Tag: planning

ADHD · fitness · habits · planning · self care

February is real but March might be fictional: Christine’s experiments with fitness planning continue

Christine Hennebury1 Comment

I confess. 

Despite my best intentions, I never quite got a grip on Planuary. 

At the end of December, I really thought that I would be able to take my time throughout January and slowly build a plan for my year.  Alas, life got in the way and I ended up taking January pretty much day by day.

That was ok, especially since it was the only possible way for me to proceed at that point. 

Basically, I spent January puttering along in all areas of my life.

A black and white GIF of two penguins moving slowly along.​
A black and white GIF of two penguins moving slowly along.

On the well-being side of things, I did yoga when it felt right, meditated when it felt right, took walks, did some stretches, and, last week, I did some rowing.  Those things were all pretty good and I am happy about trusting myself to do what I needed to do on any given day but it did feel a bit aimless. 

I’m not judging myself there, aimless worked for me this month but, of course, being aimless didn’t give me the cumulative-work-toward-a-goal feeling that I was looking for.

I really wanted January to feel like I was solving a puzzle, like I was figuring out what I wanted to do and creating a plan for doing it.  Instead, metaphorically, I gathered a bunch of jigsaw puzzle pieces, sorted a few of them and then went on to a logic puzzle before dropping that in favour of a riddle. All of those are good things, all of them are useful and enjoyable, but they didn’t come to any sort of satisfactory conclusion.

So, here I am at the end of January without a plan for the rest of my year. 

And I know that I still can’t wrap my brain around ‘things I want to do in 2023.’

I also know that I don’t want to just keep wandering aimlessly.

So, I’m picking a middle ground and looking at February as a self-contained unit in which I can work on things that will add up throughout that month but that may not extend into March and may not even be part of a bigger project.

Sidenote: In my current approach, March doesn’t even exist yet so I can’t possibly plan fitness things to do in a possibly fictional month.

A month is really tangible for my ADHD brain, I can see how things might play out in that period of time and, barring a catastrophe, I usually have a good sense of what is coming up for me in the next month. A year, on the other hand, feels like forever and like no time, all at once and my brain gets lost in the simultaneous limits and possibilities.

A GIF of Garfield, an orange cartoon cat with black triangular markings, pulls pages off a day by day calendar that is in a stack attached to the wall. Every day is a Monday, despite the changing dates.
A GIF of Garfield, an orange cartoon cat with black triangular markings, pulls pages off a day by day calendar that is in a stack attached to the wall. Every day is a Monday, despite the changing dates.

So, while I usually have a good sense of things I want to have in my life in ‘the future’, I struggle to scale things and plan them out over a year. I end up either creating a plan that is too rigid or too flexible and I end up spending waaaaaaay too much time recalibrating.

(In retrospect, I guess I have always thought that this issue was one of imprecise planning (hence the Planuary plan) but now I’m wondering how much time-perception factors in.)

So, instead of thinking of something I want from this year and then breaking that down into monthly pieces, I am approaching this year from the opposite direction.

I’m going to choose some appealing activities to work on during February and I’ll keep track of how much I do and how I feel about them.

Once March feels a little less fictional (I mean, assuming it ever does 😉 ), I’ll see if I want to keep going with those activities or if I want to move on to something else.

Right now, my thinking is going a bit like this,  “I want to meditate regularly so, for February, I’m going to follow the program in the journal I got for Christmas.”  “I want to go on longer walks so, for February, I am going to take a slightly longer route.” “I want more hip flexibility so, for February, I am going to do a hip exercise before bed.”

I’m not trying to work up to a certain level. I’m not trying to accumulate a certain number of steps, a certain number of meditation minutes or days, I’m not trying to be able to measure up to a certain level of hip-flexibility. I am not considering this the groundwork for doing the next stage of anything. 

I am taking February as a self-contained, measurable, tangible period of time in which to try some specific things. I don’t have to wonder about the next steps. I don’t have to think about how those things fit into the greater context of my year.  I just have to focus on February and trust that what I need in March will become apparent as time goes on. 

Again, assuming that March actually becomes real at some point. 😉

Christine’s December Theme
ADHD · fitness · planning · self care

Christine’s December Theme

Christine HenneburyLeave a comment

Apparently all of my posts this month have been on the theme of self-care.

