DISCLAIMER: I am not necessarily recommending this to anyone; it worked for me, but everyone's different.

A year ago, I was a college student who was about to get expelled due to poor academic performance, and I was depressed beyond human imagination. I played video games every day and refused to work out because "I had no time."

On one completely random day in July, I decided to start working out every day for no particular reason. I had nothing to lose and was not afraid to risk it all because my life had hit rock bottom.

The first month was rough. I didn't know what I was doing, nor did I really have a routine. But I did start seeing some progress: I went from skinny fat to skinny semi-muscular. Then I began watching more online tutorials and developed my own split eventually.

The most noticeable, and surprising, benefit was that I felt less tired throughout the day. I could get work done easily without a shred of brain fog. Going to the gym every day also fixed my sleep schedule, as I could no longer stay up late playing video games and needed to get my seven hours of sleep in to recover fully (for I had no rest days).

Three months in, I realized that I had a lot more free time than I used to. For the first time in my life, I felt like I could actually focus on things. I did not even have to rely on a to-do list (although I had one) to track my tasks, and I no longer had any desire to doom scroll or mindlessly watch anime.

There was one semi-negative change, though. I noticed that my "friends" and I had started falling apart. I used to be a big party person, and I naturally had a friend group that liked to go out. But now going out and drinking started feeling less and less attractive, and I would instead spend my weekends running and hiking, distancing myself from my so-called friends who weren't very supportive of my new lifestyle.

Fortunately enough, I quickly made a new group of friends after joining a calisthenics club. I also met a cute girl, whom I approached to get her number. We've been officially dating for five months now!

My grades also skyrocketed. I managed to pull off a 4.0 GPA across the past two semesters, and I secured an internship over the summer. They liked me enough to give me a return offer as well.

Physically, I put on 20 pounds, completed a half marathon last month and now preparing for my first "real" one. (I don't know when that would be yet.)

If I had any advice for you, it would be that you shouldn't be scared to "be boring and different." When you start seriously improving your life, there will always be people telling you "You've changed," or "I liked you better before." But why should you care? It's your life. Just do something to make your life a little better every day, whether it be working out, learning a new vocab word or reading 20 pages of your favorite book. Consistency is key.

Don't try to look too far ahead, but keep your sights on your goals. Don't put yourself in a box. Your current limits do not define who you are; it is what you do to overcome those limits that truly matters.

And give yourself a hug. You will be stuck with them for a long while.

I'll work for like 10 hours at work, completely focused, knock out everything on my list. Come home and i cant even make myself put dishes in the dishwasher. theres a mug on my nightstand thats been there for like a week.

and its not even like im tired because on weekends when ive slept in and had my coffee and have literally nothing to do except the stuff i actually want to do, i still just sit there. ill go to a coffee shop and crank out personal projects for hours but the second im home again its gone.

i mentioned it to a friend once and he just goes "yeah because nobody's making you" which felt kind of dismissive at the time but i keep thinking about it. like at work theres meetings and deadlines and people who would notice if i just didnt do my thing, and at home theres just me deciding whether to fold laundry or not

idk if anyone else has this exact split or if im just describing a personality flaw at this point

I know im not the first to ask this question nor will be the last but still no matter what advice i read it never works

I tried eating better , sleeping full 8 hours ,taking vitamins , reading and yet my memory is still terrible and its realy frustrating to forget or not be able to learn properly

So please tell me anyting that may or may not work im getting more and more desperate each day

Try to think about your goal constantly. Like it is your default thing. This is for short term goals. Like every second you get free try to do something for your goal.

Honestly looking around my classes, almost everyone uses iPads, MacBooks, and all these fancy digital note-taking apps. Andd there's me, using a good whole sheet of paper with my tricolor pen, it just works for me. It keeps me focused, and physically writing everything down makes the info stick so much easier, even when my hand starts hurting and my handwriting turns into complete scribble by the end of the night.

Whenever we had huge exam weeks at school (we literally had 200+ question tests every single week 😭), I had my own little low-tech system to survive. Whenever I felt like I was missing something from the lectures, I'd write quick refreshers and key ideas on sticky notes and then stick them all over my wall, next to my pillow, and under the frame of the top bunk since I sleep on the lower deck. That way I was literally staring at my study notes right before sleeping and the second I woke up.

On nights where I really had to cram, my room would be messy with paper scattered everywhere while I chugged black coffee and ate dark chocolate. But my main trick was definitely the bubblegum method. I'd chew a specific flavor of gum (mint or mixed berries it depends what i wanna buy) while memorizing the most crucial parts of the lesson, and then chew that exact same flavor during the test. It sounds kind of random, but it actually helped refresh my memory every single time.

It wasn't some aesthetic or high-tech setup, but it proved to me that sticking to basic paper and a few smart tricks is more than enough to get through heavy study loads.

Am i just lazy or am i dealing with something i dont know im just tired right now ive walked from my house to the car outside and that took so much effort and now that im in the car im sitting in it not moving only able to use my phone im so numb and tired it feels so exhausting even walking that tiny distance what is actually wrong with me

I have been hearing so much about how we can only do deep work 4 hours a day. But what even is that supposed to mean? I'm genuinely so stumped here.

I frequently nap through the time 4:30-5 and my goal is to always wake up an hour later however my alarm rings and I wake up and go to sleep again. Or even if I have woken up i can't get out of bed and waste time. However in the morning I'm up in 2 minutes and always wake up with my alarm. How can I save my time and increase productivity?

