Feeling hassled but not hopeless

[np_complete]

The good feelings of this weekend have mostly dissipated, replaced by the draining fatigue of a week of bad sleep and not enough of it.  I guess I need to sacrifice caffeine, for real.  I can get to sleep, but not stay there

Comments

[wickedgillie]

One thing I do to help improve focus at work is to play the same specific album on repeat through the task. When the album ends, I may use that time to trigger taking a walk around and get a coffee break, or if I'm really in tune with what I'm doing, I keep going. Because it's a known album, it's ambient noise, which triggers work, but not the same excitement/anticipation when the playlist is unknown. I've painted paintings to single albums streamed over days. It really does cue focus. Also, it drowns out and gives me permission to ignore other noises around me. I am in my bubble, focusing.

For kitchen and other stupid tasks like that, I set a time for 10-15 minutes. If I'm really feeling like a slug, I'll challenge myself to load or unload as many items from the dishwasher as I can in the amount of time it takes to reheat my coffee in el microwave. Incremental progress is still progress. And visible progress motivates me like whoa.

[np_complete]

Thanks for the suggestions! I use earplugs to block out ambient noise when I need to concentrate, since even music can be too much of a distraction. But I should - to mix your suggestions - try playing it when I'm doing housework. That might help me to do more for longer.

I am feeling better today, having sought sleep early yesterday. It helped an awful lot.