Yessi's ADHDstudyblr♡

Daughter of Athena, ADHD-CombinedType, substitute teacher special ed. primary school. My tag: #studyblrforbeginners Tracking: #heyyessi

[ms-demeanor]

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.

[ms-demeanor]

Oh also some knitters do this thing where the second you finish making one sock you cast on the second sock and do at least a few stitches so that you don't get killed by inertia and have one sock finished and one sock never started forever.

A while back there was a Tumblr post about doing the same thing while writing fiction - when you finish one chapter don't call it quits for the day, write a sentence or two if the next chapter do that you aren't starting from a blank page, you're continuing what you were doing before.

The same thing applies to work and homework and housework. If you finish your english homework *don't* decide that's the perfect moment to take a break, get out your algebra textbook and do a problem or two first.

Initiating tasks is a kind of executive function, but sometimes executive function is in short supply and you can bank some effort by continuing one task from another instead of having harsh breaks between tasks.

[vibetingz]

Omg I be doing this and it is actually so helpful with making a smooth transition for me regardless of energy level. Like it already feels more doable because I’ve already started, I can gauge my productivity better by choosing how far I need to prioritize the task—without guilt!— since it seems less daunting to navigate in the first place!

[cyarskj1899]

From IG annabodneydesign

[ed-recoverry]

THERE ARE NO USELESS MAJORS!!

Learning about theater is important! Learning about art is important! Learning about sociology is important! Learning about history is important! Learning about anthropology is important! Learning about philosophy important! Learning about music is important! Learning about English is important! Learning about dance is important! Learning about photography is important! Learning about art history is important! Learning about ethnic studies is important! Learning about theology is important! Learning about performing arts is important!

Usefulness does not equal high income!

All education is important!

[s-n-arly]

Skip Google for Research

As Google has worked to overtake the internet, its search algorithm has not just gotten worse.  It has been designed to prioritize advertisers and popular pages often times excluding pages and content that better matches your search terms 

As a writer in need of information for my stories, I find this unacceptable.  As a proponent of availability of information so the populace can actually educate itself, it is unforgivable.

Below is a concise list of useful research sites compiled by Edward Clark over on Facebook. I was familiar with some, but not all of these.

⁂

Google is so powerful that it “hides” other search systems from us. We just don’t know the existence of most of them. Meanwhile, there are still a huge number of excellent searchers in the world who specialize in books, science, other smart information. Keep a list of sites you never heard of.

www.refseek.com - Academic Resource Search. More than a billion sources: encyclopedia, monographies, magazines.

www.worldcat.org - a search for the contents of 20 thousand worldwide libraries. Find out where lies the nearest rare book you need.

https://link.springer.com - access to more than 10 million scientific documents: books, articles, research protocols.

www.bioline.org.br is a library of scientific bioscience journals published in developing countries.

http://repec.org - volunteers from 102 countries have collected almost 4 million publications on economics and related science.

www.science.gov is an American state search engine on 2200+ scientific sites. More than 200 million articles are indexed.

www.pdfdrive.com is the largest website for free download of books in PDF format. Claiming over 225 million names.

www.base-search.net is one of the most powerful researches on academic studies texts. More than 100 million scientific documents, 70% of them are free

[stardustemotions-deactivated202]

One day you think: I want to die. And then you think, very quietly, actually I want a coffee. I want a nap. A sandwich. A book. And I want to die turns day by day into I want to go home, I want to walk in the woods, I want to see my friends, I want to sit in the sun. I want a cleaner room, I want a better job, I want to live somewhere else, I want to live.

[hamletthedane]

Want to learn something new in 2022??

Absolute beginner adult ballet series (fabulous beginning teacher)

40 piano lessons for beginners (some of the best explanations for piano I’ve ever seen)

Excellent basic crochet video series

Basic knitting (probably the best how to knit video out there)

Pre-Free Figure Skate Levels A-D guides and practice activities (each video builds up with exercises to the actual moves!)