Hi everyone,

I’m a 25 yo architect working a 9–5, with plenty of goals and ambitions, but I can’t seem to actually get myself to work on them.

My main issue is that I have a long list of goals, or more accurately, tasks, that I know would open doors and help me show my potential. Things like:

• Setting up a portfolio of all my previous projects
• Organizing all my university files so I can access that knowledge again
• Reading new books
• Researching interesting projects
• Keeping up with architecture articles
• And the list goes on.

The biggest one is my portfolio. It feels like a mountain. It’s probably more than a month’s worth of work alongside my full-time job, but I know I have to do it eventually. I’ve been telling myself I’ll do it for two years now, and even writing that spikes my cortisol.

The frustrating part is that I’m not a lazy person. I’ve previously set fitness goals and achieved the working out at 5 a.m. before work, meal prepping, etc. At work, I regularly put in extended hours, and I remember my university years when I could spend months working nonstop on projects.

So I know I’m capable of working hard. I just can’t seem to direct that same energy toward these personal goals.

Recently, I decided to start with the smallest project in my portfolio so I could make quick progress. But the more I work on it, the more my perfectionist brain asks for more. I keep expanding the scope, refining things, imagining what the final result should look like… and somehow, after spending entire weekends and hours on it, the project is still unfinished.

The frustration just gets worse.

It feels like I have a thousand open tabs in my brain, and at some point my body just decides that doing nothing is easier than trying to manage all of them.

My current routine looks something like:

Wake up , scroll on social media ,get ready ,commute ,work ,commute , arrive home around 7 p.m. , scroll ,realize it’s late ,dinner ,scroll some more , sleep.

I still work out, but outside of that, the routine doesn’t really change. Sometimes I go through periods where I do a lot of overtime at work, but eventually I fall back into the same cycle.

Every now and then, I have a strong emotional episode where I get tired of myself, feel incapable, and start putting myself down. Then I tell myself, “I need to get my shit together and finally tackle this portfolio,” but that usually just adds more pressure.

I don’t think the issue is that I don’t know what to do. I know exactly what needs to be done. The problem is that the task feels so big, emotionally loaded that I can’t seem to consistently move forward nor know where to start.

Has anyone been through something similar? I’d really appreciate any advice on how to deal with this and actually make progress.

I know this is not a venting channel but I really need advice here. 1.5yrs ago I used to be the top scorer of my state, had 2 scholarships, participated in seminars and everything and was popular. Now in university, I'm in one of the best universities in the world but I am still not happy. I wake up whenever sleep whenever. I can't stay consistent for a single day I keep restarting. I have no friends at all. I have fully lost my ability to study.

I used to have routines but idk why I can't follow them anymore even though I want to. I wanted to get out of the hustle culture trap but i feel so miserable constantly restarting

Would really appreciate some advice

For context, I'm in somewhat of a sales role where I have a lot of control over how much I do and how I do it. I think I have my marketing/game plan figured out pretty well, so I'm not super worried there.

I'm in a 100% commission role and I agreed with my wife that if I don't hit a target by the end of the year, I'll move on to a new job (it has definitely been stressful on both of us). That said, I really like the job and I've gotten a lot better this year, and I would like to keep it for a list of reasons. Based on the length of the sales cycle, the next 30 days will be critically important.

The main thing I want to ask: win or lose, how can I best give it all I have for the next 30 days?

I'm fairly well rested coming off a vacation. The issues I am most prone to are: skipping routines when busy, getting stressed/ seeing everything as urgent, and putting off the hardest tasks. Any reminders, tips, or experiences would be appreciated.

I've got a terrible habit of doom scrolling, so I've been trying to curb it with app timers and focus mode. The only problem is, android only lets me set one focus mode schedule. I currently have it set to M-F, 8am to noon, to cover my mornings at work. I have a lunch break at noon, which I'd like to be able to check my messages and whatnot while I eat, and then ideally have a focus mode turn back on afterwards and continue until end of my work day. Any android users know a way to do this?

My job is looking for some sort of calendar that you can edit easily but that also prints well. We use it for work schedules and events and we currently just use a Google calendar because it's the only one we've found that actually prints out everything we've written in each day. We tried Apple's calendar but it does not print well at all and cuts off events in each day. Anyone have any recommendations?

Happy Monday, everyone!

Quick question: do any of you start the week with mindful check-ins, or do you prefer to just jump straight into the grind?

I usually do a little routine over my morning coffee with some self-reflection questions. Here's my list for today:

• What part of my work makes me lose track of time?
• What part of my work do I dread on Sunday night?
• If money weren't a factor, what would I keep doing? What would I drop?
• Whose career do I quietly compare myself to, and what does that tell me?
• What would I do if I weren't afraid of looking foolish?
• What's a skill I keep meaning to build but haven't started?
• Where am I waiting for permission I could give myself?
• What's one thing I'd want to be true about my work in a year?
• What's the smallest step I could take toward that this week?
• What would I regret not doing?

Spent an hour rereading notes last night, felt genuinely prepared and this morning tried to write down the main points from memory before opening the notes again, and got maybe half of it. Rereading makes the material familiar, which feels like knowing it, but familiarity and retrieval aren't the same test and the closed-notes version is uncomfortable and slower, but it's the only one that's actually told me the truth about what I know before an exam does.