There’s a strange and almost electrically-charged state of ADHD I’m currently in where I have a very hard and fast-approaching deadline, and I’m trying my best to chug along through the list of things I need to accomplish. I have some white space in my schedule, but it’s mostly taken up with Summer Mom Mode. But I have a few days where I have to put myself into something like 5th gear, which for this ADHDer looks a bit different than what one might expect.
Defining Rest for Increased Creativity and Productivity
Recently I edited a podcast where the guest was talking about his creativity cycle and how he learned to lean into the different stages. He used the acronym CPR as a way to remember that after Creation comes Promotion, and after that should come Rest.
When I heard this, it dawned on me that this was why I had been suffering from so much burnout back in 2020 — I had continuously put aside rest in order to do what I loved. I felt energized by it and I figured if I needed to rest, I would surely just know to do it, right? Wrong.
Learning to Curl and Planning for Unpredictable Energy Levels
Marking the New Year and Picking My 2022 Word — COURAGE
Is it weird that I still carry a tiny glimmer of hope for the new year? For a lot of December 2021, I wasn’t sure I would. I wasn’t feeling the same excitement about a new year, even though I can’t say I was a huge fan of much of 2021.
But nonetheless, I found myself looking forward to the start of a new year. And it is nice to bid farewell to the past year and feel that sense of new beginning
I don’t do resolutions anymore for the new year and I’ll talk more about that in a bit, but I do have a few traditions. The first two are very mundane and tedious if I’m being honest. But they’re still my own traditions that have oddly helped me bring in the coming year with a sense of newness, and you’d be surprised at how satisfying it is when they’re done.
December Focus: Relax & Reflect
After last month’s focus on Writing and creating this blog, plus all the other life happenings lately, I really felt like I had no choice but to declare this month’s focus to be Rest and Reflect.
Most Decembers, this mode seems to happen automatically and I've learned to keep the holiday season from getting too overwhelming and overbooked. With the extra stress of my mom’s health being up in the air, plus the ongoing stress of parenting through a pandemic, I know this is as good a season as any to take it easy and not push for a big project.
Scaling Back on Productivity During Stressful Life Events
This week has been a very scaled-back week for me in terms of work and productivity. My mom’s health has taken some turns over the past few weeks and there’s a lot of uncertainty about her. The heaviness of all the emotions, plus the general stress of being a parent during a pandemic has really made me aware of how much stress can impact my motivation, energy, and focus.
I’m not a productivity expert (though I did write show notes for The Productive Woman podcast and that may have been one of the best experiences I could have had as someone with ADHD and who also wants to get a lot accomplished in her lifetime. One thing I learned from the host, Laura McClellan, is that different seasons in life require different forms of productivity and planning.
Friends Over Followers
When I think about my social media usage over the years, it surprises me that I’m more confused about how to use it than ever. Don’t get me wrong, I consider myself part of the social media pioneer generation. Compared to what Facebook is now, it astonishes me that I was around when you needed a college email to sign up and it still had “The” before its official name. And there was no talk of the Metaverse at all.
But ever since starting a podcast and then a business, I began to use social media for much more than catching up with friends and family. I began to use it to network and promote more.
Planning for When Adenomyosis Knocks You Down, Especially If You’re A People-Pleaser
It's Day 3 of my period. Yesterday it was like a truck hit me. The pain and discomfort is hard to describe, especially to people who've never experienced pain in the uterus before. And the fatigue from being in pain and discomfort is actually one of the most frustrating side-effects of Adenomyosis.
During my period, it’s common for me to wake up feeling like I’m hungover. I don’t drink anymore because I have too many days like this per month that the idea of intentionally doing this kind of damage to myself is not something I like to entertain.
What Adenomyosis Taught Me About Breaking Away From The Hustle Culture
I'm bed with the heating pad and smoking weed to help with stabby cramps around my uterus that stretch around to my lower back and radiate down my legs and up my spine. After having Adenomyosis for so long, I’m oddly used to dealing with pain the week of my period and ovulation, and anything else during the other two weeks of the month is considered a “flare.”
It's been difficult to concentrate when my brain is at least 40% occupied with "What is happening?! We're in pain down where babies come from?! What danger is this?!"