Addressing Time Blindness

I’ve mentioned it before, but I have ADHD brain. Recently I’ve been working on finding additional ways to live with it. One big help has been finding the YouTube channel How to ADHD. These videos have really helped me identify things I need help with and the words to use to talk about those problems.

One of those things is time blindness. People with ADHD have a hard time keeping track of time. I either completely lose track of time and suddenly 3 hours have gone by, or it feels like 3 hours, but it’s been 10 minutes. I know the Pomodoro technique and use this site as my timer. The Pomodoro technique uses a series of timers to help you to focus and take breaks. This site explains it better than I can. The site that I use for my timer is really helpful because it keeps track of which timer to use next, so I don’t have to try to remember how many focus sessions I’ve finished. It can be a really useful tool when I need to focus on something I’m not necessarily motivated or want to do but it needs to be done. Like the other day, I needed to do grading, so I set a timer and got it all done before the timer went off! Just knowing it was there to give me a break helped me stay focused and get the grading done.

The thing is, sometimes I plan to use the Pomodoro timer and it interrupts while I’m actually into what I’m doing and disrupts my flow. I tend to use it to get myself to work on my dissertation or other writing projects. But I stick so much to it, it can derail my writing process. I’ve recently realized that just because I start the timer as motivation doesn’t mean I have to stick with it.

Which brings me to the other tool I’ve found to help me with my time blindness. I searched for an app that would discretely act like a grandfather clock on the hour. I just need something that can get my attention, so I’ll notice the time. I found an app called Mindfulness Chime that has a number of options as to how and when it goes off. I have it set for once an hour. It’s really nice. It triggers me to go, “Okay. That’s the time right now!” It’s really helpful.

A third thing I’m reminding myself to use more often is the kitchen timer. I keep starting dinner and going, “Okay, at this time, come back and do something else related to dinner” and completely forgetting to do so. Tonight, I set the timer a couple of times so I knew that I would do what I needed to do at the right times.

All of this is helping me to be more conscious of time, which is something I have struggled with for as long as I can remember. It’s a good feeling.

Upgrades day 3

I’m done! I’m done with all the upgrading and rearranging that I have been meaning to do!

Yesterday, I finally went out and put the phone holder on the handlebars and the bike lock on the bike! I also have an awesome bag that not only expands to hold even more stuff, but I can take it off and take it in with me because it has a shoulder strap! I can put stuff right in it and then put it on the bike and go home. My bike is ready for a trip to the store or a nice long ride without getting lost!

I also swapped two sets of storage for better use. I took the storage pieces I had been using to store my clothes and swapped it with a wire shelving unit in my room. My clothes don’t need smaller spaces, and actually work better on the open shelving unit. The storage pieces are helping to contain my clutter and smaller things than the wire shelves, and really helped declutter some of my room!

Today was the last piece of the puzzle. There is a former record storage unit that we’ve been using as extra kitchen storage since we moved. Before that it was our bar. Now it is back to storing records on its bottom shelf and my binders from my masters and core binders from my PhD. That freed up two wooden crates on my desk for display and storage. Now I have a bunch of wall-space in the right-side and above corner of my desk!

Things are really shaping up in here! It’s feeling better than it ever has!

Now I can hopefully get focused more on getting work done on my dissertation, keeping up with my students, and work on my Oracle chapter!

Oh duh!

One of the joys of being an academic is the academic conference. It’s a great place to present papers and get feedback from a wide variety of people that you would probably not see otherwise. The problem is figuring out what you want to present by the time the submissions are due.

Since 2015, I have been attending the Comics and Popular Arts Conference (CPAC) that is held at DragonCon every year. Since 2016, I have also been a presenter at the conference. CPAC is a great conference to present at because it is open to all at DragonCon to attend. So not only am I presenting to academics and scholars, but to fans and individuals who may not have thought they could be scholars as well. It’s great for getting feedback, especially in regards to accessibility of your work to the general public.

Just last week I had submitted papers to three conferences that are happening in the Spring. But, I forgot that CPAC’s deadline is next Friday. I was going “What am I going to present? I don’t have any idea what I’m going to write for classes next semester. I’ve submitted my paper for this class to a Spring conference. I don’t want to represent a paper, even if it is a different conference.” I was panicking. Then I remembered, I have a whole list of paper ideas I’ve come up with while working on the paper for class. When you have 8-10 pages, you need to focus. I am so glad I did that.

It’s a good habit to have as an academic and as a student. You’re never going to be able to fit everything into one paper. Keep track of the things you want to talk about, makes notes on them, make note of authors you’d use for that paper. You never know when it will come in handy!

It’s bigger on the inside!

