adhd study affirmations + tips to stray from discouragement
by a stem student with adhd.
you’re not always going to be consistent. you’re not always going to be motivated. you’re not always going to be efficient. and that is okay.
edit : thank you so much to whoever blazed this post. It means the world to me.
and the fact that you even got this far is an accomplishment in and of itself. In this line of work, people aren’t always the kindest to neurodivergent people especially since our symptoms can often hinder our performance academically.
if you’re good to go after reading the above, I’ve also made a post regarding adhd study tips that I haven’t seen anywhere else. (Part 2 is here!) But, if you’re burned out like me, feel free to keep reading.
honestly, these might serve a bit more as reminders because they’re kinda simple but even I needed this, so, here we go.
do not seek advice from anyone neurotypical unless it genuinely helps you. I cannot tell you the amount of time and tears I could have saved if I just considered the fact that just because popular self-improvement tips or study techniques didn’t work for me, it doesn’t mean I’m stupid or useless. It simply means our brains isn’t motivated by the same things neurotypical ones are, and therefore a lot of popular self-improvement videos or study tips aren’t going to work for you because 90% of the time, they’re not designed to work for neurodivergent people. So if you’d like to seek help in this area, look for tips and videos that ARE for neurodivergent people.
you might experience burnout a lot more than others. again, that is fine. if this doesn’t apply to you, great! Feel free to skip to the next tip/affirmation. If this does apply to you, read this carefully; if you’ve had any sort of streak in studying right now, chances are you know at least a portion of your studies were led purely on interest, curiosity or even novelty, as these are what keep us engaged in our studies. Knowing this, it is natural for you to experience burnout more frequently than others due to the possible hyperfixations that have been forming around your work. If you get burned out, please remember to take a break for a day and make sure it is efficient. Like your studies, your breaks are the key to having efficient study sessions in the future. So please treat yourself, especially if you’ve been working extra hard!
do not admire studious fictional characters unless it genuinely helps you or they too are neurodivergent. I know this technically could have been thrown in with tip number 1 but I felt like this tip alone is so important, because nowadays I see a lot of study tips with the title, ‘how to study like (insert studious fictional character here)’ and when I look at the post it kinda repeats the same few study tips I see all the time like ‘stay organized’ or ‘time block your day’ and I feel like admiring fictional characters who do things that don’t work for you can be damaging for your mental health, because we’re already told by neurotypical people all around us that we’re slow or lazy just because we don’t do things the way they do, and I think idolizing neurotypical people that make us feel bad at the end of the day just further promotes that kind of toxic thinking.
expect that a routine/schedule/technique that has been working for a while now may not continue to work in the future. things will always have to be new for us to be interested or engaged, that being said, if you expect this in the future you won’t be frustrated with yourself because you already had this in mind. It doesn’t mean you’re not smart. It doesn’t mean you’re lazy. It doesn’t mean you’re useless. It just means that you’ve done what you could, and now it’s time to move on to another routine/schedule/technique.
keep doing the things you love alongside work. I find that because our symptoms may cause us to fall behind on our studies, we tend to neglect our other needs as human beings just to make up for the fact that we simply do not learn or pick things up the same way neurotypical people do. Your hobbies and interests need to be part of your day, just as your studies do, even if you may take longer to learn things or remember important concepts in your studies. Neglecting your hobbies or interests can lead to even more frequent burn outs and even a relapse in depression and anxiety, so please take care of yourself and recognize that you need and deserve these things just as much as anyone else.
regularly discover what works for you on your own. here’s the thing; neurodivergent or not, no two brains work the same. Of course it is good to try out advice or tips you find online because they’re backed up by experience, but they’re backed up by that person’s experience with working with their own brain. So naturally, you need to find what works with your brain. Be open to trying everything, even the tips that are discouraged like listening to lyrical music while studying. That was the only way I learnt that this tip actually does help me at times, even when many people have said that it negatively affects your focus.
that’s all I have right now guys, I think I’m experiencing burn out or probably falling back into depression again so more than anything this also served as a reminder for me, but I really hope it also helped you guys nonetheless.
