2022-12-14 Brain fog

The days I dislike the most are the ones when I have such brain fog that I barely know what’s going on around me. I do things, kind of, but slowly, and it’s hard for me to focus. The worst part is that I have absolutely no idea how to deal with it. Maybe a bit of a context switch and some physical effort would help, but I can’t always afford to do that in the moment. Maybe prevention would be better. It seems to me that the things that help prevent it include:

- Physical effort, maybe in the morning, maybe in the evening (but then I don’t get the effects at work).

- Using the phone and other distractions less.

- A cold shower. Actually a warm one can work too, but it depends on the time of day and how I generally feel.

- Blocking out work time for myself, for example by setting “do not disturb” mode.

- Taking breaks. I have a problem with this especially at home, because somehow it feels silly to make myself a coffee and drink it for 10 minutes when J. is playing with the Young One in the next room, but playing with them wouldn’t help me that much, it would be like going from one noise into another. And that kind of break, 10 minutes when I’m only drinking coffee and reading a book (or doing nothing, in any case not staring at my phone), gives me a lot. I think it’s mostly a psychological effect, that I pull myself together like that, and then I can focus on work again.

I have a lot of trouble resting at home. I think it’s something I picked up from my family. I feel guilty when I rest. Especially when someone is doing something nearby. Even if it would improve my overall productivity. I imagine everyone thinks I’m being lazy. But maybe more on that another time. I’ve actually already written a bit about it in the post "About how it turned out that I’m not actually a robot". I have a bit of a slave mentality here. If someone next to me is working, I can’t take a break, even if I need one and it would help me with work. I’m trying to change that and worry less about what others will think, or how they might criticize me. Especially since they usually don’t criticize me. Childhood fears, fortunately, don’t always come true in adulthood.

By the way, writing a journal or a blog helps me too ;)

One more update from the evening - thank you, Love, for taking care of the Young One so I could take a long, warm shower, that helps a lot too :D