Things you shouldn't have to tell yourself

[Gutter Monkey]

Originally Posted by smittykins

I'll see your TV Tropes and raise you YouTube.

I don't know if reading Youtube is much of a 'raise', sounds more like a lowering to me.

[mbravo]

Youtube is hard for me to get truly lost in the way I used to get lost in TVtropes. For one thing, videos by nature require a time commitment, so I'll see a video is ten minutes long and think to myself "Eh, not right now." I also have to be in the mood to watch videos, and can fall out of it just as quickly as I got into it.


Example: Lately I've been watching through the No Small Parts archive while I relax at the end of the day. I can watch maybe a 20 minute video, but more than that and I have to start breaking them down into 15 minute segments that I'll resume the next day. Not sure where this issue comes from; no one else I know seems to really have it, I seem to know far more people who can happily binge watch hours and hours of a show in one sitting. Even with "proper" TV shows, I can usually only watch maybe 2 episodes back to back before I get the urge to change tracks.


TISSTTM: You may not be able to cross huge swathes of things off your to-do list, even after spending what feels like hours hacking away at it. Yes, even the micro-managing to-do list where you tried to break everything down into tiny chunks so you could cross more things off.

[Casey]

TISHTTM: Believe. Stop with the negative, that's behind you. Believe, and let the world be on notice. You've got this. As always.

[Kermor]

Originally Posted by smittykins

I'll see your TV Tropes and raise you YouTube.

I'll se your YouTube and raise you Not Always Right. And its sister sites (...Working, ...Romantic,...Related,...Learning,...Friendly,... Hopeless). Talk about your waste of time ! And I can't control myself. I think : "Just one story more", and a few hours later, i'm still on it.

[smittykins]

That calendar on your phone?
It's there for a reason. Use it!

[DawnStorm]

Do not go to Costco on a weekend afternoon!

[Sue]

You have enough things going on in your life to fret over right now (not to mention Trump in the White House) why are you tossing and turning half the night remembering, and getting upset, over things that have been over and done with for years? You can't change how you reacted then by trying to rewrite things at 3 am now!

[Lainie]

I once saw a meme that said something like "Don't believe the things you tell yourself at 3 am." I commented that some of us should have that spelled out in glow-in-the-dark letters on our bedroom ceilings.

[Beachlife!]

For me, 3AM thoughts are never good thoughts. That's when the demons keep me up at night.

[mbravo]

The only success I've had at turning off the 3am thoughts is by writing them down. Not even turning the lamp on, it doesn't matter, just grabbing whatever pen or pencil is on my nightstand and writing it down on a notepad I keep there for such purposes. Whatever I write there is usually unintelligible when I find it months later and bother to look at it*, but it's like a physical signal that tells my brain "You have permission to worry about This Thing, but not at This Time. Take it out, put it on the paper, and worry about it during a non-existential hour."

I can only speak for myself, but it works really, really well most of the time (and better than other things I would have thought would help, like turning on my computer and posting aobut it somewhere online- somehow that only tends to make it worse, because then there's the expectation of a possible response I either feel I need to wait for, or dread). It validates the emotion while also giving it reasonable boundary. At the very least, it's more effective than "Think of nothing and try to sleep!" or "Just think about something happy!" have ever been for me

Two problems with it are-
1. When I'm too tired, I can't will myself to phsycially find the pen and paper, and mocking the motion does NOT scratch the itch
2. Somehow I manage to forget it is an option, or try to convince myself "This isn't that bad, I can just think of nothing and try to sleep/just think about something happy, I don't need to go to all the trouble of writing it down"


*On one such notepad, written in a barely visible yellow highlighter, is simply the word "crust."

[smittykins]

For the 456342nd time, keep your soda capped!

(China attempted to jump on my tray table, failed, and took my soda along with her.)

[Sue]

I've been so surprised at the level of anger, hatred and bitterness still in evidence among those to the right of the political spectrum in the US. You guys won, relax! And yet why does this surprise me? We had Harper in power here in Canada for about 10 years and in all those years the right wing newspapers and the right wing radio pundits were always venting over something. Not a day went by where they weren't howling about some outrage or another - and always managing to blame the "libtards" . If they could have that much angst when their guy was running the show here why would things be any different in the US?

[DawnStorm]

Originally Posted by Sue

and always managing to blame the "libtards" .

With you on the eye-rolling stupidity on portmanteaus like 'libtard'. I get blaming one side or the other--that happens. But these dumb labels/names? Puh-lese.

[Lainie]

When deciding whether to wear a jacket to work, check the weather for the whole work day, not just for the moment you're leaving the house in the morning.

[dfresh]

Lainie, I had the opposite thing to tell myself: When leaving work, bring your coat. I didn't put my coat in its usual place yesterday, so when leaving work I didn't take it, and so I got totally soaked by the thundershowers. When I got to work today, I found my coat on the back of my chair.

[Lainie]

I did that once when the car keys were in coat pocket. So I got to the park and ride and had no keys.

[dfresh]

That would suck. The bad part of my leaving yesterday was that a few minutes later, a tree fell onto several cars right outside my window, so I missed the big show.

[mbravo]

Self- You were already feeling lousy, why on earth did you think this was a good day to check your loan balances????

[Dasla]

Originally Posted by Lainie

I did that once when the car keys were in coat pocket. So I got to the park and ride and had no keys.

I did that once with my apartment keys. So I got home and had no keys. Had to turn around and go back to work. Lucky I kept my work keys separate.

[Sooeygun]

Originally Posted by Dasla

I did that once with my apartment keys. So I got home and had no keys. Had to turn around and go back to work. Lucky I kept my work keys separate.

Mr S showed up at my office one day in his slippers. He forgot the apt key when he went to do laundry. Couldn't find the superintendent, and I work close to home, so he decided to walk over.