plans

Another Reminder To Myself

There is no automatic virtue, no automatic advantage to doing things the hard way.

My best bet is always to check out the easy way first and only add more work if necessary to get the job done.

A small white card that reads “start with the easy way and build from that.”
Image description: a small white card on a wooden surface. Handwritten text on the card reads ‘Start with the the easy way and build from that.’ most of the text is in black capital letters but the words ‘Easy Way’ have softer lines and are outlined in black with the centre of each letter coloured in either red, yellow, orange or purple. The word ‘easy’ has some bright gold lines sprinkled around it to highlight it and the background of the whole card had small black dots.

Smooth Sunday

Yesterday’s experiment was a success.

At the end of the day I felt both relaxed and accomplished and I didn’t feel like I had pushed myself too hard.

I have no specific plans today so I am going to keep my brain mostly unleashed and allow myself to move from task to task in whatever order makes sense.

I’ve already put some clothes on the line, dusted a few shelves, and did a little reading.

Now I’m going to read a bit more while I drink my tea and then I’ll dust a few more shelves.

I’m really hoping this approach not only helps me relax but also helps me get used to working on a task without the need to ‘get it done before I forget.’

PS – I know that relaxation and housework don’t really go together but housework needs to get done and this approach keeps me from spending my whole day hyper-focused on it.

Yesterday

Pacing myself

So, after thinking my way through how to have fun in the meantime while I’m working on longer projects, I ended up getting way more done yesterday than I would have predicted.

Several of the yard work projects I thought would take a long time actually could be completed fairly quickly even though I was working on them in bits and pieces and taking plenty of breaks.

I did lots of reading and thinking and relaxing yesterday in between short work sessions tidying up the yard and the house and I felt really good about it.

BUT

Once again, I forgot that today comes after yesterday.

After an intense day of doing AllOfTheThings yesterday, I needed to take a closer look at today’s schedule and take things a bit easier.

I didn’t do that.

And despite waking up a bit tired and achy, I really thought I would be able to just dive into my work this morning.

My brain utterly refused to dive in.

So, instead, I have been drinking tea, reading my book, puttering around organizing things, and just generally taking it as easy as I can without giving it too much thought.

And that’s working out just fine. 🙂

I really have to learn to remember that yesterday comes right before today and that today comes right before tomorrow.

That would be very useful to have top-of-mind.

Learning to find more fun in the middle of things

It’s always hard to tell if my approach to things come from ADHD or just my personality.

On the one hand, it doesn’t really matter one way or another, I have to approach things the way I approach them at least until I find a different way that I like better.

But, on the other hand, if my approach frustrates me, it would be useful to know whether it is ADHD or just some habit I picked up along the way or some habit I developed as an adaptation to living with ADHD.

Take for example my approach to getting yard work done today.

I know that my reluctance to get started is due to ADHD so I have developed some workarounds for that – setting clearly defined small tasks that I can quickly check off my list. My brain still resists but I have a fair bit of evidence that this does actually work so most of the time I can coax myself to do the thing.

And I know that my reluctance to stop once I get started is an ADHD thing, a kind of task hyper focus that just wants me to get it the end so I can *really* be done not “just” done for today.

But how about my challenges with ongoing or longer term projects like house or yard maintenance?

Today, for example, I am outside cleaning the yard – raking, getting rid of lawn debris, picking up litter than has blown into my yard.

I can see that my fence and my deck need to be painted and that I should clean up a few things and that the shed needs to be excavated (it’s a way bigger job than just cleaning) and the windows need their trim painted and…you get the idea.

Luckily, my medication lets me know that this isn’t a ‘do a weekend of house repair and you’ll be all set’ kind of thing. (Yes, at one point, my brain would try to convince me of that.)

But I am still left with the feeling that I should try to do all of that stuff as soon as possible and THEN I can relax in the yard.

Simultaneously, I’m also thinking that the weather here is so unpredictable that it would be better to spend the nice days relaxing – that other work will get down when it gets done.

BUT!

I know that unless I make a clear plan about when and how to do something my brain will continuously tell me that it is too much work to get done right now, that I had better leave it until the not now.

So, that can really leave me in a tangle.

It’s hard to get started so I have to make the tasks “worth it” for the energy it takes to get going but I have to plan well enough so I don’t wear myself out trying to do everything at once.

I have to ensure that I don’t leave things too long but I also don’t want to miss out on the best days of summer while I trudge though the house and yard work.

So I am trying to find something in between.

I’m trying to figure out how to plan out my tasks over weekdays and weekends – allowing for weather – while including fun and relaxation in those very same days.

I’m trying NOT to get stuck in ‘Do your work before it slips your mind and have your fun after.’

And I’m trying to avoid ‘You’ll be able to REALLY relax if you get everything done.’

I’m trying to learn how to have more fun in the middle of projects without just ignoring the project altogether.

Let’s see how this goes. 😉

All Thinky…Again!

I have had some really terrific conversations this week about all kinds of great things – storytelling, business, volunteer work, finances. I feel really excited and hopeful about the possibilities on all fronts.

But this is where the tricky part comes in…

My brain wants to do all of it at once.

In fact, if I try to approach it any other way my brain gets really cranky about it and sometimes refuses to do anything at all.

So, I’m all thinky again over here.

What does my brain need in order to feel safe doing just one thing at a time?

What pattern of activity can I create in order to convince my brain that progress is being made?

How can I *see* that progress AND not try doing all of the things at the same time?

So, yeah, like I said: I’m all thinky…again.