 6am. Then I started eating a small breakfast (protein + carbs) and suddenly my brain was like "maybe we can understand linear algebra." Food = focus, besties. The mitochondria cannot be the powerhouse of your cell on an empty stomach.
Also, snacks. All the time. I will literally bribe myself with grapes and crackers.
â° Step Three: I Work in 40-Minute Goblin Sprints
40 minutes of focus. Or... mostly focus. Sometimes I end up rewriting my fic's kissing scene for the 18th time.
Then 5â10 minutes of break where I do one (1) of the following:
Walk in tiny angry circles
Do skincare (because Iâm a hot mess but Iâll be glowing)
Yell into a pillow
Read one paragraph of a fic and then STOP. (Don't let it suck you in. You will not return.)
Dance break
Scream Taylor Swift Lyrics
Play guitar for a bit
Literally sit outside to get some air. No, I don't care if it's raining, we're sitting OUTSIDE.
This method keeps my dopamine-starved brain mildly entertained and also prevents academic burnout-slash-complete nervous collapse.
đľ Step Four: Playlists for Everything (I Am a Bard)
I have:
A study playlist (no lyrics or I will start writing a fic in my head about the tragic backstory of a calculator)
A fic-writing playlist (this one is pure unhinged vibes. It goes from Florence + the Machine to Doja Cat to sad piano in 3 songs flat)
A cleaning playlist because my room turns into a hellpit during exam season
A crying playlist for when I need to sob into my emotional support black hoodie for 15 minutes and then Get Back To Itâ˘
Music = brain leash. Tether yourself to the vibes.
I do this thing where between topics, I reward myself with a âmini-task.â Like:
A sheet mask while reviewing notes
Washing my face between chapters
Brushing my hair and pretending Iâm the main character whoâs about to destroy her enemies in the midterms
Itâs like my day becomes a little video game with tasks and cutscenes. Bonus: I stay somewhat mentally balanced and less crusty.
âď¸ Step Six: I Write Fics Because Otherwise Iâll Die
Fic writing is not optional. It's medicine. If I go too long without writing, my soul starts to vibrate in a bad way. Like the ideas rot in my brain and I cannot do sh!t basically.
But hereâs the trick:
I use fic writing as a reward for doing school stuff. Like "Finish this problem set and THEN you can go write about emotionally constipated elves kissing."
OR I do âwarm-up writingâ â 15 minutes of fic before studying. Just to get my brain moving. This has helped a lot those past few weks.
My ADHD is fueled by dopamine. Fic? Full of it. Use it.
đ¤ Step Seven: I May Be a Goth Girlie, But Iâm Not Doing Full Trad Makeup Just to Study
Letâs get one thing very clear: I am not spending 40 minutes crafting a black ombrĂŠ lid and gluing bat wings to my eyelashes just to open my Google Drive. This ainât a photoshoot for Graveyard Vogue â Iâm just trying to survive differential equations.
So we compromise:
I slap on some â¨grunge makeup⨠like Iâm the sleep-deprived extra in a 2003 Evanescence music video.
Eyeliner sharp enough to murder a man and possibly my will to live.
Lip gloss in gray, mauve, or cursed Victorian ghost purple â bonus if it looks like I kissed a corpse.
Itâs hot girl study armor. Itâs not for the vibes. Itâs for combat.
đ§ Step Eight: I Pavlov Dog Myself Into Productivity With Glitter
Listen. My brain has no concept of time, urgency, or consequence. But it does understand pattern recognition. So I made this association:
Eyeliner = â¨Time to slay the exercise sheet, babyâ¨
Every time I do my âacademic warpaint,â I tell myself, "Now youâre a bad bitch with a pen. You are going to finish that exam review. You are not a person anymore. You are a Force."
Repeat until your brain believes it.
Now the moment I put eyeliner on, itâs like my brain goes:
Like Iâm a lil Victorian hound trained to do calculus when I smell setting spray.
⨠Step Nine: Glitter = Emotional Regulation Through Terror
Hereâs the thing about glitter.
Glitter hurts. If I let myself cry during study sessions (which I always want to do), it gets in my eyeballs and suddenly Iâm blind and emotionally unstable. So I donât cry. I physically canât.
Literally me:
Glitter is my emotional chastity belt.
Want to have a breakdown? Too bad. One salty tear and that iridescent speck of lilac becomes a shard of â¨eye glassâ¨.
