I always feel weird when an occasion or a season or an event has a ‘make the most of it’ vibe* and summer can have A LOT of that kind of pressure-y feeling.
I kind of want to just let the days unfold however they unfold but I know that my ADHD brain often tries to talk me out of some very fun things because the energy cost of starting them feels disproportionately high.
So I need a plan for my summer fun but I have to be careful with how I do it.
If I plan in detail, my brain could decide that either I have taken all of the fun out of things OR it could check them off as if I have already done them.
If my plan is too vague, then my brain might decide that the whole thing is too much trouble.
And, in either case, my brain might decide that the plan isn’t relevant at any given moment and tuck it away so effectively that I may forget it even existed.
Yes, every day *is* an adventure with ADHD and not always in a fun way.
I want to have a fun summer but I don’t want to get too rigid about what that entails – if perfectionism ends up in this equation my chances for fun will plummet – so I made a few zines to get myself thinking about the things I want to include in the next few weeks.
The questions in these zines have been inspired by all sorts of things – a video I watched the other day, posts from my friends, stuff from previous summers, the prompts that Sam posted for the blog team in June – you get the idea.
One zine is called ‘Move, Pause, Rest’ and has prompts to consider how I want to move (walks, swimming, hula hooping), how I want to pause (meditation, drawing, having tea with friends), and how I want to rest (reading in my hammock, taking naps, etc.)
Another is called ‘Passport to Fun’ and invites me to consider what I want to be sure to include in my summer. (Yes, snacks are one of the considerations.)
The final one (but it was the first one I drew) is called ‘Summer 2025: More & Less and it’s about what I want to do more of this summer and what (you guessed it!) I want to do less of.
Here’s what the zines (and Khalee!) look like from the outside:
And here is a link for you print the zines to fill out for yourself. (No actual pressure to do this, there won’t be a quiz or anything!) Summer Zines 2025
Please note: my zest for zines is far greater than my ability to fold and scan them in a tidy way. Let’s just say their imperfection is part of their charm, hey?
Here’s a link to how to fold zines.
Here’s hoping that my zines let me walk the line between too little planning and too much planning and then lead me straight to more summer fun.
I’ll add some photos of my filled-out pages once I’m done. 🙂
Here are some of the things that inspired me. You may want to check them out…
My friend Dani’s plan for a summer of microadventures:
My husband was watching this video the other day and it really caught my attention. I borrowed the idea of a summer theme from James:
I love Kate Bowler’s reminder to lower our expectations:
This post from Postcards From Katie has a solid list of microadventures. I do like a good list.
The Simply Well joy list for July is worth checking out. Joy? List? No downside there!
July is International Zine Month and there are some cool zine prompts in Echo Zines’ post:
And if you are feeling kind of artsy at the moment, you could give the Index Card A Day challenge a whirl. They started on June 1 but it’s the kind of challenge that you can join at any time.
*Don’t even get me started on the whole ‘you only get 18 summers with your kid!’ business. If you find that stuff inspiring, forge ahead, but to me it has a lot of potential for sadness and regret.