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xenteaart · 4 years

Text

Design Flaw

Summary: “Today wasn't a good day. Your body was betraying you and you couldn't feel more useless and weak, especially knowing how annoyed the Master would always get at the inconvenience that human biology tended to cause.”

Pairing: Dhawan!Master x Reader

TW: Descriptions of pain ??? but nothing graphic, it’s basically pure fluff

GIF: @moon-in-daylight (i think?? correct me if i’m wrong)

Note: Okay so this is my first ever fic and it’s pretty personal as well because i’ve been struggling with health and feeling powerless for a while now and I can’t really find any fics regarding that so I decided to write one myself lmao. Also English isn’t my first language so be gentle ( but also feel free to give any feedback coz I wanna improoove). Hope u enjoy! Big big thanks to @queerconfusionthings and @ambientstars for being my betas I love you <3

The TARDIS lights went from familiar but mildly aggressive crimson to a warm orange which made it feel a little more welcoming than usual. You had a pretty good relationship with the ship all things considered - she would always lead you to the rooms you needed most and sometimes even hide you away from the Master if you needed some time to be on your own. She knew you were thankful for her looking after you, this time being no exception. Yes, she, because you could never call the TARDIS it after all she'd done for you. A rather weird dynamic to have, especially with something seemingly inanimate.

Today wasn't a good day. Your body was betraying you and you couldn't feel more useless and weak, especially knowing how annoyed the Master would always get at the inconvenience that human biology tended to cause. Travelling with him made you realize that he was, in fact, right, and a human body was way too flawed not to be some kind of cruel joke of a creation. Sometimes you wondered how you humans even made it to 70-80 years old, your lives so ridiculously fragile.

“Go away,” you said moodily, curled up on the sofa in the console room, that exact sofa you had made the Master put there since after days spent on trips and adventures you often couldn't even make it to your bedroom.

You were feeling so ill, your thinking process so heavily disrupted by pain and discomfort, you didn't even think twice about what being rude to the Master could result in. Honestly, you didn't even care and right now you would gladly take some verbal abuse because you felt like you deserved it. Sure, you didn't choose to be born human with a chronic illness but it still felt like a failure on your part.

“Watch your tone, love, I might be tolerating it for now but don't you ever think it became acceptable,” he replied, his voice harsh but his facial expression so much softer. He knelt beside the sofa as he looked over you, assessing the damage and rolling up his sleeves while rather loudly thinking about something. You knew his thinking face all too well.

Sure, he could take you to the most advanced hospital in the universe but at the end of the day - they couldn't "fix" you exactly. There was medication to relieve the symptoms but they couldn't really change your way of being completely, so you were now stuck on the TARDIS with another flare-up, trying to breathe through the pain and waiting for your meds to kick in. You used to think that advanced medicine would allow you to swallow one pill and all of your problems would disappear at the snap of your fingers, but in reality, it was a lot more boring and disappointing. The wonderfulness of new medication was merely the fact that the risk of side effects was close to zero. But it was still no magic pill to suddenly turn you into a super human.

“Why wasn't I born a TimeLord,” you moaned, closing your eyes shut as another wave of abdominal cramps and nausea washed over you. You couldn't even tell what was hurting at this point - you felt like one big miserable mess of ache and fatigue.

The Master looked at you suspiciously.

“What, you think TimeLords can't get sick?” he chuckled quietly as if you were amusing him but you could sense he was just trying to distract you.

“I got this Aaxogon plague once, knocked me out for a few months. Nasty stuff, blocks our ability to regenerate so we have to actually live through the whole thing until it fades away,” he continued, so obviously attempting to get yourself out of your head.

“Yeah but not like that,” you replied, interrupting him mid-sentence, your tone giving away your growing anger and frustration, “you don't get sick like that. Besides, you get to live longer, see more, learn more... And, please, don't tell me it's a curse as much as it's a gift, I'm aware of that and I still wish I could have it.”

He went silent for a whole minute, genuinely surprised at the way you saw things.

Most humans he'd encountered were a lot more proud of their nature, taking actual offense of his degrading comments regarding the human race. You didn't. You agreed with them, simply acknowledging the facts. It wasn't personal, it was basically science, and you were an inferior being.

“Don't compare us, dear,” he finally uttered, gently covering your hand with his own and bringing your knuckles to his lips, brushing over them lightly.

The Master's beard scratched against your skin, making it slightly irritated, but it was nice to feel something other than what you were feeling, your senses overwhelmed with your body's misbehavior.

“I don't think any less of you. It is quite infuriating how dependent you all are on food and sleep and, in your case, more rest and medication, and I do think it's a huge design flaw but I took you in for your mind, not for your body.”

You were grateful he wasn't trying to make you feel better by lying and sugar-coating things. Not that he would ever do that for you anyways, it just wasn't him. A weak smile painted over your features.

“Now be a good girl for me and have some sleep, will you?” he added, his voice noticeably deeper and lower. Oh, you knew what he was doing. He was proving you were still desirable despite your vulnerability. Something in your chest sank, your heart probably. Ouch.

He caressed your jawline with the tips of his fingers as he contemplated whether to move up to your temples, and you were quick enough to notice his hesitation.

“A-uh, I have to give my consent first, remember? Rule number 4,” you said, a tiny bit smug and playful.

“Always so good at remembering rules, are we?” he replied with an equally obnoxious and mischievous grin. You gave him no answer and stared into his eyes, his chocolate-y orbs shamelessly mesmerizing you into obedience. You were too exhausted to put up a fight, or maybe you just wanted to think it was your excuse this time.

“Yeah, okay, fine, do the thing, I consent,” you rolled your eyes and winced very soon after, gritting your teeth at another flash of pain, “but promise you're gonna be here when I wake up.”

“Promise.”

Something wet and warm landed on your cheek and you realized he was kissing you goodnight. The familiar feeling of his mind against yours was slowly taking over and you gave in willingly, allowing him to envelope you with his burning but caring consciousness.

“Being a TimeLord is not as great as it might seem. Especially when you’re the last of them,” he whispered as his telepathy was gently putting you to sleep.

You were already drifting away when you heard him, and with an enormous amount of effort you managed to wrap your hand around his index finger, that being a wordless gesture of support and empathy. The Master knew you would say something if you weren’t already passing out, and looked at your now childishly intertwined hands with a hint of amusement and gratitude.

“My silly human” - echoed in your mind before you completely let go of your consciousness.

#dhawan!master #dhawan!master x reader #dhawan!master x you #dhawan!master/reader #dw imagine #my fic #doctor who imagine #doctor who fanfic

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tarithenurse · 4 years

Text

Stolen - 14

Pairing: Loki Laufeyson &/x fem!gifted!reader Content: Gambling, mentions of heavy drinking, boredom. A/N: Survival mode: active. Clean up program “Vacation 1.0”: final scan.

14. Snake Eyes and Sissies

... Loki ...

A nudge of a finger, a tap by the thumb, is all that’s needed to turn [Y/N]’s steps to thread an invisible route down the street. Every step she takes sends a bump into his palm. Whenever she sidesteps to avoid colliding with someone (who receives a harsh glare from Loki afterwards), it tugs at his body and he knows that he follows as much as he leads. Across a catwalk and into a lower section of Knowhere until they reach the destination in the shape of a secluded workshop with the owner’s name as the only identifier. Finally, Loki dares let go and he’s pleased to see she keeps close even as he pushes the door open and they’re met with stale air carrying the scents of hot metal and smoke.

“No credits. Only trades.” The creaky voice calls out sharply from behind a heap of scrap on a table in order to be heard over the grind of sawing through metal.

Loki smirks. “Think you can match a Stealth Hawk, Ek’ir?”

The screeching of the tool stops abruptly and a few of the pieces in the pile shifts due to movement behind. “What’s condition?”

“It’s seen some years...got a few dings, too.” Despite the reputation of the Skrull’s fleet, he knows this will be a hard sell. “Nearly intact and with full manoeuvrability.”

A small figure appears at the top of the scrap heap, round eyes invisible behind the goggles and the skin colour indistinguishable due to layers of oil and dirt. Still, Loki knows how carefully the craftsman is at sizing anything (and anyone) up.

“Define...nearly.” Hopping down from the table, they pads towards the potential customers.

“Got no blasters,” the Asgardian reluctantly admits.

Nearly through the first round, Ek’ir stops circling [Y/N] to stare at the Jotun with open mouth. “Why the Flerken would you dismantle the blasters?!”

“It was that or lose the entire ship.”

Meanwhile, the human is trying to come to terms with the situation. Born on a primitive world, her wonder at space travel and the visit on Alfheim had been reasonable, however she is bordering on rude if she doesn’t stop staring at the short person.

“If, and I mean if, it’s in good shape...” The cogs are turning behind the goggles to evaluate the potential gains and losses. “I’ll have to inspect it.”

“Of course.”

“Got a good few counteroffers you can choose from, at the moment.”

Loki arches a brow. “Freedom of choice?”

“We’ll see...but the Reach stays off limit!”

Few things would be as satisfying as wiping the smirk off Ek’ir’s proud little face. A Reach. Maybe the shop owner doesn’t know who Loki really is, but the species has a natural affinity for knowing exactly what a customer wants the most making it rare for one of their kind to settle in this kind of trade.

“Fair enough,” the god shrugs, “would’ve been nice to break open my casket of Asgardian mead onboard an Asgardian ship, though.”

It’s silent enough to hear the rowdy main street several blocks away as the trader pushes the goggles up onto the forehead, revealing exquisite lashes bordering yellow, cat-like eyes with deceptively narrow pupils. Small feet carries their owner right in front of Loki as if Ek’ir could stare down the much taller god.

“You got mead?” Loki shrugs once more. “How...how’ve you gotten Asgardian booze?”

Wouldn’t you like to know? “How have you gotten a Reach?”

... Reader ...

You’ve given up figuring out what Loki and the little person is talking about, preferring instead the distraction of the mess surrounding you. It’s a crammed place, heaps of scrap metal and tools tucked under an inconveniently low ceiling – although the owner wouldn’t have an issue with it, you suppose. Trying not to stare at the short person, you begin a game of guessing which parts could go where on a spaceship. The mental images quickly become grotesquely cartoonish, resembling the work of imaginative kids rather than actual space ship engineers.

Lost to your own musings, the gentle touch of Loki’s hand brings you back with a start.

“Come,” is all he says.

The delighted glint in his eyes doesn’t bode well as you follow both him and the alien out and back the way you came, mostly. A slight detour is allowed to bring you along to another dock with several vessels of different size and type one of which is the focus of attention. The Asgardian is playing it cool but you can see by the slant of his smile that he’s delighted with one of the ships in particular, commenting on its current state versus the original specs which are far beyond your grasp.

However, he doesn’t seem to strike a deal before having led the little one back to the ship that was your prison. It is the first time you really get to look at it without being in a rush (the second time seeing it from the outside at all). Sleek and silvery with a shape reminding you of a jagged spearhead it looks as lethal as you originally felt.

