Fuck it. Life update time

[eff_ess_oe]

Been awhile since I posted anything substantial about how my personal life's going, so I might as well do it now. I'm dividing it into topics, so if there's anything specific you wanna look at, just click the relevant section.

The creative front.

So as some of y'all on Aethy may have seen, I am currently writing another fanfic for Metal Gear! (Metal Gear Rising this time, as opposed to Metal Gear Solid) This one's been on the backburner since June, but I had a fresh burst of muse for it about a month ago and am still trying to drain every ounce of it into my doc. Unfortunately, writer's block has sunk its fangs into me yet again, but since I've been doing a lot more reading lately (to be detailed further under the "brainshit" section in this post), I figure the muse will come back to me in due time.

In addition, I've been working more on my battle jackets. Yesterday morning, I was able to finish pounding in some eyelets around the left sleeve of my "bands" vest, and last night/today I was sewing on a new patch for my "fandoms/snarky quips" vest. When they're finished, I'm definitely going to be doing a reveal post for both of them, but for now this is all the info you get.
 
Conventions haul/future plans.

Two of the artists I ordered from at CitrusCon's merch has made it to my house in one piece! Pics will be attached.

The first part of the haul to arrive was from Chromatic Folklore. I ordered the patch by itself, but she packed in a bunch of cute stickers as well, which I wasn't expecting but still found to be a nice touch. I've already placed one on my laptop stand box, but I'm currently mulling over what to do with the others. I think I'm gonna get a cheapo photo album and use that for collecting mini-prints for when I go to more cons. Anyway, here's the stuff.

Second part of the haul is from ScumSuck, whose SpongeSquid sticker pack I saw on Aethy ahead of time, and decided "Fuck it, I'm getting this" in advance. It took longer than expected to reach me, but it came home safe and sound. And now Ukeward graces my hard drive, while Semebob is on my laptop stand box alongside the Chromatic Folklore sticker. After looking further through ScumSuck's store, I really dig their aesthetic, and I'm probably gonna order something else from them in the future.



I'm still waiting on merch from two other artists, but I did recently receive an email saying that one of them has just dispatched, so hopefully it'll arrive in due time.

In terms of future cons, I'm looking at my local, Western-media-focused, probably overglorified-dealers-room con in early October. I'm not expecting anything as quality as CitrusCon or even the slightly larger Western-focused con within highway-driving distance, but a bitch needs some nerd friends, so I'm gonna hang around just to see what's out there. Probably not gonna cosplay to it, but maybe if I end up liking it, I'll go again next year and cosplay then. Who knows?
 
Brainshit.

Despite the derogatory-sounding title to this part of the post, it's actually a little more positive. Lately, I've been coming back from a fairly heavy slump. It started when I made the choice to crack open my Otasune fanbook instead of dopescrolling Thursday night before I went to bed, and I woke up in a good mood all Friday. My executive function's been great as well, and I got a SHITTON of stuff done both around the house and on the creative front, even squeezing in some stuff I didn't think I'd get done, such as cleaning up the mountain of dust that'd built up in between my bed and the bedroom wall it rests against.

Starting this week, I'm gonna see if I can keep this trend going. I'm gonna repurpose my "preview shit" Discord server that has only me and a sprinto bot, and use it as a planner for house chores, event prep, creative work, and whatever else I need it for. I figure it'll be a good way to motivate myself, as well as maybe break down some of the more exec-function-heavy tasks in a way where I can see the steps and keep track of them.

Also, I'm gonna try to see if I can get around my autistic inertia. Not by brute-forcing myself to get up when my brain won't let me, but by chaining together more tasks while I'm already up and in Task Mode. (aka. the "Objects in motion must remain in motion" part of the inertia principle)

I know all of this might sound like I'm trying to "overcome" my disabilities Neurotypical Karen-style, but I promise I'm not. I'm just doing things that'll make Doing Shit easier on my autistic brain (breaking tasks down, chaining tasks so I don't have to interrupt my at-rest state, etc.). And I'm keeping an eye out for strategies that I can use to make shit easier for me as well. If anyone has any, feel free to add them in the comments.

That's all from me for now. I'll leave you with a pic I took on a long-ass walk that was hella worth it.


