#I've been doing it literally since preschool but that's an unrelated story

[rederiswrites]

Permaculture is one of those things which....ugh, I don't know. On the one hand y'all are talking sense in a world that's mostly still excited about gardening and farming techniques that actively damage the world. On the other, damn, you can sure be pretentious about it.

I'm watching a video, and she's like, "I'm assuming you're invested enough in permaculture that you know about the 12 Principles and the 5 Zones" and I'm like....no? So I look it up, and the 5 Zones thing is just, "Put stuff you interact with more closer to your center of operations." Sincerely, that's all it is.

I already did that, bro. That was common sense. It's great that you've got a system and that you've broken "common sense" down into teachable directives, but you're out here acting like "put greens and herbs and chickens near the house and pasture and woodlots and things you don't have to interact with daily further away" is the Ten Commandments or something.

I can't express my discomfort totally clearly yet, but at some point your teaching tools actually become shibboleths of the permie in-group and barriers to outside understanding, when it is sometimes very easy to express these concepts in a way that's readily accessible to most people with any experience with gardening or farming at all.

[dayseternal-blog]

Hello DAYS8! I know this might even not be answered but I am fascinated by some of the fans on how they could balance their life and read and write naruhina fanfics in their spare time. As a student, I struggled a lot these past few months and was fixated on ALWAYS reading Naruhina fanfictions, as in I wouldn't even do my school works and completely procastinate then later cram a LOT just to satisfy my self in reading everyday ALL about naruhina fanfics. It was a stressful lifestyle I got used to back then. Now, I stopped reading since Saturday but I kinda miss reading stories such as that, but maybe taking a break on Naruhina can help me control my life to for a bit. It always feel like I need to finish a lot of fics in a rush like that's just probably wrong. But can you give some advice as to how I can balance Naruhina and my personal + school life? thank you ( ꈍᴗꈍ)!!

Sorry my grammar sucks and not the best out there :)).

Hello! I feel for you. I was a mess in college who procrastinated to the moon and back. I simply didn't do readings. I showed up to some classes unprepared. I was so busy with club/organization activities that I rarely ever talked to my long-distance boyfriend (now my husband). Somehow things worked out and I graduated with relatively good grades. If I went back to that time as the person I am now, I find it difficult to imagine myself handling it any better. I think I was doing my best.

To be upfront, I am generally not a "balanced" person. I don't know what kind of person you are, but I'll share some parts of my life so that I can kind of reflect on what "balance" means to me now and how I've been trying to deal with it. This is an ongoing struggle for me.

A handful of years ago, I was working full-time, attending a competitive online graduate school, and had a preschool-age daughter. At that point, I was also writing "It's No Secret," "Nightdreams," and "Catskin." I was so stressed out, fanfiction was my escape. I'm pretty sure this is a trend across fandom. I noticed that some of the longest works were written during the writers' most stressful times according to the author's notes. I was so unbalanced, and I would bet that many fanfiction authors write their "best" works during periods of their life that they would rather not revisit. I was working so hard, I was mentally checked out on the weekends. My family suffered for it. Taking out fanfiction would not have made my life any easier or more organized. I was stressed. And taking away the space for my brain to unwind in a completely unrelated topic from my real life would not have improved it.

I learned a lot about myself concerning self-discipline during those years.

I need physical location restrictions placed on me. I would do my work at a tea shop that I could easily stop at. Any homework I didn't finish would have to be left for the next day. I tried my very best to not do my work at home. Once I got home, it was relaxation time. Yes, there were nights when my daughter did not see me.

I literally used a student school planner to assign myself what needed to be done every day. I could not go home until I had checked off what needed to be done or unless the tea shop was closing. Once in a while I really did stay until closing. That was an important time restriction. If you can find some place to work that has a time restriction, like a school building that closes at 9:00, that would be a good place to go. Time restrictions not self-imposed force my procrastinating butt to get things done.

I was most productive at a tea shop. Somehow, libraries put me to sleep, home is too distracting, college study rooms are literally the worst, and working outdoors is too difficult. The liveliness of a tea shop coupled with the treat of bubble tea did the trick. Yeah, I spent a lot of money back then. I now wonder if I couldn't have just made my own tea.

