i dont like being happy. whenever i see happy things i get scared easily that it is too fragile,i get scared to get involved i dont feel sad when i dont text back to people. i can blatantly say no to plans. exam stresses go so high that i go to sleep. i feel like doing many things at time but somehow my brain hands freeze. i receive advices and suggestions to overcome this but with my everyday struggles i get tired and get numb of situations. silents cries are part of my life .loud noises loud voices bright light are my enemies. i was never like this ..i was shy but never hated humans i would make conscious efforts to mingle with them. now i make efforts to hide my apathy just pretend to be happy. i am part of a very reactive household

quarrels fights tears family bringing each other down is a part and parcel. i feel i m going down my life like an elevator with a broken cable. i tried so hard to blog my feelings to bring sanity back, but slowly the fear that my identity is revealed and friends at college would start judging(which they already do) started eating me out. i underconfident ,stupid some times brainless. at this stage im counting days. i feel so stagnant . days are passing months are passing and im stuck with zero progress .damn. any suggestions are welcome

I have 3-4 accounts between office and gmail that I use often for my job, own business, and personal. I am looking for a good email and calendar solution that works well with both.

Currently using Spark, which I have come to hate and Apple Calendar which sync is hit or miss with work events updating.

Should have two-way sync and not super bloated. I would love something simple but full-featured. I do not care about AI in the app itself.

My ideal would have been Notion Calendar for cal but no Microsoft support yet.

For those times when I'm not working, and just need to do something to recover and re-energize over the weekend or in the evenings, I've started keeping a list of stuff I've enjoyed in the past.

Unfortunately, it's a very long and growing list, and there are a lot of recreational options in my area, with varying levels of accessibility due to length of activity, travel time, seasonal availability, when it's open, different offerings, etc. It would be a little inconvenient to have to read through the extremely long list whenever I want to have some fun, and think through all of the options.

I could probably come up with a system for organizing this myself, but figured I wouldn't reinvent the wheel if it's already been done.

So are there any good fun-organization systems already out there?

Thanks!

Wouldn't it be pretty funny (not at all) if you lost your every opportunity, ways to develop and etc because you procrastinated everything or because you took some drugs, or because you was just "lazy". If you want to become better than the most you should add as much as possible of "reason" into your actions. Chess kinda helps to develop those skills (helped me). Don't do without thinking.

I used to think that I'm not able to do productive things like reading, side study, working out, side project, etc. because I tend to scroll on social media, watch anime, play games, etc. on my free time. I tried dopamine detox thinking that if I rid myself of dopaminurgic activities like social media, listening to music, gaming, etc. then I'd have the drive to do more productive things and a much longer attention span. This worked back in August, but it did not work recently and I quickly found myself scrolling through social media yet again. The major difference? I'm subject to a lot more stress and burn out at work these days.

So this has me thinking. When I have a relatively chill day at work, when things are smooth sailing, when there's minimal friction or interruption, I'm more likely to be on a roll and do more productive things. But when work and life has drained me so much, then productive things become a lot more daunting and scrolling through social media becomes the easier thing to do, or rather it's one of the few things I have energy left for. When all I've done for most of the day is attend meetings and not do productive work, then my attention span gets drained.

I agree that social media is a distraction, but simply cutting it off isn't gonna make you productive. If you don't have the energy or willpower to do something, then the brain will wander off to alternative activities, or you'd simply just want to lay down and do nothing. We don't procrastinate because we want to; we procrastinate when we lack the energy or drive to do something or we're faced with too much friction.

I'm looking for a super user-friendly note-taking app with a beautiful UI that lets you upload individual files (like PDFs and stuff).

I’m not a fan of how Notion and other apps do it, where you have to shove the PDF into a text file (or whatever they call it).

Since I work with extra files all the time, it’s pretty annoying that I haven’t found an app that supports this feature so far.

Over years of using gamification I found few effective ways of granting myself rewards for doing work. Of of them that I will show you below is about using Tier System.

This works because each reward can be ranked them from the least pleasurable to most pleasurable then you can use reward hierarchy.

