I've heard it said that it takes 30 days to develop a habit / form a routine. I'm not sure what that is supposed to mean. On that magical 31st day, do "normal" people just automatically start doing what they've been practicing for the past 30 days without having to think about it? That would be nice.
Here's how it goes for me - I do really well at the start but IF I make it to the 30 day mark, I might keep it up for a few days or even a week longer, then something disrupts my routine and *poof* it's gone, never to return. For me, a routine broken is far harder to re-establish than it was to build in the first place. I don't know why. Maybe it's that the novelty of creating something new is gone. I've notice that my brain does NOT like to re-do anything. It never has. Can anyone out there relate or is it just me?
Of course, that doesn't stop me from trying to establish new habits and routines. Last week, I started a bullet journal. I have high hopes for it since the method was developed by a person with ADHD. I decided not to get too fancy with it yet. It's just a steno pad and so far, I use it for EVERYTHING. Work and home are combined because, really, who can tell the difference since COVID? Work is in darker, cool colors and home is in bright sunny colors. This week, it's dark purple and hot pink. When I finish a task it's crossed off with a big black X. I love those X-es!
My first weekend doing bullet journaling, I was a productivity powerhouse. I combined my to-do list with the Pomodoro method we discussed in my ADHD support group and wow! I got more housework done in one day than I normally do in a month. No joke.
In case you're wondering, Pomodoro is basically doing work in 25 minute sprints with, I think a 5 minute break in between. I modified it a bit. I did 25 minutes of housework followed by 25 minutes of culling and organizing vacation photos (I took over 3,000 photos in one week. YIKES!). I finished ALL of the laundry including folding and putting it away. Scrubbed the master bathroom, got through about a third of the photos, published a newsletter for my church website, uploaded and tagged about 30 audio files, completed the agenda for the next website meeting and cleaned the laundry room (since it was devoid of piles of clothes).
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| Here's a random Pied Billed Grebe for your enjoyment. |
The impact at work hasn't been quite as dramatic since work already required some structure and motivation (as much as I might complain about work, I do like that paycheck!). Since starting the journal, I am finding that I'm not forgetting things as often and I am doing a better job of following up on requests. I just hope I can keep it up. The pace at work is pretty frantic and it's not going to get better anytime soon. It doesn't help that my responsibilities range from system administrator, to developer, to digital workplace manager and, oh.. I'm also the IT liaison to Marketing. That last one is the most recent and, I'm figuring out as I go. Let me tell you, IT and Marketing do NOT speak the same language!
But.. I digress. Back to the bullet journal and routines. As I said, I am hopeful that this will last a while. I just have to switch it up every once in a while to keep it interesting. Maybe I'll do something with Washi tape next.
Hmmm... while I'm thinking about it, I better add a bullet for my next blog post. maybe that way It will get written before another 2 1/2 years go by. :)