Yesterday, I decided to start outlining for my final paper while at work. I had my 2-in-1 laptop, my sole laptop in the past year, to work on. It’s a great little machine. It’s 11″, small, lightweight, and also works as a nice tablet – especially now that it has a matte screen protector. But I’ve always had a bit of an issue when it comes to the keyboard.

I think it’s that I’m used to more traditional keyboards. The keyboard I have on my desktop is a mechanical keyboard. I had read that it’s better for your hands and wrists because you don’t have to push as hard on the keys for it to register. I guess I’ve been using it long enough that it’s affecting my typing. The keyboard on my 2-in-1 requires a little more pressure. But I don’t use the keyboard for much outside of logging in to websites, so it normally doesn’t pose a problem. Yesterday, it got annoying.

I was finding there were letters missing left and right, and in places where Word wasn’t catching them. I kept working because it was something to do while at work and I just couldn’t get into the book I need to have read for class this week. I decided to go ahead with a thought I’d been having for a bit. I still have my old laptop. It’s a 15″ and much heavier. But it has a full keyboard and keys that are more responsive to my typical typing.

The 11″ 2-in-1 sitting on top of the 15″ laptop. Big difference!

I replaced it with the 2-in-one partially because of the weight, partially because of the problems with the hinge on the right side being broken. But mostly because I had gotten my desktop and didn’t need as much computer on-the-go anymore. The laptop had been my sole computer for a couple of years. But because of that size and power, I had been thinking of pulling it out and making it my portable writing desk. It also has a program or two still installed that make writing projects easier.

Last night, after getting home from work, I pulled out the laptop, plugged it in, and got working. Definitely the right move. I don’t worry about missing letters because I can feel the keys depressing and registering on the screen. But it’s been an adjustment going from an 11″ to a 15″. Everything on the screen is so much bigger (yay!!!). The keyboard is more responsive – as well as having the number keypad to the right (yay!!!).

I still love my 2-in-1. It’s going to be my everyday laptop. But, for larger writing projects away from the desktop, my 15″ laptop is going to be my go-to. Now I just need to do some research so I can get the parts to fix the hinge and be able to keep it working overall. New skills!

Solid start

As you all know by now, I am trying to get my thesis off to a good start. It has been an exercise in trying to figure out how to write it. I have been reading books and graphic novels and taking notes and figuring out exactly what I’m looking at.

And I was making no on the page progress.

I wanted to have a rough draft of my first chapter done before Monday. Until today I didn’t think that would be possible. I felt like my break was wasted in that sense. But it really wasn’t. I needed to take a break from it and let my brain relax. I needed to remember that I am trying to get a rough draft done, not the final draft. Giving myself the permission to simply sit down and include everything I can think of has opened the floodgates.

Both yesterday and today I spent about 2 hours at Starbucks with coffee and Hamilton to add to the lack of distractions and help me focus. I have finally laid a solid foundation for me to build the rest of the draft off of. I think if I take the time to work on it tomorrow, and hopefully on Sunday, I will get close to if not have a flat out done draft by Monday. That is going to be a great way to start off the semester!

Music of my life

Lately I’ve been listening to a lot of Hamilton music. Like many others, I have The Hamilton Mixtape pre-ordered. It comes out on Friday, but Lin-Manuel Miranda has been releasing a track or two here and there over the past couple of weeks. We’re currently at 6 tracks released. And if you pre-ordered it, you get those tracks and pay that much less when the rest comes out.

It is amazing. Some of my favorite tracks are some of the more recently released ones. “Wrote My Way Out” is amazing. It’s got four different artists talking about their own experience and how they “wrote [their] way out” of their circumstances. It’s inspiring to listen to. Usher’s “Wait For It” is my other favorite, right now. I love the song to begin with, and his take is just beautiful. Seriously, just go listen to it now. It’s out there on Spotify. Go. Listen.

The whole thing is just amazing. “Satisfied” has multiple levels of awesomeness, including Queen Latifah. “Helpless” has Ashanti and Ja Rule, which is so beautiful. I feel like I cannot do it justice because I do not know these artists very much if it all. If you go on Twitter, people are fawning over this amazing music.

But…anyway…

Today I tried something new. When I listen to Hamilton in the car, I find myself having moments of inspiration about my thesis. The two are nowhere near related. But I think it’s somehow either inspiring the scholarly side or I’ve listened to it often enough that it’s allowing me to zen out and freeing my mind to think about my thesis. So I decided to see if that’s the case of if somehow driving is a part of it. When you’re on a decent drive, it can be a very zen, freeing experience, mentally. I sat down with the laptop and decided to focus on one section of my thesis and write. I didn’t worry about citing or finding the information in books. Basically I was aiming to lay a solid foundation I can go back through and flesh out with the books and graphic novels and such later.