I could not do fanfiction until I was done with my day's work. My current restriction now that I'm not in school is that I cannot do fanfiction when I'm at work. I cannot look at fanfiction on my phone unless I'm at home for professional reasons. My workplace locks up around 5:00. I can only write my fanfiction after my daughter is in bed. (Place & Time restrictions)

I will burn myself out for the sake of my work. This is something that I cannot compromise because I refuse to do anything half-heartedly. My family was suffering for my work when we all know that family should be the first priority. So two years ago, I had to change job placements to a less demanding community. That was the only solution. Had I continued working at my old placement, I would have never been able to prioritize my family.

I am most definitely a procrastinator. But procrastination is absolutely fine as long as you're actually getting it done by the deadline. I am also a workaholic. I am secretly competitive. I am prideful and desire to be the best. In the end, something always gets neglected, and at various times of my life that's been my then-boyfriend, my daughter, or my personal health; for me, there is no such thing as true balance. Currently, I am not working as hard as I used to because the community simply doesn't need as much of me for me to achieve good results. I am as "balanced" as I can possibly be right now.

After all that personal reflection, here are a few reflection questions that might be helpful for you:

As a procrastinator, how can you get other people and places to impose restrictions and deadlines on you so that you get your work done? This could be a study partner who has a similar schedule to yours, a building or shop's closing hours (this works for me), or a mentor/advisor (someone who is not your close friend) to set clear expectations and hold you accountable. This might look like asking for someone to sit down with you and help you break down all of your class' assignments into daily tasks. As a procrastinator, these daily tasks MUST feel imminent, meaning it MUST feel like you have to get it done otherwise you're screwing yourself over for the rest of the week. You must always have an urgent sense of "I have to get this done NOW or I'm screwed." If you don't feel like that, then honestly you're not going to get anything done. Speaking as a fellow procrastinator.

How can you romanticize your work to motivate you to enjoy doing it? How can you reward yourself WHILE doing your work? For me, this was a bustling tea shop with bubble tea. For early birds, it's seeing the sunrise and settling into a comfy chair as soon as the Student Center opens before the rest of the student body wakes up. For studyblrs, it's using cute gel pens, blue and pink highlighters, stickers, washi tape, cute post-its, and adorable notebooks; it's taking photos of and documenting their productivity on social media with little coffee cups (check out the #studyblr on tumblr). I had a coworker who would format spreadsheets at home while watching tv dramas. I saw students doing schoolwork while staying in the dining hall to have access to food and a stimulating atmosphere. Maybe you can find someplace that has attractive workers/other students. Nothing like surrounding yourself with cuties. Basically, how can you make your work feel as little like work as possible?

Unfortunately fanfiction cannot be read while working. That's just not possible. So if you want to continue to read fanfics, where and when is it appropriate for you to do so? While you eat dinner? After you study? Between classes? For me, it's weekends and after my daughter is in bed. And then you need strong reasoning as to why that is the only appropriate time and place. My workplace is my workplace. Fanfiction would be unprofessional. I can't have the tea shop workers catching me reading smut. My daughter loves to read. I can't have her asking me to read fanfiction to her. Basically, try to not be alone for most of the productive day, that way the temptation to read isn't there.

Do you want to restrict what device you read fanfiction on? Maybe you can only read fanfiction on your phone, and that leaves your laptop strictly for schoolwork. You could even go as far as to block fanfiction websites on your laptop.

I don't know what you're majoring in, but I have a tip for notetaking on readings that I wish I knew in college and that I only picked up in grad school 😩. If you know you will eventually have to cite text evidence for a future paper or something, while you're doing the readings, copy the quotations you like word-for-word into a Google Doc. Put the page number next to it. That way you don't have to ever go flipping through the book or article ever again. You don't have to highlight. You don't have to dog-ear pages. You just copy-paste that bugger from your list straight into your essay when it comes time to cite your evidence.

Good luck. Stay strong. Fanfiction should be a place to relax rather than a place to feel guilty!