A Bugatti of space? Honestly, neither interstellar nor earthly transportation has mattered much to you as long as it worked and got you from point A to point B – you didn’t even own a car because that’s just silly when living in the city – but you’re pleased with the analogy.

“You got a deal if you throw in the cask of mead too,” the alien creaks.

"You drive a hard bargain," your travel partner retorts dryly.

Back and forth they go, inspecting ships and trying to outdo the other in tall tales about the vessels' past travels while you're bored out of your mind, eventually plopping onto the soft seat in a cabin of what they call “the Reach”. From there, you can see past the broken metal that could have made out the temporal bone (when the place wasn’t a wannabe planet) and to the stars beyond. How far are we from Earth?

This is only the second place you've been to since life changed drastically. In a way, it makes you feel special. Privileged. Deep within you a primal urge to keep moving is stirring, it's vibrating through every cell of the body until they ache with a need you can't satisfy on your own. Glancing briefly at Loki, you prefer to think it's also that longing, roaring silently and sending the butterflies in your belly swarming over a fire pit below.

"The rules are clear?" the little alien, Ek'ir, asks.

The Asgardian nods. "Doubles top with sixes as the best. Everything else reads as they show."

Propping yourself up on an elbow, you see them on either side of the table with a dice cup in between (where ever they've gotten that from). A wooden cask balances at the far end – a trophy on display. Memories from the parties you've gone to come back followed by vague rules from drinking games which always became less important as the nights carried on.

Ek'ir begins, slamming the cup down after having thoroughly rattled the dice around. A short peek. A frown.

"42."

Loki's face doesn't betray whatever he might be thinking. Slender fingers simply grab the cup and scoops up the roll to mimic the shop owner's motions. "Snake eyes."

The small hand with suction cups hovers in the air as the owner thinks carefully. With a flick of the finger the claim is proven true, resulting in a woody groan from this round's loser who of course is intend on revenge – a drawn out duel marked by small increments in the rolls before the Asgardian finds himself bested when trying to bluff. He takes it neatly, even sends you a wink.

"32," Ek'ir opens the third and final session.

"54."

The dice rattle a bit longer than strictly necessary. "65."

"Snake eyes," the god offers politely on return, causing the adversary to freeze.

Even you hold a breath. You have no clue why it's so important to get a different spaceship (and particularly this one except that it's aesthetically pleasing), however some sneaky plan must be depending on it or Loki wouldn't have gone through the trouble of bartering with the little alien.

"Naaaah..." They don't sound convinced. "A second one that soon? You think I'm gullible?" Still, the cup remains untouched, looming on the table.

"If you think me a liar, simply call my bluff." There's an air of nonchalance to the taller of the players. "Otherwise...best it."

"Probably counting on it, aren't you?"

There's no reply other than a shrug and a non-committal arching of the brows. He's bluffing. Admittedly, you're not sure. Yay for not playing him. Surely, Asgardian mead can't be that amazing?

"Ha!" Wrinkly hands snatch the cup away, a bright gleam in the alien eyes and a smile to match. Only...the glee dissipates as the roll is revealed: two ones.

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cyb-by-lang · 6 years

Text

Shell Game (14/?)

Kei and friends do some field work.

While wearing her ANBU outfit, Kei took the train to Hosu on Tuesday night. Not openly—once again, the Transformation jutsu was earning its keep—but she disappeared into back alleys and dark corners as soon as she could get away from the crowds. Skittering up brick or concrete walls like some kind of malformed frog honestly felt like a return to form. Almost like slipping on an old, well-loved sweater, though the armored uniform wasn’t acquainted with sleeves as such.

Still, standing on a roof, in the middle of a real city with real skyscrapers, kind of made her feel like Batman. Hosu was no art deco nightmare, but Kei hardly needed a gargoyle to dangle from. She had a whole skyline and plenty of air conditioning units.

The air split open on her lonely rooftop, and two similarly-uniformed shapes tumbled out in front of Kei.

It was kind of funny how much “tech” was being sneaked back into Konoha through Obito’s constant prowling. In much the same way as a tourist buying up crap for resale didn’t make waves, Obito’s half of the discretionary budget was mainly materials nobody in Tokyo cared much about. His penchant for disguises and vocal mimicry meant he could go anywhere, be anyone, and buy his own weight in kevlar.

Kei already saw the first results of that exploration when she took a look at Kakashi’s ANBU uniform. His armguards were different from Obito’s or Kei’s, even leaving aside how Kei had taken her personal pair from home. Lighter, somehow. Tight black material flattened his white hair to his head, leaving him nearly anonymous. His light gray vest settled differently against his body, betraying anti-stab armor under the cloth. Interlocking plates, apparently.

And no more open-toed shoes.

Konoha learned fast.

“Crane, Wolf, welcome to Hosu,” Kei said, while her teammates sorted themselves out.

“It stinks of smoke,” Kakashi commented almost immediately, and Kei didn’t blame him. City air was just weird after growing up in Konoha. Even the largest cities in the Land of Fire didn’t have fossil fuel dependency anything like this. His wolf mask and the skintight one underneath didn’t filter that much.

Obito patted his shoulder before quickly being brushed off. “You get used to it.”

Kakashi grunted, then his mask angled toward Kei. His left eye-slit gleamed red. “Any patrol rules, Turtle?”

“Avoid everyone.” Kei adjusted her Isobu-patterned mask for a second, just to fidget, then added, “Treat it like infiltrating Suna. The second an alarm goes up, ditch.”

“Easy enough,” Obito remarked, and Kei gave him a sharp look he ignored. The right eye-hole on his mask was also faintly glowing.

“Take the lead,” Kakashi prompted, and the three of them made their way through Hosu’s backstreets.

Though Kei hadn’t really explored this chunk of Tokyo with any intent last time, she’d been reading newspapers and checking maps in her spare time. She knew where major landmarks were, broadly speaking, and heading back to the apartment after this patrol exercise wouldn’t be difficult. If Hosu was known for anything, at the moment, it was a minor rise in violent crime.

Heroes were dying and that had everyone worried.

Kei wasn’t emotionally invested in the hero scene the way the locals were. Whenever caught up in a dangerous situation, Kei tended to rely on her own power first and only look to fellow shinobi after everything progressed past the point of no return. The idea that she could be saved by a hero, paid by the Japanese government to do good, was still a foreign one. Her experience at the USJ did show her the value of heroes as symbols of hope, at least once Obito and other people filled her in on how everyone reacted to All Might popping into the building. However, her concern about the Hero Killer had more to do with the fact that he was a serial killer than anything to do with who he was targeting.

Still, the principal had asked for a quick check-in, and here Kei was. Poking Hosu with reinforcements and a stick to see if the hornets were awake.

And we cannot even justify killing a multiple-murderer if he becomes too much of a threat to contain.

Kei slid down the outside wall of a nightclub, feeling heavy bass rumble up through her gloved fingertips. Law enforcement doesn’t work the same way here.

Of course it does not. Humans in this world depend so heavily on their technology and their heroes that they have made their world safe. Isobu growled in frustration, tails lashing around in the mindscape.

We’ve had this talk before, Isobu. Besides, from what the survivors have said? He’s not exactly in a jinchūriki’s weight class.

Barely anyone ever is.

Kei let him have the last word. Instead, she held a hand up as soon as she heard a sound around the corner of a roof, feeling her teammates freeze before making any extra noise. Kei crept closer to the edge, channeling chakra carefully toward her ears and concentrating on what she was hearing.

Across from her, Kakashi made several hand signals. Fire. Man. He paused for a second to listen to the same footsteps Kei heard, then added, Big.

Obito signed a question and Kakashi shook his head. Probably asking how big, but the angle wasn’t the best and Kei didn’t like splitting her attention.

“Nothing, again. Heading back now.”

Heroes patrolled, too. Just their bad luck that, when Kei poked her head up just before the man walked of easy view, she recognized Endeavor’s hulking frame. Of all the people who “Big, uses fire, and is a man” fit, the Number Two of all Japan’s heroes was a rather unfortunate find. His Quirk was called Hellfire, and Kei had seen footage of him channeling so much heat through his limbs that he could melt handholds into nominally-solid concrete.

Kei signalled a retreat. Her boys followed her for almost ten blocks before she stopped on a somewhat taller rooftop, crowded with ventilation units, ducts, and antennae.

“Endeavor’s not stationed here normally,” Kei said quietly, retrieving her phone from a pocket. She fiddled with it until she brought up Endeavor’s profile on some official site or other. Probably his. Then she handed her phone to Kakashi. “Stain really must be causing a panic.”

Obito hung back, Sharingan bright behind his mask as he kept alert, and Kakashi settled next to Kei’s left side.

“If a man with his face on fire wants to catch a killer,” Kakashi said after scanning the somewhat-dim screen, “he’s welcome to him. But for him to be here? Those unsuccessful hunts must really be burning him up inside.”

Obito muttered something uncharitable about puns.

Kei shoved Kakashi’s shoulder playfully and snatched her phone back. “We’ll poke around a little longer.”

Truthfully, the patrol didn’t turn up much despite GPS help and rumor-chasing. While Kakashi was primed to detect blood, city scents were overwhelming on a good day. The trio did find an old bloodstain outlined by police tape and blocked by a patrol car, but it appeared the Hero Killer didn’t actually hunt every night. He was an asshole, a murderer, and probably equipped with a dangerous Quirk if he’d managed to overpower so many pro heroes already. But he wasn’t, apparently, all that easy to find.

Besides, cigarette smoke got really bad around crime scenes. Kakashi had signed a No when asked if he could detect anything past that kind of interference. If he’d been a little less disciplined, Kei imagined he might’ve had more to say. Most of it rude.

“One more pass,” Kei said, and they hopped to it.

Between Kei’s phone and Obito’s, as well as Obito’s street-level knowledge of some of the familiar heroes who operated in the area, they managed to make a game out of spotting familiar faces. Fin-helmeted Manual, the Normal Hero, patrolled more during the daytime and seemed to be about in the same weight class as the bank robber from the weekend. Kei managed to find another hero, apparently called Native, whose costume and lack of any notable Quirk just made all three of them scratch their heads.

Well, Obito and Kei did. Kakashi didn’t know or care enough.

Most of the heroes who operated in Hosu, including famous Team Idaten—run by Ingenium and his sidekicks—seemed to be pretty secure in their positions. Maybe that was why Stain kept picking them off, because she couldn’t quite see someone higher on the hero lists getting axed by someone whose modus operandi relied heavily on ambushes. A lot of the higher-ranking heroes were there for power and skill, not just popularity.

“You know, I’m not really seeing anyone who could, like, go toe to toe with us.” Obito commented after they’d passed by a hero patrol. Moving across the city three stories up from ground level had a way of keeping them out of trouble. For now. “Maybe that Endeavor guy. But all of their Quirks are public. Does no one ever do thought exercises about that kind of thing? I mean, you fought Sensei and if you’d been anybody else he’d’ve flattened you inside of four seconds.”

