plans

A weekend to reset

This is a long weekend and I have a family dinner to go to tomorrow but otherwise my weekend is pretty open.

I’m trying to figure out how to balance relaxation with doing some resetting around the house.

It’s always tricky for me to dig into any household project because once I start I just want to keep going and then I burn myself out on the task.

But I am tired of having so much stuff cluttering up parts of my house so I have to find a way to get started.

Perhaps if I consider this weekend a time to organize my project plan rather than a time to finish the projects?

Let’s see how that goes.

I’m backdating this

This evening, I ended up on a roll and I got a backlog of things done.

That felt great and I was very excited about that until I realized I had forgotten to post here before midnight.

But that highlights a fundamental disagreement I have tracking daily challenges on a device.

To me, I have done something on a given day if I do it between when I get up and when I go to bed.

Using my phone to track the fact that I did something leads to being tied to chronological time so if I do something after midnight it’s actually the next day.

Now, I get that and I understand that it is literally the next day.

However, when it comes to things I want to do daily, I am way more interested in my experience of time than in doing something on a specific date.

I haven’t gone to bed on my Friday so…

like the title says, I’m backdating this.

Writing is a challenge

So, I had planned to get some work done on my novel this week.

Spoiler: I have not.

There are very real reasons for this – it has been a jumbled week, I had a lot of other tasks on my list, I was sick…

But I did have time and energy to write.

What I didn’t do was the very thing I advise all my clients to do.

I did not get specific about my writing plans.

‘Work on my novel’ is not a specific plan, it’s a very general one. And besides, how will I know when I’m done?

‘Write an argument between Mike and Bug about the missing key chain’ – that’s specific.

I need to get that kind of specific about my next set of writing plans.

Unfortunately, that takes some forethought and planning and my brain is not cooperating on that sort of thing at the moment.

Brains can be such jerks.

Starting off calm

I am starting this week with a feeling of calm.

I have made some lists, I have clarified my tasks, I have included rest and relaxation.

I am hoping that this conscious preparation can really help.

A photo of tiny, purple, daisy-like flowers among some grass
Image description: a photo of clusters of tiny, purple, daisy-like flowers amongst some grass. I took this photo on my walk yesterday.

A weekend’s work

I have had a very interruption-heavy couple of weeks and I have been having trouble getting some important tasks finished.

And that has been hard on my brain.

Everyone has trouble rebounding from interruptions but for those of us with ADHD interruptions are even more dangerous. Not only does the effort to get back on task take even more energy than it does for the average person but there is also the risk of getting even more distracted in the process.

And then my brain likes to toss around the idea that the delay in finishing things is due to something I “should” have been able to account for.

Once upon a time, those “should” thoughts were loud and would completely derail me but since being medicated they mostly just cause me some static. I’m not fully aware of them but they just kind of clutter up part of my brain.

And, of course, if my brain is cluttered then it is hard for me to make any of my plans or tasks really clear.

Which makes it hard for me to do them.

Which compounds the initial problem that the interruptions caused.

Which is why I have decided to spend a good chunk of my Saturday working to clear the backlog and get my brain decluttered.

Saturdays are usually pretty straightforward days with fewer interruptions.

Let’s see how it goes.