Scrolling
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Sleep
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Go back to sleep because can’t think of what to do
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Wake up
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Still can’t think of anything to do ^(cba to wait for inspiration)
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Scrolling

This is what my weekends look like when I fail to find an event to go to in time.

The problem is that most tasks require

  1. Inspiration, which it usually takes several minutes of staring into the void (fun!) and waiting for an idea to get.
  2. Structure. I think this is broken in my brain because whenever I need to structure a task it’s super tiring, and that’s why I always revert to scrolling, which is unstructured. In scrolling the need to plan is replaced by an impulsive response to whatever happens to appear on your feed.

What does the diagram even look like for normal people? When do they get inspiration? How do they decide that now is the time to do thing no. xyz? What do I do about it hurting to structure free time activities (I’ve found strategies to navigate cooking etc)? Is there an alternative structureless passtime* to scrolling?

*(I’m actually able to structure when I do things with other people, but there are days when nobody’s around which leaves me helpless)

  • SubArcticTundraOPEnglish
    1·
    2 days ago

    There’s some theory about how we intuitively avoid or engage with things depending on real and perceived levels of effort

    Hmm yes I’ve definitely experienced this too. Do you have any pointers on what to read? It woukd really help me if I could understand my seemingly irrational distaste towards learning some things.

    I’ll check out Zack Fredman. So you say it’s good to be on the lookout for ND people to take inspiration from? There are YTers like William Osman, Michael Reeves, and Adam Savage who I believe have a very similar neurotype to me. Unfortunately their solution was to become youtubers which isn’t of much help to me (although I understand there are jobs with similar workflows).

    Another option, stop putting yourself down for engaging with “unwanted distractions”. Unless it’s something that’s going to ruin your life, try embracing it fully.

    I guess? It’s not that the old hobby I found in my cupboard when looking for sth else was an unwanted distraction in my life – it’s that it was an unwanted distraction in that specific moment. I’d have been happy to embrace it fully earlier that morning had I remembered I’d had it*. The problem was that it cropped up when I needed to complete a specific task (eg. paying taxes) at which point I objectively could not go with the flow even if I wanted to and at which point it was a hinderance.

    (*I guess the solution, then, is to develop a system that reminds me of all the potential things there are on offer to do whenever I’m bored.)

    My wife has this fight with herself sometimes as we’re cleaning house, starting one task and ending up in the middle of multiple different cleaning activities. I do the exact same thing, the only difference is I love myself for it. I will eventually get to a clean house, and as long as I don’t keep stopping to self loathe, it will be cleaner, faster compared to an NT person. I know, because I’ve cleaned NT people’s houses and they are always blown away. I’ve got a model that is pretty close to monotropism that I think explains all these things, just cba to post about it yet.

    Please do lmk, I need this!