How to draw character faces video (very funny, surprisingly instructive?)

Another drawing character faces video

Literally my favorite art pose hack

Tutorial of how to make a whole ass Stardew Valley esque farming game in Gamemaker Studios 2??

Introduction to flying small aircrafts

French/Dutch/Fishtail braiding

Playing the guitar for beginners (well paced and excellent instructor)

Playing the violin for beginners (really good practical tips mixed in)

Color theory in digital art (not of the children’s hospital variety)

Retake classes you hated but now there’s zero stakes:

Calculus 1 (full semester class)

Learn basic statistics (free textbook)

Introduction to college physics (free textbook)

Introduction to accounting (free textbook)

Learn a language:

Ancient Greek

Latin

Spanish

German

Japanese (grammar guide) (for dummies)

French

Russian (pretty good cyrillic guide!)

[hamletthedane]

Want to learn something new in 2023??

Cooking with flavor bootcamp (used what I learned in this a LOT this year)

Beekeeping 101

Learn Interior Design from the British Academy of Interior Design (free to audit course - just choose the free option when you register)

Video on learning to read music that actually helped me??

How to use and sew with a sewing machine

How to ride a bike (listen. some of us never learned, and that's okay.)

How to cornrow-braid hair (I have it on good authority that this video is a godsend for doing your baby niece's black hair)

Making mead at home (I actually did this last summer and it was SO good)

How to garden

Basics of snowboarding (proceed with caution)

How to draw for people who (think they) suck at art (I know this website looks like a 2003 monstrosity, but the tutorials are excellent)

Pixel art for beginners so you can make the next great indie game

Go (back) to school

Introduction to Astronomy (high school course - free textbook w/ practice problems)

Principals of Economics (high school course - free textbook w/ practice problems)

Introduction to philosophy (free college course)

Computer science basics (full-semester Harvard course free online)

Learn a language

Japanese for Dummies (link fix from 2022)

Ukrainian

Portuguese (Brazil)

American Sign Language (as somebody who works with Deaf people professionally, I also strongly advise you to read up on Deaf/HoH culture and history!)

Chinese (Mandarin, Simplified)

Quenya (LOTR fantasy elf language)

[theunaestheticstudyblr]

This is me telling you with your face in my hands that if you failed a class, that's ok! That if you didn't even go to your final because you knew you were going to fail that class, that's ok! That if you were passing until you bombed the final, that's ok! That if you sent a panic email to your professor the night before grades were due asking if you could do anything and got a negative or no response, that's ok!

Failing a class doesn't make you less. Failing a class or a whole semester doesn't immediately comment on your value or worth or intelligence. Your grades don't reflect you. Maybe you work a full time job or two outside of classes. Maybe you have kids. Maybe you are going through a bad mental health episode. Maybe you've experienced a death, a divorce, a breakup, or another major emotional event. Maybe you lost your job or housing. There are so many things that you don't receive grace for in academia because you're expected to perform perfectly regardless of everything else.

So listen to me. FAILING A CLASS OR A SEMESTER IS OK! Give yourself the grace you'd give to a stranger or a friend coming to you crying and distraught because they failed. You wouldn't tell them that they're stupid and lazy and should have worked harder. You'd comfort them and tell them that it's ok. You need to give yourself that same energy babe.

[stoned-perregrin]

How I Annotate Non-Fiction Books:

Step one gathering supplies. The supplies you need will be based on your needs and the text you are annotating so feel free to fit this to your need or habits.

For physical books: highlighters, pens, sticky notes, page flags, index cards, the book/document

For digital books: your device or choice (might do an in depth post of digital texts later)

step two- creating your key

For small documents, I tend to stick to one color (each of my classes are assigned a single color).

For Longer documents, with lots of information, I will create a key for example:

keys should be based on what information is most important. In my history classes dates and names are more important whereas in a science class terms and chemical formulas may be most important.

