#procrastinates and does this instead of chores

[entomycetic]

Written tidbits for some weird dwarf OCs under the cut so as to not spam the feed; maybe someday they'll get actual drawings and ref sheets :,)

Engineer (Beetle)

- Makes every solution to every problem Far too complex. Much to R&D's displeasure, he doesn't carry turret packages on the job. Rather, he's created his own RC drones with their own set of close combat melee weapons. The drone is able to project a hologram of a dwarf around itself so as to warn teammates where the drone is in the dark; Engie uses a headset to control the drone, at the cost of losing mobility. Yes I want a melee class how could you tell. No I don't care how impractical it is - Doesn't know what to think of Hoxxes anymore, due to current events brought up below - Is gay for Scout. His absolutely bonkers takes amused him

Scout (Dragonfly)

- A conspiracy theorist to the max, avoided by anyone beyond his crew; slightly comparable to a constantly shaking yet vicious chihuahua. He swears to core and back that DRG is only setting themselves up for a major disaster on Hoxxes, that the disruption of local life and food chains is going to come back to bite them in the ass, quite literally. This guy harbors all my little headcanons and love for Hoxxes' biosphere -...And in this timeline, he turns out to be correct! He and Engie found out in a very unfun way, and barely made it back alive. - Is gay for Engie. Someone finally believed him

Gunner (Spider)

- Will vehemently claim he's the Normal One of the group, and in the same breath will furiously defend his Oops! All Ziplines loadout (BFG, zipline, zipline, zipline, pickaxe). Always some level of grumpy until he has alcohol in hand, acts as if he's team leader (and everyone lets him), teases Scout as a hobby, yet still manages to be the most optimistic of the bunch in even the most dire of situations. He insists that the main reason he stays on this team is because they won't let him take such an R&D unapproved loadout with any "reasonable" team. While true, the amount of shit the team had gone through together forged a bond not even he can deny. - While they had been through plenty else, Gunner had been with Engie and Scout when the Conspiracy Fuckening occurred, but was in a separate part of the cave. While he could hear and feel what the other two were experiencing from so far away, he finds it difficult to believe what he was told went down

Driller (Cricket)

- Until recently, this position was frequently rotated. The vibes of the team were incredibly hard to match, much to Mission Control's torment. - In short, not long after The Incident: Scout would come across a crater in a cave harboring a starving grunt eating at very wounded yet still alive grabber. His bug-sympathizing ass deletes the grunt and successfully convinces the team to help the grabber. By some miracle they sneak it back on board, patch it up, and once they're off duty, Engie cyborgs the hell out of it. ..Only after enough time passes of them getting it to Not immediately attack them with the promise of food. It was first given general limb prosthetics, then experimented on with brain chips, all the way to building the now artificially enlightened beast a dwarf shaped mech suit. It remembered how it was found, now gladly and violently working alongside its team. Mission Control has been gaslit to high hell into believing all the weird shit this thing does is normal dwarf behavior. - As its ability to communicate and understand advances, Scout hopes they can get some insight into the ecology of Hoxxes that goes unnoticed by dwarfkind. For now though, drill go bzzzz and gun go pewpew

[homunculus-argument]

My life functions by "if it looks stupid but it works, it's not stupid." My brain does not like routines, and if something's not enjoyable to do, wrangling myself to do it takes up so much energy that it's usually not cost-effectice. Wrangling is a limited resource preserved for things that only need to be done Just This Once. I cannot run routines by wrangling. There has to be another way.

I have, however, figured out that I can turn things that should be done regularly but not necessarily exactly at the right time every time into "filler activities", things that my eyes land on when I got up to do something and forgot what it was, or when I get that vague feeling of "hmm, I should be doing something" and can't remember what. My eyes land on the dishes in the sink or the pile of cardboard boxes that I should tear up for recycling. I could never stick to a Clean The House Once A Week routine on a certain day, but I get the random urge to shred cardboard or fix something often enough that I can manage by just setting myself loose to wander around the house in a completely disorganised manner, starting something, fixing it, and wandering off to a random direction to do something else like a chore-completing roomba.

Did you know that you don't need to brush your teeth at a specific time of the day? You can just randomly do it at some random time of the day, which is what I do. I'll procrastinate going to the bathroom for an unreasonable amount of time until I simply have to drop everything I'm doing to just pop in real quick, 3 minutes max, and when I'm washing my hands and get the urge to linger to pick on my face for 15 minutes, I may remember "ah right, might as well brush my teeth now that I'm here", and do that instead.

And once that's done I suddenly remember that I left my ink jar open, my ink nib has probably already dried up to all fuck, I was in the middle of a business call with my accountant and I can't remember if I left something on the stove. I didn't, but I manage.

If your brain's a constant storming sea, the best you can do is buy a surfboard.

[authorsharonforester]

Sticking To A Writing Routine

​Welcome. Today, I will show you how hard it is to stay on track with writing and the ways to overcome it. Here at home, I will currently express that I haven't written in a long time. 

The trouble with that is that I really want to, and despite that, I am not writing. I have a hard time sticking to writing a little bit every day because I am worried about how I will finish my work and the work it takes to do my writing and then edit it.

People have different reasons why they procrastinate writing. For all of us, it doesn't mean we enjoy writing. We are just afraid of failure in some way. For example, for me it is the process of editing and how much work it is going to take. My brain tells me that I will never finish the editing process because it takes so much time. I want to do things that will take very little time.

The story I am working on is about an alien that joins his people's plans on wanting to invade planet Earth, but the alien doesn't want to partake in this mission, and meanwhile on Earth, a girl and her friend are desperate to meet a live alien. This is a novel that took me three years to write when I was a little girl. I have written the entire thing on paper and now I need to type it on the computer.

It is important to keep yourself accountable for getting the work done. I am on camera because I want to show you that it is possible to come and stay on track in the writing process if you really let yourself do this. There are different ways to hold you accountable. You just gotta pick the types that work for you because everyone is different.

