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Working with ADHD: Find Your Focus (Part Two)

In my last post, Working With ADHD: Find Your Focus (Part 1), I shared three simple productivity hacks that have helped me improve my concentration. Below, you’ll find my final four tips. 

Please note: this advice is NOT one-size-fits-all. Depending on your unique flavour of ADHD or other neurodivergence, some tips may be more helpful than others. The key is always to find what feels good for you, and adjust as needed!

#4: Practice time-blocking 

Look… the idea of working nonstop for hours is extremely outdated. These days, even neurotypicals lack the necessary attention span, so take a more realistic approach to your time management. Many people find the Pomodoro Technique® helpful, as it breaks time up into manageable periods of focused work followed by timed breaks. Experiment with different work-and-break combinations to find what works best for you.

#5: Honour your energy

Scheduling tasks based on your energy can be very effective. If you tend to hit your creative peak after the sun goes down, tackle creative tasks in the evening. If your concentration levels are highest in the morning, use that time for copy editing or research. Mapping out your energy throughout the day, week, and month will help you plan your work accordingly.

#6: Keep your workspace organized

Clutter is the enemy of focus for many of us, so be proactive and nip those potential distractions in the bud. Before you sit down to start working, give the room a quick tidy and clear your immediate workspace of clutter. If visual distraction is an issue, try out a storage system that keeps smaller objects hidden from view, like a small chest of drawers or a couple of lidded baskets.

#7: Hide your phone

Confession: I am addicted to my phone. If I were Gollum, my phone would be my precioussss. The sweet dopamine hit of an Instagram like, the thrill of the reddit scroll, the endless supply of topical and hilarious memes… I can’t say no. If my phone is within reach, I‘ll inevitably reach for it. That’s why I keep my phone in a designated box when I need to focus. Out of sight, out of mind, out of my grubby little paws.

Have fun with it—grab a cheap wooden box at the dollar store and decorate it to match your aesthetic. If hiding your phone feels too extra, the Brick app temporarily disables distracting apps and notifications until you’re ready to end your work day.

Your Accursed Librarian,

Valeska

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Working with ADHD: Find Your Focus (Part One)

The ADHD experience can be a lot of things: frustrating, embarrassing, creative, joyful, challenging, and sometimes hilarious. But it’s not often easy when it comes to productivity. When your attention span is fun-sized, knocking tasks off your to-do list can be a daunting endeavour (unless the tasks relate to your special interests, of course, in which case you’ll probably happily go into overtime).

While each neurodivergent individual is different and there really aren’t any one-size-fits-all solutions, I’d love to share a few actionable tips that have helped me improve my focus and productivity. These tips can be used alongside any medication or techniques recommended by your doctor. Your mileage will almost certainly vary, but learning how we work (and work best) is part of our ongoing journey.

#1: Stay hydrated
If you’re rolling your eyes right now, I get it. I too am annoyed when people offer overly simple “solutions” for neurodivergent (and mental health, for that matter) concerns. But stay with me, because studies have shown that even mild dehydration negatively affects cognitive performance, including concentration, memory, and critical thinking. And when your attention span is already below average, every second counts. If you experience dry mouth, fatigue, dizziness, and headaches frequently, consider investing in one of those jumbo refillable water bottles.

#2: Eat the frog
Task paralysis is no joke. Identify your most challenging task of the day—the one you’re most likely to push off until tomorrow, and the day after that, and the day after that—and really push yourself to do it first. That task is the frog, and procrastinating will just ramp up the dread. You’ll thank me later!

#3: Make use of multiple desktops
If you’re anything like me, you probably have multiple active browser windows that have collected dozens of tabs each—and the temptation to click through them (and away from your current task) can be irresistible.

Windows 11 users can and should take advantage of Microsoft’s game-changing multiple desktops feature, which allows you to set up separate desktop instances for different areas of focus. Creating a desktop devoted to deep work or research allows you to work within an environment free of distracting tabs and notifications.

Thank you for reading. Stay tuned for Part 2!

Your Accursed Librarian,
Valeska

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Halloween Ends (But Your Halloween Mindset Doesn't Have To)

As Halloween approaches, we count down the days as our excitement grows. For horror fans, it's one of our favorite (formative) holidays, its eerie enchantment shaping our lifelong love of things that go bump in the night. That nostalgia, the magic of Halloween, never truly leaves us — and we savor its seasonal charm each year by immersing ourselves in our celebrations.

Sadly, around the concentrated commerce of the spooky season and increasing commitments in our distracted lives, the holiday is here — and over — before we know it.

Halloween Ends, but your Halloween mindset — pausing to be present in the moment — doesn't have to. 

While horror fans continue the spooky aesthetic, ambience, and content during the rest of the year, how often do you truly slow down (like you do at Halloween) to engage with and enjoy daily tasks — especially as readers and writers?

Around the grind, our love for and enjoyment of reading and writing often takes a back seat when we're under pressure to deliver a deadline. As a self-confessed distracted writer, finding time to read for research or sit down and smash that wordcount is hard enough, let alone that elusive golden egg — taking time to actually rest, and read or write simply for pleasure (without feeling guilty as hell).

One small change that's truly transformed my system is creating a reading and writing (W)ritual. As unique as each reader and writer, your Writual is your routine to consistently nurture your writing in order to get results. (What's Your Writual? Read here to outline yours (and see mine!))

In addition to enhancing focus, an integral part of my Writual is romanticizing: drawing on my Halloween mindset by reading and writing mindfully, both of which are greatly helped by implementing spooky stationery and practical tools to help me focus and manifest. A reflective and conscious commitment to slow our pace, quiet our minds, and immerse ourselves in the act itself, mindful reading and writing allows us to press pause and romanticize the experience — to savor the atmosphere, soak up every word, and actually enjoy it.