Glitter stops the tears before they start.
I fear it. And fear is an excellent motivator.
I have trained my tear ducts to retract in horror when they see shimmer.
đ Step Ten: Make Room for Pleasure, You Little Gremlin
Listen. I know it feels like if you donât study 8 hours straight, the gods will smite you, your grades will crumble, and your ancestors will disown you. BUT. You are a human being. With a brain made of sparks and soup, not steel. You need joy. You need dopamine. You need to give yourself a TREAT.
So let me say something that sounds like Iâm running a hedonistic cult in a velvet robe:
âThere must be pleasure in the pursuit of knowledge, or the pursuit will consume you.â
Yeah. Sorry. That just slipped out. Moving on.
đŹ PRACTICAL DEBAUCHERY (AKA TREAT TIPS):
đ§Scheduled snack breaks. Every 40 minutes of work = 1 offering to yourself. Could be a cookie. Could be three Pringles and a Capri-Sun. Could be a grape on a crystal plate. Luxury is a mindset.
đšď¸Games are not a sin. You are allowed to play one round of Stardew, or 10 minutes of Tears of the Kingdom, or one match of whatever shooty game you like. Just set a timer or you will awaken three hours later like you were possessed.
đşWatch something dumb or something you like between tasks. Personally I like watching cursed YouTube videos about deep sea creatures or that one guy who screams about medieval cooking.
đ§źSkincare = holy rite of reset. After a long grind session, go slap a face mask on and walk around like a swamp witch reborn. That is sacred. That is divine. You are replenishing your vital oils.
đ§Treats should be ceremonial. Finish a test? Get your favorite coffee and a cookie. Survived three classes in a row? Youâre getting a croissant and no one can stop you. Every battle deserves a feast.
𪊠BONUS CHAOS TIPS:
Timers are my gods. I have one for everything. 40-minute work blocks, 10-minute breaks, even a 3-minute "cry and then move on" alarm.
I talk to myself like a Sims character. âOkay, now we go brush the teethies. And now we open the PDF, wow good job!!â It helps.
I romanticize everything. Studying is now a tragic montage. Fic writing is a forbidden affair. Cleaning my desk? Preparing for battle. Girl if it doesn't bring whimsy to me, it doesn't belong in my life. Point blank period.
Sticky notes everywhere. Sometimes they just say âremember you exist.â Which is helpful.
I regret to inform my mother⌠that she was right. Cleaning my room does make me feel better. Clearing my desk does make my brain work smoother. And yes, having âa place for everythingâ has, in fact, reduced my weekly breakdowns. I am living my life in smug, reluctant shame. You win this round, Mom.
Decorate your damn space.
Listen. I am literally studying interior design. I know the psychology of environment. You think you're âjust lazyâ? No, babe. Youâre trying to do Greek tragedy-level tasks in a crusty little corner of doom.
Light a candle. Add a blanket. Put up a print that makes you feel like a vampire duchess or 90s hacker or mushroom witch. Your space should whisper âwe do things here⌠powerful things.â
If your desk is cute, youâll romanticize using it. Thatâs just science. (Me, a scientist, allegedly.)
Designate a "sacred corner."
This is your altar of productivity. Could be your desk, your bed, a cursed floor nookâdoesnât matter. Make it vibe. Put all your essentials there: water bottle, pens, tarot deck, stress rock, whatever. When you sit there, your brain knows: itâs time to slay.
Change the lighting. Change the vibe.
You ever notice how you feel godless and insane under overhead lights? Yeah. Same.
Desk lamp = focus mode.
Fairy lights = writing fic while listening to sad girl music.
Candle = cozy academia, maybe a little ritual sacrifice. (JK⌠unless?)
Color-code like your life depends on it.
My calendar looks like a unicorn bled out on it.
Blue = school. Red = deadlines. Purple = fic writing. Pink = self care. Black = Do Not Perceive Me Hour.
Is it chaotic? Yes.
Does it help me not forget I exist in 4 dimensions and have obligations in all of them? Also yes.
I need visual rewards. I am five.
Finish a task? Stick a star somewhere. Literally.
I keep a pack of star stickers and slap them into my planner like a proud Victorian governess.
Sometimes I even get a treat (a cookie, a YouTube short, or emotionally-unwise 6 hours Witcher 3 game session).