-Make a schedule and stick to it -Make a goal and stick to it -Make a checklist and work on it for a duration of time -Make a sign in, sign out sheet -Set a goal for the day -Get someone else to keep you accountable -Dedicate a day for your tasks

What works for every single person is different, so it is important you find what works for you, whether it is something from this list or something you come up with on your own. What works for me is this (when I am disciplined): Setting a goal and using a day to accomplish it. ​ Let me tell you how I found this. I was roaming through YouTube one day when I found an interview with Stephen King on there. I clicked on it because the title said he was talking about how he was making books so fast. He went into the conversation to mention that he sets the goal of writing SIX PAGES a day and then having the entire day to accomplish this. He also mentions that when he is being overcome with obstacles in writing, then he will use that time to take breaks, and what he does in those breaks is either eat a meal, shop at the door for things he needs or do a chore. He uses his breaks to do something he needs to get some practice in his personal life instead of being distracted by the phone and TV, which is really important to getting anything done. It is like being at school at home. Sometimes it makes it easier to think of it as an assignment he needs to get done. All these little things work as a motivator for him while he is working. Then he will start over the next day until he reaches his day(s) off.

This was inspiring to me because everyone else always came up with ideas that didn't work for me, such as the list above. For me, working under a time limit didn't work because I didn't know what to expect to come in randomly in my life. Others are able to work under pressure… It all depends on who you are and that you pick what works for you. As long as you pick something that is realistic to you, then you are on your way.

The last thing that you need to remember is that you need to start with small goals and just write! before you set yourself up with bigger goals and worry about editing, or else you will never get anything done because you are overwhelming yourself. We will overthink everything and then end up messing up our own stories.

[crepezinhos]

request where reader has a horrible phobia of the dentist, but albedo is there to talk them into going to their appointment and supporting them the way through? :)

Monthly Checkup

(REQUEST #6) POV: How would a science nerd like Albedo react towards a S/O who has a phobia of dentists?

⚠️ WARNINGS:

— This a fluffy SFW piece

— Reader is FEMALE and uses SHE/HER pronouns

— Contains exaggerated views towards science / dentists

“There’s no need to worry, Y/N, it’ll be a simple checkup, no longer than 30 minutes, so why are you so worried about this? Have you not been brushing your teeth properly?”

That was his only argument to you as he drove the car in the direction of the dentist’s clinic.

You were worried, swallowing saliva repetitively, but you that moment had to be faced sometime. You wish you had procrastinated it once again, but Albedo insisted so much on getting the chore over to not mess up the calendar that you convinced yourself to arrange an appointment today and right now. Although he has been your boyfriend for months, you two have never really found each other in this situation, meaning that you never really communicated to him that you feared dentists.

Especially because Albedo is a very rough defender of science and does not tolerate conspiracy theories about it. Tell him vaccines are fake? He’ll just tell you to have fun with the HIV tests. The Moon’s landing is fake? He’ll just walk away from you. The Earth is flat and the government hides it? He’ll genuinely wonder if you ever stepped into high school.

How would you tell such a science-strict man like him that you think dentists will kill you and torture you using sharp materials in your fragile teeth? Would he laugh at you? It would not be a good sign coming from a stoic person like him.

“I, uh… I don’t know.” You muttered, completely unsure of what to tell him instead of the real reason.

“No, Y/N, I’m serious, is there something wrong with your teeth and you’re scared that the doctor will scold you for it?” He said, stopping the car right behind the crosswalk since the signal had turned red.

He was pretty close, but it’s not it.

“No, really.” You said, trying to get him to keep going until he guessed the correct answer.

“Y/N, I can see something is going on and I’m worried about it. Please, let’s talk about it. It would be good for the both of us as a couple.” Albedo insisted, turning his body to you, but keeping his left hand in the steering wheel.

You turned your head away from him even further, feeling the will of telling him the truth taking over and tightening your throat more and more.

“It might begin a bigger discussion and that’s the last thing I want right now.” You argued.

“It won’t, unless it’s something that could reasonably end our relationship.” He argued back, proceeding to wait for a possible response coming from you. “And, a slight disagreement about something insignificant is never going to be bad for us.” He stated a little more calm compared to how he started, putting his right hand on top of yours just to caress it gently. “Please.” Albedo insisted.

And you sighed in realization that you had no good arguments to hit him back, although you didn’t find his words valid or coherent to his person. Albedo is the kind of guy to make small disagreements a bigger matter, but now that he promised to stay calm, you could use it as a weapon against him.

“Well, I… I just… have a phobia of dentists. I’m scared of what the doctor might do to me today and that’s why I’m freaking out right not.” You confessed, shrieking your body and crossing your arms in expectation of his scolding, with a nervous chuckle that was supposed to make the scene less awkward,

And silent.

He didn’t say anything, especially because the traffic signal had turned green, so he had to look forward and drive, making the car went quiet for a quick moment, the sound of motors underneath it louder than anything.

…

He breathed in and out pretty loudly with his nose out of nowhere.

…

“I’m a little offended at your expectations coming from me, I must say, but I’m surprised with this information, I thought this was just another monthly checkup, but it wasn’t. I… did not know something so important as your phobias.” Albedo commented, surprising your negative expectations, and breaking off the awkward silence.

“Oh, please, you know every time someone dares to question science you get angry.” You replied, getting a little too comfortable to make a comment at his behavior although that could phrase could begin the argument that you wanted to avoid.

And it seemed like it when he went quiet again to process what you had said to him. It looked like he was analyzing it pretty well, but you thought he’d not agree with whatever he thought of.

You kinda don’t like it when Albedo gets angry. It’s annoying and really hard to make him drop those feelings.

“Well, I must agree that I do get unnecessarily angry when someone spreads fake information about science, but this is not the case here. I would never get angry at you for a fear, Y/N, especially when I know there’s a pretty good reason behind it.” He calmly explained his point of view to you, making you look up to him finally.