“Sometimes I wonder,” Kei replied. The fact that she, better than almost anyone bar Kushina or Jiraiya, knew all of Namikaze Minato’s jutsu and his preferred fighting styles meant she’d been probably in a unique position during their spar. The idea of anybody else getting that close was a disturbing one.

There was kind of a reason it was illegal to teach non-shinobi the majority of their techniques. Shinobi from other villages, too.

Maybe that lopsided information was also why underground heroes were a thing.

After a few more rooftops, Kakashi remarked, “Maybe that’s why the firebug is here.”

Obito cartwheeled instead of landing normally as they crossed another roof. “You think?”

“Probably. But he’s having the same trouble we are.” As all three of them slowed to a stop on top of what appeared to be a four-story apartment building, Kakashi went on, “I’m willing to assume that this person we’re looking for is notorious. Distinctive to the point of having a fanclub, apparently. But I don’t think that we’re the first ones with detection abilities who’ve been called in to try and find him. He might genuinely not be here at the moment.”

Kei glanced across the way, toward the nearest train station. She scratched under the edge of her mask, recalling the discussion she’d had with Hayate about technology. Mass transit was a curse sometimes. “You’re probably right. And if he took a train, he could be anywhere by now.”

“There’s probably a way to track him with local methods, but those aren’t workable from our positions.” Kakashi tilted his head back to check the angle of the moon, or perhaps just out of curiosity. Then, “This patrol is effectively over.”

A disappointing result for Team Minato’s first reunion patrol, but there it was.

“I wish we had other agents to hand this off to,” Obito complained, as they changed into more civilian-friendly clothes inside Kamui. The pocket dimension’s obsession with white, squared-off blocks and bizarre lighting meant finding their clothing stashes was a cinch even without Obito’s help. “It feels like we’re leaving a job half-finished.”

“That’s what heroes are for,” Kei told him. Then her head finally popped out of her sweater collar and she started fussing with the neckline and sleeves. Really, throwing on street clothes over her uniform was a bit lazy, but there wasn’t anyone around to criticise her fashion choices. “And a police department. Though I don’t know how much headway they’re gonna make.”

“Not our jurisdiction.” Kakashi reappeared from behind a distant pillar, sporting a cheap medical mask with ear loops. His black turtleneck and jeans were like Tokyo versions of his jōnin uniform. Perhaps not wanting to match Obito, he’d just styled his unruly hair down over his left eye and omitted the eyepatch. When he noticed the other two staring at him, he said, “I’m not due back for another eighteen hours.”

“Oh, oh!” Obito bounced over to his teammates, grinning. “Kakashi, this place has so much weird stuff. It’s great!”

Kakashi blinked slowly at him. There was a slight edge of dawning dread in what Kei could see of his expression. His chakra flickered slightly. Then he managed to say in an even voice, “Such as?”

Obito and Kei grinned at each other. Kakashi was the newbie here.

Kei said, “Well, I know you like the Icha-Icha series, but there are like a million more options here. And there’s about five thousand types of manga. We need to hit up a bookstore, now.”

“Akihabara?” Obito suggested, his Sharingan shifting to its Mangekyō form. He’d been around Tokyo a few times by now, since he didn’t need to actually attend school.

Kei gave him a Gai-style thumbs-up. “Definitely! It’s not past curfew yet.”

“This place has a curfew,” Kakashi repeated incredulously.

“Just transform into Raidō or something if it ends up being a problem,” Kei suggested as Obito held out a hand, swirling vortex in the middle of his palm. “Anybody older than eighteenish. Twenty, maybe?”

Kakashi waited until Obito had neatly deposited them in an abandoned side-street to answer, “I think I’m fine for now.”

“Good!” Kei ushered them out into the street. “Now, let’s go find the bookstore. There has to be one still open.”

In the end, Kakashi got a new three-part romance series from a writer who obviously published under a pseudonym and a pair of truly terrible joke books. Obito bought a tourist’s guide to Tokyo and a multipack of study aids (sticky notes, highlighters, and so on), just before spotting a novel about Yoshitsune and snatching it up, too.

Kei didn’t buy anything, but she did have both of them stay overnight.

While they were sleeping, Kakashi somehow stole the comforter he’d been sharing with Obito, Obito cuddled up to Kakashi like he was some kind of pillow, and Kei woke up with her head propped up on Kakashi’s side and a crick in her neck. And none of them got up before Kei’s alarm clock.

Some things never changed.

#Shell Game #Keisuke Gekko #Obito Uchiha #Kakashi Hatake #Isobu #my hero academia #crossover

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avaantares · 5 years

Note

So uh, I’m really really disappointed with the Torchwood fandom right now (over what you addresses in your post about being respectful/a normal human being online), and I’m just not quite sure how to deal with that. Sorry to barge in with this, but you seem like a really understanding, level-headed person 😅

I feel you, Anon, and you are certainly not the only one I’ve heard from! A number of people have told me they’ve been growing more uncomfortable with the fandom’s atmosphere lately, and have been actively avoiding posting about certain topics for fear of dogpiling. (This actually came up in a few private conversations before I made the post you referenced, and helped cement my decision to speak up.)

This post is long, so here’s a dash-saver. Below the jump I talk about the state of the Torchwood fandom, how people can avoid and resolve drama on their own posts, and some things everyone can do to make the internet a nicer place.

While my recent post was not targeted solely at the Torchwood fandom (the “how dare you differ in opinion from me” trend is disturbingly widespread; see also: politics), it is true that there has been a lot of sectionalism and polarization in that fandom lately. Fandom niches have always existed, but as the Torchwood fandom shrinks – whether due to natural attrition, lack of interest in the new content, or whatever reason – the Venn circles for each area of interest also shrink, making each group appear more segregated, and resulting in less crossover and less generalized Torchwood fandom.

Now, specific interest groups within the fandom are not a bad thing! They occur naturally, since not everyone engages with fandom the same way. Some people listen to the new Big Finish releases, while others have only seen the original series. Some people enjoy trading headcanons, while others aren’t interested. Some people create fanart or fanfiction, while others just reblog gifsets. Some people are only in the fandom for one specific character, and that’s okay! We’re all fans of the same source material; we can all share and respect each other’s unique interests!

The problems arise when we stop doing that, when interest groups become isolationist (i.e. ”we’re the only real fans”), or when one group decides their focus/interest is more important than another group’s or individual’s. If any group begins policing or calling out other fans who don’t share their views, that’s a problem. If fans are afraid to share their opinion on a topic because of the threat of harassment or name-calling from other fans, that’s a problem. If we can no longer politely discuss our respective viewpoints or agree to disagree, that’s a problem. If we all start blocking each other because we can’t get over the fact that Person A loves Gwen Cooper and Person B doesn’t, or Person C ships Person D’s NoTP, or Person E headcanons a character as a particular sexuality/alignment/whatever and Person F has a different headcanon, there will be no fandom left because everyone who loves Torchwood will be on another fan’s block list.

“But wait!” Person A cries. “[Opinion I hold] is really important to me, and is relevant to my personal identity! By disagreeing with me, Person B is being disrespectful to my identity!”

Sorry, but no. Certainly, Person A is allowed their opinion, and that opinion may well be informed by their personal identity or beliefs. But Person B is also allowed an opinion, which may also be informed by their identity or beliefs. Person A’s personal opinion is no more or less valid than Person B’s. It’s not about B being disrespectful to A by voicing an alternate opinion; it’s about both A and B showing mutual respect by acknowledging that the other person has an opinion.

Of course, just because you’re fully entitled to state an opinion doesn’t mean you are correct, or that you have license to say anything you want free of consequence. Any time you put your opinion out there, you are opening yourself up to disagreement or rebuttal.

“So how can I avoid people aggressively disagreeing with me?” Person A asks. “I hate reading dissenting viewpoints, especially on my own posts.”

Well, you have two options. Option 1 is for those who honestly can’t handle any level of conflict or disagreement, and that’s not to post your opinion at all.

“That’s no fun!” says Person A. “I like to share my opinions.”

Well, that brings us to Option 2: Set the tone of your posts. See, here’s the thing: If you post your opinion in an agonistic manner, you’re more likely to elicit agonistic response. Here’s an example of two different post tones:

A’s Post: I went outside today and looked up, and the sky looked blue to me, so I think the actual color of the sky must be blue.

This is a clear statement of opinion, phrased with supporting rationale, but it’s focused on the person who holds that opinion, rather than targeting or disparaging someone who subscribes to a different one. A dissenter might counter with this:

B’s Response: I’ve always thought the sky looked white. Those puffy spots up there are definitely white, so I think that’s the real color of the sky.

It’s relatively polite, with no offensive personal remarks, and (again) it’s focused on why they personally believe what they do. It is likely that this sort of rational discussion could continue for many exchanges without becoming heated or aggressive. Maybe one will convince the other, or maybe they’ll stick to their own beliefs and agree to disagree, but nobody’s getting hurt and nobody’s getting blocked.

Now, compare that to this type of post:

A’s Post: OMG I hate when those white-sky idiots say the sky is white, they must all be MORONS because it’s clearly BLUE and if you don’t agree you’d best unfollow me NOW because i don’t want you anywhere near my posts. This is a BLUE SKY ONLY BLOG.

This person has already personally attacked anyone with a different view, drawn a line in the sand, and declared that this is the hill they will die on – all without supporting their opinion with a shred of evidence or reason. Naturally, this will only serve to inflame the other side:

B’s Response: HOW DARE YOU CALL ME A MORON, I’ll have you know I have a Master’s Degree in Cloud Watching and I wrote my thesis on why the sky is white. Only uneducated idiots think the sky is blue. BLOCKED.

Yeah, this exchange is never going to result in any kind of rational discussion. It is already 100% emotional, and there is no actual discussing going on, just name-calling. Getting involved in this kind of argument is a waste of time and energy, will not change anyone’s mind, and will only succeed in stressing out all parties.

“But the sky really IS blue!” Person A protests. “It doesn’t matter what tone I take, I’m still right!”

Nah, in this case both sides are wrong. The sky’s apparent color depends on the angle of the sun’s rays, humidity, and the way light in the visible spectrum is scattered by air molecules. It looks blue when the sun is high, and red or orange when the sun is near the horizon, but the sky itself is colorless. (There’s your science fact for the day). Ultimately, it doesn’t matter how right OP thinks they are; chances are the other person is just as convinced that they’re right, and it’s entirely possible that you’re fighting over something completely arbitrary or fundamentally unimportant.