Be your own kindergarten teacher. With better shoes.
I keep a âbrain vomitâ notebook.
Not everything needs to be organized. Sometimes you just gotta brain dump like a gremlin. I scribble ideas, half-finished dialogue, to-do lists, reminders like âget milkâ or âGoogle if fish can feel shame.â Itâs a mess. Itâs beautiful. It saves me daily.
Give your tasks unhinged names.
âStudy History Chapter 3â becomes âSurvive the Medieval Warlock Trialsâ
âFinish math problemsâ becomes âMake sacrifice to the Algebra Godâ
âDo dishesâ = âTrial by combat.â
Trick your brain into thinking itâs LARPing.
Assign personas for different tasks.
Studying? You are now Professor Deathblossom.
Cleaning? You are a sexy haunted Victorian maid.
Fic writing? Youâre a tormented poet in a windswept tower.
You must become the drama to defeat the dread.
Set fake deadlines. Fool your future self.
Tell yourself somethingâs due two days early. Lie. Boldly.
Print out a fake syllabus and gaslight yourself into being prepared. Your chaotic brain will never see it coming.
Tell someone your to-do list out loud. Even if itâs your cat.
ADHD brain forgets everything unless spoken into existence like a curse. Iâve explained my entire weekly schedule to my houseplants. They nod. I slay.
Make tiny rituals for everything.
âPut on rings = writing time.â
âSpray perfume = girlboss activation.â
âEat gummy worm = reward from the gods.â
The sillier and more specific, the better. Your brain will eat that Pavlovian shit UP.
⨠REMEMBER:
You are not a machine. You are a little goblin child in human form trying their best with questionable time perception and an espresso dependency.
Study like a scholar. Rest like a demigod. Play like a local forest spirit.
You are not weak for needing joy. You are wise.
You are not lazy for craving reward. You are biologically motivated by shinies and snacks.
You are not indulgent for resting. You are a creature of divine chaos and glitter, and you deserve softness between the storms.
So take your notes. Drink your coffee. Eat your cookie. Play your game.
And then return to your academic altar, winged eyeliner sharp (or not), glitter intact, and ready to fight your assignments with all the fury of a caffeinated dryad.
đŻď¸ In Summary (Now with More Coffee and Denial of Satanic Allegations):
I do not study for school.
I perform an unholy ritual of academic sorcery.
I summon productivity by invoking the ancient spirit of a 2013 Tumblr goth who subsisted entirely on Monster Energy, eyeliner, and spite.
If I cry, the glitter will eat me alive. If I donât, maybe Iâll pass the test.
Balance must be maintained.
I do this with one (1) haunted lip gloss, 400mg of caffeine, and a vaguely threatening to-do list written in Sharpie on my thigh.
I am not a Satanist.
Despite the rumors. Despite the eyeliner.
Despite the small, lovingly curated shrine of offerings I leave for Eros, Artemis, Persephone, and Aphrodite that includes black candles, heart-shaped trinkets, rose petals, spell jars, and a frankly concerning amount of glitter.
(Look. One timeâone timeâsomeone overheard me say:
Iâm goth,
I believe in ghosts cause I've had paranormal experiences
I donât believe in Jesus,
I write smut,
I read tarot,
AND I casually mentioned Eros while sipping my third espresso of the morningâ
And they went, âAh yes. Satanist.â
Because obviously, the only logical explanation for me being queer, hot, spiritual, spooky, and literate is pacting with the devil himself. Right? Makes perfect sense.
[TW: Just to be clear â I donât think Satanism in itself is "bad". A lot of the stigma around it is based on misinformation, fear-mongering, movies, series, and media nonsense. This rant is about people assuming literally anything ânon-Christian + coolâ = Satan.])
So no babe, Iâm not summoning demons to pass my exams and be some sort of stable girlboss.
Iâm manifesting Aâs, romantic subplots, and main character energy with some candlelight, glittery offerings, and emotional damage.
I am a Hellenistic pagan with flair, not a satanic cult leader.
(Though I would be so good at it. Just saying.)
Anyway, Iâve got five pages of notes, 4 espresso shots in my bloodstream, and I just contoured my cheekbones into a hexagonal plane of reality.
Wish me luck.
Iâm about to academically ascend â or combust. Whichever comes first.
If you want more tips, feel free to scream for me in the comments and I shall provide you with more!!
