good morning! it is Monday, I slept like ass again, and I am bored.

TIME TO RAMBLE ABOUT MY ROUTINES, STRATEGIES, AND EXECUTIVE FUNCTION HACKS

a thread
My brain is wonky. Not sure exactly how, but I& #39;m pretty sure I have #ADHD. Might be on the spectrum, too, who knows! Plus, of course, I& #39;m chemically deficient in the stuff that makes you feel well-balanced and not bleakly hopeless.
One common ADHD experience is this: forever trying new organizational systems and abandoning them within the week.

Forever hoping that maybe, this time, this next one will solve the puzzle of getting our shit together.
Once I discovered how common this experience is, I started viewing it as long-term trial and error. Instead of diving headfirst into a BRAND NEW SYSTEM that will SOLVE ALL MY PROBLEMS, my life is a series of little experiments.
If I try X, how does it feel? What changes if I try X in the mornings, or only at night, or after eating?

And "it was too much to keep track of so I dropped it" is ALSO USEFUL DATA
For example, I tinkered with an adorable little app called LifeRPG, that allows you to prioritize tasks by how hard they are, how long they& #39;ll take, and how intimidating you find them. It& #39;s extremely customizable, but eventually it was TOO freeform for me and I couldn& #39;t keep up
Even if I try something and drop it the same day, I still learn something in the process, something I can take with me into the next experiment. Something more useful than "ugh, I GUESS I JUST SUCK. AGAIN."
ALL RIGHTY. THAT WAS PART 1 OF THE THREAD.

COMMENCE PART 2: RECENT EXPERIMENTS AND WHAT I& #39;VE DISCOVERED
DISCOVERY #1: STREAKS

Streaks and chains come up a lot in discussions of productivity / routines / building habits. Get a wall calendar, they say. Get an index card. Get an app, and do The Thing every single day and DON& #39;T BREAK THE STREAK
Uhh. This doesn& #39;t work for me. I love the satisfaction of ticking off a growing chain, but when I miss a day, it& #39;s OVER and POINTLESS and WHY EVEN BOTHER STARTING FROM ZERO AGAIN.

And I& #39;m going to miss a day. I& #39;m always going to miss a day.
On a good week, when I& #39;m really on top of my shit, I might do my top priority routines 5 or 6 days out of 7.

On a bad week, it might be 1-3 days.
Every so often, I& #39;m just going to have a spell of not being able to bear looking at lists, calendars, apps, clocks, anything at all. Days or weeks where I can eat and take my meds and go to work, and that& #39;s IT. No more.

Sometimes I can plan these breaks, sometimes I can& #39;t.
HOWEVER, I like tracking what I have and haven& #39;t done, because it helps defeat the brain gremlins that say YOU NEVER DO ANYTHING, ANYTHING AT ALL.

It& #39;s nice to be able to say, look here, I have been doing things every day for the last three weeks, so fuck off, thank you.
SO HERE& #39;S WHAT WORKS

I have a habit-tracking app. (I use HabitBull, mostly because I like the colorful way the days link together when you tick them off.) The free version only allows for 5 habits at once, which is GOOD. Keeps me from trying to track 27 things and burning out
When I set up my brand-new habit, I set the "goal" frequency to ONE TIME PER WEEK.

Can I manage to floss ONCE THIS WEEK? Sure, why not! Cool! Then it& #39;s over until next week!

Maybe I wake up tomorrow and go, hey, I& #39;m waiting for the shower to warm up, I could floss again!
Maybe I ignore my app for a pile of days and then go OOH IT& #39;S SATURDAY. IF I FLOSS, I& #39;LL KEEP THE STREAK GOING FOR ANOTHER WEEK. I CAN DO THAT.

See, I missed 4 days but I knew I& #39;d miss days, the streak hasn& #39;t been BROKEN.
Trying to start over from a broken streak would be insurmountable, but taking 5 minutes to keep it going for another week? sure!

See, when I ignore the app for a few days and then check it, I& #39;m trying to crawl back out of my hole.
When I was trying to do things Every Day Like All The Articles Say, I& #39;d poke my head out and see, AHH YUP, I& #39;M A FAILURE. AGAIN. NEVER MIND THEN.

Now I poke my head out, and it& #39;s like I& #39;m saying to myself, "Hey, welcome back. Ready to do this again? It& #39;s not too hard."
After a month or three, of trying my New Habit, if I& #39;m regularly doing it more often, I might up the "goal frequency" and see what happens.

So, for example, my daily journaling/freewriting/reflection?

My lil app says I& #39;ve been doing that at least 4x/week for the last 3 months
Anyway, been doing this for awhile, and now I have a bunch of data for the Brain Gremlins.

Instead of feeling like a sucky failure who never even FLOSSES . . .

I& #39;m looking at the app, and whaddya know, I& #39;ve had ups and downs, but over the last year I& #39;ve averaged once a week
Feels nice, when I go to the dentist, to be able to say, "Usually about once a week, but I& #39;m working on getting that up, and the last couple months it& #39;s been 2-3x/week."

Instead of "uuuhhhhhhhhhh not very often? i don& #39;t know"
ANYWAY. THERE& #39;S OTHER STRATEGIES AND OTHER HACKS, BUT THAT& #39;S ENOUGH FOR TODAY
Look, it chains things together so prettily!

Really helps me focus on big-picture trends, which doesn& #39;t come naturally.

My "good" and "bad" weeks are all part of a larger practice/routine. My brain needs ebb and flow? Cool, we& #39;ll plan for that.
@juliegoldberg a screenshot for you!
You can follow @pencildrake.
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