I had realized that was (deliberately) the case for my daily posts for the ‘Making Space 2022’ series but it was only when I started this post that I realized that my regular Tuesday posts had been all about self-care, too.

In retrospect, it’s ridiculously obvious but until I started writing this post, I thought that my regular Tuesday posts were all over the place this month. In fact, I started by calling this post ‘Bits and Pieces’ and I was going to write about how I felt like I was too focused on small issues lately and not getting into any big picture stuff. Brains are so weird, aren’t they?

a photo of a bag of sugar tucked into a corduroy bag resting on a white desk.
What does this have to do with self-care? Nothing and everything. What you are looking at is a snuggle sack that I made for my nephew’s guinea pig. When my sister and I talked about the needed size, I used a bag of sugar as reference point. She said ‘If you made a snuggle sack for a bag of sugar, it wouldn’t be the wrong size.’ Obviously that required me to send her this photo of a very snuggly bag of sugar. How is this self-care? I got to do something I enjoyed and I got to laugh with my sister about it at the same time. Image description: the top of a bag of sugar is visible inside a grey corduroy sack (that is lined with blue flannel) and the sack itself is sitting on a white desktop under a lamp.

I started the month by talking about the challenges of resting, then I was thinking about how I wanted to focus on some low-key core work to give myself some structure (literally and metaphorically), and then I was dealing with back pain.

Then today, I woke up with a lot of pain and tension in my hands and I thought I would write about that…after I did some stretches. (This video helped a lot, by the way.)

A Wrist, Hand, & Finger Stretch Routine video from Adarsh Williams. The still image shows the instructor wearing a blue tshirt and standing up in a white-painted room. They have their arms extended in front of them and they are using their left hand to assist a stretch in their right wrist. The title of the video is written in black text overlaying the right side of the image.

So, I was thinking of all of those things as separate – resting, core work, back pain, and wrist/hand stretches – but they are all connected. For starters, they are all happening to me – so that’s one connection. They all have to do with me trying to manage the details of my life in a way that supports me instead of making me work harder. And they are all about underlying, foundational things that would be helpful for me to take a closer look at.

I take plenty of downtime on a regular basis but I could probably put some structures in place to make it easier for me to get more complete rest – mentally and physically. If I established a higher level of basic core fitness, it would support my efforts in other areas. If I strengthened my back and paid closer attention to *how* I move, I could avoid some types of back pain. And if I did more hand and wrist stretches on a regular basis, I would probably have more flexibility and less stiffness overall.

Sidenote re: my wrists and hands – I didn’t injure myself or anything. I am pretty sure my wrist/hand/forearm stiffness today was related to spending the last few days rolling cookies, wrapping gifts, and carrying packages – basically using my hands in unusual ways and employing different muscles.

I think I am pretty good at mental self-care and decent at physical self-care but there is definitely room for improvement in both areas. I would like to move myself toward more proactive and preventative care, especially physically.

Most of the time, I can organize things to take good care of my emotional health and my mental well-being but I have such a hard time assessing my physical capacity that it is hard for me to judge what to do now to make things easier on myself in the future.

In fact, just like I was doing with my December posts – I keep seeing my days and my activities and my actions as separate things when they are all very much connected and they all depend on me taking good care of myself moment to moment and overall.

a photo of moss, dried grass, brown leaves, and tree roots covered in a light dusting of snow.
Last week, when on a walk, I took this photo for my future self. Something about this light dusting of snow on the moss made me feel relaxed and happy so when I look back at it, I will remember how lovely my walk was AND how lovely it felt to look at that moss. Image description: a photo of a light dusting of snow on moss on tree roots. Snow-covered dried leaves and grass covered in snow can also be seen between the tree roots.

Sooooo, what am I going to do about all of these realizations?

Well, I don’t want to let my brain away with sorting everything into separate boxes any more because that is not helping very much.

I guess, I need to ask myself questions like these and figure out my next steps:

What kinds of things help me feel better/help me to take good care of myself?

How do I integrate those physical/emotional/mental self-care practices so I can be proactive about my current and future health?

What habits and systems do I need to develop to make those practices a straightforward part of my daily rhythm?

What help/advice/support do I need to make that happen?

And, most importantly for this ADHD brain – how do I work on this without trying to do it all at once and getting overwhelmed?

I don’t have answers for these questions right now but I will be returning to these themes throughout my regular posts and in my ‘Go Team’ posts in January.