Even if you don't have an unhealthy obsession with beautiful seasonal stationery (*coughcough*), taking time to physically mark passages that resonate, to regularly record your thoughts in a journal, or to take research notes by hand are all mindful acts that encourage you to engage fully with the words on the page.

In addition to improving your relationship with the text itself — whether that's retaining knowledge, sparking creativity, or simply an emotional connection — this practice of slowing allows you to pause and not only appreciate the small moments but participate in them.

As the world spins madly on, taking time for ourselves will only become more difficult. Romanticizing your reading and writing — invoking the spirit of Halloween in your creative and practical endeavours — is a simple way to take care of yourself.

Don't just take my word for it; the benefits of mindful reading have been noted by medical professionals, from promoting mental health to cognitive improvement in adults, and a range of developmental advantages for children.

And that's the ethos behind our Writual set. It's designed to help you practically implement the intentions of our Hex Libris blog: to romanticize regular reading sprints (for both research and pleasure, encouraging mindful reading as part of your self-care routine), and to enhance your writing focus and enjoyment to build productive writing habits. (To manifest your own Writual, click here!)

Our first-ever Writual set — the Jessica Rose x HoL-loween Collection — was named after the nostalgia and magic of Halloween, a joy and mindset intended to be invoked and experienced all year round. It was so special to curate this collection, and knowing that so many of our readers and writers share our excitement is amazing!

If you love your collection, we'd be grateful if you’d share a pic on Instagram and tag us. And if you're ready to romanticize but haven't ordered your Writual set yet, we still have a few available!

Happy Halloween!

As ever, stay safe and spooky,

Rebecca, Jessica, Ryan & Valeska

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What’s Your Writual?

Writers are in many ways a product of the literary savage garden. We cannot grow or thrive without sustenance, nurture, and the optimal environment for our individual needs. 

Which is why your writing (W)ritual is as unique as you are. Taking time to recognize what serves you (and what doesn’t) is an integral part of your process: your Writual is sacred. 

Once you’ve created your optimal environment, it’s simply a matter of sustaining and nurturing your writing — training your brain to manifest magic through (W)ritual

Which sounds way more complicated than it actually is — the hardest part is sticking to it!

Your Writual can be broken down into three acts or affirmations:

Focus
Your set writing goal, organizing and protecting your time, and using the correct tools to ensure maximum productivity...

Romanticize
Your reflective and conscious commitment to slowing down and immersing yourself in the act itself — from mindful ambience to spooky stationery...  

Manifest
Curating your optimal environment — your sanctum — to inform your mindset and habitually craft a routine that not only produces results, but allows you to fully engage with and enjoy the experience.


Your homework this week is to outline your Writual — what ingredients do you need to curate your sanctum?

Top tip
If there’s something new you'd like to incorporate into your Writual — a beautiful fountain pen, organizational software, visiting that new cosy coffee shop with your work in progress — add this as a reward for sticking with your routine for a month. Having this goal gives you something tangible to focus on, and the reward will be even sweeter knowing you've habitually worked to build a strong Writual with real results.  

Here’s my Writual:

💯 Having a clear goal before I start the session is paramount. Whether I’m researching (annotating a chapter), writing (hitting my word count) or editing (checking references), I frame each task around the time I have available that day...

⏳ …which is why organizing — and protecting — a regular slot of time allows me to create a routine. Consistency here is key; you can absolutely be malleable and move your allocated writing slot as needed, or amend your goal to work on something more manageable during a shorter session, but your Writual won't work unless it becomes a habit. Nurture your writing.

💧 I always make sure I have water to hand (as well as way too many coffees, but I'm working on that...). Keep those big, beautiful brains hydrated, people!

🎵 Horror film and videogame scores create the perfect atmos(fear). Aside from the usual suspects (Carpenter, Korzeniowski, Morricone, Ortolani, Resident Evil, Silent Hill etc.), for a change I’ll stick on the score from the film, TV show, or game I'm writing about or that's mentioned in a piece I'm editing.

🎧 On that note, noise-cancelling headphones are the MVP in my arsenal, allowing me to adjust my ambience in order to minimize distractions and slip into the correct headspace. Into the further you go...

🕯️ As I work from home, I use scents to help segment spaces — including getting myself in the ‘write’ headspace. My Writual scents include woodsy, moody, green notes (our Blair Witch-inspired candle is perfect for this...).

✒️ As a lover of spooky stationery, it’s a great way to inject some personality and fun into my research, writing, and editing. Plus, putting pen to paper — annotating by color, and writing notes by hand — has been scientifically proven to enhance knowledge retention. This is one of the reasons behind our curated Writual set...

🖥️ …and is also why I use a hybrid paper-digital system (which I'll explore in another post...). Even if I’m still at the paper stage by the end of the session, I end each Writual by digitally recording where I’m up to — along with next steps so I have a clear plan for the next session. 

☕ Well, almost. I always end my Writual with a treat, no matter how small. Very mindful, very horreur.

And that’s all there is to it. If you outline your Writual, curate your sanctum, and consistently nurture your writing with a bespoke routine that serves you — I can guarantee that you will not only see results, you’ll make magic.

And what better way to start curating your sanctum than with our first-ever Writual set? Featuring 15 tools designed to help you focus, romanticize, and manifest (three of which have been exclusively designed by featured artist Jessica Rose) our Jessica Rose x HoL-loween Collection — named after the nostalgia and magic of Halloween, a joy and mindset we believe should be invoked and experienced all year as part of your Writual — is a super-limited drop! Tour the collection here (but you’ll have to be quick, there’s only a few left)!

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