Frustration
Penelope_asparagus
Blue Jay
Joined: 9 Feb 2005
Age: 49
Gender: Female
Posts: 87
Location: San Francisco California
How do you deal with it? I can't do my work. I start and if I decide I have no clue what I'm doing, and I can't figure it out, I want to throw it all across the room. Or I sit there looking at it for hours. And do nothing. And then get frustrated because of that. I don't enjoy what I"m doing anymore because of this. :(
Oh, and then I procrastinate because of that. And if I do it too long, then I lose. Bad grade. If I don't, mediocore grade. :P
This is for research/science classes with problem sets. Not writing papers. Not like I was ever any good at those anyway.
Ok, I know that from my job (programming web sites)
There are several ways to get around that trouble, one of the best: Do the minor work, that has to be done anyway.
For example for writing websites you need to create testdata for several tasks. Boring, but necessary. So I start to write those db records and while doing that, I often get clues, what will be important for the program.
Next is doing the frontend layout. Just write the html code, that shows the users input forms, without doing the code that actually makes them work. Now you have the data fields, plus arough idea, what should happen to them. So now you can write that code, getting the data into the database and so on...
More general: I think we Aspies are top-down types. We want or need to have the overview of the whole project to make sure, we know what's important (or so we think)
Take the bottom-up approach instead (temporary). Cut the work in small pieces of which you're sure they're important and do them. Then go top-down again and from that perspective (now with more information input from what you found at bottom) find the next pieces to do.
Try to find the "anchor points" and built up your task around that.
If it's about "understanding" something to solve a problem, go back to the last point where you had a clue and try to understand the next single step.
All in all: Cut it in pieces and do those, that are a sure hit. Like in crossword puzzles, if you solve one, it'll give you some hints for the next...
And for general motivation it helps me not to care what I do. I see it as a kind of game or riddle which I do just to kill time. What would I do instead? Reading books, which becomes boring to after some time.
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Deep into that darkness peering, long I stood there wondering, fearing,
Doubting, dreaming dreams no mortal ever dared to dream before (E.A.Poe)