It worked.

I wrote over two-thousand words this afternoon. And they’re really good words. I recently transferred that section over into Word and formatted it accordingly. I wrote almost eight full pages today. That’s without any citations or headings or anything. Just eight pages of words. It’s giving me hope that I can get at least a solid first draft done by the end of the semester to give to my committee to get feedback on. I think I could get a solid draft of the entire thing done over Winter Break when I have no teaching materials to prepare, reading to do for class, papers to write for class, or grading to do.

So, evidently Hamilton needs to be in my rotation for writing music. Who knew?

I found it!

Earlier I wrote about how I’m approaching writing for my thesis (One-thousand words). I mentioned that Seanan McGuire, one of my favorite authors, posted about how she uses a d10 to track her writing. But I couldn’t find where.

I FOUND IT!

I have been asked to share my most important writing tool. Are you ready? Are you wary? Are you afraid it's a cornfield full of screams?

— Seanan McGuire (@seananmcguire) September 17, 2016

My most important writing tool. pic.twitter.com/EKTGp89PgY

— Seanan McGuire (@seananmcguire) September 17, 2016

Every day, I break my word count into groups of 1,000, and I reset the d10. As I work, I turn the die to show how far I have to go.

— Seanan McGuire (@seananmcguire) September 17, 2016

Hit a 1,000 mark? Get up, stretch, have some water, reset the die to 0, start again, until I've done as many groups as planned.

— Seanan McGuire (@seananmcguire) September 17, 2016

Still excited that I have an awesome use for my ASL d10 my wonderful sis found for me a few years ago! Thank you, Seanan, for that!

NaNoWriMo

As a way to get me inspired to write more of my thesis this month, I have signed up to be a part of NaNoWriMo. NaNoWriMo stands for National Novel Writing Month. The idea is to write a novel in a month, but I have seen others posting about using it to inspire them to work on their academic project. I am following in their footsteps.

The ultimate goal of NaNoWriMo is to write a minimum of 50,000 words in the month of November. Considering the inspriation I’m getting from my research, which has been inspired by just thinking and re-rereading the source material, I should be able to hit that point. Also, I’d love to have a solid first draft of the main chapters, not including the introduction and conclusion, before the end of the semester. 50,000 words would get me closer to that being a reality. I realize that would probably be enough words to create the rough draft, but I’m also thinking of editing.

So, I’m hoping to update here about once a week with how I’m doing. If you’re also participating, connect with me! I’d love to add buddies. Or just check out my profile and see how my word count is doing outside of my updates. I figure that the more people that know I am doing this, the more there are for me to hold myself accountable to.

Here’s to 50,000 more words by the end of the month!

NaNoWriMo word count: 0

Time Management

I have never been good at managing time. I’m one of those people who has piles of projects everywhere. I know what is in which pile, but they’re everywhere. My problem is I look at all those piles and get overwhelmed. They’re all important piles. So nothing gets done.

But today I realized I have some built-in scheduling I can use. The one class I am currently taking is on Tuesday afternoons. We get done with plenty of time for me to get work done before heading to bed for the night. I’m kind of ashamed to admit it took me this long to realize that I should use that time to get work done for that class. It makes sense! We just spent 3 hours talking about the topic and all the various tangents related to it. After class is the perfect time to work on the final paper for it!

I guess the point of all of that is pay attention. The solution to your problem may be right in front of your face!

One-thousand words

I have a few things that I use to remind me to keep going when I feel overwhelmed when trying to work on my thesis. I’ve got Wil Wheaton:

That has been really useful. I have to remember to give myself permission to sit down and simply write a bunch knowing there is going to be a lot of editing later. I also tell myself

The more I found out about Hamilton, the more I found myself reminding myself of this. I’m sure this is going to be my mantra when I’m working on my dissertation for my Ph.D.

But the best advice I’ve found that’s helped me immensely is from one of my favorite authors, Seanan McGuire. I can’t find the post now, but she posted, I thought on her Tumblr, about using a d10 to keep visual track of her writing. She would sit down and write 1000 words at a time. When she hit 1000, she would take a break and then go back to it. I’ve been using that. I’ll sit down and make myself write 1000 words at a go. I haven’t done it as often as I really should. But I did it tonight, and it feels so good!

I really should do it on a daily basis. Then again, it is Monday. Maybe this is the week I start writing 1000 words, minimum, a day. Hopefully it’ll get me motivated to get the basics down and then go back and start fleshing things out, editing, and getting a rough draft done. I keep freaking out over it and not doing anything. The better thing is to get something done that you can ask others, in my case my committee, for their opinions on. They can’t help you if you have nothing for them to look over!