Tag: planning

My weekly planning has become more intentional as time goes by and I learn more about myself. Planning my week is key to reducing overwhelming as Tuesday suddenly becomes Friday afternoon. Knowing what to expect at the beginning of the week makes everything more manageable. So then, you want to work towards getting all your weekly activities written down in your preferred reference point. If you don’t have a preferred reference point yet, grab a notebook and begin keeping all your information in that notebook.

Take some quiet time away to really give yourself time to note everything you need to do in a week. Everything you need to prepare for. 0r prepare someone else for. Everything you are responsible for goes on your list.

Making this list takes time. You might work on it for a week, 10 minutes a day. Or maybe you have a clear vision of your week and can list it all in 15 minutes. Once you have created your list it is pretty easy to start categorizing each event into days. And then, suddenly, you know where your hardest, busiest day or days will be. Next you want to plug in some preparation ahead of that day. Be kind to yourself. Do not leave everything for that busy day. Try to think through your busy day. You might make a list of the day’s events. Start with “I get out of bed”. And end with “I fall back into bed”. As you create this schedule list you will begin to see things you can do a few days ahead to help ease you through your busy day.

A short list of things to start your weekly list

• Appointments
• All time restricted events
• meals – times, places, and menus
• chores, tasks, homework

To make your planning easier, after a few weeks you can create a master list. This is a list of activities you do every week. With a master list as a starting point, you simply plug in special activities, like birthdays and holidays, seasonal events, you get the idea.

Are you waiting for a normal week? – Welcome to Fresh Mercy Every Morning

Having the skeleton of your weeks mapped out really gives you a handle on your time. You will soon find a rhythm to your weeks and days. Remember, it’s your life, so do what helps you the most. With your plans laid out in front of you, you can begin tweaking activities to suit your energy, mood, and overload feeling, better. So, here’s to you calling the shots in your week.

New Idea to Try Out

I have just learned of a slick idea for tracking our ever-loving to-do list. (I don’t remember my parents having to-do list) Here are the ideas in short form. Label your list “this week”, “next week”, and “everything else”. Begin an “ongoing brain dump” just to keep your brain freed up for space to think. You can also call it an “all the things” list. update 1/7/25

Are y’all hearing/reading about our short memory? I’ve heard it a few times this past week. Bits like “write it down, your brain isn’t for storage”. And then I read that short memory space is only able to hold 2 or 3 thoughts at a time. So, write it down! Designate a spot to keep your thoughts and ideas written. If you only have one spot then you will know where to go to find your list! I use Trello and a planner. Trello is on my phone, which counts my steps, so it’s always with me.

Honestly I have no memory of my parents keeping to do list. They certainly didn’t spend much time thinking up a to-do list. Personally, I suspect they operated on a if-you-see-it-do-it process. They picked up behind themselves before they moved on. Set up the work bench to start again tomorrow. My parents worked for themselves. Successfully. They relied on God with steadfast faith that He would see them through, and He did.

If this is the only thing you read on my website, hear me here. If you want a calm, orderly day, start it with God. I put no qualifications on this advice. Simply put, talk to your heavenly Father. You can make it a grand affair with candles, journals, paint markers, soft music and a great big Bible, if you want to. But time with God, cradling a warm mug and soaking in the silence may be your season. Do whatever you need to do to hit the pause button and say Hello to the Wonderful Counselor.

Once you get this turned into a habit, you will find planning your day is a piece of cake. Mostly, I plan my day for myself, not being a self-motivator, a plan is really needed! For years, as a young, stay-at-home mother, I did not understand what a day plan could do for me. Here I was wafting through my days, with little focus or energy, and no motivation. It felt like I was constantly running behind and never getting to what I wanted to do. There is a clear memory of the evening it all began to change.

It wasn’t a whoosh into a new life. It was the first step on a new journey to understand myself, and how to be intentional with my day.

I was feeling very overwhelmed, to the point of exploding. I had to get a handle on the days. And what I did with them. So, I am sitting on the floor with pens in hand and a large piece of butcher paper in front of me. This paper was so big I had to scoot myself across the floor to reach both ends. I began to draw lines, make boxes and fill in details of my week. Where I had to be, what I had to do, where I had to get little people, and when I had to keep one important big person happy. This was a big production. It was so big it made a strong impression on my school age children.

There were murmurs that mom has lost her mind! L. O. L! The big person responds, no, she’s just trying to find it!

They were plotting against me! All this ADHD wanted to rule my days. As long as I was available to keep them company, to feed them, to supply clean clothes, to encourage them. The list went on and on. There was not one inch of space in my days for me. I called “foul”! This stops now! They did not need every minute of my day. I wish I could say I ran to Jesus and allowed him to lead me out of my misery. But that comes much later in the story.