â¨Welcome to the Ghoulboss Guide to Studying Without Implodingâ¨
(or: How I Trick My ADHD Goblin Brain Into Not Failing Everythingâ˘)
Hi. Hello. Greetings, traveler. Youâve stumbled upon what looks like a list of âtips,â but let me be perfectly clear:
You do NOT have to read this.
I am not your dad. I am not your therapist. I am not a productivity girlie who wakes up at 5AM to drink matcha and plank while manifesting stocks. I am an unmedicated chaos beast with ADHD, hyperactivity, and a long list of academic crimes.
BUTâI also have a deeply blessed, borderline divine study coach who helped me stop spiraling long enough to figure out a system that actually works for my weird lil spooky brain. And now Iâm sharing it with you. Because if I can go from crying into my homework to slaying my to-do list with eyeliner sharp enough to breach the veil, so can you.
Since the tips I screamed into the void a few weeks ago actually helped some of you feral creatures, hereâs a fresh batchâthis time more general, for juggling studies, writing, and staying (somewhat) organized without selling your soul.
Do I follow these tips every day? No.
Sometimes I play The Witcher Wild Hunt for 6 hours straight and dissociate.
But when I do follow them? I become unstoppable. I become a caffeinated academic hellspawn with cheekbones. I become... functional. And isnât that the dream?
So grab a drink. Light a candle. Put on that eyeliner if you dare.
Letâs get into the cursed rituals and unhinged hacks that keep me passing exams, updating fanfics, and not crying (too much).
Welcome to the Cult. We have coffee and glitter. đ¤â¨đ
đ Step One: I Make a Schedule (and then ignore it until I donât)
I start every week by making a very detailed schedule. Like, minute-by-minute level of insanity. Not because Iâll follow it (lol) but because it tricks my brain into thinking thereâs structure. Think of it as me gaslighting my frontal lobe into productivity.
Color-coded. With emojis. Because I am â¨visually motivated⨠and I will simply not look at a boring spreadsheet.
Fic-writing gets its own slot. Yes. I schedule my delulu. Donât judge me. Or do. I don't care.
Buffer time is sacred. I know Iâll procrastinate or get distracted or cry a little. We budget that in.
đł Step Two: I Eat Breakfast (This is Revolutionary)
Look. I used to skip breakfast. âNo time,â I said, while scrolling AO3 at 6am. Then I started eating a small breakfast (protein + carbs) and suddenly my brain was like "maybe we can understand linear algebra." Food = focus, besties. The mitochondria cannot be the powerhouse of your cell on an empty stomach.
Also, snacks. All the time. I will literally bribe myself with grapes and crackers.
â° Step Three: I Work in 40-Minute Goblin Sprints
40 minutes of focus. Or... mostly focus. Sometimes I end up rewriting my fic's kissing scene for the 18th time.
Then 5â10 minutes of break where I do one (1) of the following:
Walk in tiny angry circles
Do skincare (because Iâm a hot mess but Iâll be glowing)
Yell into a pillow
Read one paragraph of a fic and then STOP. (Don't let it suck you in. You will not return.)
Dance break
Scream Taylor Swift Lyrics
Play guitar for a bit
Literally sit outside to get some air. No, I don't care if it's raining, we're sitting OUTSIDE.
This method keeps my dopamine-starved brain mildly entertained and also prevents academic burnout-slash-complete nervous collapse.
đľ Step Four: Playlists for Everything (I Am a Bard)
I have:
A study playlist (no lyrics or I will start writing a fic in my head about the tragic backstory of a calculator)
A fic-writing playlist (this one is pure unhinged vibes. It goes from Florence + the Machine to Doja Cat to sad piano in 3 songs flat)
A cleaning playlist because my room turns into a hellpit during exam season
A crying playlist for when I need to sob into my emotional support black hoodie for 15 minutes and then Get Back To Itâ˘
Music = brain leash. Tether yourself to the vibes.
I do this thing where between topics, I reward myself with a âmini-task.â Like:
A sheet mask while reviewing notes
Washing my face between chapters
Brushing my hair and pretending Iâm the main character whoâs about to destroy her enemies in the midterms
Itâs like my day becomes a little video game with tasks and cutscenes. Bonus: I stay somewhat mentally balanced and less crusty.
