Knower of nothing
Well-Known Member
The situation:
I live with my family in the attic of our home, full time NEET, rarely go outside. Needless to say I have a lot of spare time. Despite this, my ability to take care of myself and not fall back into the usual pit of self neglect is very inconsistent. Time is not the issue.
In a peak-and-valley sort of way I'll have good periods where I'm on top of all the chores, eat and sleep well and even get in some physical exercise. This period rarely lasts more than 3 weeks and most importantly I'm unable to fall into a smooth pattern that I can repeat as habit. Energy and willingness are not the issue. I struggle with gaining any amount of consistency. The state of my self-care plays a major role in my general mental wellbeing.
The systems I've tried:
I've broken down individual tasks into their barebones steps and attempted going through them smallest bit at a time. Not helpful, I have no difficulty following through on a task, the issue lies in not starting at all.
I've made a set order of activities to be done, placed it in an impossible to not see place. Can be followed in good periods but again, if I mess up the first step of the order, I lose the whole day. The order works against itself in the bigger picture because when working without schedule I will simply avoid the tasks I have trouble with and do the others first.
I've tried a few variants on pomodoro where instead of specific tasks it is a set amount of time for any productive work I may have to do. This system was useful as it includes in itself the prospect of a break and being done with it through the timer. The problem I ran into instead, tragically, was that setting up the timer to begin with became a task of its own that could again easily sabotage the whole day if it does not work out.
Other time based systems included alarms set with the names of the task at hand, or a more generic kick-start. Here at some point I just begin to ignore the alarms; once ignored once, they lose their motivating power and no longer incite action.
Current upcoming attempt:
Coming to terms with the inability at display, I will be trying an extremely light-weight version of the activity order schedule. Something is better than nothing. At this point I just want some progress of any sort.
I have let go of the more difficult tasks, diet and exercise for now and stuck to only a few simple maintenance chores. The issue with this format was that if I mess up the first task in the order I lose the whole day. So I thought, what if I only have one task per day? Instead of a day schedule, I'll be going with a week schedule with only a single task per day. However I'm not confident, the load being light may help in pushing through as I'll have the relaxation of having the whole day off if I get through it, but I fear I am still lacking something that incites action to start with. The ultimate goal is to keep up with a system for up to half a year in the hopes of a habit forming that may make it slightly less forced of a process.
Any additions, changes, insights or completely different systems or angles on the issue would be much appreciated. I'll be creating this current schedule physically, but I will hold off on initiating an attempt to follow it for a while so I can read through any potential assistance first. Thanks in advance!
(And feel free to discuss anything related to schedule application in general)
I live with my family in the attic of our home, full time NEET, rarely go outside. Needless to say I have a lot of spare time. Despite this, my ability to take care of myself and not fall back into the usual pit of self neglect is very inconsistent. Time is not the issue.
In a peak-and-valley sort of way I'll have good periods where I'm on top of all the chores, eat and sleep well and even get in some physical exercise. This period rarely lasts more than 3 weeks and most importantly I'm unable to fall into a smooth pattern that I can repeat as habit. Energy and willingness are not the issue. I struggle with gaining any amount of consistency. The state of my self-care plays a major role in my general mental wellbeing.
The systems I've tried:
I've broken down individual tasks into their barebones steps and attempted going through them smallest bit at a time. Not helpful, I have no difficulty following through on a task, the issue lies in not starting at all.
I've made a set order of activities to be done, placed it in an impossible to not see place. Can be followed in good periods but again, if I mess up the first step of the order, I lose the whole day. The order works against itself in the bigger picture because when working without schedule I will simply avoid the tasks I have trouble with and do the others first.
I've tried a few variants on pomodoro where instead of specific tasks it is a set amount of time for any productive work I may have to do. This system was useful as it includes in itself the prospect of a break and being done with it through the timer. The problem I ran into instead, tragically, was that setting up the timer to begin with became a task of its own that could again easily sabotage the whole day if it does not work out.
Other time based systems included alarms set with the names of the task at hand, or a more generic kick-start. Here at some point I just begin to ignore the alarms; once ignored once, they lose their motivating power and no longer incite action.
Current upcoming attempt:
Coming to terms with the inability at display, I will be trying an extremely light-weight version of the activity order schedule. Something is better than nothing. At this point I just want some progress of any sort.
I have let go of the more difficult tasks, diet and exercise for now and stuck to only a few simple maintenance chores. The issue with this format was that if I mess up the first task in the order I lose the whole day. So I thought, what if I only have one task per day? Instead of a day schedule, I'll be going with a week schedule with only a single task per day. However I'm not confident, the load being light may help in pushing through as I'll have the relaxation of having the whole day off if I get through it, but I fear I am still lacking something that incites action to start with. The ultimate goal is to keep up with a system for up to half a year in the hopes of a habit forming that may make it slightly less forced of a process.
Any additions, changes, insights or completely different systems or angles on the issue would be much appreciated. I'll be creating this current schedule physically, but I will hold off on initiating an attempt to follow it for a while so I can read through any potential assistance first. Thanks in advance!
(And feel free to discuss anything related to schedule application in general)