Not even you what he meant. Although that’s what you should’ve expected coming from a boyfriend, you didn’t understand how your fear wasn’t against his patterns or how you ‘have a reason.’.

“What do you mean I have a reason?” You asked.

“Your braces. You had them for some several years, didn’t you? I know that the process of it is usually very painful because of the many alterations they cause in your mouth, so maybe your brain started developing this fear to somehow protect you from these alterations, although they don’t happen anymore… I do believe it’s a little exaggerated, but I will not oppose something that could also happen to me.” He explained his reasons to you, but you barely understood his scientific explanation.

“Really?” You asked, finally looking up to him, a little happy that Albedo was upping the stakes against himself for you.

Albedo letting a person dare science and leave it like that? That was progress.

“Yes, but that doesn’t mean I would ever avoid appointments because of it. Would you do that, Y/N?” He clarified before you had any further bad ideas of him.

“I mean… I procrastinated this moment a lot.” You confessed, looking away again in embarrassment.

“But you’re still here in this car, with me, going to get this done, so I don’t think there’s any problem, is there?” He asked pretty solidly.

“No… unfortunately…” You whispered to yourself.

“Could I go in the room with you? Would that make you feel more comfortable?” Albedo asked more softly.

“Yes… please.” You answered a little nervous but also relieved that he made such a cute question.

You knew that Albedo would defend from the dentist if necessary, which made your heart go back to its normal rhythm.

“Was it that bad, Y/N?” Albedo asked with a slight smirk on his face as the elevator went down many floors.

“… Shut up.” You answered, chuckling.

“I’m kidding, Y/N, but I do want you to always remember these better experiences. It will end up replacing the bad ones and create a new perspective that will make your next visits less stressful. You had me really worried with all that intensity back in the car and I don’t want to ever see you like that again for such an unrealistic reason, alright? Let’s keep your tears for better occasions, the both of us.” He said, pulling your face closer to his just to smooch your forehead gently as he smiled and stared at your eyes.

“… Fine.”

Don’t forget to like and comment if you liked it <3

Anon, if you’re reading this, I apologize for the very late deliver. If you have been keeping up with my posts, you must know that I have been recently on a trip which took all my days from tumblr. I am finally back, but I still don’t have much motivation or creativity to write at the moment. This isn’t a hiatus, but expect me to post a little less until school’s back. If you really had an appointment with a dentist, I really do apologize for missing it because it would’ve probably made you comfortable.

(Also, the braces thing was a self-insert feature of me but I believe other people can relate to it too, sorry if it’s a bother or not real about you.)

And, remember that dentists don’t want and will not hurt you, they just want to do their job, and some of them just really love their job, so there’s no need to be afraid. ❤️

Taglist: @kindofscenic @kindofshyent @the-stinky-winky

[asylumgarden2003]

Reality check to escape slumpness ASAP

╭☞ Being lazy is only for privileged people

Being lazy often goes hand in hand with having some advantages in life. Imagine someone who's well off, maybe they've got a comfortable job, some money saved up, and maybe even people to help with chores. They can afford to kick back, binge watch shows, or take long naps because they have the means to do so. On the other hand, people who aren't as privileged might not have that luxury. They might have to hustle more, have multiple jobs, or handle all their responsibilities on their own because they can't rely on others or have safety nets. If you find yourself being lazy when you have the means and opportunities to do better, you are wasting your potential. Life rewards effort, determination, and hard work. So, stop making excuses and get up! Success doesn't come to those who lounge around; it comes to those who hustle, grind, and strive for their goals. So, get out there, work hard, and make something of yourself! (ofc none of this applies to depression tho always take care of urself & its ok to have off days)

╭☞ Time can’t be regained

Lost time is the ultimate thief, and it won't ever give back what it's stolen. Once those hours, days, or years slip through your fingers, they're gone for good. There's no magic rewind button in life. So, let that reality hit you like a wake-up call. Every moment you waste is a moment you can never get back. Regret won't change a thing. It's a harsh truth that should jolt you into action. Now, instead of dwelling on the past, use this harsh reality as a fire under your feet. Don't let another second slip away. Harness the urgency of time's irreversibility. Channel it into relentless, focused, and determined action. Make the most of what's left, because that's all you've got. Time waits for no one, so seize it before it steals even more.

╭☞ People will always advance

Life's a relentless race, and it couldn't care less if you're lagging behind. While you're hesitating or procrastinating, others are charging forward, leaving you in the dust. That's the harsh reality. Imagine this: You're standing still on a moving walkway, and it's going one way, forward. If you don't step up and walk with it, you'll get left behind while the world keeps moving. Opportunities won't wait. Dreams won't pause. People who take action, who hustle, who grind, they're the ones who make progress. They'll climb the ladder, achieve their goals, and live their dreams while you watch from the sidelines. So, don't expect life to hand you success on a silver platter. It won it. If you want to get ahead, you've got to hustle harder than you ever thought possible. Start now, or be prepared to watch others thrive while you're stuck in the shadows. The choice is yours.

╭☞ Failure is ur biggest power

Failure is the harshest teacher life has to offer. It's the punch in the gut, the slap in the face, and the reality check you need to grow stronger. When you fail, you are forced to confront your weaknesses, your mistakes, and your limitations. It's like getting thrown into the fiery forge of self-improvement. The pain and humiliation of failure become the fuel for your transformation. Success may look glamorous, but it rarely teaches you as much as failure does. It toughens your skin, hardens your resolve, and sharpens your skills. It separates the weak from the strong, the quitters from the warriors. So, don't fear failure; embrace it. Make it your ally, your motivator, and your secret weapon. Learn from it, adapt, and keep pushing forward. Failure isn't the end; it's the beginning of your journey to greatness. Turn it into your superpower, and watch yourself rise above the rest.

Love,

Medea

[usbshitake]

I hope it will be useful for some, what helped me deal with most of my depression and anxiety:

• focus on present (what can you do to better yourself in the place where you’re at now?what something productive and fulfilling you can be doing instead of procrastination and self-loathing?)