âď¸ Step Six: I Write Fics Because Otherwise Iâll Die
Fic writing is not optional. It's medicine. If I go too long without writing, my soul starts to vibrate in a bad way. Like the ideas rot in my brain and I cannot do sh!t basically.
But hereâs the trick:
I use fic writing as a reward for doing school stuff. Like "Finish this problem set and THEN you can go write about emotionally constipated elves kissing."
OR I do âwarm-up writingâ â 15 minutes of fic before studying. Just to get my brain moving. This has helped a lot those past few weks.
My ADHD is fueled by dopamine. Fic? Full of it. Use it.
đ¤ Step Seven: I May Be a Goth Girlie, But Iâm Not Doing Full Trad Makeup Just to Study
Letâs get one thing very clear: I am not spending 40 minutes crafting a black ombrĂŠ lid and gluing bat wings to my eyelashes just to open my Google Drive. This ainât a photoshoot for Graveyard Vogue â Iâm just trying to survive differential equations.
So we compromise:
I slap on some â¨grunge makeup⨠like Iâm the sleep-deprived extra in a 2003 Evanescence music video.
Eyeliner sharp enough to murder a man and possibly my will to live.
Lip gloss in gray, mauve, or cursed Victorian ghost purple â bonus if it looks like I kissed a corpse.
Itâs hot girl study armor. Itâs not for the vibes. Itâs for combat.
đ§ Step Eight: I Pavlov Dog Myself Into Productivity With Glitter
Listen. My brain has no concept of time, urgency, or consequence. But it does understand pattern recognition. So I made this association:
Eyeliner = â¨Time to slay the exercise sheet, babyâ¨
Every time I do my âacademic warpaint,â I tell myself, "Now youâre a bad bitch with a pen. You are going to finish that exam review. You are not a person anymore. You are a Force."
Repeat until your brain believes it.
Now the moment I put eyeliner on, itâs like my brain goes:
Like Iâm a lil Victorian hound trained to do calculus when I smell setting spray.
⨠Step Nine: Glitter = Emotional Regulation Through Terror
Hereâs the thing about glitter.
Glitter hurts. If I let myself cry during study sessions (which I always want to do), it gets in my eyeballs and suddenly Iâm blind and emotionally unstable. So I donât cry. I physically canât.
Literally me:
Glitter is my emotional chastity belt.
Want to have a breakdown? Too bad. One salty tear and that iridescent speck of lilac becomes a shard of â¨eye glassâ¨.
Glitter stops the tears before they start.
I fear it. And fear is an excellent motivator.
I have trained my tear ducts to retract in horror when they see shimmer.
đ Step Ten: Make Room for Pleasure, You Little Gremlin
Listen. I know it feels like if you donât study 8 hours straight, the gods will smite you, your grades will crumble, and your ancestors will disown you. BUT. You are a human being. With a brain made of sparks and soup, not steel. You need joy. You need dopamine. You need to give yourself a TREAT.
So let me say something that sounds like Iâm running a hedonistic cult in a velvet robe:
âThere must be pleasure in the pursuit of knowledge, or the pursuit will consume you.â
Yeah. Sorry. That just slipped out. Moving on.
đŹ PRACTICAL DEBAUCHERY (AKA TREAT TIPS):
đ§Scheduled snack breaks. Every 40 minutes of work = 1 offering to yourself. Could be a cookie. Could be three Pringles and a Capri-Sun. Could be a grape on a crystal plate. Luxury is a mindset.
đšď¸Games are not a sin. You are allowed to play one round of Stardew, or 10 minutes of Tears of the Kingdom, or one match of whatever shooty game you like. Just set a timer or you will awaken three hours later like you were possessed.
đşWatch something dumb or something you like between tasks. Personally I like watching cursed YouTube videos about deep sea creatures or that one guy who screams about medieval cooking.
đ§źSkincare = holy rite of reset. After a long grind session, go slap a face mask on and walk around like a swamp witch reborn. That is sacred. That is divine. You are replenishing your vital oils.
đ§Treats should be ceremonial. Finish a test? Get your favorite coffee and a cookie. Survived three classes in a row? Youâre getting a croissant and no one can stop you. Every battle deserves a feast.
𪊠BONUS CHAOS TIPS:
Timers are my gods. I have one for everything. 40-minute work blocks, 10-minute breaks, even a 3-minute "cry and then move on" alarm.
