So last week I really fell off the wagon, organizationally. I noticed about mid-week that I was going from hyperfocus to hyperfocus, my house was a mess, I kept forgetting to eat, I was staying up late and not getting enough sleep, I didnt feel like showering or brushing my teeth
All these things add to each other, of course. The less I sleep the less I can regulate my executive function, the more my focus and energy bounces around, and so on and so forth. I was forgetting to drink water, charge my phone, impulsively spending etc
I cant say exactly why or where it started and maybe it doesn't matter. What matters is that sometimes when you have #ADHD your executive function just goes off the rails sometimes. Some weeks are better and some weeks are worse. You cant stop the bad weeks, you cant be perfect
But you can be prepared, you can notice sooner and regroup and bounce back quicker.
The first thing I did was give myself permission to be having a bad week.
So what if the kitchen is filthy RIGHT NOW? Itll get cleaned. So what if ok behind on emails RIGHT NOW? I'll catch up.
The first thing I did was give myself permission to be having a bad week.
So what if the kitchen is filthy RIGHT NOW? Itll get cleaned. So what if ok behind on emails RIGHT NOW? I'll catch up.
Not piling on how shitty I felt by guilting myself & panicking and feeling the need to react & jump into "oh no I must fix everything all at once mode" helps. I get into "now/not now" thinking. Remembering that THE FUTURE EXISTS and that I can pick it back up next week helps.
Step 2: I started with good sleep and eating enough. I let my house continue to be dirty and my laundry continue to be undone and my fridge continue to be empty and I ordered food or just ate whatever I had. As long as I slept and ate.
Then in a few days I felt good enough to do the laundry and just thr dishes. I let the floor and the counter be dirty. I did some exercise. I showered and washed my hair.
Yesterday, after about a week and a half, I did the floors and the counters and I put away the laundry and I sat down to plan my week and do some meal planning and order some groceries. And now I feel back to normal.
Almost imperceptibly, I stopped using the planner. I didnt prepare meals in advance which meant I got into analysis paralysis and decision fatigue around eating and food prep. It kind of just snowballed from there as it often does. But I caught it and I didnt beat myself up.
I just noticed, made incremental changes and fought my way back up to "organized and on top of my shit"
