Mombie – a bit of everything

Planning to Relax

I often read about how people love to have an unscheduled day. 

I understand why that is appealing – the freedom, the lack of restrictions on your time – but the idea is a bit scary for me. 

It’s not that I can’t envision a day without work, I am excellent at taking time off.

The problem is that if I don’t make a rough plan or a short list, my brain won’t turn off. 

I guess that’s one of the ‘features’ of my ADHD.

I almost always have the feeling that I *should* be doing something else. That makes it hard to relax into my art or into my book or to just sit around chatting. 

So, the only way to counter that is to plan what I am ‘supposed’ to be doing. 

On a leisurely day, that might look like ‘brainstorm story ideas until 11, have tea, doodle until 11:30, get some lunch, go for a walk at 1.’ 

It feels kind of odd to make a schedule for a day off but it gives me the comfort of knowing that I haven’t forgotten anything and I am doing what I am ‘supposed’ to be doing. 

Perhaps your brain requires you not to have a list/schedule in order to relax but my brain relaxes BECAUSE I have a list.

So, even on my restful Sunday morning* I like to have a plan. 

The author’s iPad sits on a white table on a patio, there is a tall glass of blue tea in the background and there are notebooks and a pencil case nearby. There is a pot of flowers on the patio behind the table.

It’s not a sign of being uptight or a control freak (I may be both of those things but this isn’t evidence of it.) It’s not a sign of working too much. And it is definitely not a sign of not being able to take time off. 

It’s a sign that I know my brain and I know what I need in order to feel good about my time. 

And that doesn’t mean that I plan every second. I have a big chunk of time scheduled later for ‘hanging out,’ whatever that might mean in the moment. I’ll be able to ‘wing it’ because I know that’s what is on the agenda right then. It’s what I *should* be doing!

*That’s this post you can see on my iPad…oh and a reflection of me with my floppy hat.

Writing Practice

I always get annoyed when I see motivational posts about how people get things done when they ‘really’ want to do them.

You know the type of posts, the ones that say that what you get done is a measure of your priorities.

It’s not that there is no truth in that kind of statement but it’s not as simple as it seems.

Yes, how you spend your time shows what have ended up being your priority tasks but that doesn’t mean that those tasks are what you feel strongest about.

Instead, I see those tasks as the ones you feel capable of doing in the moment, or ones that you felt you couldn’t ignore. OR they may be the tasks that kind of fell into your schedule because you didn’t have the capacity to make a plan at the outset.

I wouldn’t want you to feel bad about what you ended up doing with your time.

I would just like you to have a little more room to CHOOSE next time.

And when I say *you* I also mean me.

I have ADHD and if I don’t have a very specific plan for my time, my priorities can go askew. So, the busier I get, the more likely it is that my tasks do not always reflect everything that is important to me. I get the most deadline-oriented priority tasks done, especially if other people are involved, but other important things get sidelined.

So, for example, a task like writing regularly for my blog(s) might fall off my list entirely*.

Not because it isn’t important but because I didn’t schedule it properly.

Now it’s back on my schedule and I am going to build the habit of writing here and on my Heart of the Story blog at least twice per week.

*I know I have come back to trying to establish this practice before but this time I have a clearer picture of what is going awry. I’m combining hope and good scheduling to address the issue. 🙂

Well, hello 2018!

Here’s my big-picture plan (ironically contained in a small picture).

I’ll be back tomorrow with a list of my planigans and shenanigans for this year.

Square white card with hand lettering that reads 'Just a little more fun.'

My plan for 2018.