I talk to myself like a Sims character. âOkay, now we go brush the teethies. And now we open the PDF, wow good job!!â It helps.
I romanticize everything. Studying is now a tragic montage. Fic writing is a forbidden affair. Cleaning my desk? Preparing for battle. Girl if it doesn't bring whimsy to me, it doesn't belong in my life. Point blank period.
Sticky notes everywhere. Sometimes they just say âremember you exist.â Which is helpful.
I regret to inform my mother⌠that she was right. Cleaning my room does make me feel better. Clearing my desk does make my brain work smoother. And yes, having âa place for everythingâ has, in fact, reduced my weekly breakdowns. I am living my life in smug, reluctant shame. You win this round, Mom.
Decorate your damn space.
Listen. I am literally studying interior design. I know the psychology of environment. You think you're âjust lazyâ? No, babe. Youâre trying to do Greek tragedy-level tasks in a crusty little corner of doom.
Light a candle. Add a blanket. Put up a print that makes you feel like a vampire duchess or 90s hacker or mushroom witch. Your space should whisper âwe do things here⌠powerful things.â
If your desk is cute, youâll romanticize using it. Thatâs just science. (Me, a scientist, allegedly.)
Designate a "sacred corner."
This is your altar of productivity. Could be your desk, your bed, a cursed floor nookâdoesnât matter. Make it vibe. Put all your essentials there: water bottle, pens, tarot deck, stress rock, whatever. When you sit there, your brain knows: itâs time to slay.
Change the lighting. Change the vibe.
You ever notice how you feel godless and insane under overhead lights? Yeah. Same.
Desk lamp = focus mode.
Fairy lights = writing fic while listening to sad girl music.
Candle = cozy academia, maybe a little ritual sacrifice. (JK⌠unless?)
Color-code like your life depends on it.
My calendar looks like a unicorn bled out on it.
Blue = school. Red = deadlines. Purple = fic writing. Pink = self care. Black = Do Not Perceive Me Hour.
Is it chaotic? Yes.
Does it help me not forget I exist in 4 dimensions and have obligations in all of them? Also yes.
I need visual rewards. I am five.
Finish a task? Stick a star somewhere. Literally.
I keep a pack of star stickers and slap them into my planner like a proud Victorian governess.
Sometimes I even get a treat (a cookie, a YouTube short, or emotionally-unwise 6 hours Witcher 3 game session).
Be your own kindergarten teacher. With better shoes.
I keep a âbrain vomitâ notebook.
Not everything needs to be organized. Sometimes you just gotta brain dump like a gremlin. I scribble ideas, half-finished dialogue, to-do lists, reminders like âget milkâ or âGoogle if fish can feel shame.â Itâs a mess. Itâs beautiful. It saves me daily.
Give your tasks unhinged names.
âStudy History Chapter 3â becomes âSurvive the Medieval Warlock Trialsâ
âFinish math problemsâ becomes âMake sacrifice to the Algebra Godâ
âDo dishesâ = âTrial by combat.â
Trick your brain into thinking itâs LARPing.
Assign personas for different tasks.
Studying? You are now Professor Deathblossom.
Cleaning? You are a sexy haunted Victorian maid.
Fic writing? Youâre a tormented poet in a windswept tower.
You must become the drama to defeat the dread.
Set fake deadlines. Fool your future self.
Tell yourself somethingâs due two days early. Lie. Boldly.
Print out a fake syllabus and gaslight yourself into being prepared. Your chaotic brain will never see it coming.
Tell someone your to-do list out loud. Even if itâs your cat.
ADHD brain forgets everything unless spoken into existence like a curse. Iâve explained my entire weekly schedule to my houseplants. They nod. I slay.
Make tiny rituals for everything.
âPut on rings = writing time.â
âSpray perfume = girlboss activation.â
âEat gummy worm = reward from the gods.â
The sillier and more specific, the better. Your brain will eat that Pavlovian shit UP.
⨠REMEMBER:
You are not a machine. You are a little goblin child in human form trying their best with questionable time perception and an espresso dependency.
Study like a scholar. Rest like a demigod. Play like a local forest spirit.
You are not weak for needing joy. You are wise.
You are not lazy for craving reward. You are biologically motivated by shinies and snacks.
You are not indulgent for resting. You are a creature of divine chaos and glitter, and you deserve softness between the storms.
So take your notes. Drink your coffee. Eat your cookie. Play your game.