•routine (sleep at the same time, wake up at the same time, eat at the same time and hitting the gym in the morning)

•reading (makes your mind focus on one task, something productive)

•doing chores at once (when you postpone small things they pile up into a big mess and you get anxious and overwhelmed)

•setting small and realistic goals (when I want something big I get too overwhelmed and it feels like I’m not gonna reach my goal. But there’s nobody with a whip behind your back. Take your time, life is not a competition you can win and definitely there’s no need to rush)

•house cleaning (it takes away anxiety. It does)

•diary (I use Thera because this app has everything you’d need in an app)

•give yourself rest when you need (it’s okay to do nothing sometimes. Even to indulge in bad habits when you allow yourself to do so. Only know the limit and come back to routine once you’re done. You’re not losing a progress if you make a step back to recharge even in bad habits)

•find your loop (one day it just hit me the loop of my mystery why I was giving up so easily on everything: I realised that I needed to be “comfortable” all my life in order to be loved by my mother and it stretched out into all aspects of my life making me miserable and unable to stand up for myself when it’s crucial, I was in this “mindset loop” that I didn’t realise. And it’ll the answer suddenly popped up and I got free from my anxiety. Not that I overcame it, but! I got angry with me believing this notion. It helped me to move this rock from a place)

All and all doesn’t mean I don’t struggle. But I found all the things useful in my case. I just follow new and good habits in belief it’s gonna lead me into a better life, and gradually it does, you just need to try and walk with faith that there’s something better in the horizon. And you’ll definitely find it ❤️

[beatsboy]

8.18.24 / week 8 of being a delusional artist

day 4 of moon time

how did i live like a delusional artist today? maybe in photographing my period stains on my bed maybe in journaling my dream about my ex the minute i woke up at 7am before going right back to bed because i can’t stand to be awake for another moment after having to freshly remember that they’re not here again (these dreams are like waking up to a fresh bandaid being torn off the wound over and over again) maybe in procrastinating, for they say that all artists do this, and while i know this is true, i am struggling to get unstuck and stay unstuck lately. it’s hard to fully break out of the cave, when you’re stuck, when you’re by yourself. sweet pea helps, licking my face (i swear) to remind me to go to the bathroom, to eat, to go outside. all he does is lick my face, so i have to interpret these as signals to get moving. last night, for instance, i was sitting on my computer for far too long, on the couch next to sweet pea. and promptly, as my bladder started to nag at me to go to the bathroom, he started to lick my face, inhibiting me from using my computer.

i’m starting to think he parents me more than i parent him, and i only pretend that it’s the other way around to feel better about my lack of self-sufficiency as a human adult. my fucking goals for tomorrow are to eat 3 meals, first one before 11. like, come on.

i just feel so slow while i’m bleeding, and i know that it will be over soon, but i think part of the reason i need to spiritualize it, to give it meaning, is because it’s just so fucking painful, physically, emotionally, and generally in relation to my gender.

i was supposed to leave the house today, and i did get all ready to do so, another sunday where i put my swim trunks on and waited. this time, it never came time to go, the party wrapped early, and i remained, having spent time getting ready, covered in sunscreen, with nowhere to go. and instead of quickly pivoting to art, which was very possible at that time, i got stuck. i got stuck waiting to go to bri’s to return their keys, for no reason at all, and then got stuck when i got home, and finally unstuck enough to make myself some food at 10pm, do the dishes, change the sheets (i did do some cleaning today, just very slowly, like imagine a slug doing chores, very slowly, and getting caught on corners), and sit here and journal.

i have therapy tomorrow, and tomorrow, i swear to god, i will continue working on music again. i had a good groove of working every day, basically until i finished boypop, which some have suggested i rename (which, yes, maybe, but what?) then, i got out of it, because it is so hard for me for some reason to maintain a consistent practice with my craft while working and socializing fucking still even though i don’t even work a full-time job like that. it’s truly not that i don’t have the time, it’s that i don’t have the energy? the focus? the routine?

healthy habits start small, though, right? i am believing in my future self, that i can make the new dates i’ve set for the release timeline. and i am giving myself these deadlines because i deserve to share my work with the world and i can’t wait any longer. i believe in the artist i want to be, in the artist i will be, because i am building toward it today. i am building my practice. i know i am good at what i do, i know i can do what i need to do to finish this project. i just need to focus and finish.

i’ve never completed an album before (unless you count the collection of phone demos i dropped on soundcloud for the lore) that’s like comparing publishing a fanfic on ao3 to getting your debut novel published, there’s a lot of extra steps that separate the two. it’s all i’ve ever wanted, so why am i waiting? why would i put off becoming the pop star i have dreamt of being since i was a fucking child? i am alone in my own apartment that i pay for with my own fucking money, why am i not spending every second making art in it? this is what i have always wanted for myself, space and time to make art, and i feel like i am wasting it spiraling and cleaning and pinteresting and tumblring and cleaning and looking up if the chemicals in my soap are poisoning me (pretty sure everything is poisoning me at this point)

i want to be fair to myself, i have not been completely idle. i redid the release timeline last night. i made a pitch deck for the next photoshoot the other day. i watched alien, for research (lol, but seriously!) i have been brainstorming the entire vibe/aesthetic/characterization of this persona, trying to mend together what we initially envisioned and what the music video shoot is giving (which are kind of different things but it’s ok)

the thing is, though, these things are part of the art, they are necessary to the art, to communicating the art to the people, to the audience. that does not make them art, though. the job part. the industry part. and sometimes i get so lost in these parts, that i forget that the whole point is to be able to sustain making art for the rest of my life. and none of this bullshit is worth it if i’m not making art. and if i’m not making art, it’s not going to feel like it either.

here is to tomorrow, to getting back to a daily practice, even if it’s in the form of small steps.

