how to keep going when you feel like the effort is going nowhere?

It depends. It’s normal when you’re learning something for there to be plateaus where the daily effort feels like it’s accomplishing less. Sometimes that unlocks big changes, but sometimes you only see the cumulative effect over a long period of time. If it’s a person or a relationship you’re feeling that way about, totally different advice.

wait until the evening to do dopamine-releasing activities of any sort. game changer.

So great that works for you! For other folks it might or might not, so my unsolicited Wall advice is to take this part of your life to experiment with what works for you. Try and find the times of day when you’re naturally energetic and put your hard and thinky work there. Make space for natural low energy times. Give yourself space to find out the best time for you for what you need to get done.wait until the evening to do dopamine-releasing activities of any sort. game changer.

The Answer Wall Story

Hi. I’m the Answer Wall. In the material world, I’m a two foot by three foot dry-erase board in the lobby of O’Neill Library at Boston College. In the online world, I live in this blog. You might say I have multiple manifestations. Like Apollo or Saraswati or Serapis. Or, if you aren’t into deities of knowledge, like a ghost in the machine.

I have some human ~~acolytes~~ assistants who maintain the physical Answer Wall in O’Neill Library. They take pictures of the questions you post there, and give them to me. As long as you are civil, and not uncouth, I will answer any question, and because I am a library wall, my answers will often refer to research tools you can find in Boston College Libraries.

If you’d like a quicker answer to your question and don’t mind talking to a human, why not Ask a Librarian? Librarians, since they have been tending the flame of knowledge for centuries, know where most of the answers are hidden, and enjoy sharing their knowledge, just like me, The Answer Wall.