As work piles up, I am facing my struggles

Story about managing ADHD, alt meat on the rise, vital seesaws, improving writing and acne trending.

Aug 13, 2019

Hi friend!

I've been in LA for a few weeks now, and the progress of my work has slow. Painfully slow.

As each day passes, more and more projects pile up. I have an Eat, Pray, Love video summary left to edit, a book left to compile, a portfolio that reflects my new direction in life, and the list goes on. And while I've been in LA, a lot of my time has been on errands including: fixing my electronics, organizing my finances, and helping my mom fix up the house. The day ends before it even begins.

"Work expands so as to fill the time available for its completion."—C. Northcote Parkinson.

I often advise people in this position to simplify and to focus. I don't know why it's so hard for me to listen to myself. I've tried to do every productivity hack under the sun, including tracking every minute of my day, finding my peak working hours, and even having more compassion with myself. Every tip has gotten me a few steps closer, but getting burned out, losing interest, and having new project ideas seem to throw me back in the direction I came.

But perhaps, this is something that I cannot escape. I've struggled with ADHD for may years of my life.

During college, I realized that something was up when I started taking unprescribed Adderall. It didn't seem to make me ultra-focused like most of my friends claimed - it mellowed me out. I was finally clinically diagnosed after college and got prescriptions of Adderall to fix me up. Although it did help me to stay awake and finish my work, I never felt great while being on the meditation. My sleep quality deteriorated, body dehydrated (a common side-effect), and brain buzzing until the net prescription. I started taking it less and less over the years and decided to cut it entirely out of my diet a few years ago (along with all of my other medications).

Mild ADHD or not, I want to continue working on this prioritization issue without the aid of medications. I am waiting for this epic turning point in my life of when I can turn into an extremely productive being, but I feel further away than ever.

Has there been a turning point in your life where you turned ultra-productive?

In the video this week, I address unconscious bias. It's more than just a part of us - it is a part of every single decision we make every day. The last tip I share (creating totems) has been an extremely beneficial strategy to incorporate when making life-altering decisions. Getting outside of my skin has been essential to become more compassionate and empathetic to others as well.

Meatless Meat on the Rise

Alt meat has been quickly rising to stardom in recent years due to its ability to successfully mimic animal meat patties. I've eaten two of the most popular alt meat patties, Beyond Burger and Impossible Burger, and they are both delicious. This article by Outside tells the tale of The Beginning of the End of the Beef Industry. I especially loved this anecdote on the next hurdle alt meat will overcome:

"As this shift accelerates, the beef industry will lose its last advantage—price. Most offerings made with Beyond Meat and Impossible Foods are about a buck a burger more expensive. But it's inherently cheaper to make a burger directly out of plants than it is to feed those plants to an animal first. Beef is currently cheaper because of scale. Big food companies can negotiate tremendously reduced prices for feed, and gigantic factories and supply chains are much more efficient to run."

Viral content I can get behind

Two California professors installed seesaws on the United States and Mexico border for kids (and adults) to play with each other. Amidst the political nightmare our country is in, these pink seesaws bring in the joy. The designer behind this project describes, "Actions that can take place on one side [of the border] have a direct consequence on the other side"

An article that improved my writing

I've read a few books on how to improve writing, but this article I recently found on Medium brings it all together. It covers writer's block, first drafts, editing working with editors and everything in between. It's a short read with a lot of golden nuggets.

(Protip: If you reach the "quota" of any website article limit, open the links in your browser's incognito mode to start over with fresh cookies. If that doesn't work and you are on desktop, opening articles in "inspect" dev-mode and set the browser to iPhone sometimes does the trick.)