#I'm tired of getting stressed needlessly over small things. Still got a long way to go but this should help with that

[yeleltaan]

//Hello! I just got done with an exam that was bugging me, and I’ve been a bit quiet lately, so here’s another update on how things are going.

As I mentioned in my previous ooc post, study stress and overall difficulty concentrating has been a persistent annoyance and obstacle from writing, so I’ve been taking steps to improve my habits.

Probably my best decision, I’ve recently started going to BJJ and MMA classes! My physical activity has been sorely lacking since the covid pandemic began, so I knew that was one of the main issues to tackle. I’ve been enjoying them a lot and I think this is going to prove a very good change for my mental and physical health, the effects of which should become more noticeable in the mid-term. I kinda went from 0 to 100 with them, so last week was exhausting and rather painful, but I don’t regret it. This week was a lot more pleasant and I can already tell I’ve regained much of my discipline and reflexes.

Besides that, I’ve been trying to be more mindful of my sleeping habits and go to bed at the right hour. This is still very much a work in progress, it’s tough to beat that self-feeding cycle of “I can’t focus so studies take longer, I have less time to myself and I can’t make full use of it either so I’m reluctant to end the day, I didn’t sleep enough so I can’t focus”. I think this will be a gradual process, though I can already tell that the greater physical activity helps make me feel more tired and willing to rest.

I’m diversifying my workspace as well, since that can help your brain distinguish when it’s time to work and when it’s time to rest. But I’ve been inconsistent on which spots I use for work, which I use for (thinking-heavy) hobbies and which I use to rest, so I’ll need to correct that in order to really make this effective.

Anyways, I was hesitant to make this post until I could really show this progress as opposed to talking about it, but I figure it’s better than staying quiet for very long. I also don’t quite now how early I’ll really start to improve my pace in writing, setting goals is tempting but too many times my predictions on this blog (or Ornstein’s blog, my God) have been proven wrong so... we’ll see how that goes.

Besides working on replies, I might also do a few of those headcanon prompts I’ve been tagged in (thanks all who did! Even though I haven’t really been doing them lately, I appreciate that you still thought to mention me). Also wondering if some tweaks to the blog might also help with motivation (reviewing the rules, the about page, using more “distinct” and consistent tags... might even try making tags for each dynamic, maybe even for alternate versions of the same muse as well, but I’m still undecided and can’t promise anything yet).

Oh, and I fixed the issue that was making submissions impossible to send, so that’s a start. With that said, hope you’re all doing well, and if not, may that change soon!