How do you do with your self-care?

Do you tend to see things in ‘bits and pieces’ like I do or do you remember that it is the same you doing all of the things?

PS – As an update on the core work – I followed the video every day until my back started acting up. After that, I still did some core work but I found that that specific video irritated my back so I did other back-friendly exercises daily and tried to ‘engage’ my core when doing other routine tasks as well.

Go Team! How are you taking care of yourself today?
ADHD · fitness · self care · yoga

Go Team! How are you taking care of yourself today?

Christine Hennebury

Thanks to a bit of over-enthusiastic scheduling, I have three back-to-back Zoom meetings this morning and then I have a lot of routine tasks to do this afternoon.

Yesterday, when I realized what my Tuesday schedule looked like I had a moment of feeling completely overwhelmed and my brain scrambled to figure out if I could reschedule something.

Then I took a deep breath and realized that it would actually be better to get all of these things done in one day so I didn’t have meetings scattered throughout my week.

And, secondly, that the schedule was doable as long as I took good care of myself before and after that string of meetings and that list of tasks.

So, that meant making a really clear list of my planned Tuesday afternoon tasks so I could be sure I had included everything and that I had time to get them all done.

And it meant getting to bed a bit early on Monday night so this morning would be easier.

And it included taking time to do yoga first thing today so I would be starting my day calmly.

And it definitely means making a pot of tea, grabbing some snacks and setting up my notebook for doodling * before that first meeting so I could feel more relaxed all the way through.

And I’ll definitely be taking a walk with Khalee after lunch but before the admin gauntlet in the afternoon so my brain is at ease before digging into detailed work.

By the time you start reading this on Tuesday morning, I’ll be on my mat finding some ease before my day begins.

You may not have the head start I had (I am writing this on Monday evening after all) but you still have a good chunk of your Tuesday ahead of you.

How can you plan to take good care of yourself today?

When can you add some movement into your schedule?

When would you like to feel more calm? How will you help yourself relax?

When will you need a snack? How can you make sure you have one available then?

Even if you can’t make your day totally relaxing, any effort to take good care of yourself is going to help, at least a little!

Speaking of efforts, here’s a gold star to celebrate the work we put into making things a little easier on ourselves.

A gold star ornament rests on a white surface.
This gold star is covered in little bits of shredded foil, it’s not as muppety as this photo makes it seem. Image description: a gold star ornament covered in little bits of shiny gold foil is resting on a shiny white surface.

*Doodling during meetings helps me focus. 🙂

Christine Is Trying To Take Her Retreat Home With Her
fitness · motivation · planning · schedule · self care

Christine Is Trying To Take Her Retreat Home With Her

Christine Hennebury1 Comment

Ever since I wrote about doing yoga on my writing retreat last week, I’ve been considering my retreat state of mind.

A light haired dog is asleep, curled up on a grey and green bedspread.
Here’s Khalee doing a remarkable imitation of my relaxed retreat-brain. Image description: My light haired dog, Khalee, is sleeping peacefully, curled up on my grey and green bedspread.

It’s easier to write when I am on retreat, of course, that was pretty much a given. What always surprises me, however, is how much easier it is to do yoga, practice my TKD patterns, and to get out for a walk when I am on retreat.

I mean, obviously, it’s easier to do anything that I want to do when my schedule is fully under my control and I am the only person I need to take into account when deciding when or how to do something.

(In theory, it should be similar when I am home. Given that I work for myself, I have a fair amount of control over my schedule. My kids are practically adults so they don’t exactly need my supervision anymore. But I am part of a family, a household, so our choices do affect each other, at least to some degree. And given my personality/my ADHD, I will overthink (at least subconsciously) all the possibilities of how I might be disturbing someone else.)

And, aside from the schedule thing, when I’m on retreat, I only have so many activity options available to me. I can write, I can read, I can chat with my friends, or I can exercise. Having fewer choices makes it easier to rotate through them throughout the day.

When I’m home, I have so many things that I *could* be doing at any given time that I often have trouble figuring out what to do when. (Another personality tendency that is exacerbated by ADHD.)

If the above picture of Khalee is my retreat brain, my at-home brain could often be depicted like this:

A small dog walks on its hind legs through a convenience store. It looks like it is shopping. Text above the photo reads ‘decisions, decisions.’
Image description: a small light-haired dog is waking on its hind legs through a convenience store, looking from side to side as it hurries along. Text above the photo reads ‘decisions decisions…’

It would be pretty hard to make my home like our retreat space. I’m always going to have to factor in other people’s schedules and I’m always going to have different priorities competing for my time.

