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Be More Functional

Variety of tips and tricks that help my ADHD brain keep my life more or less together, and might help you, too.

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It's not cheating to use the skills that make it easier for you

The Wile E. Coyote Principle: Stop doing things the hard way

Wile E. Coyote has some pretty good tools for catching prey, namely: teeth, claws etc. But he always uses methods he's unskilled at.

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the psychological principles that make a personal kanban so effective

How I used a personal kanban to stop my brain turning into soup during lockdown

Once you understand the psychological principles that make kanbans so powerful, you can apply them to any productivity system.

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wear fancy house clothes and feel better

Reasons to wear fancy houseclothes (written pre-pandemic)

They can be costumes, they can be the clothes you wish you would wear outside but won’t (my most recent robe is a rainbow space galaxy with sweeping sleeves and a watercolour unicorn on the back)

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more useful things to do than scrolling social media on your phone when you have to wait

11 things to do instead of scrolling social media when you have a few minutes to kill

Like your date’s gone to the bathroom, or your lunch is in the microwave. You probably don’t want to be so compulsive about your phone, but what else are you gonna do while you wait?

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best way to reheat pizza: the easiest good method and the still pretty easy great method

The best way to reheat pizza

The easiest method that still turns out good, and the only slightly more complicated method that turns out great.

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doing fun organisation stuff when you have unfinished chores

You’re allowed to do the fun organisation tasks even if you haven’t done the boring ones

People get excited about fun organisation tasks — making a pegboard or putting all your spices in mason jars, or something pretty and fun — but feel like they can't do them when the floor hasn’t been vacuumed.

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Why videogame music is perfect focus music

Why videogame music is perfect focus music

Videogame music is specifically designed to get you into a rhythmic flow. It’s intended to be a background to a focused task.

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trick to improve your drawing

How to instantly draw slightly better (even if your starting place is 'terrible')

Look ahead of the line you’re drawing, not at the tip of your utensil where it meets the canvas!

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Get smarter quickly by looking every quote you see up on Quote Investigator for a week

Get smarter quickly by looking every quote you see up on Quote Investigator for a week

The problem is that if you consume a bunch of these bad facts, you’ll never be able to build up a an accurate picture of how the world works.

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body-doubling virtual co-working procrastination

Free virtual co-working sessions for people struggling to focus

Body-doubling is the ADHD strategy in which you basically work alongside someone who is also busy working (not talking). For some reason it makes a huge difference in our ability to focus.