And that brings me back to the Torchwood fandom and the hill-I-will-die-on arguments that have been plaguing it more and more in recent months. There is one thing I think we can ALL agree on, no matter our individual interests, and that is that Torchwood’s canon is a hot buttered mess. The original TV series is internally inconsistent; the novels contradict both the TV series and other novels; the comics contradict themselves, the novels, and the TV series; Miracle Day contradicts EVERYTHING that came before, including parent series Doctor Who; and the Big Finish dramas try really hard to respect all the prior releases, and mostly just end up creating their own canon, because it’s utterly impossible to reconcile everything. If canon can’t even agree on relatively simple things like

whether or not Jack can get drunk (no: BBC novels / yes: also BBC novels)

whether or not Jack can sleep/dream (no: TV and BBC novels / yes: also TV and BBC novels, plus BBC audio dramas)

if Jack and Ianto went on a date after KKBB (yes: BBC novels / no: also BBC novels)

what year Owen was born (1980: TV and Torchwood Magazine / 1981: TV and BBC novels)

what Ianto’s sister’s last name is (Evans: The Torchwood Archives / Davies: CoE)

…there are bound to be contradictory fan views on more complex issues, and there may not be a clear “correct” or “incorrect” position. It is possible to find canon support for nearly any Torchwood headcanon, because Torchwood canon is consistently inconsistent. Don’t make every issue a hard line in the sand. Accept that people are different, and based on their own unique backgrounds and experiences, people can legitimately come to different conclusions when presented with the same canon evidence (or lack thereof).

(Hmm… it’s almost like this principle could also apply to real-life sources of conflict like politics, religion, and social and cultural norms. Maybe keeping an open mind is a good idea in general…?)

“Well, it’s MY blog, and I can say what I want,” says Person A. “If people don’t like it that’s their problem.”

That is absolutely true. But remember, whatever you put out there is likely going to come right back at you. If you go with a rude or aggressive stance, or if you make personal attacks, you should expect your replies/reblogs to be just as nasty. If you escalate, so will they.

“Okay, so what if I post something polite and someone STILL comes back with a nasty response?” Person A asks. “I’m honestly feeling so attacked right now, and it isn’t even my fault!”

There are a couple of solutions to this that don’t involve breaking out the napalm:

Check for a misunderstanding. It’s hard to interpret tone in plain text sometimes. If you think the person may have honestly misinterpreted your post, maintain the polite tone and either clarify your post, or ask them (nicely) to explain why they are so upset about what you posted. Look for resolution, rather than merely refuting their post.

Don’t respond. “Be the bigger person” may sound cliche, but believe it or not, the world will not end if you choose not to engage someone on the internet. There is great power in putting down the phone or stepping away from the keyboard, and it’s much better for your blood pressure and stress level. Plus, if that person keeps raging on posts and not getting any responses, it may make them wonder why nobody pays attention to their opinions. Speaking of which…

“YOO-HOO!” hollers Person Z from waaaaaaay over in the corner. “Hi there! I just came for the fanart, and I’d like to participate more, but I’m really stressed out by the way this fandom is arguing all around me. I’m worried that if I post anything, someone will yell at me and tell me I’m wrong. That would really upset me.”

So let’s talk positive reinforcement for a second! This is where the casual observers and innocent bystanders can have a lot of power to steer the direction that fandom grows. Ultimately, the goal of all social media is to elicit interaction, whether that’s in the form of Likes, Reblogs, Replies, Retweets, Shares, Follows, or what have you. Giving posts this kind of interaction is like praising the writer. Reblogging also makes that post visible to more people, potentially attracting them to your fandom circle. Posts with more notes get seen more, read more, and can set the tone for other fandom interactions. The more rational, polite posts get spread around and accumulate notes, the more rational, polite people will be likely to get involved, and the more likely a new post on that topic will be worded in a rational, polite way. Whereas interacting with argumentative, nasty, stressful posts will tend to make new people avoid your fandom, and will encourage more people to turn things into a drama-fest because that’s what gets the notes, and notes are currency.

So when you see a post that just looks like a slap-fight or upsets you in some way, just ignore it and keep right on scrolling. You don’t need to attract drama to yourself or your blog, and you don’t need to feed that machine. But if you see someone doing it right, or if there’s an ongoing polite discussion, consider getting involved in the conversation! You can comment, reblog, reply or just like if you don’t have anything to add. Pay the polite, thoughtful interactions in notes and let the harsh posts die an unreblogged death.

So, dear Anon, that’s a very long-winded expansion on my previous post, and one you didn’t exactly ask for. :) But you’re not alone; many of us want to initiate change for the better. I hope we can help the fandom return to the happier, more collaborative place it was not so long ago.

Be kind to each other, be respectful, let go of whatever is driving you to have the last word, and we’ll all have more fun and significantly lower blood pressure.

#torchwood #fandom #social media #social interaction #stress management #guidelines for discussions #slapfights on the internet #long post #anonymous

32 notes · View notes

wordpress-guides · 3 years

Text

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#WordPress Help #wordpress hosting #WordPress Developer #wordpress

0 notes

swyllh · 6 years

Text

[junshua] your text here iii

title: your text here

premise: jun is an editor at pledis daily. he’s busy wooing his neighbour, joshua hong. no narratives, text-only.

genre: humour

pairing: junshua

part 1 | part 2 | part 3 | part 4 (soon)

boo seungkwan’s relationship advice column: boy next door or friendly neighbore?

hello lovely readers!

thank you for submitting all of your queries, albeit under several variations of the same name. this week’s column will be themed after wooing your neighbour, and/or trying to catch his attention.

from wejuhu: what do you do if your neighbour has the best singing voice and he sings every morning and you end up being late to work because you’re listening to him singing?

boo: ooh! it’s terrible to mix your personal and professional life together. if listening to him singing is compromising your professional work ethic, consider setting alarms on your phone so you’ll get out of the house on time.

from junhwen: is it rude to leave flowers for your neighbour in his mailbox?

boo: ah, flowers! they’re the most neutrally-accepted gesture of romancing. i wouldn’t consider it rude, just a little odd. might be best to give them personally! no orange lilies this time ;)

from huijuwen: how do you talk to your neighbour?

boo: oh boy, that really depends. most people use their mouths.

from huiwenjun: if my neighbour, hypothetically, really likes a certain artist, is it weird for me to get him an album from that artist?

boo: there are generally four main components of the economy – consumption, investment, government expenditure, and net exports. when there is an increase in consumption, aggregate demand increases, leading to a multiplier effect where the initial increase of demand and resultant production leads to an increase in income, thus spurring on consecutive rounds of demand and production. national income will increase until the initial increase in expenditure is matched by the increase in withdrawals. go ahead and get him that album, ‘huiwenjun’.

vernon @hansolo

#nowplaying idfc by blackbear

huiwenjun @divaboo

@hansolo @whyjunhui blackbear alert!

wen junhui @whyjunhui

@divaboo @hansolo ive said it before – it’s //not me

huiwenjun @divaboo

@whyjunhui @hansolo right,,,,, those asks were not sent in from the email address wenjunhui.pledisnews.co

vernon @hansolo

@divaboo @whyjunhui is this about joshua?

wen junhui @whyjunhui

@hansolo @divaboo why does everyone know

vernon @hansolo

@whyjunhui @divaboo we’re listening to the album you bought him

vernon @hansolo

@whyjunhui @divaboo *the album he found in his mailbox

from: do not answer!!!!!

look, i’m calling for an intervention

from: do not answer!!!!!

you can’t just leave gifts in joshua’s mailbox

from: do not answer!!!!!

hansol says he’s mildly creeped out already!!!

from: do not answer!!!!!

ok tbh joshua just thinks he’s gotten a misdelivery

from: do not answer!!!!!

even though it had his name on it

from: do not answer!!!!!

jun i know you’re reading this

from: do not answer!!!!!

wen jun hui!

huiwenjun @divaboo

@whyjunhui you can’t run from me forever!!!

to: me

from: booseungkwan.pledisdaily

subject: dude stop ignoring me

how are you such a hermit crab and a mirror-loving ass at the same time??

boo seungkwan has posted on your wall: wen junhui if you do not reply me by 1200 est i will personally take a knife to your flat and carve…

boo seungkwan has liked a post from your timeline!

boo seungkwan has liked a photo from your timeline!

block user?

yes | cancel

starship entertainment @starship.ent

[regional] pigeon carriers in my what? it’s more likely than you think! witnesses reportedly saw 12 pigeons flying from @pledisdaily headquarters since morning. more at noon.

starship entertainment @starship.ent

[regional] concerned members of the public have been filing police reports against the disturbances caused by @pledisdaily’s pigeon carriers.

starship entertainment @starship.ent

[regional] power outrage at @pledisdaily headquarters suspected to be due to damaged wiring. the culprit? pigeons.

plebis – 7 now online

chan has joined the chat.

chan: wow ive never seen scoups so angry

dk: ?? whats up

chan: lecture

hosh: sum1s ben rearign carier pgieons

jeonghan: someone’s been training street pigeons to deliver letters

dk: :O wow!!!!!11!

jihoon: what

minghao: it’s jun

dk: can we get a pigeon

jihoon: no

jeonghan: jun??

chan: is he always this… uh

hosh: dadddy?

jeonghan: longwinded?

chan: close

chan: yes jeonghan

dk: whats happening sound s exciting!

hosh: i almot red sexciting

dk: *sounds sorry!!!

minghao: don’t be sorry

seungkwan has joined the chat.

jun has left the chat.

seungkwan: oh my god

hosh: ikr hes planing 2 increas overtime?????????

seungkwan: that

seungkwan: bitch

dk: :O

minghao: same

seungkwan: i mean jun

minghao: oh

dk: :OOOO

chan: oh no rip jun

minghao: rip jun

jeonghan: rip jun

hosh: rip jun

dk: rip jun

dk: wait whats goign on

seungkwan: ^

seungkwan: im covering up all reflective surfaces, at toilet 3 now

chan: scoups figured out it was jun

chan: all the bird shit on his desk

seungkwan: …

seungkwan: rip jun

from: do not answer!!!!!

carrier pigeons really

to: do not answer!!!!!

you were flooding out my phone???

from: do not answer!!!!!

if you talked to me i wouldn’t have to flood your phone

to: do not answer!!!!!

stop trying to smoke me out!!!!!!!!!!!!!

to: do not answer!!!!!

im 3hrs behind my regular scheduled selfies and vanity!!!!!!!!!!!

from: do not answer!!!!!

i n t e r v e n t i o n

joshua hong has sent you a friend request!

accept | decline

#seventeen #seventeen ff #seventeen fanfic #junshua #junhui #joshua #jisoo #seungkwan #im crying #regular scheduled vanity #yes you go boi

11 notes · View notes

sturmxundxdrang · 7 years

Note

2, 3, 4, 6, 19, 29, 33, 35, 37, 57, 61, 68, 69 - sorry it's so many :3 you always have interesting things to say :D

Oh my goodness, sorry it took me so long! Haven’t picked up this laptop since it froze and I lost all of my replies lol but here you go

2. Who did you last say “I love you” to?

Oh, man, I really don’t remember... I don’t usually say that a lot, but it was probably to one of my friends... Or to Richard in the concert hahaha no, jk. I remembered, it was to my grandma. (This one was the hardest to remember, I really had to answer this last omg)

3. Do you regret anything?

I think the only thing I truly regret is letting some people into my life and letting them stay in it for too long? Toxic people, I mean. And maybe not telling people how much they mean to me, yeah, that too. Other than that... I don’t know.

