I had a very careful plan for my Monday, some writing, a few administrative tasks, outlining, and organizing details for an event next week. But instead of doing all that perfectly reasonable and very doable stuff, I fell into a trap composed of inertia and ADHD hyperfocus and spent most of the day organizing notes and info from a few of my files.
Those are useful things to have done and they will be helpful for me in the long run but I wish that I had broken that task down in a half hour sessions throughout the week.
Instead, I spent most of my day sitting down, poring over papers, making all kinds of small decisions about what to keep, what to scan, and what to recycle.
It was only when I started to get annoyed with myself for not wanting to deal with the last two papers in a folder that I realized that I was tired and that I had spent too much time doing this one thing. (For the record, I did stop for lunch and for several cups of tea, I wasn’t that far gone.)
At this point you may be thinking, “Yeah Christine, that sounds frustrating but what does it have to do with fitness?”
That’s where the audience participation part is going to come in, hang on a sec.
You see, when I pulled myself away from the papers, after finishing those last two, I realized that I needed to do something. I needed to move in some way but damned if I could figure out what it was.
Did I want to stretch?
Do some yoga?
Go for a walk?
Practice my patterns?
Do something a bit more intense?
I wanted to do all and none of that.
I actually wanted a magic wand to give me my day back and take this meh feeling away but I guess my fairy godmother is on holiday today because she didn’t answer. Everyone needs their rest, right?
Anyway, I decided to start with a few stretches and then I headed out for a walk. Seeing as my fairy godmother was incommunicado, I figured that hanging out with Khalee was the most practical magic I could access.
But, I’m curious, what do YOU do when you find yourself feeling all meh and grumpy?
Do you need gentle movement to ease your brain and body back into gear?
Or do you go for something more vigorous so you can get a jump start?
Do tell!
PS – For the record: I was a bit cranky about losing my day to sorting papers but, ultimately, my effort will be useful. I wasn’t hard on myself about it. ADHD is tricky and being mean to myself about my symptoms and tendencies won’t make it any easier. You may not have ADHD but I hope you can be kind to yourself about the detours your brain takes too. We’re all just doing our best out here, right?
I’ve been using the pomodoro (25min work, 5min break) technique and playing with the idea of stretching/dancing in the doorframe (pomo ‘dooro’). Another idea I’ve used is doorway tolls by doing a small activity (pull ups, stretching, etc) whenever I pass through the doorway to leave the office. Getting that little bit of motion through the day helps me a lot.
I love Pomo ‘dooro’ and the idea of tolls. I often include stretches/movement in my work routines too – I wish I had done that on Monday!
I used to angry run when I needed to blow off steam and reset. But no more running. So now it’s blasting tunes and speeding around Zwift. Something short and intense to blow out the cobwebs.
That makes sense. Maybe I should have done some TKD drills. I’ll have to try that next time.
I’m usually in back to back meetings most of my workdays but when I can squeeze in a SLWFMSMPH, it makes a BIG different.
*difference.
Oh, back to back meetings all the time? That sounds very challenging. I dare say that squeezing anything for yourself into your days would help.