[wewontdieunbloomed]

this is part two of unlearning the bad things i unconsciously learnt from last year.

part one was the negative default pessimism i fall in to, which i keep calling it me being emo which means i dwell in my “misery” for far too long, instead of trying to think of something positive to get myself moving out of the bad zone i am in. as we are often told, sadness and negativity gets comforting, it feels like you are protecting yourself. but one cannot see beauty in life and find joy for oneself if one does not make oneself vulnerable.

and so making myself vulnerable is what ive been doing. trying to romanticise this state that im in, a liminal space, at crossroads. its not the most ideal, too many things are unknown and for the first time in my life im dealing with having barely any structure to my days, with nothing to do yet so much i should do.

it took me quite a while to stop lamenting this unknown and start returning to the foundations i built this blog and my entire philosophy off, the whole concept of “lest we die unbloomed” of making sure i dont realise one day ive wasted my time. and in small parts i like to think ive made progress on that

the focus now is the second part. i lost a lot of my attention span and impulse control, and today i reached a horrible point where i am sitting on the kitchen floor at 9 with no dinner, having ruined my microwave dinner out of a lack of common sense. i am not sure if all this recent muddling is because of covid brain fog or the horrifying amount of screen time i have had recently, but i was so sick of it. i have done a lot of things on impulse recently, and though today i had a really fulfilling day spending time with people i havent in a long time, when i got home and im back to reality of the things i havent done and been procrastinating for too long on, i felt horrible. this need to change, i realised.

so this is part two. it calls back to one of the values i set as something important to myself, being honest with myself. i know what im doing now is not working. i know that even though i use my planner im not sticking to it. i know my todo lists are not helping me. then why do i stubbornly stick to methods i know dont work? i told myself a year ago i would not change my system if it doesnt need to be changed. i have forgotten that i need to change it when it does. how silly! so im changing.

so in the last 2 hours in order to get myself up ive written todo lists on paper instead of in my journal. used a timer for every single step from shower to sweeping the floor to brushing my teeth. enough lazing around and letting simple things occupy too much time. its a parkinsons law thing.

enough doomscrolling and opening instagram when i have nothing to do. im setting a limit for a block of time in the day where i am not allowed to use social media, pwrhaps not any internet at all. i need to make drastic change, even if it seems inconsequential. it might not be academic but its personal. and my personal life and what i want to do with my time is worth taking big measures for, because it should be more important than all that revision for exams i used to do.

so the point f this ramble is to clear things out with myself. make some sense of whats goijg on. have a direction. tomorrow i have an interview. ill come home and do the chores i have to. prepare for my afternoon activity. go for lunch and my afternoon appointment. go for a run. buy dinner. write my applications. research on uni stuff. read a book. and all the other tint things i need to give more importance to even though they seem inconsequential. it sa new mantra ive gotten into ever since part one of this. that “this is the way” this is the new way. enough lazing. its time to go hard and be rurhless. take things up a notch because when else can i do it? go big from experiences to measures i have to take to discipline myself. this is the way.

04.04.2023

[thejackofalltrades42069]

Doing things you don’t want to do (a useful stoic approach).

Here's a stoicism picture I created with Midjourney (pretty awesome imo).

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Intro.

Stoicism has a lot of useful information and practices to do daily or often, there are many great habits to take from that philosophy, I’ll share just this one idea that can be very useful for doing things you must do in daily life and find exhausting, stressful or tedious to do.

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Explanation and examples.

These responsibilities or things we must do sometimes can be wearing or even traumatic if we have an approach of resistance to doing them. Here are some examples:

Having to go to work at the office some days instead of always doing home office.

Dentist or doctor appointments.

Cleaning and chores.

Exercise.

Legal obligations.

Studying or continuing education.

Home repairs or maintenance.

Etc.

If we think these activities as awful, we will have stressful experiences when doing them and take longer time to do them because of procrastination, if in our mind things are a lot worse than they really are, the end result might not be the best, and we will always be stressed and anxious when we need to do this stuff.

What’s a good mindset and approach to doing these?

The best way I’ve found to approach any activity you don’t want to do but must or should do is to first try and think of what are the positive outcomes from doing it, then, think how you can somehow take advantage or take something out of doing that activity. You should also always see it as an opportunity to become better at doing it, so that it’s easier to do in the future.

Usually when an activity is stressful, but we keep doing it over and over again, and have the correct mindset, it eventually stops being stressful because we get used to it, here are a few examples:

Public speaking. First time anyone does this, they feel anxious and stressed, they forget what they have to say, but with preparation and doing it over and over, it becomes piece of cake.

Driving. First few times driving can be really stressful. Then it becomes like walking.

Taking exams or interviews. We’ve all been there; it becomes very easy overtime (if we’re prepared of course).

Learning how to use new technology. It can be really tough and stressful to learn how to use new technology for many people, but with patience and practice, we can just get used to having to learn many new technologies all the time.

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Examples for using this approach.

I’ll give 2 examples to clarify how we can apply this in real situations.

I’ll mention the situation or activity, then, again, we must see everything as an opportunity for getting better at it, we must find positive outcomes, what we can learn, and how to take advantage of it.

When you find having to go work at an office stressful or weary (instead of doing home office daily).

How could we take advantage of this? Perhaps by doing the following:

A lot of people usually prepare breakfast and lunch, we might find it tedious, but we can take this as an opportunity to make healthy meals for every day we go to the office, there are many advantages of eating healthy, feeling better in general, living longer with greater health, etc. There are many resources online that teach to do easy and healthy meals.

Working on our soft/ social skills, and networking.

It’s always good to have the best possible soft and social skills when interacting with other people, when we go to our workplace, we must interact with other people, we can practice talking and dealing with others, and try to become a bit better every time. We can take that skill we are using at work for any time we have to talk or deal with other people, if we believe we’re not good at it, we can see some online videos about having better interactions and practice a bit at a time. We could transfer that skill to, for example, if someone wants to start dating people, they will have a lot of social interaction practice from work that they can use when talking to someone they are dating (and for example, avoiding having too many awkward moments, and avoiding saying something the other person could take the wrong way). We can also create a good network of acquaintances and perhaps a couple friends, it’s always good to know people, sometimes they can help us get promotions at work, or perhaps they can help meet someone we could date, or they can give you the phone of a good plumber.