Let's say there is some desired action you do in real life (e.g. working on some project 10 minutes uninterrupted). You grant yourself a random reward for it.

I will give you an example as it will be better to understand it from it.

Tier C: most common reward. 70% of chance to get it.

• Checking Reddit- up to one minute
• Checking Instagram - up to one minute
• ...

Tier B: slightly better reward. 25% chance to get it

• Checking Reddit- up to 10 minutes
• Checking Instagram - up to 10 minutes
• Checking Tik Tok - up to 10 minutes
• ...

Tier A: good reward. 4% of getting it

• One episode of TV series that you already watch
• 2 hours on internet

Tier S: great reward. 1% of getting it

• You can start new TV series and watch 3 first episodes
• ...

If you have three same rewards (e.g. 3x "checking Facebook up to one minute reward") you can merge them into ONE random reward from a higher tier.

This rewarding strategy works great because it has a lot of randomness that can hook players to constantly draw new rewards (which requires doing some important work).

It's important that probabilities are selected well and rewards are selected well. Otherwise players won't be motivated to do work or they can even prefer rewards from worse tiers (which should never happen).

This "Tier System" not only made me more productive in working on my social skills but also made my life much more engaging.

It has been working wonders for me, and my mind is so much more clear from doing it. All you do is go back to work within 90 seconds of waking up.

Why people procrastinate? They don't know how to plan long term. If you do math for example for an hour a day, in a year you'll definetly become a LOT better at math. You should learn to plan in a year-two years perspective. For that you obviously need to live always sober and never procrastinate. If you procrastinate, you just temporarily escape your problems, it doesn't solve the problem at all. The best is to never repeat your mistakes. Good luck.

I’m struggling to find my purpose in life right now. I feel like I have everything going for me, yet I’m lost.

I’m graduating from the top college in India with stellar grades, and I have admits to some of the best MBA programs in the US. I come from an influential background with generational wealth, have amazing parents, a wonderful girlfriend (soon-to-be wife), and a few close friends. I’m also over 6’2” with a strong build, confident, and a gifted public speaker.

I know I’m blessed, and I’m truly grateful for all of it. But the very abundance of blessings has left me feeling directionless. I want to channel all my gifts and fortune into creating something meaningful, but I don’t know where to begin.

Because of this lack of clarity, I’ve fallen into bad habits—procrastinating, smoking, drinking, and just being plain lazy. I know I’m capable of so much more, but I keep finding excuses to slack off. I also have a few applications for top jobs in Europe to finish, which could give me exposure to life there before my MBA, yet I can’t bring myself to take action.

How do I uncover my true purpose, channel my energy in a productive direction, and beat procrastination? I know I’m capable of creating real impact, but I just don’t know how to get started or find clarity on what that should look like. Any advice, frameworks, or personal stories are welcome.

Cal Newport calls this the 'Overhead Tax'. It keeps accumulating the more you take on, and each day you'll have less and less time to do actual work.

At first it's just frustrating, but over time, as it builds, you simply won't have enough time to get all your actual work done. Hours each day are filled with logistics: meetings and check-ins and updates. Entire days go by where you don't work on the actual things; you just talk about the things you're working on.

This is when you need to start working evenings and weekends. When you look forward to working on Sunday morning because it's when you can actually get some work done.

This is why you're busier than you've ever been, but you hardly get anything done.

Sorry if this isn't the right place, I've been trying to find a checklist app to help me be productive (I'd say more productive but my productivity is basically nill), at least to start picking up on healthy habits and losing bad ones. I'm looking for an app like calendar or google tasks, that reminds you every 1-5mins from a certain time on, until you complete the task. Bonus if it can block other apps until you do. If you have any advice I'd also appreciate that. Cheers!

hi, I have an assignment due in eight hours and it’s asking me to use OSCOLA referencing which is different from last year since I’ve been using Harvard referencing and I don’t have the time to teach myself a new referencing system as well as write my entire essay and read my entire 30 page case so I need to use an OSCOLA referencing bot but are they accurate? And also will they be highlighted in an AI checker?