4. Are you insecure?

I’m the weirdest person ever when it comes to being insecure, omg. Like, my mind has this weird habit of having days where I have the highest self esteem one could have, I don’t dare doubt myself and I’m truly okay with who I am, but next it changes and I can’t even speak about stuff I know I’m educated on, because I’m scared of fucking up and saying something wrong lol so, yeah, I think I’m insecure.

6. How do you want to die?

Peacefully, haha. Like, I have this weird little thing: ever since I’m 9, I’ve always thought to myself that I wouldn’t live past my 30s. I don’t even know why, I just remember have this feeling that I knew I wouldn’t go past that. But, ok, funny story aside, I want to die sleeping. Like, I guess it would make sense? I love sleeping because I get to dream, so wouldn’t it make sense for me to die while dreaming? Idk haha

19. Would you go back in time if you were given the chance?

I spent a little longer than I should trying to answer this one, mainly because I first thought that the things that happened in my life, happened for a reason, but then I thought again and... Well, I could go back in time for a few reasons, if I could go way back before I was born :p see and do some stuff I didn’t have the chance because I was born too late.

29. Have you made a boyfriend/girlfriend cry?

I have never been in a real relationship, so no. But I think I did make some people that were romantically interested in me cry, or at least be very upset at me? It’s rare for me to like people back, and I usually say it right away and I can come off a bit harsh and maybe hurt them without even realizing. (Sometimes it’s hard for me to acknowledge someone else’s feelings, I’m trying to work on that).

33. Do you have trust issues?

Oh my goodness, yes, lots and lots. I have a very hard time trusting people, and even when I do, I tend to have this little voice in the back of my mind going ‘they’re gonna betray you, just watch’. Specially in ‘real life’. It’s incredibly easy for me to bond with people online (truth be told I have more real friends online than in real life, and I feel like I can actually trust them), and even if the other person ‘irl’ trusts me with their life, I have a hard time trusting them with anything. I had a friend once that I trusted a lot, like, really, I could talk to this person about anything and I never really doubted them, and then guess what? They fucked up :p which resulted in me trusting people even less lol

35. Who was the last person you cried in front of?

My mom, in that airport episode where I missed Rammstein for a few minutes lol I have this block where I can’t really cry in front of anyone, so I just hold it back until I’m alone, so yeah, she was very shocked when she saw me sobbing in front of her haha I tend not to show when I’m sad/nervous/anxious also, unless it’s too much for me to hold it back.

37. Is it easier to forgive or forget?

Depends a lot on who and what they did, I think. I’d like to say that I forgive people, but in certain stuff I hold grudges as well. There are some situations in which I already forgave who hurt me, but I can’t really forget and it hurts me to remember. And there are some situations that I forget, but God forbid me of remembering those, because if I do, I get really angry at the person and sometimes I even lash out at them, if I still have any contact with the person.

57. Do you believe in true love?

I think I do, yes. Not only romantically, tho. I feel like true love can be in any form; like when you meet a stranger and they do something small but nice to you and you just really like them at that moment, but you know you’re never seeing each other again. That is true love for me, just like I believe in loving someone so much that you want to be with them all the time and just the fact that they exist is enough to make you happy.

61. Is it cute when a boy/girl calls you baby?

YES!!!! I love it, goddamn. I mean, if I know them and feel comfortable enough with them, hell yes, call me all these cute names, I will love it. Babe, sweetie, darling, sweetheart, angel, cupcake is a fav of mine also... All of these little names. When someone I like calls me like that I feel loved and soft

68. Who’s the last person you had a deep conversation with?

I think it was Hel. I mean, we usually have deep conversations followed by crazy fangirling over Frank Iero, Dean Ambrose and Rammstein lol (last two being my part of the fangirling lol). The last time I believe we were talking about 14 yo having crushes on 20+ people, and how when I was 14, I liked this dude who was like 22 and how he was reasonable and talked to me, explaining why it couldn’t happen, instead of being rude to me or even taking advantage (which is probably what happens in these situations).

69. Do you believe in soulmates?

Yes! It’s kinda like what I said in 57, tho. I don’t think you have only a romantic soulmate, y’know? I feel like you can have friend soulmates as well, and it isn’t necessarily only one. I mean, I know I have some friends that I feel like they’re my soulmates. I might sound a little too dreamy also, but I also like the idea that somewhere there’s someone who’ll not complete me, but add to what I am as a whole person. Someone that will bring the best in me and that will grow with me in ways that could only happen if we’re together, y’know? That’s my concept of soulmates; two people that function very well by themselves, but when they’re together... It’s like magic.

Yay!! Thank you so much for sending the questions

#asked #thanks a lot <333333333 #the-freedom-paradox

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amrutservices · 5 years

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After the Reddit Redesign, Should Your Business Give the Social Channel a Look?

Many business owners overlook Reddit as a social media marketing channel, but recent changes to the platform should have them all reconsidering. A complete overhaul has modernized the look and feel of Reddit’s various niche-focused forums. As a result, community members are engaging even more frequently than ever—with both posts and ads.

According to Reddit’s Zubair Jandali, their VP of brand partnerships, the platform has been engaging users at a rate three to seven times higher compared to before the redesign. Interestingly, ad response rates have also been rising. “Advertising didn’t play a role in the redesign per se,” Jandali told Marketing Land, “but we’re seeing much stronger engagement on ads by virtue of the fact the core organic experience is more engaging.”

Businesses have opportunities to engage directly with community members in ways that build brand awareness and relationships. However, they have to use the right strategy. Reddit notoriously fights against forms of intrusive marketing, and especially accounts that fail to be transparent about their business affiliations.

If you can play your Reddit marketing cards right and treat the community with respect, you can improve your brand image, open new lead sources, and subtly promote your offerings to an audience of millions.

What Is Reddit, and How Does It Work?

Reddit is a social media platform with a dedicated community of 330 million monthly active users and over 542 million monthly visitors. That’s a bigger community than Twitter and enough traffic to make Reddit the No. 5 most-visited U.S. site as of August 2018.

The structure of Reddit combines an old-school forum format from the early 2000s with user-centric social media features of today. Posts are centered around text-based topics of conversation or links to popular content. Users have the option to “upvote” posts they like.

Upvoting increases the chances of a post making the front page for a particular niche forum, a “subreddit.” If a post gets enough traffic or upvotes within its subreddit, it can end up on Reddit’s homepage. The Reddit homepage aggregates posts across a staggering range of topics, which is why the company refers to it as the “Front Page of the Internet.”

After a post is made, anyone can reply with comments, and individual comments can be voted up or down to increase their visibility. Someone who says something clever or interesting, for example, might be upvoted to the top of a post. Someone who makes a bad joke or responds in a rude way to other users will get downvoted, burying their post and sometimes even leading to it getting hidden from view.

When users violate the rules repeatedly, they’re likely to catch the attention of moderators. Mods can ban users from specific subreddit forums or even have their DNS address blocked, preventing them from making new accounts. Each forum has its own set of moderation rules. Rules commonly discourage asking for upvotes, posting promotional comments or links too often (spamming), and posting content that’s irrelevant to the subreddit topic.

Individual users get notifications when they get replies to their comments or posts. They also get points based on how many votes they get, which are called “karma.” Users generally respect other users who have high levels of karma or who are regularly seen contributing interesting posts and responses.

In sum: Reddit is a place where people go to see interesting links and engage one another in productive conversations. Community members are not only highly enthusiastic and engaged, but they also take action when they see something they don’t like. This quality separates Reddit from social media channels like Facebook, where your experience is at the mercy of the platform and the sometimes nasty users that visit it.

Why Is Reddit a Good Social Media Marketing Channel?

Reddit has a reputation for its tight-knit, informed community. It remains distinctive by using community-led moderation to cut down on all the noise other social platforms create. People who don’t abide by etiquette (“reddiquette”) guidelines get “downvoted” into oblivion. This tendency prevents trolls and spammers from stealing attention or derailing conversations.

For marketers, Reddit provides an opportunity for authentic interaction with people interested in your industry niche. There are over a million different subreddits for every conceivable community out there. You’ll find professionals like photographers exchanging advice, dedicated hobbyists like golfers sharing links, and fans of just about every pop culture franchise under the sun conducting spirited debates on opinions and theories.

Business owners have two main opportunities when trying to reach communities related to their industry vertical:

Advertising in relevant subreddit forums, ensuring that every ad impression reaches someone who cares about that niche

Participating as a user to answer questions, share links, and generally engage with the community

The first strategy runs through Reddit’s advertising platform, making it a business activity like any other. The second strategy poses more complexity and much greater risk of alienating your community. But when brands or employees conduct themselves well and remain transparent about their affiliations, they can reap substantial rewards.

How to Not Get “Flamed” for Marketing Through Reddit

There is an inherent risk with using Reddit as a marketing tool: the community could revolt against you and ban you so fast it will make your head spin.

“Redditors are a particular community,” writes the Dreamgrow blog. “If they suspect you’re there because of marketing reasons, things can quickly turn bad.”

You may wonder: “If marketers get chased off the platform with torches and pitchforks, then why would anyone bother marketing on Reddit?” Well, the truth is that the community isn’t opposed to marketing outright.

In fact, you could easily argue that tons of subreddits are nothing but a grassroots marketing campaign. There’s an Olive Garden subreddit (r/unlimitedbreadsticks) with 8,600 members. The r/blackfriday subreddit has over 31,000 subscribers and is dedicated to giving people alerts about deep holiday discounts. r/gaming, one of the biggest subreddits at 18 million members, is wholly dedicated to discussing products people buy.

What separates the things these communities do from the more loathed version of marketing? A few things:

Product-focused communities are built around the fans’ needs, not the needs of a company that wants to make money.

The actual companies represented in these subreddits understand they have a very delicate relationship with their community.

Companies and their employees must always be transparent with their affiliations. Reddit users don’t like to be deceived even more than they don’t like being forced to participate in marketing schemes.

Each one of these principals reveals an important reality that businesses interested in Reddit marketing must come to grips with. Looking at No.2 above, the lesson is that moderators run the subreddits, not brand employees. The brands themselves only show up to answer questions or reveal information people wouldn’t find anywhere else.

If Patagonia has just started a huge ad push for their new jackets, r/CampingGear probably doesn’t need the company to make a new post telling them what they can already see on TV. Similarly, if people are asking opinions on the Patagonia brand, then Patagonia should be really careful about having someone go in and post “Yeah! The jackets are great!” without disclosing their relationship to the company. People will dig through your account to find proof that you are a “corporate shill” after all.

On the other hand, if a Patagonia rep sees the above thread and notices someone has a question about their repair policy, then they can declare “I work for Patagonia, and here’s how we repair things…” and receive a positive reception. Or, if someone wants to let people know that there’s a sale on specific high-demand items at a particular retailer, the community might appreciate the head’s up.

It’s all about thinking from the user’s perspective. If you are transparent and provide some valuable information or entertaining content, then people will warm up to you. If you try to trick them or post nothing but spammy promotions, they’ll quickly find ways to keep you from coming around.