Fulfilling our social interaction needs.

Almost all of us have social interaction needs, when we are alone for too long, we can feel stressed, sometimes this is not the ideal social interaction that people want to have, but we can try and using it to cover that need, then we can go and be alone at our homes and enjoy that moment of being alone more than we usually do.

Walking more.

Moving or exercising in any possible way daily is essential for having a good health in the long term, when we go to our workplace, we can walk more than we do when we work from home. We not only have to walk to get to our work spot, but we can take a few breaks to take extra steps, we could even take 15 minutes from our lunch to take a short walk and cover a bit more of that need that we have to exercise.

Getting more sunlight.

A lot of people don’t get enough sunlight exposure, even if the sun doesn’t hit us directly for long, seeing the sunlight early is great because it boosts our mood, it helps regulate our circadian rhythm (daily cycle of biological processes like sleep-wake patterns), taking some sun provides us with vitamin D and we also produce serotonin (which is good). When we go to our workplace we can try to take more advantage of being outside for seeing and taking some sun.

These are a few things I can think about; perhaps you can think of more.

2. Procrastination and stress from avoiding dentist/doctor appointments.

Here, we can think of the most obvious, if we go to the dentist when we need to, we can have better dental health and longer lasting teeth, if we avoid going, we might end up losing our teeth at a younger age, or dealing with pain that we could heal by visiting the dentist. If we simply think about this and realize it’s the best we can do by far, we can convince ourselves of going when we need to, if we don’t, we might end up having to invest more money in teeth prosthesis/ implants and other expensive treatments.

Many medical conditions and injuries can worsen overtime if we don’t treat them, this is non-negotiable. If we understand this and understand that if we don’t treat ourselves the way we should, we can end up having to spend a lot of money in urgency treatments, or we could even die at a young age for not treating some medical conditions early. Here, perhaps we can try and think that we should take care of ourselves as if we were someone else that we cared for, we can try and take a look at ourselves from the outside, or as if we were our own children, or perhaps, our own pets that we care so much about, we should treat ourselves with that perspective if it helps.

We can think of many more advantages like, overall feeling better daily, enhanced quality of life, better mental health, better sleep, less stress, improved longevity, etc. There’s nothing better in life than having all these.

We could also think about new useful information we’re learning from our doctors or dentists. In my case, I learned a lot of useful information about physical rehabilitation and a bunch of useful exercises from my physiotherapist; I even improved my posture a lot with some exercises thanks to taking that time to do the therapy to rehab my shoulder.

We could think of many more examples like how we can take advantage of going to therapy (with a psychologist) to learn more from ourselves and improve many aspects of our daily lives, how we can take advantage of exercising for a greater well-being, why eating healthy meals we don’t like is good for our dopamine system (our reward-energy-motivation system), how we can get some physical activity and a mind relaxing activity when doing cleaning and chores, and so on.  

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Conclusion.

Keep thinking about seeing opportunities where you didn’t see them before (always when there’s something you don’t want to do!), about getting better at things, and about how to take advantage of everything you have to do.

If all that’s good not enough, just think about how doing an activity more and more with the correct mindset will eventually make it be a lot less stressful, it will eventually be a piece of cake (or pie).

[livlepretre]

I absolutely love your fics, and I was curious about if you had any writing tips you could share?

❤️

To be extremely predictable, practice is the very best possible thing-- that, and reading attentively-- pay attention to how other writers technically format their sentences-- especially if you like what you're reading. Like, when you're writing, say you have trouble describing how someone gets from Point A to Point B. Next time you're reading a book or fic you enjoy, take note of how that author does it. Write write write and the process will get easier and more freeing.

Other than that, my biggest advice is just to let go of your reservations. Like, I used to hold back on the sentimentality on my writing because I was worried about purple prose. But I'm a foolishly sentimental person. I was reading a novel a few years back and it hit me that the writer was just going there with the emotions and that I was being ridiculous holding myself back from writing those powerful and uncomfortable emotions just because I had this mask, both on myself as the one I show in public to others but then also in my writing. Try to let down your shields as much as possible (it's really hard) and write with your heart.

As for everything else, it's somewhat minor. Find the time of day that you write best-- it's different for everyone, but writing at the right time is something which I guarantee will improve your flow. Like, I have the most free time at night, but I am too tired to do much of use in the evening hours. I write best first thing in the morning during my first cup of coffee. I don't get to do that a lot because I have almost always had either a job or now a toddler who preoccupies me during those hours, but when I can sit down to write during the right time it's magical. I know lots of people feel this way in the pre-dawn hours before work, or in the evening once their responsibilities for the day are over with. Find what works for you and it will be a lot easier. Also, location can be so key. I procrastinate A LOT more at home than I do, say, at a coffee shop. I don't know why, but I can write reams in a coffee shop and at home I am busy like, browsing tumblr and fetching snacks and unloading the dishes and on and on and on. So the right setting can make a world of difference.

And the last thing, something I am very fond of-- is something I call gentle writing. What this means is that I do not set a goal for the amount of words I write in any given session. Simply opening up the document, rereading some passages, and maybe tinkering with a sentence structure counts as writing. Anything counts, because having that flexibility with yourself makes it so much less a chore and so much more an engaging activity. Sometimes I am in a flow and I write a few thousand words. Sometimes I am not in the right mood but I laboriously bang out three or four sentences over the course of a half hour.

(Actually, I do have a few technical pieces of advice for how I write which you might find useful:

I outline everything. Everything. These are extremely free-flowing, like, run on sentences with lots of --> arrows drawn to show how a leads to b. I start with a general outline for the whole story, and then for multi-chaptered stories I then break down into arcs, and then further outline what scenes I think will be in each chapter. I personally need a general roadmap in order to write, and it really helps propel me along. Random scenes and dialogue that comes to me can be pasted into the outline around the time I think it will be good for the fic, and instead of deleting scenes that don't work I just past them into the end of the outline in case some of it can be recycled later. Obviously it's important to deviate from the outline whenever the story leads you away from it, and there are tons of scenes in my fics that were spontaneously added in, but sort of knowing where the story is going really helps. And also for fics where you update in installments it can really help with laying down foreshadowing and things.