You should also keep in mind why you are reading the book/document. For example: Are you reading to write a book report? Then it would be best to highlight the thesis and any points you wish to bring up in your review.

some parts of your key will most likely not need writing down after they become habit, for example after highlighting an important term, I will underline the definition of the term. (I personally tend to under highlight)

very important highlighted text will also get a page flag so that it is easier to find when reviewing, write a review, etc.

step three- your first read through

break the reading into smaller segments, for example. if you are reading a textbook or information-dense book you may wish to use headings or subheadings as your guide for this. if your text is not already broken into smaller section resign yourself to summarizing after every few paragraphs

You can write your summaries in whatever way suits you, your habits, or the book you are working with.

For this book I am writing my summaries in index cards, but I could have written them in sticky notes, or in a notebook (physical or digital.) I have tried all of these techniques and I like them all and tend to switch between them.

On the back of my summary cards, I write the page numbers the information was pulled from so that I can more quickly find the information if I need to quote it.

Feel free to ask questions in the replies or in my asks!

[studyblrforbeginners]

POV: mental health and financial struggles were the reasons why you had to quit your studies. You accidentally roll into a similar line of work to the work you were studying for and now your boss wants to pay for you to go back to uni to start studying again.

[teapotacademia]

iced coffee and mid sem preparation

[midiport]

i know vitamin c basically neutralizes adhd meds but lemonade good

[midiport]

yea lol

ADHD Medication information sheet

[brazenautomaton]

I have been struggling

For a long fucking time

with why my adderall was having such uneven effects and varying efficacy

and the weird pattern of what made it work and not work and if it was building up in my system or not

and fucking nobody told me I shouldn’t drink a glass of Kool-Aid to take the pills with

or eat fucking Pop-Tarts or Life cereal

this is the most useful information I have ever received from tubr and it seems to be confirmed by several other places upon searching

so this actually should be spread like wildfire like actually

[firebirdscratches]

Me reading this realizing tunglr dawt kom gave me more information about my medication than MYDOCTORRRRRSSSSSS MYYYYYYYY FUCKENNNNN DOCTORSSSSS PLURAL MULTIPLE DOCTORSSSSSSSS

[perpetualanachronisms]

Reblogging to spread this ridiculously important info

[whoisme-iisme]

Also if you are ANEMIC and take IRON SUPPLEMENTS DO NOT TAKE WITH CAFFEINE. No coffee, caffeinated tea, etc. The caffeine will block iron absorption and you won’t actually get any of that iron that you just took!!

[qvackjack]

@/ainotame says it best here. Don’t blindly trust what people tell you about medication or illness (physical or mental) on Tumblr. Or any social media site for that matter. Ask your doctor. If it sounds iffy, get a second opinion.

[studyblrforbeginners]

Tldr: leave abt an hour between taking ur adhd meds and anything w/ vitamin c

[ittybittytatertot]

So it’s very late but I want to share the best piece of wisdom my mother has ever offered me.

One time, when I was having a very hard time, bad enough that I admitted I was struggling to my mother. My mother looked at me and told me: “Don’t make big decisions in February.” 

I was very confused, because it was not February at the time, but she explained that one year, when she was younger but old enough to live on her own, she was having a very hard time, much like me. She found herself feeling especially low and especially stressed in February. And she decided she wouldn’t make any big changes for the rest of the month.

And the month went by, and she had a hard time, but time passed and it happened that by the beginning of March, she was feeling a lot better. And she was able to make big decisions she had avoided in February.

So now it’s a mantra for me: Don’t make big decisions in February.

February being whenever I feel down or angry or stressed. 

Boss or coworkers being crappy? Don’t make big decisions in February.

Feeling lonely and it’s 2am and you have a bottle of hair dye just sitting on your bathroom sink? Don’t make big decisions in February.