I’ve used a Harvard referencing bot before because it saves me hours but I’ve never used one for this system so if anyone has can you please tell me if it’s noted on an AI checker and if they’re actually accurate because I can’t tell bad referencing and good referencing apart in OSCOLA

TL;dr: need advice on how to quickly organize my computer after a year of mismanaged files and emails.

I’m a project manager I get a lot of emails and documents and make a lot of notes on onenote. Because my job is very fast paced, my filing system is usually just save on the first thing open. Now that I’m getting a bit better, I know how I want to organize but not how I can fix all the stuff from the past. Any advice?

Its the most simplest yet effective method to get stuff done. Whatever important things you need to do on a daily basis, make a checklist of them.

If you have a long and complex project, break it down into small parts and make a checklist of each part to be done. Once you start tackling each small part, you will see progress and your anxiety will be reduced significantly.

So don't keep it all in your head. Just identify what you need to get done whether its an assignment or a project and make a checklist of it. Small steps will add up and you will reach the finish line.

I already have an extension for this and I still haven’t done any work nor have I even read the case to do my assignment so I’m literally starting from nothing anyways I don’t know what to do. I’m panicking. It’s worth 50% of my grade. I have no idea what to do its also OSCOLA referencing and I’ve literally never done that so I have to learn a whole new referencing system all due at 9 pm today.

I used to be a very fun person to be around. Very witty, almost invincible in the mind game. I took everything in a fun way and I was very open minded. I could easily socialize with anyone. Although all these "superpowers" weren't there for me all the time, I can say that I had them

Now, even though I have evolved as a human, I don't feel like that person anymore. Even when I feel at my peak, still,I think that I can not compare my current self to my old one.

Jokes don't come naturally and when they do, they are not at the level they used to be. I feel like i lost my emotional intelligence.

I also feel very tired and unmotivated most of the times. I have no depression, maybe the exact opposite. I don't care about anything (if that's a hint)

Coffee, exersice, cold exposure, sitting and doing nothing in my room and a little bit of going out of my comfort zone are my ways to try and reach my old self, with some success but not all that much.

I can easily say that I have converted from a way above average in intelligence person to a way more "normal". And normal is boring.

Any help will be very welcome. Thanks in advance.

As the title says. For example I want to set blocks for the day (say 1 hour deep work, 1 hour workout, 2 hours chores etc). I’d like a schedule that shows me the same blocks each week (as I have a different schedule on the weekend and Wednesdays).

However I want to be able to add different tasks to each block since every day’s version of deep work is slightly different!

I have been wanting to do time blocking so that I can make sure I get things done in a timely manner but I noticed that I can’t really stick to it because my family and friends are so spontaneous. I will be ready to study and then my mom will tell me to pick up my brother from school or something, or a friend i havent seen in a while will invite me to a last minute plan and i feel bad turning them down to study. Does anyone else experience this? Any advice is appreciated.

All of us (I guess) have read them countless self help books and posts. One of the repeating motives is "understand your why" . And I took that advice and spent countless hours in that mental m***turbation (pardon for the language), digging and writting the "why" for everything. I was in my most unproductive era during that time.

Recently, I gave up on that , and I figured that I already know inside what I really want, what is my motivation, values, wants, needs and all of that shinanigans, and trying to spell it out for myself might be a waste of limited resources and time. I might not say that to myself out loud , but my wants and needs are there inside of me, and the only way to get them out is by doing, not thinking.

So, I've done a list of to do's for myself. I made a (simple) system of rewards and punishments for doing/ skipping tasks, and if I'm not doing any task or finding it daunting, I just think of a way of doing the easier version of it, until it's done. And after some period of time I'm back to doing the less easy version.

And if that ain't working, I know that this is just not what I want or need.

So that's it, easy does it, and actually doing something does it.

No mental mas***bations, no fancy Notion setups (I went back to google sheets and suddenly it's working much better), no internal diggings. Just function over form.