Character motivation maps are super helpful. Every now and then I list all of the main characters, and then I list what they want and what their goals are. Often, this makes obvious to me certain tensions and potentials for drama when I realize two characters are in conflict, that maybe I hadn't realized, and it also clarifies how everyone should be acting.

Reread what you have already written. You may surprise yourself how many hidden gems you find in your old writing/previous chapters. I get lots of ideas for plot points from things I published already that were just throwaway lines originally but will now come off as intentional and foreshadowing. It's a great writing hack.)

Writing is hard and it takes some bravery to publish. But so long as you are as honest as you can be, then there are going to be readers who love your work. You've got this.

[naradivision]

“One who smiles rather than rages is always the stronger.”

Timeline

Age 0:

Born the only son to Shunrai Tomoharu and Yayoi Tomoharu.

Age 12:

Soon after taking up an interest from watching his grandparents run their wagashi store everyday, he decides to help with some errands.

Learns to do handicrafts in leisure time.

Age 14:

Other classmates make fun of his feminine likings and hobbies more intensely. Whether it’s oddly or luckily, the bullying never develops into physical level; nevertheless, their verbal abuse is still devastating to him.

Age 15:

His father refuses to take over his parent’s business, causing Asahi to yell at both his father and mother for having a low opinion on inheriting the store.

Father and mother then move to a bigger town in pursuit of work, leaving him in their grandparents’ care.

Starts helping his grandparents run the store after school.

Age 18:

His grandfather suffers an acute ischemic stroke and becomes a bedridden patient.

Graduates from high school

Decides to take on a full-time job at his grandparents’ store instead of attending the university.

His spartan training to become a “full-fledged” wagashi maker begins, coached by his grandma.

Age 19:

Participates in many confectionery contests even if never gains a trophy at one.

Becomes depressed after receiving some harsh critique.

Age 20:

Meets Yuuya who works part-time at his store during the holidays and somehow gets motivated by him.

Regains some of his confidence to keep on facing hardships.

Finally makes a name at the National Confectionery Exposition, using this chance to promote his shop.

Age 22:

Present

Joins the Division Rap Battles alongside Yuuya Kanata and Saigo Fuyugami, as the 2nd member of Nara Division “Miraitabi”.

Overhears his grandma seriously discussing with Saigo’s assistant, Chishio, that there has been some goons intrude into her hometown in searching for the Hypnosis Microphones.

Yuuya introduces his mysterious cyber friend “ANGE” to him and soon the two of them quickly gets along due to their similar amount of enthusiasm.

Spots a strange girl in lolita dress frequently visiting his store whenever Saigo pays a visit. Slightly be afraid that she might be his teammate’s stalker, he decides to keep an eye on her.

Schedule

12 a.m. - 5 a.m.: Asleep

5 a.m. - 5:20 a.m.: Freshens up

5:20 a.m. - 6:30 a.m.: Does housework

6:30 a.m. - 7 a.m.: Breakfast time

7 a.m. - 9 a.m.: Prepares ingredients and gets the shop up

9 a.m. - 12 p.m.: Helps grandma run the store while also taking care of Ojou-chan

12 a.m. - 1 p.m.: Lunchtime

1 a.m. - 6 p.m.: Returns to his work

6 a.m. - 6:15 p.m.: Ends his shift and takes Ojou-chan to the Ajisai Residence

6:15 a.m. - 7:15 p.m.: At Saigo-san’s place

7:15 p.m. - 9 p.m.: Dinner and spends time with the rest of his team

9 p.m. - 9:30 p.m.: Walking back to his shop

9:30 p.m. - 10 p.m.: Freshens up

10 p.m. - 10:30 p.m.: Visits his grandpa

10:30 p.m. - 12 a.m.: Goes to bed

Character Hashtags

Regular Hashtags

#Wagashi Today

#Cuteness is power uwu

#Why do I get the youngest treatment

Trauma Hashtags

#Every dream matters

#The clock is ticking

#How to step out from comfort zone

Other Info

Hobbies: Doing chores, Searching for new inspirations

Weakness: Sensitive to criticism, procrastination

Trauma: “I said something unforgivable to my parents.”

Social Media: @asahidesu

Drinks: Yes but believes in Green Tea Supremacy

Smokes: Absolutely no-no!

Special Skill: “Cooking, sewing, doing housework; I’m good at all of them! I can carry a lot of heavy sacks too! Grandma told me that I would make a perfect housewife, is it really a compliment?”

Intro Quote: “Welcome to Harumatsuya! Which kind of sweets are you looking for?”

Trauma Quote: “Grandpa, I promise! One day I’ll definitely not disappoint you! So, please… Please hang in there until then!”

Ending Quote: “the next spring will be a good time!”

[formula-fun]

wait how are you listening to fics?? like you can listen to the audio of ao3 fics?

Yeah, there are softwares that can read them to you! ive got this one which is unfortunately not cheap but it's worth it imo because I use it all the time and it means I can do chores and read fic at the same time instead of procrastinating my chores or other hobbies by reading. There are free ones out there as well but this worked better imo because most of the free ones were either really difficult to use or the voices were awkward/too slow/too robotic. It does occasionally get confused and fuck up but for the most part it's pretty good

[girlypopastro]

Hey, so I have a question about my natal chart. My 12th and 6th houses are HUGE, how do I interpret that?

Thank you @a-deadbird for your ask!!

This is what we call intercepted houses. (I have the same exact ones!) Typically or in Whole Sign/Equal Sign House Systems, each sign has one house cusp it corresponds to but since in our charts there is are sister signs that has two cusps (for you it is Gemini/Sag) it means one sign duo is intercepted (Libra/Aries for the both of us).

