I Used to Get Easily Distracted a Lot When Writing. Now, I Can Write Over a Thousand Words Within a Couple of Hours. Here Are Two Things that Help Me Do This.
It’s not easy being a writer and finishing some assignments, especially when-
01: You have to write an article within a certain amount of words, and you’re under a strict deadline, and-
02: You’re neurodivergent.
That’s basically me to a T. As an autistic writer who writes many articles for money (mostly online casino reviews), I’ve been stuck in situations where I’m writing an article about something I don’t care about, the deadline has already approached, and I’m stuck coming up with words to write (or rather, type) down. And since my job is a stay-at-home job on the computer and I have to use the internet for research, it’s almost impossible for me to not open a million tabs while I’m writing an article. No wonder I had a hard time finishing before a deadline; it’s a miracle I still have a writing job at all!
After I had finished and submitted an article after the deadline (long story), I started wondering how I can work on other articles before a deadline hit. Sure, I could just only keep one tab open for writing, but that would be impossible and unthinkable. First off, I would need at least two more tabs open for whatever I’m researching, and maybe one more in case a client had to contact me. Second, I’m autistic (and might have ADHD, though that’s another story for another time). I need something stimulating to keep me motivated. How did I ever get my homework and projects finished on time for school? Well, I think I may have found two solutions to help motivate me to write and not get distracted by anything else.
01: https://radiooooo.com
Who doesn’t love music? Seriously, who doesn’t? I love music, and I especially love foreign music. I guess that can explain why I’m such a huge Eurovision fan. But, because I don’t want to scroll through so many songs or listen to the same song over and over again, I don’t go onto YouTube. Instead, I use radiooooo.com for my musical pleasures. On this website, you can listen to songs from all the way back to the 1900s in a wide variety of countries and beyond. I like listening to songs from the Scandinavian countries in the 1960s the best. Not only have I discovered many new and different songs (like the Osmonds singing in Swedish or covers of popular 60s songs in various languages), but I’ve even heard some of my Eurovision favs! Isn’t that a nice treat?
The reason why I use radiooooo.com when I’m writing articles is that once a song ends, another one automatically begins. And if I don’t know the song I’m currently listening to, I can hover my mouse to the other tab and find out the name of the song and the artist and quickly return to my article. It’s that simple! The only problem is that some countries only have a couple of songs in certain decades. Belize only has two songs for the 2000s, and Sudan only has one for the 1920s. Other than that, I highly recommend using this website the next time you have to work on an assignment. You can listen to some unique, nice-sounding tunes from many decades to keep you motivated on your work!
02: Sensory Cushion
Have I already told you I’m autistic? Yeah, I’ve probably told you in this very article you’re reading right now. In my years of schooling, all my teachers had to follow something called an Individualized Education Plan, or an IEP. It’s some sort of accommodation for me to succeed in school. One of those accommodations was a bright red, bouncy sensory cushion to sit on — just like the one in the picture above. I’ve had it since kindergarten; I got it because I was having a meltdown the previous day or something, I don’t know. I was six when it all happened. Anyway, this cushion was like a miracle drug for me because it helped me focus on all my work; it worked so much that I even used it in college.
After that, well…I used a regular pillow to sit on. The last one I used (and it was for the longest time, too) was a purple unicorn I had since middle school that reminded me of Twilight Sparkle from My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic. I used that pillow for years at least, and let me tell you that it was nowhere near as helpful as the red one. Even though I was still able to (barely) finish articles before they exceeded the deadlines, I found myself getting easily distracted by a lot of tabs.
Eventually, the thing started to smell bad, and I finally had the senses to throw it into the laundry. That was around the time where I noticed that I was getting distracted a whole awful lot. So, I grabbed my red sensory cushion near my desk (Yes, I kept it.) and placed it onto my chair. And you know what? I was able to finish articles more quickly and with less distractions! Much like my kindergarten teacher, I don’t know how that works, but what works works.
Since I’ve had my cushion since kindergarten, I’ve never thought about how much that thing must’ve cost. But I have researched it when I found this image above, and from what I’ve seen, the costs range from around $16.00 to up to $42.00. So, make that of what you will in your financial situation.
Conclusion
It’s not easy being a writer and finishing some assignments; I can tell you that as an autistic writer who gets easily distracted. But there are some ways to finish articles more quickly. First off, you can listen to some great music on radiooooo.com and let the music flow. You can also buy a sensory cushion to keep you motivated on certain assignments.
But that’s just my perspective. You may not be neurodivergent, so you think this won’t apply to you much. But I still recommend trying these two things out anyways to see if they work for you. And if they work for you, then it’s all right by me. What works for the goose works for the gander.