Reconsidering Reddit Marketing in Light of the New Platform Improvements

Now that Reddit has improved its interface in ways that keep the community engaged, it’s definitely worth a look. You can depend on the platform to build audiences, generate traffic, create leads, and generally elevate your brand image in the eyes of users. You can also advertise under specific, relevant subreddits to earn clicks from people who are eager about your niche.

Be a good user, keep people’s feelings in mind, and always strive to provide value—that’s the key to building a community in Reddit that thinks you deserve all the karma you can get.

from Amrut Services https://amrutservices.com/after-the-reddit-redesign-should-your-business-give-the-social-channel-a-look/

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contractor-media · 6 years

Text

After the Reddit Redesign, Should Your Business Give the Social Channel a Look?

Many business owners and contractors overlook Reddit as a social media marketing channel, but recent changes to the platform should have them all reconsidering. A complete overhaul has modernized the look and feel of Reddit’s various niche-focused forums. As a result, community members are engaging even more frequently than ever—with both posts and ads.

Contractors have opportunities to engage directly with community members in ways that build brand awareness and relationships. However, they have to use the right strategy. Reddit notoriously fights against forms of intrusive marketing, and especially accounts that fail to be transparent about their business affiliations.

What Is Reddit, and How Does It Work?

Why Is Reddit a Good Social Media Marketing Channel?

Contractors or business owners have two main opportunities when trying to reach communities related to their industry vertical:

Advertising in relevant subreddit forums, ensuring that every ad impression reaches someone who cares about that niche

Participating as a user to answer questions, share links, and generally engage with the community

How to Not Get “Flamed” for Marketing Through Reddit

There is an inherent risk with using Reddit as a marketing tool: the community could revolt against you and ban you so fast it will make your head spin.

“Redditors are a particular community,” writes the Dreamgrow blog. “If they suspect you’re there because of marketing reasons, things can quickly turn bad.”

What separates the things these communities do from the more loathed version of marketing? A few things:

Product-focused communities are built around the fans’ needs, not the needs of a company that wants to make money.

The actual companies represented in these subreddits understand they have a very delicate relationship with their community.

Each one of these principals reveals an important reality that contractors and businesses interested in Reddit marketing must come to grips with. Looking at No.2 above, the lesson is that moderators run the subreddits, not brand employees. The brands themselves only show up to answer questions or reveal information people wouldn’t find anywhere else.

Reconsidering Reddit Marketing in Light of the New Platform Improvements

Be a good user, keep people’s feelings in mind, and always strive to provide value—that’s the key to building a community in Reddit that thinks you deserve all the karma you can get.

�� After the Reddit Redesign, Should Your Business Give the Social Channel a Look? republished from the Contractor Marketing blog by Contractor Media

0 notes

pricelessmomentblog · 6 years

Text

The Complete Guide to Increasing Your Focus

Focus is one of your most valuable resources. It acts as a multiplier on the value of your time. An hour of absorbing focus can be worth ten times that of a distracted one.

Unfortunately, focus is also hard. Distractions are everywhere. Even when they aren’t, it can often be difficult to get into a state of flow.

The good news is that focus is a capacity you can develop. If you’re not good at focusing now, you can make changes to improve your ability to focus. Like lifting weights at the gym, you’re training your mental muscles to be able to focus longer, more intensely and engage it more quickly to make use of shorter bursts of time.

There’s a lot of different changes you can make to improve your capacity to focus, and I’ve written about some of them previously. However, in this article, I wanted to compile them all together, so anyone looking to improve their focus could get the best results.

Training Overview

The key to cultivating focus has two parts: external and internal. External means changing your environment to make focus easier and more productive. Internal means changing your habits, behavior and thought patterns to increase focus.

You can improve your ability to focus by tackling any one of these parts separately. But for the biggest gains, you should look at all of them simultaneously. You may even want to consider a “Month of Focus” where you go through and try to optimize each of these so you can focus better than before.

Emotions play an important role in focus, perhaps a bigger one than is commonly suspected. One mistake to make is to get overly discouraged when you’re distracted, tired or otherwise can’t focus. The road to improvement has many dips and bumps, so it’s important to not let short-term failures cloud your overall drive to improve.

In this guide, I’m going to cover seven different angles you can approach the problem of focus, along with a systematic guide for improving each of them:

External Improvements:

1. Eliminating distractions. 2. Negotiating boundaries. 3. Optimize your schedule.

Internal Improvements:

4. Progressive training. 5. Warm-up rituals. 6. Overcoming impulses. 7. Optimizing intensity.

Even if you’ve tried one or two of these before, I suggest applying the full range. Every situation is unique, so for some people there problem might be porous boundaries causing unending distractions, for another it’s managing internal impulses that makes focus so much harder.

External Improvements

1. Eliminating Distractions

Distractions are the most obvious problem when it comes to focus, and they are often the easiest to fix. In particular, you want to find an environment for focus that minimizes both interruptions and temptations.

Interruptions come from the outside. While we can all imagine the tiny nook in the back of a library or silent log cabin in the wilderness as being interruption free, the best environment depends on what has the ability to interrupt you.

In general, the art of improving focus here has two dimensions. First, you want to eliminate distractions, so as to prevent yourself from getting derailed. For some people, that will mean retreating into total silence. For others, ambient noise or background chatter won’t interrupt them. I get a lot of my work done at a noisy coffee shop because I can tune it out.

The second part, however, is learning to turn on focus in less-than-ideal environments. Part of this is conditioning—if you get used to working in a less-ideal environment, you’ll cultivate the ability to tune it out. However, in the beginning, this is usually outweighed by the need to focus more. Therefore, I suggest optimizing your environment first, and branching out to training in harder environments later. You want a solid foundation before you start making things harder.

Temptations are, in our smartphone and social media age, quite often a bigger problem than interruptions. If you work from home, your house may be quieter than the coffee shop, but the temptation to watch television or surf the web might be overwhelming.

Like interruptions, we want to start by eliminating temptations. Later, we can train ourselves to succumb to them less, so that we can still get work done even though those same temptations exist.

Here’s some steps for eliminating distractions:

Create your working space. It can be at the office, home, library or coffee shop. It doesn’t have to be yours, just the place you like to work.

Eliminate noise and chatter. If you need to work in a noisy place, get noise-cancelling headphones. Otherwise, seek out quiet places with minimal auditory and visual distractions (no televisions in the background, or conversations that are easy to follow).

Leave the phone (or internet) behind. Devices may be necessary for your work, but often the full suite of features isn’t. Airplane mode can avoid distractions on mandatory devices, but that won’t prevent you from giving in to boredom—best to leave things you don’t need at home or in another room.

Get your environment ready beforehand. Need a drink of water? Plug in your charger? Forgot to text someone? Do a quick check-off before you start your focus session so that you’ll be less inclined to use one of these common things as an excuse when focus gets tough.

2. Negotiating Boundaries

Other people are the biggest obstacles to focus. A colleague wants to chat. You get a Facebook message about that party tonight. You hear the familiar ping of new emails that demand a look.

The difference between these interruptions and those previously discussed is that they very often include some social obligation to respond. While you can try to ignore the water cooler gossip without consequences, a delayed reply to a colleague or refusal to initiate a work discussion may run you into trouble.

This step requires communication with those around you so that they understand what you’re trying to do and are less likely to interrupt you if it’s not an emergency. Here’s some steps to take:

Close the door. Shutting yourself away immediately increases the barriers to interruption. If someone has to knock or open a door to ask a question, that makes them think twice before doing it. Open office? Headphones also help do the trick. If someone has to pull them off you or tap your shoulder, this works similarly.

Tell people when to interrupt you. Let people know which hours you plan to use for your prime focus time and ask them to interrupt you in defined intervals outside it. The flexibility here is enormous, so even if you’re in a job which requires frequent communication, you might even ask people to wait until the last ten minutes of the hour to interrupt you. I’ve often done this by reserving morning hours for focus and encouraging calls/discussion in the afternoon.

Coordinate your plan with your boss/clients. A refusal to communicate can seem rude in the moment. A plan to improve your productivity for the benefit of your manager/clients is not. Better to talk about what you want to do, and get their input, before forcing an awkward moment later.

Set up an autoresponder. If immediate emails are the norm, an autoresponder indicating your email-checking hours might help. You can do the same with texts/calls. Many phones have a special feature that automatically replies when you’re driving. You can rework this to be turned on manual and deliver a custom message letting people know that you’re in focus mode but they can cut through if its an emergency.

Negotiating boundaries is usually a lot easier than people assume. The difficulty is being okay with taking the initiative to ask for a different setup in order to increase your focus. Many working environments settle on different options out of inertia, not because there’s a defined rationale for them.

3. Optimize Your Schedule

The right length of time for focus is the time you have available. If you only have half an hour to squeeze in on a side project, then that’s the time you have. If you can devote a block of four hours every morning, make the best of that gift.

The ability to optimize your schedule is to use planning to give yourself more opportunities for focus. One way this can be done is by reorganizing. You may batch certain tasks or rework your schedule for meetings and calls to leave large swaths of the day untouched.

However, even if such reorganization isn’t possible, there’s still an advantage in being deliberate with your schedule. The deliberateness of making a plan helps you recognize and act on moments in time which might otherwise get lost. Knowing you’ll have a certain thirty minute chunk free means you can get some work done when otherwise that time might slip away.

Here’s how to do it:

Optimize your meetings. If you have control over meetings and calls, try to batch them to certain periods of the week or day. I do nearly all my meetings and calls later in the week and later in the day. If I can’t, I often try to schedule the call quite early, so it doesn’t cut my morning time in two.

Look at your week. Every Sunday, go through your week and plan out what work you’d like to do. Estimate which days you’ll be able to focus intensely and which will be more fragmented. A more intense day, when you have optimal focus, followed by lighter days which are more fractured is better than trying for average intensity all days and coming up short when the fractured day gets derailed.

Plan out your daily schedule. If you have a relatively simple schedule with few key tasks, you may want to define your core focus hours and leave it at that. I often do this when I’m deep on a big project that takes up all my time. If you’re juggling many differen tasks, however, you will benefit from making a plan which allocates every hour of your day, so you can know what to expect.

Avoid the long-term trap. One error many busy people make is committing to things in the far future more readily than they would in the short-term. Right now, they feel, they are so busy that they couldn’t take on any more, but months from now things will be easier. Invariably, the long-term becomes the short-term and they’re still busy and also committed to something that isn’t very important.

Use your procrastination. I procrastinate on tons of work all the time. However, I try to procrastinate mostly on the things which are okay to delay. It’s far better to procrastinate on things which don’t demand your focus, so you can do the hard work which really does. If those things start to pile up, batch them into one day and get caught up on random errands in one go.

Most of optimizing your schedule is about looking ahead. Managing your time in the moment is hard because you have to deal with your emotional state, which may not be up for intense focus. Planning the future is a lot easier because you can calmly decide what is the best way to allocate your focus.