The way I interpret it for myself is that I struggle to access these energies (Aries being in the 12h does not help). That I do not assert myself enough and that hurts me in reaching harmony and forming equal relationships in my life. In more 6h/12h terms, I do not take initiative in the matters of my mental health so it kind of erratically erupts in ways that is detrimental to peace in my day-to-day and doing things for my physical health in a balanced way. I am very all or nothing type of person (although there is a different place where that shows up in my chart). Doing the chore-like things very Virgo-ey, bordering on obsession or procrastination due to fear of never reaching perfection and in my 12h problems I pretend they do not exist or make myself the martyr instead of looking out for myself first.

But to live a balanced life we all need to access all 12 energies. The signs as each follows the previous all have a certain corrective function to them. Aries brings a cure for the Piscean haze, a rude awakening but you do have to start things, break barriers, put yourself first to do anything in this life. Libra says to Virgo that it does not have to be perfect, it has to be balanced. Perfection sucks the life out of art and neurosis makes people uncomfortable.

The challenge is integrating these two approaches. Using the Piscean empathy to heal your 12h wounds but moving past it into the natural progression of Aries. Using the gifts of Virgo organization and chiseling to your advantage but reaching through it to the wisdom your Jupiter in Libra holds, finding luck through balance in 6h themes.

Thank you for your ask! I hope it was helpful! Have a stunning day.

[sys128]

I sometimes find it hard to get into a new habit, even if it benefits me in the long run! I can't even count how many examples of this I can give, because they all and the same way: I do it for a few days but it almost never lasts! I personally believe that it will become an issue in adulthood. Usually, the human brain develops until the age of 25. And that age is fast approaching, even though I'm almost 18. It might only be a matter of time for these habits are ingrained in my brain permanently, and will therefore be much harder to solve. I have tried many ways to combat this procrastination issue, but finding a solution is quite difficult. I always seem to find some way to snap out of it and continue doing the things I have been doing instead of the things that I should be doing.

That isn't to say that it never works, however. I have managed to maintain a month-long streak by learning Japanese on Duolingo and continue to rely on other sources to get the job done, so obviously I am capable of building some sort of habit. Another example of this is how I've managed to become fluent in another keyboard layout. But there are so many other things that I wish to do going forward, especially when it comes to YouTube. I have been very on and off about video production, which has resulted in months and months between videos, which I don't think the audience would appreciate if this continues. I need to find some sort of way to continue work on them more often than how I'm approaching them at the moment. It would have to be in a way that is most comfortable for me whilst also getting quality work done. Over the past year or so, this has been the greatest challenge I have ever confronted, and continues to be to this day. I figure writing about it will jump start me finding a process to this madness.

Perhaps I can always come back to old ideas and give them another try. One of these old ideas is putting something at stake and acting on it depending on the outcome. Like for example, I wanted to prevent myself from doing something I wanted to if I didn't get something done first. I think I want to try this again, because it sounds like something that would be very effective. Looking back at my childhood, this was very effective in getting my chores done, because I couldn't access my video games until then. Even though this was years ago, that does not mean that this could still apply to present me. Another old idea that comes from my childhood is scheduling. When I was in around 4th grade, I was often supervised by another teacher because I had pervasive developmental disorder, and one of the things that they found that ended up helping me was having a second schedule on my desk that laid out the things that happened during that day. I also have a friend that schedules things 30 minutes ahead of time. (He even calls these things "keyterms.") Using that sort of way of scheduling, it is easier to keep track of what you want to do at that specific time. It seems to be very effective on him, and have been thinking about doing something similar for a while. The reason why I think this will work better than some other methods I've tried is because I tend to jump to the next thing kind of quickly. There are times where my mind is more in a "hyperactive" state rather than completely focused on one thing, whereas other times, the opposite is the case.

I hope to solve this mystery within the next year so it will not be an issue when I become an adult. This would end up helping me in a lot of areas, especially things with deadlines because I have seem to have a little bit of trouble with that. Maybe instead of deadlines, I can focus on getting a little bit at a time each session. But maybe I can't do this with everything, because school assignments rely very heavily on deadlines, so there will be exceptions. Other than that, I think there are ways to solve it, but I have been all over the place in terms of how I'm going about solving it, but I hope I find it one day.

[standingonabeachatsunset]

You know this stereotypical thing where someone puts their fingers in their ears and stubbornly goes "LALALALA..!" because they are desperately trying to ignore distracting or unpleasant things, right?

A few days ago, I discovered that this not very reasonable method sometimes actually works in a good way with my own brain when it comes to my procrastination and executive dysfunction:

I was trying to do some chores, and yet again I began bargaining and arguing with myself about folding the laundry, cleaning the apartment, or having a cup of coffee instead, and about how on earth I should prioritize all that in the "correct" order and so on.

After a while, when I still hadn't done anything and it all kept getting close to being too much emotionally, I impulsively thought "Fuck this!" and started doing a thing, in this case folding the laundry. And even though my inner monologue kept going on complaining how that may not be the best priority, I kept folding my laundry while internally shouting "Yeah yeah yeah, whatever, shut up, shut uuuup! I can't hear you! I'll just go on doing thiiiiiis! I still can't hear youuu!" I was actively drowning out my own complaints by internally shouting.

Needless to say, five minutes later, I had finished folding and I managed to "surprise" my brain that this chore was done.

It certainly does not work all the time for me, but frankly, if it's one out of four or five times it's still way better than nothing, so I'll gladly take it.

[grasping-the-averass]

practicing the mindset of "what can i do right now to make my future self have an easier time" has worked so many wonders for my mental health forget big ass checklists of all the chores i gotta do. what's like,, 2 small things that i can visually see and can do easily? k do those

would i rather do this thing now while i know i have energy? or should i wait til later and see if i have enough energy to do it. Probably gonna go with the first choice there

goal in the future means i should probably start working towards it now instead of procrastinating. less stress for future me cause i remembered to split the work out

its not a perfect system but it does help a lot