And then return to your academic altar, winged eyeliner sharp (or not), glitter intact, and ready to fight your assignments with all the fury of a caffeinated dryad.
đŻď¸ In Summary (Now with More Coffee and Denial of Satanic Allegations):
I do not study for school.
I perform an unholy ritual of academic sorcery.
I summon productivity by invoking the ancient spirit of a 2013 Tumblr goth who subsisted entirely on Monster Energy, eyeliner, and spite.
If I cry, the glitter will eat me alive. If I donât, maybe Iâll pass the test.
Balance must be maintained.
I do this with one (1) haunted lip gloss, 400mg of caffeine, and a vaguely threatening to-do list written in Sharpie on my thigh.
I am not a Satanist.
Despite the rumors. Despite the eyeliner.
Despite the small, lovingly curated shrine of offerings I leave for Eros, Artemis, Persephone, and Aphrodite that includes black candles, heart-shaped trinkets, rose petals, spell jars, and a frankly concerning amount of glitter.
(Look. One timeâone timeâsomeone overheard me say:
Iâm goth,
I believe in ghosts cause I've had paranormal experiences
I donât believe in Jesus,
I write smut,
I read tarot,
AND I casually mentioned Eros while sipping my third espresso of the morningâ
And they went, âAh yes. Satanist.â
Because obviously, the only logical explanation for me being queer, hot, spiritual, spooky, and literate is pacting with the devil himself. Right? Makes perfect sense.
[TW: Just to be clear â I donât think Satanism in itself is "bad". A lot of the stigma around it is based on misinformation, fear-mongering, movies, series, and media nonsense. This rant is about people assuming literally anything ânon-Christian + coolâ = Satan.])
So no babe, Iâm not summoning demons to pass my exams and be some sort of stable girlboss.
Iâm manifesting Aâs, romantic subplots, and main character energy with some candlelight, glittery offerings, and emotional damage.
I am a Hellenistic pagan with flair, not a satanic cult leader.
(Though I would be so good at it. Just saying.)
Anyway, Iâve got five pages of notes, 4 espresso shots in my bloodstream, and I just contoured my cheekbones into a hexagonal plane of reality.
Wish me luck.
Iâm about to academically ascend â or combust. Whichever comes first.
If you want more tips, feel free to scream for me in the comments and I shall provide you with more!!
Okay so when I got sucked into the phantom zone last week while watching youtube shorts a lot of the content it fed me was ADHD tips and a lot of it was either useless for me or redundant but there was one REALLY good tip about taking breaks that wasn't about taking breaks it was about RETURNING from breaks and the tip is: when you are about to go on a break, before you step away from your task (work, craft project, school stuff) decide what you'll do as the first thing when you sit back down at your task and set up your workspace to do that thing.
That means you've got an easy re-entry point to go back to doing the thing instead of sitting back down and having to make a decision or having to reorient from break mode to task mode. You have pre-reoriented and can just go back into working mode.
I've been doing this by circling what my next task on my tasklist is and bringing up the windows that I'll need for the task before I step away from my desk.
Brilliant hack, works great for me, hope it works great for you as well.
Some tips and tricks I use to be productive through my ADHD:
The âeh might as wellâ method. If Iâm going to the kitchen to eat might as well bring all the cups from my room too
Make it inconvenient to ignore. If I have clean laundry that needs to be put away, I will put the basket in my doorway. Now itâs inconvenient for me to sidestep it. I also do this with my homework.
Hiding or making it hard to access distractions. I can slip into doom scrolling on TikTok so what I did is add the fingerprint requirement to open and removed it from my homepage. Now I have to go through 3< steps to get into it.
Make things convenient. I can get overwhelmed by my clothes so in my closet I have a shelf dedicated to comfort clothes. Pj pants and hoodies mostly, that I can quickly grab and throw on when I need them.
Use the âdonât see, donât existâ to your advantage. Most of my crafting supplies sit in the same drawer under my bed. They are (kinda) hidden so I donât get distracted.
Some other random tips
I sort my shirts by graphic, plain or under shirt and sweaters/blouses.
I have my quick grab n go pants next to my most used jackets
I hope these help
Harleyâs Studyblr @pancake-tries-college - Tumblr Blog | Tumgag
s-u-f-j-a-n-s-t-e-v-e-n-s
gracieabrams
