Where has this been my entire life?? (Thank you Mel Robbins!)
You know how sometimes you need a cheat code for your brain to get on board?
(I swear sometimes my entire life is held together by cheeky workarounds and figurative duct tape).
This is a perfect example of a technology or tool or [thing] being around for ages but you are just NOW realizing that it exists, or that it can help you. This is why sharing things is so important. It's why blogs, podcasts, YouTube videos, and TikToks are SO IMPORTANT.
Until someone shows you or tells you about it, you could go your entire life without knowing.
HERE GOES. Here's the way to overcome writer's block:
Did you know that you could just go into a Word document and dictate your thoughts through the microphone? I feel like on some level, I might have known this already, passively. Like a general knowledge that accessibility services are a thing, but not paying very much attention to them.
As I'm typing this out now, it seems rather silly. I feel like most people who read this will think "Duh. Everyone knows that, this isn't news". Maybe. But more importantly, if even just one other person is helped by this... then that's all that matters to me.
Some context:
I have days every so often when I talk to myself. It's usually when I am home alone, obviously. I get into a flow state of sorts where I'll explain things to myself, or go through my emotions, or ask myself questions. It's not a back-and-forth conversation like Gollum would have with Sméagol or anything. It's just me speaking things into existence. I talk into the void or the ether, or whatever you want to call it. It helps me get things out of my own head, where things are racing, and it allows me to process things in an amazing way. I have realizations and revelations. It's like coming closer to your true self, or understanding yourself. I have no idea if anyone will relate to this.
It often happens when I have an issue to work through, or if I've been really stressed about something. Sometimes it's when I'm sad or confused. Verbalizing things has always been so helpful to me. It's why I can talk for 6 hours straight on the phone with my best friend. It's why I love coffee dates with loved ones where we sit and chat. It's why although I usually hate the phone and dread answering calls, I always feel better once I've talked to someone.
In a sense it reminds me of the way I'm externally motivated into action (hello, body doubling!) Similarly, I also seem to externally process stuff. This is a huge realization. Because I never thought of myself as someone with a learning disability or assistive technology needs, I have never allowed myself to explore those services and products, it just never crossed my mind.
I really feel like this trick will help me from here on out. I just tested it out and sure enough, I open a Word document, find the dictate feature, speak my thoughts out loud - and they appear on the blank page like magic. The amount of flow sessions and creative writing I could do with this moving forward....is blowing my mind right now. I can never predict when these flow states will happen, but the next time it does I will "write" my stream of consciousness with this tool. Future blog posts will likely be created this way if I'm being honest (it's like the dictaphones & voice recorders people use to leave themselves reminders on but rather than it being audio only, you're writing it into a document).
Check out the video below to see the full explanation. I hope it helps you in some way. This is also another great reminder to be curious and try new things! Sometimes the tools that are free and easily accessible have always been there... we just never thought they applied to us or knew how we could use them to our advantage as part of our neurodivergent toolkit.
Video by Mel Robbins:
She explains how dictating her thoughts this way enabled her to write the entire intro to her new book in under 20 minutes just by talking out loud, after she had been struggling to type it out for over a month with zero progress.
ADHD & Writer's Block - Mel Robbins Video
It makes perfect sense to me that someone with ADHD would benefit from being able to walk around, fidget, and look into space while thinking and talking, leading them to successful writing sessions, rather than being stuck at a desk and glued to a keyboard forced to work that way. I'm so glad I came across this.
Let me know if you found this helpful!
Snacks & Snark,
Relatable Red