BUT…

I wonder how I could move my at-home mindset closer to my retreat mindset and help make it easier to get into exercise mode?

I guess I could deliberate reduce the number of choices available to me at any given time of the day.

And I could probably set firmer schedule boundaries for myself so I don’t spend so much time factoring in the possible effects I might have on other people’s schedules.

And I could definitely put fewer things on my to do list each day, to help me have more of that retreat-style focus.

I’m going to give it a whirl and see if these things help make it easier to break out of decision mode and into exercise mode.

How would YOU go about bringing a retreat mindset home with you?

dogs · gear · nature · walking · winter

For Christine H, A Little Planning = Big Fun

Christine Hennebury1 Comment

Last winter, I made an unfortunate error in judgement.

I left our snowshoes in the shed, planning to take them out once it snowed enough to use them regularly.

I didn’t realize that when it finally snowed enough, it would actually snow TOO MUCH and my shed door would be blocked by ice and snow for months.

In fact, I never did get around to snowshoeing last winter. Not even once. And that was annoying.

Annoying enough that I actually made a solid plan this past fall so it wouldn’t happen again. This year, when I put the patio furniture in the shed for the winter, I took my snowshoes out and stored them in my basement.*

Last week, as I was walking Khalee down the snow-covered sidewalk and distracting her from attempting to detour onto the walking trails near our house, I realized that I was missing an opportunity.

A n outdoor photo of anwan and a dog. The woman is looking toward the camera. The dog is looking at the woman and partially blocking our view.
I tried to get us both in the photo. I guess I was sort of successful. PS: I am wearing my hatphones! Image description: An outdoor photo of Christine and her dog, Khalee. Christine, a woman in her late forties, wearing a black toque, scarf and jacket, has a reddened nose and cheeks because of the cold, she is looking toward the camera. Only the right side Khalee’s face is visible, she is looking toward Christine and partially blocking our view.

If I took out my snowshoes, I could let Khalee bound around in the snow on the path while I sauntered over the top of it without sinking up to my shins.

Now our afternoon walks are mini-adventures for the two of us. (Something Sam and Cheddar and friends clearly know all about!) Snowshoeing on a snowy path with trees on one side and a river on the other is much more relaxing than walking on a snow-smudged sidewalk with a dirty bank of snow on one side and the road on the other.

A snowy footpath extends through some sparse woods.
Even though there is a school just on the other side of the trees and there are houses on the other side of the river, this walk feels a lot more nature-y. Image description: a snow-covered path, covered in footprints, extends forward. There are lots of trees on the left and a few on the right. There is a lower spot to the right where a river lies beneath the snow.

And yes, there are a few challenges involved in the process. For example, Khalee is not a fan of the fact that I have to go out first and put on my snowshoes before letting her outside and she gets a bit worked up about that. And it is tricky to manage a bounding dog on a leash while trying to walk on snowshoes. And then there is the maneuvering involved in trying to ‘stoop and scoop’ while wearing snowshoes and being connected to a dog whose business at this location is complete and who is ready to move quickly away to the next adventure.

A medium-sized blond dog in a red sweater with white hearts on it stands on a snowy path.
Does Khalee need this sweater? I don’t know, I can’t tell if it’s too cold to be out in ‘just’ her fur but I use the same principle I used to use with the kids – if I am going to have to worry about you being chilly, we have to bring a sweater for you. Khalee has to put hers on in advance because I would never be able to wrestle her into it while we were on the path. I’ll bet it would be funny to watch me try though. Image Description: A medium-sized BLOND (This was autocorrected to blind initially but that is incorrect, she isn’t blind.) dog in a red sweater with white hearts on it, stands on a snowy path. She is on a leash attached to a harness and she is looking away from the camera. The path is covered in footprints.

But, even with those challenges, it’s still a lot of fun and it feels a bit more cardio-y than our usual walks.

I’m really glad that I had the foresight to do that little bit of planning back in the fall.

*This kind of planning may not seem like a big deal to the neurotypical but the capacity to think ahead like this has never come naturally to me, especially about stuff that is just for fun. Just another way that my medication has made a positive difference for me.