How to Keep Up With Your Mask | A Slob Comes Clean
I have to confess, I switched to a different style of mask — one with a single-string tie instead of an upper and lower tie — mostly because I can wear it around my neck. I literally never set a mask down anywhere except its designation location in my house. Whenever I leave my property, I have a mask around my neck, ready to put on quickly if I need it. I never thought of this but it’s another thing to try if you are looking for more wearable options for your mask! (Because really, who can keep track of anything set-down-able?)
30-Day Challenges vs Habit Formation: Which is Better? | Stephen Guise
I spent some of my shelter-in-place time scanning roll after roll of negatives. This inevitably led to a lot of feelings about how far I’ve strayed from photography. I finally gave in to the years-long temptation to try a Project 365 challenge, where you take a photo a day for an entire year.
And yet, these sorts of time-limited challenges make me very uncomfortable. ADHDers view anything like this with suspicion. After all, how many habits have any of us sustained for 365 days? I tried a 30-day music challenge on Instagram earlier this year, where you’re supposed to post a song to your stories every day based on a prompt. Over the course of a few weeks, I managed to post the first 7 songs.
And this was a challenge I felt really amped about! I sat and spent at least an hour making my list of songs in my phone’s Notes app, only to forget to post any past number 7.
30-day challenges (or any length challenges) aren’t helpful for long-term habit formation. Once we miss a day, we’ve lost the challenge — and our motivation to continue. Once we finish Day 30, we breathe a sigh of relief and take a break — sometimes a permanent one.
Regarding my Project 365, I’ve taken photos for 19 straight days so far. I’ve decided not to beat myself up too much if I miss one. I’m choosing to investigate instead: how long can I extend my streak? After missing a day, can I aim for a longer streak next time?
Because I know better than to expect myself to complete a perfect 365-day challenge. What I’m really after is renewal of a habit I loved and lost. That requires a bit more flexibility and forgiveness.
Let’s talk about cognitive autonomy. | @samdylanfinch on Twitter
This entire thread resonates with me so much. It is NOT liberating to be told I should embrace my ADHD more, or that I would somehow cease to struggle given the correct circumstances. That’s not how ADHD works.
Most people want to feel in control of themselves. We want to choose where to focus our energy and do things feel good about. We want our outward presentation to align with our internal identities.
For many of us, unmanaged ADHD makes that impossible.
An office switcheroo to help salvage pandemic productivity
At my personal website, I blog about pretty much whatever’s on my mind. This post speaks to a big issue I talk about with ADHD all the time: our physical surroundings can be either a part of the problem or a part of the solution, in terms of symptom management.
Three ADHD-adjacent things at play here:
- My husband and I both have ADHD, but we are very different people. When we work together, we can temper each other: I help nudge him out of perfectionism and inertia, he helps me resist the urge to jump into a disruptive/destructive project prematurely.
- Re: the above, I found an app that provided an excellent outlet for my desire to move furniture around in every room of the house. In some cases, I realized I should leave well enough alone. In others, like my office, I used my floor plan drawings to make a case for actually doing the project in real life.
- I didn’t spend any money, or even much time, to make a better workspace for everyone. I just moved around what was already there. If your focus is suffering, you might already have the tools at hand to create a more productive environment. Think about what your brain needs, and how you might be able to get closer to meeting those needs — even if your effort is imperfect!
“We’re all a little ADHD sometimes” happens to people with ADHD, too
I’ve been thinking about this a lot lately. At several points, many aspects of this pandemic has most certainly made my ADHD symptoms worse. I’ve seen a slew of maintstream (i.e. directed at neurotypical people) articles talking about time blindness as though it’s a new thing. This is one of those times when a lot of people might get a taste of what it’s like to live with ADHD. That might be good for developing understanding and empathy, so long as everyone remembers: the experience is not finite for people with ADHD, and our ADHD is probably in overdrive right now. What you’re feeling is, perhaps, similar to what we experience on a good day.
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