I’m sure this questions has been already asked here but I’d still love to know some tips 😅

I have some big exams coming up soon next week and well I do have quite a bit on my plate. I keep getting unmotivated and sort of just wander away from doing the actual task (No I’m not ADHD). I’d love to know some fun tips if you have any!

Hey everyone, am I the only one struggling with this? I absolutely love using OmniFocus 4 for project management, Apple Calendar, and Apple Reminders for quick tasks. Plus, with the new features in iOS 18, I’ve gone back to using Apple Notes, which fits perfectly with my love for apps that follow Apple’s design guidelines.

But here’s the thing—I can’t help but sometimes feel tempted to switch back to apps I used before or try new ones after seeing ads on the App Store or influencers showing them off. I’m talking about apps like Things 3, Calendars by Readdle, Agenda, or NotePlan—all of which I’ve already bought the premium versions for.

Do you have any tips on how to stop second-guessing myself and stick with the apps I already love and know work great for me?

I practice time blocking daily by (a) brain dump the tasks I need to do, (b) rank and order these tasks, (c) slot these tasks into a calendar according to their order.

I tried using Todoist, TickTick and pen-n-paper for the task. Each has its merits.

Could someone share their experience on how they do time blocking every day?

I'm a 17yo student, got back to school after the holiday break and I've noticed that I'm way less motivated, energetic, and productive compared to before. I'd usually be hyped up if I go back to class after a long break (I'd prepare my schedules, create a routine, etc.) but I've done none of that.

Idk if it's important to mention, but my mental health did go on a big decline during the holiday break as some personal issues have happened with my peers, made me go on a big depressive slump the whole break.

Back to the present, I find myself constantly tired and sleepy, even though I eat enough meals a day, drink enough water, get coffee (energy drinks sometimes when needed), and workout 3x a week. Whether it be 6am, 12pm, 8pm, or 12am I am always always always so tired.

It's been affecting me a lot these past few days (too tired to even take showers or get out of bed) making me feel sad bcs I'm so "unproductive" I've skipped a few workouts this week and have been procrastinating my schoolwork. I don't know if I'm just being lazy or what.

My friend is going through a hard time (trying to find her new career, suffered through a lot of trauma, incredible but just overwhelmed and exhausted)

I got an ad on instagram for a “chillio” app that had a little quiz. I started the quiz to get a sense of the app and it touched upon career guidance, productivity, feeling more energized and lesss anxious etc.

It seemed great so I closed out of ig to google it for better info and…. Couldn’t find anything!! So weird! I’m sure it was called chillio cause it referred to itself a lot in the little quiz!

Now I feel like it was some weird scam? I have no idea!

But… ultimately… looking for an app that could help and exists… So… let me know! Thanks!

I wanna preface this by saying that I am currently a gr 10 student and the work I have to do is related to my first responders course, It’s all mainly notes.

I have a lot of booklets of notes to write and I’m just not motivated enough and keep procrastinating, how can I be more productive overall?

Kinda like a tinder style app but you add chores or productivity activities and they put it in a card type where you can swipe left to go back to it later and swipe right if you’re done. I think its a fun little way for me to do my chores

Im starting to get momentum and I want to know is there an app or a website I can track my habits or the things I do?

For example I read, posted 5 videos and I want to track so I can be consistent. Heatmap or calendar? Idk

I'm very consistent on my other tasks like running Evey day at 5 am, push myself to my limits in daily tasks and.... Even some of my friends are telling me how disciplined I am. But for studying (my main goal) I can't use this discipline to force myself to study. I've tried so many techniques, but none of them worked. I'm very confused right now, because I could push myself in any tasks like exercising, quiting distractions and... But no matter what i do, I can't use this force in studying!!!!! And this is making me mad and disappointed.

In particular, I'm hoping for something that I can put in recurring events (subscription payments, reminders to send invoices, suggestions to do upkeep with various things around the house), and I want to be able to have it open on a separate screen so I can see visual reminders of things at a glance.

Does anything like this exist?