Exactly like you, Stay Focused on my Chrome browser and Freedom on my phone. I haven't fully utilized it yet but baby steps. To start, I like the reminder. For Stay Focused I currently have it set just to social media tools, like FB, and it has waken me up a few times with my zombie-like doom scrolling.
I get overwhelmed easily as an autistic person trying to communicate through channels run and largely made for neurotypicals, and I get feeling nobody really understands my particular media needs.
David, this sounds absolutely challenging. I've heard others who get easily overwhelmed (like me) really appreciate the book "Essentialism" by Greg McKeown. I'd love to track this title down. But this is different from what you're talking about above, which are channels that have been designed without you in mind. I'm curious to hear more about how you've navigated the last couple of weeks...
Mostly, I find people I can trust online, or think I can, and follow what they do. What in autistic circles is called "masking", or pretending to be neurotypical for convenience's sake and not to rock the boat.
"At first, my brain misses the dopamine hit, but after awhile the world I’m creating through words expands, the desire to escape writing subsides—and I get work done."
I sooo feel this and love how you describe it. It made me feel understood but/and also inspired as your words reminded me of the wonderful feeling when "the world I’m creating through words expands"! Hooray! Thank you, Paul!
Nicely done, Paul. I also like the Pomo method. I do use a handy app called Toggl which lets me track my time, and that's a nice accountability check (and it has a pomo timer built in). I also like Freedom, which I understand Zadie Smith has also used in the day!
Thanks, Mark. I really appreciate it. And I've downloaded Toggl! Thanks for the rec. BTW, I love the pic of you in front of the opening of The Great Gatsby. My son (16) just read this (one of my all-time favorite novels) and we were quoting that opening to each other :)
Great advice, Paul! I also like Break Timer. It gives you a chance to snooze it for a few minutes but then it comes right back at you. I've been using it for about two months and have found it really helpful. You can set it to whatever length you like.
Have you been overwhelmed by the news? Has it impacted your writing? Have you found something that helps? I’m super curious—tell me about it here!
I just started looking into blockers a couple of days ago! Very timely post. It's been a huge challenge.
Yes, tell me about it (obviously--read above!) Which blocker(s) did you end up using?
Exactly like you, Stay Focused on my Chrome browser and Freedom on my phone. I haven't fully utilized it yet but baby steps. To start, I like the reminder. For Stay Focused I currently have it set just to social media tools, like FB, and it has waken me up a few times with my zombie-like doom scrolling.
Ha, I love it. I may've come down too hard on StayFocusd above. I use it a lot too :)
Paul
I'll share a poem that was shared by Poetic Outlaws on Substack, by American poet Jack Gilbert
*****
A Brief for the Defense
by Jack Gilbert
Sorrow everywhere. Slaughter everywhere. If babies
are not starving someplace, they are starving
somewhere else. With flies in their nostrils.
But we enjoy our lives because that’s what God wants.
Otherwise the mornings before summer dawn would not
be made so fine. The Bengal tiger would not
be fashioned so miraculously well. The poor women
at the fountain are laughing together between
the suffering they have known and the awfulness
in their future, smiling and laughing while somebody
in the village is very sick. There is laughter
every day in the terrible streets of Calcutta,
and the women laugh in the cages of Bombay.
If we deny our happiness, resist our satisfaction,
we lessen the importance of their deprivation.
We must risk delight. We can do without pleasure,
but not delight. Not enjoyment. We must have
the stubbornness to accept our gladness in the ruthless
furnace of this world. To make injustice the only
measure of our attention is to praise the Devil.
If the locomotive of the Lord runs us down,
we should give thanks that the end had magnitude.
We must admit there will be music despite everything.
We stand at the prow again of a small ship
anchored late at night in the tiny port
looking over to the sleeping island: the waterfront
is three shuttered cafés and one naked light burning.
To hear the faint sound of oars in the silence as a rowboat
comes slowly out and then goes back is truly worth
all the years of sorrow that are to come.
I get overwhelmed easily as an autistic person trying to communicate through channels run and largely made for neurotypicals, and I get feeling nobody really understands my particular media needs.
David, this sounds absolutely challenging. I've heard others who get easily overwhelmed (like me) really appreciate the book "Essentialism" by Greg McKeown. I'd love to track this title down. But this is different from what you're talking about above, which are channels that have been designed without you in mind. I'm curious to hear more about how you've navigated the last couple of weeks...
Mostly, I find people I can trust online, or think I can, and follow what they do. What in autistic circles is called "masking", or pretending to be neurotypical for convenience's sake and not to rock the boat.
"At first, my brain misses the dopamine hit, but after awhile the world I’m creating through words expands, the desire to escape writing subsides—and I get work done."
I sooo feel this and love how you describe it. It made me feel understood but/and also inspired as your words reminded me of the wonderful feeling when "the world I’m creating through words expands"! Hooray! Thank you, Paul!
Thank you Monica! Hooray, callooh callay! :)
Nicely done, Paul. I also like the Pomo method. I do use a handy app called Toggl which lets me track my time, and that's a nice accountability check (and it has a pomo timer built in). I also like Freedom, which I understand Zadie Smith has also used in the day!
Thanks, Mark. I really appreciate it. And I've downloaded Toggl! Thanks for the rec. BTW, I love the pic of you in front of the opening of The Great Gatsby. My son (16) just read this (one of my all-time favorite novels) and we were quoting that opening to each other :)
Great advice, Paul! I also like Break Timer. It gives you a chance to snooze it for a few minutes but then it comes right back at you. I've been using it for about two months and have found it really helpful. You can set it to whatever length you like.
Thanks, Elizabeth. I'll check that out. I'm adding both yours and Mark's suggestion above to the post :)
Good resources to know!
💗💗💗