I realised the other week that I am a stimulation junkie. I always have to be doing two things (at least) at once or I get bored and frustrated. The two things have to be things which use different parts of my brain (or one thing which requires me to use my hands and one thing which doesn't). Some examples:
- I always eat meals while surfing the web or watching TV (or both) or having a conversation.
- When I'm watching TV I'm always either eating or using my laptop.
- When I am at work I always listen to the radio at my desk.
- When I walk to work I listen to music.
- When I'm on the bus I listen to music or read a book as well as looking out of the window.
- When I'm driving a route I know well I listen to the radio (but I often turn it down or off when simultaneously navigating unfamiliar territory).
- When I'm cycling it's dangerous to do anything else but navigating, avoiding traffic and enjoying the scenery are enough to keep me stimulated.
- When I'm in a social situation I am always much more comfortable if I am eating or if I have a drink in my hand (doesn't have to be alcoholic).
- I often get frustrated in meetings at work because I don't have a work laptop and my personal laptop is too noisy to take into meetings. My mind ends up wandering from the topic at hand and other participants in the meeting wonder why I am staring blankly into space and seem to be in another world. Usually it's because I'm thinking about some completely unrelated thing in the second part of my brain.
- I got frustrated recently when trying to watch a movie with subtitles because I couldn't make sense of the movie and work on my laptop at the same time.
- I get bored going to the cinema unless the movie has a plot which keeps me guessing, or unless the visuals are sufficiently spectacular that I can marvel at them while I'm following the story.
- Even when I'm going to sleep I like to listen to the radio at the same time.
Do other people experience this phenomenon to the same extent?
I am also a stimulation junkie and i can't stand it. I start college soon and i fear that i won't be able to sit and focus on one thing *studying* or *listening to a lecture* because it won't be satisfying enough to keep my attention. Do you have any ways to try and stop this? I understand its not necessarily a bad thing but sometimes i wish i could slow things down. Be content with just 1 activity at a time you know?
While you're studying, listen to music (especially music without lyrics). Unless you're studying music, in which case I don't know.
During lectures, take notes. At my university, we were expected to write down whatever the lecturer wrote on the blackboard/projector during maths lectures. Keeping up was more of a problem that having too little to do. In physics lectures we generally had pre-printed notes so keeping stimulated was sometimes more of a problem, but most of the time trying to both understand the material and listen to the lecture was enough. During boring bits I sometimes tried to do some of the problem sets, or even just doodled.