What do you do when you can't concentrate.

[rebeccmeister]

That's it. That's the post.

Comments

[rebeccmeister]

My tweet-machine feed is full of wonderful people expressing their love of being in nature for Black Birders Week. It makes my heart explode with happiness.

I am trying to both get rowing stuff done and try to ensure it doesn't interfere with my ability to do academic work. But it's awfully hard to do academic work when overwhelmed by the injustice in this country.

I ordered some totally frivolous masks online this morning, because I'm concluding that 3 cloth masks isn't quite enough for my once-a-week laundry schedule. I should probably order or make even a couple more than that.

[threemeninaboat]

I wash my mask when I take a shower and hang it on the towel rod.

Unless I'm tired, I don't have focusing problems, usually, sometimes I have to put on the Chill Hip Hop Beats to Study to on youtube.
I took the cambridge brain function test once and it says I have a short attention span but I've never had any problems completing my work?

[rebeccmeister]

I think that for today, I may just need to shut off even more inputs than usual (e.g. close email).

[rebeccmeister]

I would also suspect that you have an incredible repertoire of strategies for working with the brain and attention span you've got. (hilarious aside: I accidentally typed "spam" LOL)

[bluepapercup]

I also ordered some masks, as I determined that making more was not a good use of my increasingly limited time. Also, I can support Black mask-sewers directly with my dollars, which is a good.

When I can’t concentrate, I stop. I’ve learned over the years that there is a point at which no more production will happen and I need a break. This is inconvenient when is happens at work, LOL, and too much pushing through that brain-off state leads to burnout. I personally like long walks as a reset, but hot showers, eating snacks, and doing a puzzle also help.

[rebeccmeister]

Yeah, I think in this case, right after I wrote the post I figured out that I needed to close a bunch of things on the computer for right now. That has helped tremendously, which is a big relief. So I guess I basically had let myself get overwhelmed.

Oh, but another part was getting to talk with my PhD advisor because right now both she and I needed to talk to someone else about being privileged white women and wanting to support Black friends without inadvertently contributing to the problem (for both of us: without doing all the terrible/annoying things that white women do when they have good intentions but aren't as woke as they think they are).

Part of the thing is to some extent, some of what we need to do feels like "do nothing" (like staying home for COVID) because it doesn't really feel like we're doing a lot when we do things like donate money where the money needs to go.

(but we still need to do that, and we need to keep working on listening, too)

Hopefully this makes sense - I think you have some idea about where I'm coming from.

[bluepapercup]

Yeah, I hear you.

I'm glad you were able to speak with your former advisor. I think it's super important to have private spaces in which to process, so that we can continue to be publicly supportive with our whole hearts. Goes back to the brilliant idea of "comfort in, dump out". Since Black people are suffering, we offer comfort and support to them (however they want it) and dump our discomfort and confusion into interactions with people who are not acutely suffering (white friends, ideally).

[rebeccmeister]

Thank you for the reminder of that brilliant idea that we implemented without knowing/remembering what it's called. :^) Yes, that, exactly! Although is it "comfort out, dump in"?

[bluepapercup]

It's actually called Ring Theory and I had to look it up! Here's a write-up with the helpful graphic. https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/promoting-hope-preventing-suicide/201705/ring-theory-helps-us-bring-comfort-in

[rebeccmeister]

Oh right, thank you! I was visualizing it backwards and now it makes sense.

<3

[twoeleven]

When I can’t concentrate, I stop.
it took me years to learn to do that. :)

once stopped, i find it much easier to figure out why i had to stop than to figure how why i can't concentrate: hunger, thirst, distraction (including other things i'd rather think about), or just being done for the nonce.

[rebeccmeister]

I think that in this case, I blogged, which then gave me added motivation to pause and figure out why I couldn't concentrate, which is very similar to a short-term stop, and which then allowed me to keep going. Apparently I most needed to close the email account that receives rowing-related messages to tune out that circus for the day.