Slowly, I became aware that I was an introvert, not energized by the company of others, but by my own company. Important tasks in my days began to come under my control. Anchors in my day were set up. Times of the day where I could lay down all the responsibilities and just breathe and do something I wanted to do. To read more of this story…

How to be organized… – Welcome to Fresh Mercy Every Morning

So, if you learn from me. Set your days up in a way that benefits you. And helps you meet all your goals. A current down fall is packing too much into ours day’s. I only project 2 or 3 activities in my days. I like to knock out a good amount of work in my mornings. And take a rest in the afternoon. If I take a rest in the morning, I get nothing done. Take time to study yourself. When do you feel energized, mornings, afternoons, evenings? Plan your work for that time of day. I promise you can craft your days to suit you. We’ve been doing it for generations!

It’s a huge topic so, let’s narrow down to…hmm…how do I put this? Let’s start at the beginning. I have always been an organizing type of person. As a small child I received my first box of small crayons, it was a box of 8 regular size crayons. I was 4 or 5 years old. I had to have my crayons in order. So, I ask for each family members favorite color and lined my crayons up by the importance of each member. Green for Dad, yellow for Mom, blue & red, orange & purple, brown & black. And my box of crayons stayed that way for 3 years. Now looking back, I wonder if I wasn’t trying to exert some control of my situation. I was the youngest of 5 girls. They were always talking or arguing. Ages ran by 2’s then 5’s, when I was born there was a 14, 12, 10, and 5 year old in the home.

Fast forward, today I am married to a man with ADHD, 37 years! He does not plan. To plan is to fight his entire mind and the way it works. However, I plan, for both our sanities’. But especially mine. My mind does not work as quickly as his does. Mine is not as creative as his is. If I had no plan, I would never do anything. Whereas, he has no plan and is always working on some project or another. So, I plan just so I can keep up with him!

Do you want to slow the speed of life?

I have not always been a big planner. When the children were small there was no time to properly plan. Every day started at a run. I relied on routines and a mandatory nap time. It wasn’t until I began homeschooling the youngest that I saw the need for planning. And then again when the older ones joined the U.S. Navy, I saw the need to plan my days if I was going to accomplish anything.

In the past 5 years I have collected a slew of free planners, read a few books on planning your day, week, month, life. And, I have learned how to use Canva! So, I create my own planners. I don’t buy planners. I never stick with one planner all year. Seasons come and go; interruptions are part of life. I may be called away from home and my home planner becomes obsolete. I print my planner month by month. And slowly I am working out what works best for me.

My point in all this rambling is that creating a plan for our daily lives may be the first step in learning to be organized. Any thoughts you’d like to share?

At the beginning, or the end, of each month I do a precursory plan for the month ahead. I simply add birthdays, business deadlines, and holidays we celebrate on a monthly calendar page I create on Canva. And this page becomes the cover of my planner binder.

Planning with ADHD is very hard. It’s hard to nail down those thoughts. Or sort them out from all the others racing around. We rely a lot more on routines and habits than plans. My goal with the monthly calendar is to remind me of what’s ahead, so I don’t forget something important. Like a sister’s birthday! This is a bigger chore for me than them since I am the youngest.

No year planning

I don’t go into planning my year either. For the same reasons, ADHD. One year I tried to plan by the quarters. So, I said to Mr. Wonderful, “we have a cool weather quarter here, what do we want to get done?” So, we brainstormed and came up with a page long list of tasks and projects. And we picked the most urgent & important item on the list and dug in. Three months later we were still working on that one project. Mind you, we took it as far as we could. But that was all we got done. After 3 months, it was discouraging not see more of our tasks checked off the list. It’s important to realize that ADHD people fight discouragement. And, after all, a task list that doesn’t move is not a good thing for any of us.

Life is hard, be real, show grace.

Time for grace and mercy. I am only one woman, he one man. We have limits, are battle weary. We demand a day of rest, maybe two. Weekly, preferred.

So, when it comes to monthly & yearly planning, do whatever is going to help you. If making grand goals is your jam, do it. But if it gives you a headache, leave it off.

Extend grace to others

As the spouse without ADHD, I do the planning in my family. The planning reminds me of what we need to do. Then I bring it to Mr. Wonderful’s attention. After that we decide how we will get it done.

I do not ask Mr. Wonderful to sit down and plan with me. And Mr. Wonderful relies on me to keep him in good standing.

Why I don’t plan way ahead.

Things change quickly when you live with ADHD. But as a Christian, I find it works much better to plan my months gently and plan my days after spending time with my LORD. Matthew 6: 34, LITV, says “Then do not be anxious for tomorrow. For the morrow will be anxious of itself. Sufficient to each day is its own trouble.”

I hear take life one day at a time, get all you can out of that one day. Go to bed sufficiently tired. Rest soundly. So, you can rise, ready to take on another day.