 

Comments

[homobirb]

omg i wish i signed up for citrus con!! every post i hear about it makes me regret not attending. (ive been meaning to comment on ur previous post as well, esp to tell you how cute the piss lemon venom snake icon is lol)

and trying to figure out task management and executive functioning is like. gah. i tend to rotate through strategies and change them up every so often, just to keep things fresh. and bc my brain will adapt to the new routine = it'll just start ignoring it lol T-T

random productivity/cleaning things that help me/have helped me in the past:

• setting short timers (ex. 5-15 min) to do tasks

• similarly, setting a short timer (5-15 min) for me to wrap up whatever im working on and transition over to another task

• to do apps. im currently using todoist. ticktick is also good.

• don't over schedule yourself. pick 3 priorities for the day

• i do weekly reviews, where every sunday i review my upcoming calendar and pick 3 goals/priorities for the week. i like to pick super simple/easy goals. ex. ill have a goal for "get through my upcoming neurologist appointment." then i also review last week's goals/priorities and see whether i met them. if i met none of them, then i need to forgive myself and set easier goals. ive also tried daily, monthly, quarterly, and yearly reviews and tbh weeks fit me the best. they're not too frequent but they're also a manageable chunk of time, without becoming too large (ie i end up forgetting about whatever my goals/priorities were)

• splitting up to do lists into "bare minimum"/"survival" tasks vs "bonus" tasks. ex. i need to brush my teeth everyday. i don't need to do my laundry every three days on the dot, so it's a bonus task. i call them bonus tasks bc they're, well, bonus tasks. itd be nice if i could get them done, but im not gonna be upset if im not able to get to them

• related to the previous, but know which tasks you can procrastinate and which ones you can't. prioritize the ones you can't put off, and give yourself grace for anything you need to delay

• make things more accessible for your space & your needs. ex. i have two trash cans in my room, so i always have a trash can within reach = trash doesn't accumulate. or, i removed the lid to my hamper bc i hated having to physically lift it up and much preferred being able to toss in my clothes from across the room

• change your view of cleaning. it's not a one-and-done task, it's like... eating. you don't eat food and then in a couple of hours go "oh my god im hungry again wtf is wrong with me this is never ending." cleaning is like that. things will get dirty again. cleaning is just a maintenance task, to keep up with relative cleanliness of your surroundings, in the same way you regularly brush your teeth to avoid cavities, or regularly bathe in some capacity to keep your body clean

• in that same vein, i don't do perfection with my cleaning. i miss a couple of pieces of clothing when doing a load of laundry? no biggie ill put them in next time. i missed vacuuming up a few specks of cat litter? no biggie ill vacuum them up next time.

• i schedule cleaning tasks. so on tuesdays and saturdays i like to do laundry. if i miss doing it one tuesday, no biggie, ill do laundry on saturday. on fridays i vacuum/sweep and on saturdays i take out the trash. if i miss vacuuming/sweeping, no biggie, ill get it next week, and i can still take the trash out without needing to do the vacuuming/sweeping first (i.e. trying not to get mentally stuck in arbitrary rules)

• body doubling!! it's when you have someone, either physically or mentally, be with you while you complete tasks. this can be like a friend or a neighbor coming over and hanging out while you clean. or it can be a friend in a discord call, just chilling together in the call as y'all both focus on your own tasks. or even having a friend message and check in on u in a certain amount of time, to make sure you've completed a task.

gah that list ended up really long orz i was always that bitch who procrastinated on everything in school and had to use the anxiety of very imminent deadlines in order to get anything done. and now that im no longer in school... well, i throw a lot of strategies at the wall to see what sticks!! lol.

also gonna list a couple of related books: how to keep house while drowning by kc davis is a very short (150 page) book that also goes into more cleaning-specific strategies, but i think it can be applied to other tasks as well.

atomic habits by james clear talks about, well, habits, with similar ideas about chaining things together and making good habits more accessible & more likely you'll do them (and less so of the bad habits). it did feel a bit like the typical motivational book, of "you can do absolutely anything you do your mind to, if you just use willpower (a finite resource)" but some neurodivergents liked it. i think it's good for motivation on little improvements.

unf*ck your habitat by rachel hoffman. it's been awhile since i read it, but what i remember is basically pomodoro-esque technique (20 min cleaning, 10 min break) with cleaning tips. like vinegar in a spray bottle and how to do drain volcanoes.

[eff_ess_oe]

I've done the "task transfer timer" strategy before, so I'll keep doing that. However, I never implemented the reverse of it (i.e. only do X task for Y minutes), so I'm gonna try that next time I have something to do that seems like I'll never get done.

Thanks for the book recs too! I'll look into some of them when I get the chance.