Note: I wrote this via voice dictation and published it too quickly. My apologies to those who read the error-riddled version prior to this this one.
Hey Team,
One of the biggest challenges I have with adding something new to my life is the fact that my days aren’t the same.
Maybe you’re someone with lots of routine and schedules in your life, but I’m not -in fact trying to make my days feel even remotely similar is a huge challenge for me.
And when you add the fact that the effects of my ADHD can vary, depending on how much sleep I’ve had, how busy I am, and a bunch of other factors, it complicates things even further.
So I have had to learn to accept that I will have different capacities on different days.
I know this is true for everyone, but I feel like I really get a lot of practice.
And, as a result, I have had to learn to develop several different types of plans for accomplishing any given thing and, when I remember to use them, those varied plans can be really helpful.
I thought they might be helpful to you too, even if you don’t have ADHD.*
So, let’s imagine that you want to add a set of five exercises into your day.
Perhaps you know that, on the average day, you can do these right when you get up. Those days you’re done early, you have that task out of the way, and you have a sense of accomplishment.
But on other days, you may have an appointment to get to, or you may not have slept well, or you have to respond to some family situation, or there may be some other disruption in your schedule.
If that kind of disruption is a rare occurrence, you can probably just skip that day and return to your plan the next day.
But if you’re like me, and you have some days that are fairly routine and many others that are kind of all over the place, you may want to have several versions of your plan
So, plan one would be to do your exercise exercises as soon as you get up.
On days when you didn’t sleep well perhaps your plan could be to do one of each exercise so that minimal routine sort of holds your place.
On days when you have an unusual appointment, perhaps your plan can be to do those exercises right before supper.
On days when you have family commitments, perhaps you can sprinkle your exercises throughout the day.
And while I know that some of us can wake up in the morning, realize that today will be a bit more complex, and then make a new plan on the spot, others of us may have difficulty doing that.
For those of us who find that challenging (i.e. Me!), the benefit of having thought through several scenarios in advance is that we’re not faced with an all or nothing decision in a moment when things are going awry.
If you don’t have a back-up plan and you get up in the morning, you’re running late, and you realize you can’t do your exercises, you may feel upset, frustrated, and be hard on yourself for not sticking to your plan.
When you have varied plans for varied days you have a bit of breathing room. And even if something comes up that you don’t have a plan for, you may be able to adapt one of your existing plans for this new situation.
So, Team, today I’m inviting you to consider how ELSE you may be able to include your practices in your day, even if your schedule ends up looking different than you expected it to.
Developing a few different scenarios like I’ve described above can be a great kindness to your future self so it will be worth any extra effort that’s required in advance.
Whether you are working on one plan, many plans, or still considering what a plan for your future self might look like, I am celebrating your efforts.
And here are a series of gold stars to represent all the bits and pieces of effort involved in moving towards the lives we want.
Go Team Us!
Be kind to yourself out there, pretty please.
*Now, I will warn you that this is one of those lines where I try to prepare enough for the possibilities without overwhelming myself with details. If you don’t have ADHD, this may look like overthinking. If you have ADHD, my balance might not work for you but let’s see how it goes.
**You know that I’m always going to advocate being kind to yourself whether or not you stick to the plan, but we all know how hard it can be to choose self kindness in frustrating moments so I love any approach that makes it easier.)