Arts and crafts are perfect for adhd folk bc there’s an immediate and visual progress.
Cut fabric, sew it together. You just made clothing.
Put some beads on some twine. You just made jewelry.
You can see your productivity.
Chores are the opposite. Yes, your kitchen is clean now. But you’ll cook again that evening or the next day and you’ll have to start over. Yes, you vacuumed. But two days later it’s dusty again. Laundry done, until next week.
Chores never end.
But arts and crafts, nobody can undo the thing you made. You can hold it up and say “look. I made this. I did the productivity today” and nothing quite beats that serotonin rush.
My ability to do chores improved immensely when I stopped thinking of them as things that can be finished and started thinking of them as cycles. It’s no longer “what do I need to do to get the kitchen clean?” but “where am I in the kitchen cycle?” eg dishes go from the cupboard to the table tto the dishwasher and back to the cupboard. If your goal is to finish, you’ll always be in a state of failure. If your goal is to keep momentum going, every little step is a success.
That being said, there’s nothing more satisfying than finishing a pair of knit mittens.
This… might really help me. I’m going to try out this mindset and see how it goes.
I should try this!
Also really second the crafts thing. I took up knitting the first time I was unemployed and I don’t think I’ve ever made a better decision for my own well-being.
arts and crafts are also very good for anxiety. when i’m feeling unsettled and on edge, i can make a Thing from clay. It may not be a very good thing, but it’s a nice focused activity that gives me SOMETHING to do with my anxious energy.
anyone else remember being a child and seeing the very neat handwriting of other little girls and somehow knowing that you were a different genre of person than they were
literally no…i remember seeing bad handwriting & thinking “oh these other kids must be orphans or something”
fascinating to hear from the other genre, thanks for your contribution
I made the absolutely fucktacular mistake of giving my dog buttons that I recorded words on to talk with and she keeps waking me up in the thrice damned wee hours o the night to tell me and doubtless she could not pOSSIBLY wait until morning to say that she wants to eat the cat’s food
apparently when my sleep cycle is disrupted at a very precise interval my view of the universe fractures and alters because I may have not been religious before but now I believe deeply that god with a capital G denied Dogs with a lowercase d the ability to speak for a Reason and we should respect Her infinite wisdom on this matter
I have soared too close to the sun, in my arrogance I have built a tower too high unto the sky- it is made of cheap plastic recordable buttons and it is about to topple and take human language, as my dog knows it, down with it
Me: *is awoken to the sound of my own voice echoing in the dark passages of the night*
Me: How could I have laughed at Victor, how could I have scorned his anguish in the sight of his glorious but unnatural creation??? Only now do I understand, only now-
My dog in the background who has taken my voice as her own: dinner dinner dinner
It just occurred to me that I kind of arbitrarily started referring to “first age” “second age” and “third age” tumblr one day because I realized during a discord conversation that it really can be divided up very effectively between a couple major events that changed the fabric of the site’s culture almost overnight, but nobody but me ever refers to them that way, so by way of explanation:
First Age: everything before Dashcon. Art communities were still largely thriving on the internet and social media still mostly existed out from under corporate monopolies, and people were just wildly guessing about how to use it. We were in the last hurrah of the internet wild west and lolcats were still a thing. Tumblr was just a fun and quirky place, we were blissfully writing unironic posts about tumblr university and fandom vs hipster and the “I like your shoelaces” thing, Hank Green wrote a goddamn song about tumblr, we were all like Adam and Eve dwelling in Eden unaware of their sin. Potterheads grab your wands.
Second Age: post-Dashcon, but pre-Purge. We have all eaten the fruit of knowledge and there is no going back. There are no more secret code or tumblr university posts because everyone knows firsthand how badly that would go. Fandom culture is forever changed. We are now aware that we live in a hellish cringetopia but have absolutely no plans to leave, because by now a combination of monopolies and a sneaky rise in purity culture has the internet by the throat (but not in a kinky way, that would scare off advertisers) so there aren’t a lot of better options, and at least our relatives can’t find us here. A lot of artists now have their primary presence on tumblr. The lax policies regarding nsfw and controversial content mean it’s a good space for queer creators and sex workers despite the many shortcomings we’re now aware of. The porn bot plague really kicks into full gear to the point that every time our follower counts go up we’re ready with the block/spam button like the uncles from Secondhand Lions picking off traveling salesmen. The drama starts to get really fucking weird, with classics such as the human pet guy and the bone-stealing witch.
Third Age: post-Purge. After changing corporate hands a few times, the drive to make the internet safe for our Good Christian Advertisers and hypothetical children has finally reached us, and brings with it TERFs, purity culture, and the Porn Ban, which was allegedly a solution to the porn bots except that it clearly wasn’t at all. The large community of sex workers and artists that was keeping tumblr afloat as anything resembling a viable social media site have made a mass exodus and a lot of the rest of the userbase followed them, mostly to twitter or a few doomed attempts at tumblr copycats. Tumblr is now a mad max clown car full of people too stubborn to pack up and leave for a functional website. It’s a post-apocalyptic wasteland whose only remaining merit is that even without the ability to post porn we’ve managed to make ourselves such a complete anathema to advertisers that we’re mostly just left alone. We’re all just tired. Some people still run art blogs but nobody outside of tumblr ever sees them. Literally all we have going for us is that we’re not twitter and we have +5 resistance to capitalism. And Xkit.
Tag yourself. At which era did you enter this hellsite?
why do i have to format emails like i’m writing a letter to my fucking husband on the frontlines of the long war. my dearest gregory. it has been too long since i’ve held in my embrace. o, that these travails shall lead us to one another again. my sincerest, fondest thoughts go with you in this, your hour of need. i have attached the requested documents in .pdf format. thanks!
One of the more profound things I’ve heard recently came from a Mr. Rogers documentary. In a clip from his show, Mr. Rogers had just visited with a musician, and tells his audience that some people play music, and some people don’t, and that’s okay.
And then he said, “The important thing is to find something you feel good about doing.”
That phrasing struck me. “Something you feel good about doing”. Most people would have phrased it as “something you enjoy doing”. Or “something you’re good at doing”. But Mr. Rogers’ subtly different phrasing leads to a profoundly different connotation. “Something you feel good about doing” may not be enjoyable–people who work in hospitals or in disaster zones might not enjoy much of their day, but they probably feel good about helping people. “Something you feel good about doing“ may not be something you’re particularly good at–you may be a terrible artist by any objective standard, but if you feel good about making your art, then it’s a worthwhile endeavor. Looking for “something you feel good about doing” can help you find a truly satisfying life path.
That phrase is also helpful with daily decision-making. Too often, I can make choices based on “what feels good.” I put aside tasks that are too stressful or avoid activities that seem too difficult, in favor of mindlessly browsing the internet. And I enjoy myself. I feel good while I’m doing that. But at the end of the day, I don’t feel good about how I spent my time. However, reminding myself to do “something I feel good about doing” can motivate me to accomplish those more difficult tasks. It can push me to do something outside of my comfort zone, to try something new that I might not be much good at. And maybe this is a blindingly obvious philosophy to everyone else. But I’m grateful for the reminder.
