Well, it’s the first Friday after my acceptance of acceptance to the masters degree program I chose, and to get myself off to a good start with this little accountability experiment of mine, I want to crank out a post about how I keep myself accountable.
I love lists. Calendars, which I think of as chronological lists, also seriously improve my life. I have a whiteboard where I write household tasks that need remembering (like I need to report that crack in my windshield to my insurance company), and a scattering of other helpful lists all over my house. I use them to remember which kid took a bath on what day, what we’re eating tonight, and when swim and dance lessons and days off of school happen.
I’ve also made lists of things my kids need to do: one list for before school, one for before screen time, and one for before bed. While they often can’t remember the six or seven items on the list, they can generally remember to check the list.
Naturally, I also make to-do lists… when I remember to. On days when I do, I get more stuff done than I realized I even had time for. On days when I forget, though, I might get some things done, or I might bury myself in Netflix and directionless browsing basically the entire time my kids are at school.
So, since my sister is doing it (and I googled it and apparently the whole damn world is doing it), I decided to try a bullet journal. I tried regular journaling to keep track of my side effects when I was taking adderall, and on a number of other occasions, but I quickly discover that I hate writing. My handwriting is pretty terrible, but the bigger problem is that I just have no patience for it and that leads to avoiding it. But I know I can do lists! Bullet journals are just systematic lists! I love lists and systems! And, yeah, my handwriting is still pretty terrible, but I know what I wrote and no one else has to read it.
So, here’s to trying out another coping mechanism for my ridiculous executive dysfunction problems! I imagine that, like most other systems I try, it will work really well… when it’s working. But then I’ll spend a week or more totally forgetting about it before panicking about all the stuff I’m not getting done. But that’s ADHD for you. It can be amazing and it feel like a superpower sometimes. Then it totally clotheslines your whole life once in a while (or frequently, depending on your experience) and reminds you to be humble.
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