Give yourself space to think through your decisions. Bad moods rarely give you the best judgement. Anxiety disorders, depression, and other mental illnesses will try to convince you the wrong decisions are the right ones, and in the moment, they sound very convincing. 

So give yourself time to figure out if that’s what you actually need, what you actually want, and what would maybe feel good in the moment but have consequences you’re not willing or ready to deal with.

Try not to make life changes in February, whatever February is for you.

[ethanrayne]

I know this is a post about February as a metaphor for rough times, but as someone whose rough times ARE February (and who’s known many other people for whom February is rough, either due to seasonal depression or just the bad luck of life shit hitting around then all the time), I highly recommend not making big decisions in ACTUAL February as well, unless you’re 100% doing well in February. Because, well… February is terrible.

[jenroses]

My birthday is in February and I can attest it is fucking vile.

[studyblrforbeginners]

This is sound advice and I have not stopped thinking about this advice since I first saw it

I will always follow this advice!

[studyblrforbeginners]

Full offense

I don’t respect people who think they’re better than others because their education was “higher” or “better” than others. You know the kind of people who say people who went to uni are better than people who went to college. Or the kind of people who mock others for not knowing something they might not even have had at school.

They’re on some elitist, classist and ableist bullshit.

Educate don’t ridicule. Be kind or get lost.

[timelyreminder]

Did you remember to take your medication today?

Stay healthy folks!

And don’t forget to do any exercises or other activities recommended by your doctor. Those are important too.

Happy scrolling!

Art by nardacci-does-art

[timelyreminder]

Did you remember to take your medication today?

Stay healthy folks!

And don’t forget to do any exercises or other activities recommended by your doctor. Those are important too.

Happy scrolling!

Art by nardacci-does-art

[emailgf]

I wish everyone would admit that classic literature is inherently difficult to read, and that you shouldn’t feel stupid if you don’t “get it”. Especially the dark academia/ classic lit fandoms and stuff. Like unless you have the vocabulary and pop culture knowledge of an 18th century nobleman, it’s going to be a tough read. It’ll take you longer to read; you’re not stupid if you’ve spent several months on a single book! And you don’t have to enjoy everything. It’s okay if you got bored after one chapter of Wuthering Heights, and couldn’t be bothered to read the rest. It’s okay if you want to read your favourite kids book for the 10th time instead. You’re not stupid. No piece of literature is inherently better, more “important”, more “meaningful”, or more “intellectual” than another. First and foremost, read what brings you joy.

[adhdpie]

‘am i Having A Brain Problem or Being a Shithead’: a short procrastination checklist

aka why tf am i procrastinating on The Thing (more like a flowchart, actually)

lots of people who have executive function difficulties worry about whether they’re procrastinating on a task out of laziness/simply wanting to be a jerk or mental struggles. this checklist might help you figure out which it is at any given time! (hint: it’s almost never laziness or being a jerk.) (obligatory disclaimer: this is just what works for me! something different might work better for you.)

1) do I honestly intend to start the task despite my lack of success?

yes: it’s a Brain Problem. next question

no: it’s shitty to say one thing & do another. better be honest with myself & anyone expecting me to do the task.

2) am I fed, watered, well-rested, medicated properly, etc?

yes: next question

no: guess what? this is the real next task

3) does the idea of starting the task make me feel scared or anxious?

yes: Anxiety Brain. identify what’s scaring me first.

no: next question

4) do I know how to start the task?

yes: next question

no: ADHD Brain. time to make an order of operations list.

5) do I have everything I need to start the task?

yes: next question

no: ADHD Brain lying to me about the steps again, dangit. first task is ‘gather the materials’.

6) why am i having a hard time switching from my current task to this new task?

i’m having fun doing what i’m doing: it’s okay to have fun doing a thing! if task is time-sensitive, go to next question.

i have to finish doing what i’m doing: might be ADHD brain. can I actually finish the current task or will I get trapped in a cycle? does this task really need to be finished?

the next task will be boring/boring-er than the current task: ADHD brain. re-think the next task. what would make it exciting? what am I looking forward to?