Internal Improvements

Eliminating distractions, negotiating boundaries and optimizing your schedule are helpful, but they only go so far. Ultimately, it’s dealing with the obstacles to focus inside your own mind which separates those who have excellent focus and those who do not.

4. Progressive Training

Imagine going to the gym, seeing the bench press and telling yourself you’re going to lift 300 lbs. the first day. That’s a recipe for injury and failure.

In contrast, many people aim for schedules with amounts of focus far in excess of anything they’ve pulled off before, and then feel disappointed they couldn’t pull it off. If you struggle to focus for more than an hour at some task, and you plan to do it eight hours straight tomorrow, you can’t be surprised when your plans fail.

The metaphor of progressive training is useful with focus for at least two reasons. First, there may be a real parallel between focus and muscular development. More time spent focusing may increase a general capacity for focus which improves over time. Although the neuroscience isn’t settled on this point, I think there’s a strong enough possibility for this kind of improvement to tentatively approach the problem this way.

Second, even if your deeper capacities for focus don’t grow like a bicep, the habits, behaviors, emotions and literally everything else surrounding focus can improve. These things take time and tweaking to figure out, so a progressive schedule for improvement is a better idea than going all-in.

Here’s how you should slowly build up your capacity:

Start by measuring your current capacity. Spend a few days where all you do is work and keep a stopwatch running on your phone. Then, whenever you stop working to do something else (calls/bathroom/internet) press Stop and see what the number is. Averaged over a few days and different sessions, this should give you a realistic picture of where your focus is, not just where you’d like it to be.

Work on building your focus duration. The first thing you can work on is building up your duration for focus. If you find yourself getting distracted after ten minutes, aim for fifteen. Set a timer for fifteen minutes and convince yourself to not switch tasks until it dings. Once you can comfortable get up to at least an hour consistently, this should be the main priority.

Next, work on your ability to return to focus, after a distraction. Whenever you get interrupted, reset your timer and try to push yourself to keep working further. Your goal should be to get back to working each time you get distracted. Although the mental interruption can derail your work, the real secret is to not let it permanently stall you.

Finally, work on building up your speed of focus. This is your ability to “turn on” focus in shorter periods of time. This is harder to measure, but one way to do it is to give yourself shorter chunks of time and see if you can get some work done. The shorter a runway you can take off from, the more you’ll be able to make use to the fragments of time that life gives you.

The recipe in each dimension of focus is the same: measure your current ability, make small efforts to improve and track those improvements. Doubling or tripling your ability to focus is doable, provided you’re careful in following these rules.

5. Warm-Up Rituals

A warm-up ritual is your pre-flight checklist you go through before you start focusing for a big session. It may be checking that you have water, that you don’t need to use the bathroom, that your phone is turned off or you’ve set yourself up to not be distracted by other people.

Warm-up rituals are powerful because they also condition a certain mindset. Even beyond just how the ritual impacts your ability to focus, enacting the ritual primes you to start thinking about doing real work.

Inevitably, we all create warm-up rituals, whether we think we are or not. It’s the little scripts in your head that say things like, “I can’t start work without my coffee,” or, “I check emails first before getting to work.”

The key here is to optimize your warm-up rituals so that they are maximally effective and don’t lead you into situations where they prevent you from focusing because conditions aren’t right.

Here’s what you should do:

Is your ritual too demanding? You may want to lower the threshold for certain activities if those won’t always be present in order for you to work. Earlier this year, I noticed I was conditioning myself to only put in work on my book, if I went to a certain coffee shop, because it was my favorite place to write. However, sometimes I couldn’t go there, and so I might procrastinate in the intervening period. I realized I needed to recondition myself to start focus, even if I was at home.

Can you reorder the ritual? Email first may be a leisurely start to the day, but doing the hardest things first is likely more productive. Noticing when you’ve fallen into a comfortable, but suboptimal ritual, can help you fix the problem. Experiment with starting work right away, or working in chunks of time you’d normally dismiss as being too short to work.

Carry your ritual wherever you go. If your ritual involves certain thoughts or actions which aren’t tied deeply to a particular time, place or set of circumstances, you’ll have a lot more flexibility about when you can apply focus. Isolate parts of your existing warm-up routine that you might be able to reinforce more strongly and detach from other circumstances. Sip of coffee? Closing your eyes for a few minutes to meditate? Maybe even just conditioning yourself to respond to saying “Do it now,” in your head might be a more accessible ritual.

Test your assumptions. Part of the power of rituals is that they condition us to focus. However, this conditioned pattern of behavior can easily turn into a belief that those parts of the ritual are strictly necessary for focus (rather than merely being your current triggers). Therefore, you may want to experiment with different ways of working that violate your current ritual in order to establish new ones.

Rituals exist whether we want them to or not. The power of thinking about your focusing ritual is to avoid maladaptive designs, which prevent you from focusing if in important situations, or places where you have encoded procrastination for too long. Used properly, however, a ritual can be a powerful trigger to start important focus when you need it.

6. Overcoming Impulses

The skill of focus basically boils down to a tension between two different forces: the desire to work and the desire to quit.

What makes focus hard is that the desire to work is often low, and may even be associated with anxiety or negative feelings that create a feeling of aversion. Distractions, conversely, might feel tempting and the desire to quit might be strong.

Improving focus is largely about recognizing these affective obstacles and reconditioning them.

The downside of this reconditioning process is that it is often task specific. Meaning it’s not something you do once and are done with forever, but something that may come up again and again, and which you need to recognize before it gets too bad.

I recently had this problem when writing a book. My imagination kept bringing up images of what a critic might say of my arguments, so whenever I thought about it, I’d get anxiety and negative feelings that pushed me away. These could be overcome by working for a few minutes, but I’d often procrastinate for days with “writer’s block” when I’d hit a hard part.

This aversive obstacle to focus is much more powerful than the others, because you are going to avoid working on something until the pain of ignoring it becomes so great that you can’t procrastinate any more. The only way to handle this problem is to deal with it head-on.

Here’s what to do when you’re faced with an aversion to doing the work you need to focus on:

Expose yourself to your fears. In my case, that meant seeking out some of the people I imagined would criticize my book and talking to them first. Like a nightmare, you need to confront the absurdity of it before it stops scaring you. Getting that actual feedback, even if it is everything you were afraid of, can often desensitize you to its aversive effects.

Stoke your enthusiasm. Action is the difference between the enthusiasm and aversion. If you desire something enough, this can push you over your fears about it. Motivation, in this sense, can help overcome those hiccups (especially until you can get contact with reality and diffuse some imagined aversions). Spending time imagining your goals, visualizing the reasons you’re pursuing them and having conversations with positive people can all help in tilting that equation in your favor.

Systematic desensitization. If you feel chronic aversion to a set of tasks, the right solution might be to approach it head on. Push yourself in a situation that would make you feel extra uncomfortable, and make that (not whatever goal you’re trying to pursue) your main priority. That discomfort will eventually lessen as you’re exposed to it more and more. Exams making you feel tense? Sign up and write exams you know you’ll fail. Presentation gives you aversion? Join Toastmasters and give speeches until its nothing. Afraid of criticism? Ask someone to critique your work in the harshest possible terms, rinse and repeat until it doesn’t feel so bad.

The other coin of the affective dimension of focus is on the desire to quit or do something else. This can be an equally powerful drive, and sometimes is the one that’s more prevalent. Many people suffer from excess and diffuse enthusiasm that pulls them in too many directions so they achieve little.

Here’s how to manage that:

Examine your vices. Look at the patterns you’ve set up that constitute your main distraction addictions. Instagram? Games? Checking your phone? Cutting out these vices can reduce their immediate pull on your psyche.

Box in your distractions. There are many tools which exist now that can allow you to control your consumption of things that might distract you. Website blockers can limit your access to addicting sources to certain allotted periods of the day. Electric timers can make turning on your television or accessing the internet harder when you want to focus without them.

Don’t respond. Ultimately, one of the biggest tools you can apply to dealing with the distractions is simply not to engage in them when you feel the desire to the most. This is hard, but it reduces their intensity for the next time. Even if you can simply interrupt them—waiting a few minutes before succumbing—you interrupt the pattern and weaken its grip on you.

Too many people focus on the easy aspects of focus, and too little attention is paid to the emotional side of focus. Very often powerful aversions and cravings are responsible for our inability to focus, and these take time and conscious effort to weed out. Recognizing what the problem is, however, is always the first step.

7. Optimizing Intensity

Researchers have known for decades that there is a relationship between the optimal intensity of attention and the complexity of the task you want to perform.

The Yerkes-Dodson Law says that increasing alertness has an inverted-U function on task performance. Not enough focus, and you perform poorly. Too much arousal and you’re also impaired over someone calmer. Importantly, there’s a relationship between the optimal top of this performance curve and the complexity of the task. Namely, simpler tasks suffer less from being overly alert than do complex ones.

One analogy to think about this is that focus is like shining a spotlight. A high degree of alertness (intense music, a few cups of coffee, etc.), is like making the beam of light very narrow. This helps if the thinking of the task can be neatly enclosed in that beam of light.

However, if you have a complicated or creative task, one that requires a more diffuse set of skills and memories which need to be drawn upon, then this highly focused beam is quite fragile. It needs to flit between things quickly and is more likely to break off and get distracted in the process.

For particularly creative problem solving, even a normal, relaxed state of focus may be too constrained to contain the answer. You may need to engage in a relatively low state of focus to be able to successfully pull together all the diffuse elements of thinking required to solve the problem.

Therefore, highly concentrated focus, while it is an improvement over absent-mindedness in 95% of cases, has some situations where it may actually backfire. In those 5% of cases, a distracted mind may be a helpful mind, provided it is distracted in the right way. Even if they are rare, these cases are often the most important, since creative breakthroughs often have disproportionate value over normal work.

The key to productive unfocus is simple:

Focus until you get stuck. If a problem can be solved at a higher level of focus, you’ll be more productive overall to continue. It’s only when this fails that productive unfocus makes sense.

No, really, focus until you get stuck. Staying focused in the “stuck” state for longer is going to mentally prime you to work on a solution in the unfocused stage, so you don’t want to prematurely wander off and forget about the problem altogether. Five to fifteen minutes of being stuck is good for a hard problem.

Allow yourself to stop working on the problem, but don’t get focused on anything else. I recommend taking a “smart” break. This can mean going for a walk, meditating, sitting quietly, drinking some water or something that is otherwise not mentally engaging. Having a conversation with another person can be especially helpful, since it changes the patterns you were using to solve the problem individually before.

In this time, think about things, but don’t try to control your mind towards a solution. You want it to wander a bit, but the priming given to focusing on the problem beforehand should mean you have an urge to solve it that keeps you from getting completely lost.

The way to think of this is like letting your beam of light go maximally broad and diffuse, to pick up wider routes to solve the problem than you might have otherwise envisioned. What you don’t want to do is focus on some distractor, since that will keep your attentive beam tight, but focused in an area of thinking that probably isn’t helpful.

