Toolbox for depressed perfectionists

Keelium writes about some cognitive tricks that work for her to break out of mental loops, depressed moods and perfectionist hangups. I'll give a condensed list here, using her headings, but go there and read the entire piece! It's worth it.

Let hard things be hard.Believe in the power of ritual.Go somewhere.Help someone else.Check SOMETHING off your list, no matter how small.When all else fails, bake brownies.Call in the professionals.

Some of these things, I know I don't do enough myself; I could use more rituals myself. Other things, I have already run across as useful mental hacks: for instance, whenever I feel the improductivity-guilt gearing up, it is useful to remind myself that I am indeed one of the best people in the world at what I do, and that I have heard several grad students point out that they use me as their role model.

Srsly. Depressed me should listen more to the grad students who want to be me.