I’m 23 now. And I am not going to lie - I suck at almost all task. Starting from my teens years, I “lost” the ability to read and had to switch to skim - I don’t know why, maybe because I have some undiagnosed form of learning disability. But what I know for sure is that my attention span right now is very much fucked up.

And this has affected me a lot - my foundation in whatever I’ve learnt during my teens is pretty bad. I struggle with advanced trigonometry, I am not able to grasp the concept of limits, calculus and integration is hard to understand, and I also suck at geometrical mathematics, like graphs and cones. I also used to be pretty bad at hydrocarbons, electromagnetism and biology was the only subject I was better at.

Overall, I am a below average student. I barely graduated with a CS degree, obviously without any offer in hand. That was September 2022. I’m still unemployed, struggling with learning software development practices, or completing projects. Joblessness has taken a toll on my mental state - and I’m not sure if this is the recession or just me, but I’m struggling to even get an unpaid internship.

I know that I should be focusing on completing project, but I am trying to read a book on economy for the sake of improving my reading under the hope that if I were to possibly complete my master’s degree in the future, I should not struggle with focusing on reading research papers. But I’m struggling with the first page, coming across new word is so distracting and frustrating, because now, I have to do the task of understanding the new word, trying to see how that word makes sense in the passage, while also having to remember the previous context.

I’m not even sure what I should be doing now. I’ve not spoken to anyone in a long time - well, I did not have anyone to speak to, to begin with. I’m pretending to wear the mask of a clown, but I’m not sure for how long I can keep up with this.

  • 0xCAFe
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    53 months ago

    I want to give you a proper answer, but I have a final exam in one hour and procrastenating on reviewing the material one last time — so, I feel you. Will come back tonight or tomorrow though, I think it’s an interesting and important topic to discuss with many angles to think about it.

  • @RiderExMachina
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    43 months ago

    It takes practice, deliberate mindset, and occasionally caffeine or other legal stimulants. Sometimes the books are just poorly written.

    First, you need to work on restructuring your mind. Our society pushes new things all the time, you can never have downtime; you must always be on Tiktok, Youtube, Insta, FB, Reddit, Lemmy, whatever.

    Starting now, try to be mindful of your time on social media and video platforms. Allow yourself to sit in silence and let your mind race through everything that’s being pushed back by the content you’re consuming. After a while (a month or two) of this “Social Media Mindfulness”, you should start feeling better and able to concentrate on reading. It’s not an immediate fix, but it’s the healthiest one.

    Source/Further information

    I would also recommend How To ADHD for tips and tricks, on how other people deal with their ADHD and study habits.