How much time you spend in this absent-minded mode of focus and the more standard type will depend a lot on the problems you’re facing. It’s useful, however, to recognize how the intensity of focus relates to the complexity of the task you’re involved in, so that you can maximize the usefulness of your focus.

Apply This Now

Would you like to increase your ability to focus? I recommend setting aside a month in which you devote yourself to improving this capacity that can include:

Organizing your working space to eliminate distractions.

Talking to people around you to minimize interruptions.

Planning ahead to make best use of your time.

Measuring your focus and slowly building up the duration, flexibility and speed.

Examining your current warm-up routines and adjusting them to be more useful.

Diagnosing why you really procrastinate and conditioning yourself to avoid temptations.

Using productive periods of unfocus at just the right moment to solve creative problems.

If you applied all of these ideas, and worked through them systematically for a month, it’s quite possible you could greatly increase your output for the kind of work that matters most. Even if you’re already decent at focusing, chances are there are still things which could be improved: do you waste too much time getting started focusing? Do you avoid certain types of work because of hidden fears or anxieties? Maybe you’re good at focusing for long chunks, but waste the slices of half an hour that come up during your day.

If you do decide to go forward, share your thoughts in the comments below. I’d love to hear your assessment of your current ability and which of these steps you’d like to take to improve!

The Complete Guide to Increasing Your Focus syndicated from https://pricelessmomentweb.wordpress.com/

0 notes

pricelessmomentblog · 6 years

Text

The Complete Guide to Increasing Your Focus

Focus is one of your most valuable resources. It acts as a multiplier on the value of your time. An hour of absorbing focus can be worth ten times that of a distracted one.

Unfortunately, focus is also hard. Distractions are everywhere. Even when they aren’t, it can often be difficult to get into a state of flow.

Training Overview

In this guide, I’m going to cover seven different angles you can approach the problem of focus, along with a systematic guide for improving each of them:

External Improvements:

1. Eliminating distractions. 2. Negotiating boundaries. 3. Optimize your schedule.

Internal Improvements:

4. Progressive training. 5. Warm-up rituals. 6. Overcoming impulses. 7. Optimizing intensity.

External Improvements

1. Eliminating Distractions

Like interruptions, we want to start by eliminating temptations. Later, we can train ourselves to succumb to them less, so that we can still get work done even though those same temptations exist.

Here’s some steps for eliminating distractions:

Create your working space. It can be at the office, home, library or coffee shop. It doesn’t have to be yours, just the place you like to work.

2. Negotiating Boundaries

Other people are the biggest obstacles to focus. A colleague wants to chat. You get a Facebook message about that party tonight. You hear the familiar ping of new emails that demand a look.

This step requires communication with those around you so that they understand what you’re trying to do and are less likely to interrupt you if it’s not an emergency. Here’s some steps to take:

3. Optimize Your Schedule

Here’s how to do it:

Internal Improvements

4. Progressive Training

Imagine going to the gym, seeing the bench press and telling yourself you’re going to lift 300 lbs. the first day. That’s a recipe for injury and failure.

Here’s how you should slowly build up your capacity:

5. Warm-Up Rituals

The key here is to optimize your warm-up rituals so that they are maximally effective and don’t lead you into situations where they prevent you from focusing because conditions aren’t right.

Here’s what you should do:

6. Overcoming Impulses

The skill of focus basically boils down to a tension between two different forces: the desire to work and the desire to quit.

Improving focus is largely about recognizing these affective obstacles and reconditioning them.

Here’s what to do when you’re faced with an aversion to doing the work you need to focus on:

Here’s how to manage that:

7. Optimizing Intensity

Researchers have known for decades that there is a relationship between the optimal intensity of attention and the complexity of the task you want to perform.

The key to productive unfocus is simple:

Focus until you get stuck. If a problem can be solved at a higher level of focus, you’ll be more productive overall to continue. It’s only when this fails that productive unfocus makes sense.

Apply This Now

Would you like to increase your ability to focus? I recommend setting aside a month in which you devote yourself to improving this capacity that can include:

Organizing your working space to eliminate distractions.

Talking to people around you to minimize interruptions.

Planning ahead to make best use of your time.

Measuring your focus and slowly building up the duration, flexibility and speed.

Examining your current warm-up routines and adjusting them to be more useful.

Diagnosing why you really procrastinate and conditioning yourself to avoid temptations.

Using productive periods of unfocus at just the right moment to solve creative problems.

If you do decide to go forward, share your thoughts in the comments below. I’d love to hear your assessment of your current ability and which of these steps you’d like to take to improve!

The Complete Guide to Increasing Your Focus syndicated from https://pricelessmomentweb.wordpress.com/

0 notes

pricelessmomentblog · 6 years

Text

The Complete Guide to Increasing Your Focus

Focus is one of your most valuable resources. It acts as a multiplier on the value of your time. An hour of absorbing focus can be worth ten times that of a distracted one.

Unfortunately, focus is also hard. Distractions are everywhere. Even when they aren’t, it can often be difficult to get into a state of flow.

Training Overview

In this guide, I’m going to cover seven different angles you can approach the problem of focus, along with a systematic guide for improving each of them:

External Improvements:

1. Eliminating distractions. 2. Negotiating boundaries. 3. Optimize your schedule.

Internal Improvements:

4. Progressive training. 5. Warm-up rituals. 6. Overcoming impulses. 7. Optimizing intensity.

External Improvements

1. Eliminating Distractions

Like interruptions, we want to start by eliminating temptations. Later, we can train ourselves to succumb to them less, so that we can still get work done even though those same temptations exist.

Here’s some steps for eliminating distractions:

Create your working space. It can be at the office, home, library or coffee shop. It doesn’t have to be yours, just the place you like to work.

2. Negotiating Boundaries

Other people are the biggest obstacles to focus. A colleague wants to chat. You get a Facebook message about that party tonight. You hear the familiar ping of new emails that demand a look.

This step requires communication with those around you so that they understand what you’re trying to do and are less likely to interrupt you if it’s not an emergency. Here’s some steps to take:

3. Optimize Your Schedule

Here’s how to do it:

Internal Improvements

4. Progressive Training

Imagine going to the gym, seeing the bench press and telling yourself you’re going to lift 300 lbs. the first day. That’s a recipe for injury and failure.

Here’s how you should slowly build up your capacity:

5. Warm-Up Rituals

The key here is to optimize your warm-up rituals so that they are maximally effective and don’t lead you into situations where they prevent you from focusing because conditions aren’t right.

Here’s what you should do:

6. Overcoming Impulses

The skill of focus basically boils down to a tension between two different forces: the desire to work and the desire to quit.

Improving focus is largely about recognizing these affective obstacles and reconditioning them.

Here’s what to do when you’re faced with an aversion to doing the work you need to focus on:

Here’s how to manage that:

7. Optimizing Intensity

Researchers have known for decades that there is a relationship between the optimal intensity of attention and the complexity of the task you want to perform.

The key to productive unfocus is simple:

Focus until you get stuck. If a problem can be solved at a higher level of focus, you’ll be more productive overall to continue. It’s only when this fails that productive unfocus makes sense.

Apply This Now

Would you like to increase your ability to focus? I recommend setting aside a month in which you devote yourself to improving this capacity that can include:

Organizing your working space to eliminate distractions.

Talking to people around you to minimize interruptions.

Planning ahead to make best use of your time.

Measuring your focus and slowly building up the duration, flexibility and speed.

Examining your current warm-up routines and adjusting them to be more useful.

Diagnosing why you really procrastinate and conditioning yourself to avoid temptations.

Using productive periods of unfocus at just the right moment to solve creative problems.

If you do decide to go forward, share your thoughts in the comments below. I’d love to hear your assessment of your current ability and which of these steps you’d like to take to improve!

The Complete Guide to Increasing Your Focus syndicated from https://pricelessmomentweb.wordpress.com/

0 notes

pricelessmomentblog · 6 years

Text

The Complete Guide to Increasing Your Focus

Focus is one of your most valuable resources. It acts as a multiplier on the value of your time. An hour of absorbing focus can be worth ten times that of a distracted one.

Unfortunately, focus is also hard. Distractions are everywhere. Even when they aren’t, it can often be difficult to get into a state of flow.

Training Overview

In this guide, I’m going to cover seven different angles you can approach the problem of focus, along with a systematic guide for improving each of them:

External Improvements:

1. Eliminating distractions. 2. Negotiating boundaries. 3. Optimize your schedule.

Internal Improvements:

4. Progressive training. 5. Warm-up rituals. 6. Overcoming impulses. 7. Optimizing intensity.

External Improvements

1. Eliminating Distractions

Like interruptions, we want to start by eliminating temptations. Later, we can train ourselves to succumb to them less, so that we can still get work done even though those same temptations exist.

Here’s some steps for eliminating distractions:

Create your working space. It can be at the office, home, library or coffee shop. It doesn’t have to be yours, just the place you like to work.

2. Negotiating Boundaries

Other people are the biggest obstacles to focus. A colleague wants to chat. You get a Facebook message about that party tonight. You hear the familiar ping of new emails that demand a look.

This step requires communication with those around you so that they understand what you’re trying to do and are less likely to interrupt you if it’s not an emergency. Here’s some steps to take:

3. Optimize Your Schedule

Here’s how to do it:

Internal Improvements

4. Progressive Training

Imagine going to the gym, seeing the bench press and telling yourself you’re going to lift 300 lbs. the first day. That’s a recipe for injury and failure.

Here’s how you should slowly build up your capacity:

5. Warm-Up Rituals

The key here is to optimize your warm-up rituals so that they are maximally effective and don’t lead you into situations where they prevent you from focusing because conditions aren’t right.

Here’s what you should do:

6. Overcoming Impulses

The skill of focus basically boils down to a tension between two different forces: the desire to work and the desire to quit.

Improving focus is largely about recognizing these affective obstacles and reconditioning them.

Here’s what to do when you’re faced with an aversion to doing the work you need to focus on:

Here’s how to manage that:

7. Optimizing Intensity

Researchers have known for decades that there is a relationship between the optimal intensity of attention and the complexity of the task you want to perform.

The key to productive unfocus is simple:

Focus until you get stuck. If a problem can be solved at a higher level of focus, you’ll be more productive overall to continue. It’s only when this fails that productive unfocus makes sense.

Apply This Now

Would you like to increase your ability to focus? I recommend setting aside a month in which you devote yourself to improving this capacity that can include:

Organizing your working space to eliminate distractions.

Talking to people around you to minimize interruptions.

Planning ahead to make best use of your time.

Measuring your focus and slowly building up the duration, flexibility and speed.

Examining your current warm-up routines and adjusting them to be more useful.

Diagnosing why you really procrastinate and conditioning yourself to avoid temptations.

Using productive periods of unfocus at just the right moment to solve creative problems.

If you do decide to go forward, share your thoughts in the comments below. I’d love to hear your assessment of your current ability and which of these steps you’d like to take to improve!

The Complete Guide to Increasing Your Focus syndicated from https://pricelessmomentweb.wordpress.com/

0 notes