As always, tell me if you guys would like more posts like these and I’ll be happy to make more <33 please take care of yourself guys, and remember that your studies is just one aspect of your life. There are other aspects that need your care and attention too.
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18.03.24
I’m baaack from my spring break and I’m already exhausted. The spring break itself was good and restful but the amount of homework that is due various days this week drives me crazy 🫠
• Financial management homework done ✔️ (it was long as damn hell and consisted of pure calculations)
• Physics pre-class module viewed and pre class assignment done ✔️
• Physics pre-lab done. ✔️ We have one of this “design your own experiment” labs tomorrow, and it is the first time I look at the requirements and have no idea where even to start. But that is a tomorrow problem.
I also had a meeting with my advisor today to revise my schedule for the next semester and wrote several emails to figure out an issue with one of my courses.
And I had a 30 minutes exercise time. (I’m kinda trying to establish a fitness routine and do some exercising every day).
That’s all for today. I can’t say that I anticipate tomorrow but not like I have a choice.
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March 23, 2024 - Saturday | Ramadan Challenge 13/30
Day 12: Most challenging thing about Ramadan and how do you try to overcome it?
Nowadays it’s actually fasting that’s the challenge. Subhanallah in the past it used to be trying to do all the stuff on my list lol I try to overcome it by keeping myself on a schedule and taking it easy when I’m not feeling well.
Day 13: What aspects of the qur'anic science have you explored:
I absolutely love tafsir. As a writing/literature teacher, analyzing meaning in between the lines is literally the funnest thing for me and that’s what tafsir is. Honestly when I first introduce literary analysis to my students, I tell them we are basically doing tafsir of the books lol
I love qur’an memorization too and I definitely want to focus more on memorization these days. It’s actually so much fun for me and my silly little productivity obsessed self I soooo looove trackable progress and improving and increasing and it’s the best feeling to encounter memorized ayahs in recitation/ a lecture etc
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A little life update 23.02.24 — 02.03.24
• I got B- for my Asian History class essay. I was actually very enthusiastic while writing it and it was not the result I expected at all. Also, because this essay costs 25% of the final grade I most likely screwed up my 4.0. So, it threw me out of the rhythm for a few days and made me feel very unmotivated overall. But since now is not the time when I can do nothing I forced myself to get back to work and managed to get over it. Grades aren’t the most important thing at the end of the day. Gaining knowledge, being interested in what you’re doing and having fun are.
• I passed my Material Science final. Don’t know the grade but I got A+ for the course overall. This warms my soul.
• We presented a group work on Wednesday. Went pretty well. We did have some argument the night before (because there are people who don’t show up to the group meeting and then tell “we changed all these things” the night before). We got it sorted out more or less though and the overall presentation looked alright, so I’m at peace now.
• I do have another group work with the same people due Monday. For some reason people who wanted the intermediate deadline to be tonight are exactly the people who didn’t do a thing. How does this work? I’m done with my part though which is nice.
(Our group dynamic isn’t that bad though. The presentation went alright at the end. The person I’m working with on the section of the report assigned to us (current group work) almost done with his part too. The other two people were working on their parts tonight. The last girl is also nice but her time management sucks. So, I’m pretty sure this work will turn out alright too. I just don’t get people sometimes and hate group work overall. But I don’t hate my current group even if I’m whining)
• I got sick on Wednesday (it’s stress, really). So I had to skip my usual Friday volunteering at the theatre. Which I feel bad about because it is the second time in a month already. But I did feel shitty and had fever, so yeah.
It is not all that happened during this time, but this text is already a little too long. I’ll try to better keep up with my posts.
Be healthy, eat well, and don’t forget to rest ✨🫐
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