Balancing Self-Care and Productivity: Tips and Tricks

This is a really great question! Something I definitely struggle with. I noticed you also have ADHD in your profile, and I think that can especially make it difficult for us to balance the fun little things we may end up hyper focusing on and the very important things that are tedious or boring. One thing that I struggle with is just getting set up and started to do the important but boring things. Some helpful tools are to: 1) Break the task down into small steps and check them off as you go so you get a boost of good feelings as you work on something instead of waiting to feel good until the end. It also helps simplify it. 2) Give yourself permission to work on the boring thing for just 10 minutes. Set a timer. It’s ok if you stop after those 10 minutes, but often we will feel fine to keep going. An important part of this is to not beat yourself up if you do stop once the 10 minutes are up. 10 minutes is better than nothing! 3) Listen to music that helps you focus during the boring tasks. I find it most helpful to use high energy music with no words as opposed to slow “lo-fi beats” some study playlists have. Spotify has some good options, there is a techno playlist I have been using which is not the type of music I normally listen to.