I might not have enough time to complete the task: ADHD brain wants to finish everything it starts. (if task is time-sensitive, go to next question)

i just want to make the person who asked me to do it angry: sounds like anxiety brain trying to punish itself, because I know I’ll be miserable if someone is angry at me. why do i think I deserve punishment?

no, I seriously want to piss them off: okay, i’m being a shithead

7) have I already procrastinated so badly that I now cannot finish the task in time?

yes: ADHD brain is probably caught in a guilt-perfection cycle. since I can’t have the task done on time, i don’t even want to start.

reality check: having part of a thing done is almost always better than none of a thing done. if I can get an extension, having part of it done will help me keep from stalling out until the extension deadline. i’ll feel better if I at least try to finish it.

no, there’s still a chance to finish on time: ADHD brain thinks that I have all the time in the world, but the truth is I don’t. 

reality check: if i’m having fun doing what I’m doing, I can keep doing it, but I should probably set a timer & ask someone to check on me to make sure I start doing the task later today.

8) I’ve completed the checklist and still don’t know what’s wrong!

probably wasn’t honest enough with myself. take one more look.

if I’m still mystified, ask a friend to help me talk it out.

hope this helps some of you! YOU’RE DOING GREAT SWEETIE DON’T GIVE UP ON YOU

[tealdearest]

This is…entirely too real lol

[adhdpie]

#i do. have trouble figuring out the first step.#like idk if i’m really intending to get it done or lying to myself (via @lightspren )

you’re not the only person who’s expressed trouble with the first step, so I’m gonna elaborate just a little on the concept of intent.

‘Intending to act’ can be rephrased as ‘expecting yourself to do the thing’. 

It’s the difference between your teacher giving you homework (your teacher expects you to do the homework) and you deciding to do the homework (you expect yourself to do the homework).

I don’t think you can lie to yourself about whether or not you intend to do something. even as a person who often doesn’t have a real concept of how much I can actually get done*, I can always tell when I don’t really expect myself to do a thing vs when I do expect myself to do it but I’m struggling to start.

below is a list of things that might help you tell if you really intend to do a thing. if even ONE of these is true, I believe you honestly intend to do the task you’re struggling to start.

do you want to do it? or alternatively: do you want the benefits from doing it enough to do it?

even if you don’t want to do it, do you expect yourself to do it?

can you imagine yourself starting the thing? (even if you don’t have a plan for how to get there.)

do you have even a nebulous plan for doing the thing? (my ‘plans’ often start out: ‘1. go to wherever I have to be to do the thing 2. do the thing 3. ???? 4. profit’, which isn’t much of a plan but at least there’s a sense of starting and ending.)

are you trying to force yourself to do the thing by not allowing yourself to start any other things first (and thus continuously scrolling through twitter/tumblr, or staring at your ceiling, or whatever)?

are you trying to make yourself do the thing by offering yourself rewards for doing the thing?

again: 

if even ONE of these is true, I believe you honestly intend to do the task you’re struggling to start.

and this isn’t an exhaustive list of ways to tell you’re planning to do it! you know yourself best, and you can develop ways to tell the difference between your good intent and your wishful thinking.

procrastination is a hell of a monster, especially if you don’t have normal executive function. be nice to yourself! you are a decent person and want to do good things.

*the real problem ADHD people seem to have (or at least, the problem I, an adhd person, often have) is intending to do too much. my to-do list for any given day usually overestimates both how much time I have & how much energy I have. as a result, I can honestly intend to clean my room, do the dishes, and do my budget in one day, but I’ll probably only end up doing 2 out 3 things b/c I’ll run out of time or energy before I get to the last one. 

this isn’t a problem of lying to oneself about your intentions: this is a problem of lacking time-awareness & self-awareness, and it demands better scheduling. this list can’t really help with that, unfortunately. :(