Getting stuff done! ADHD, Autism, Depression, Anxiety, PDA and Overwhelm Accountability thread

[Springingintolife]

Heya! I was recently on a thread for getting things done, and it went a bit quiet. So I decided to start a fresh one. Get your woes out on here- let everyone know what you need to do for the day- and take it easy on yourself.

You know, those little things- like changing the toilet roll on the toilet roll holder, calling the docs for an appointment- which everyone else seems to effortlessly breeze, but can be a real challenge for some of us, with whatever is going on in your life or mind.

You don't need to be diagnosed to join us!

I should add though that I live alone, so not a lot of washing up or mess. My children are adults and moved out a while ago.

Hi everyone, hope you're all getting on okay! Easter totally messed up my routine and I found that really difficult, so yesterday I had to really work to get everything back to some kind of baseline. I've been feeling really creaky and old recently even though I'm only early 30s so I'm going to try incorporating stretching into my daily routine...we will see how it goes since it's yet another thing to attempt to do!

@SuspiciousLampshade I see what you mean about stretching: that feels energising.
Hopefully everyone is getting on ok.
I have someone coming round tomorrow so I need to vacuum and tidy up! I am quite good at putting things away in their allocated area, but they accumulate!
I have a lodger and his room is a tip, 🤣 so I have to suggest that 'if' he has anything on the floor, he picks it up so that I can clean.

How are we all doing?

Middling... or muddling! I find that a deadline eg someone coming round works for me.

How are you doibg @Springingintolife and @JewelleryCat ?

Not doing so bad, some days are better than others but at least we’ve had some nice sunshine

Heya @JewelleryCat and @Calling and anyone else still here :)

I'm doing okay thank you both. Better than when these threads began. I did have a bit of a meltdown after Easter and my daughter went to my mum's for two weeks and I gutted every corner of the house I could of useless stuff. I reorganised my whole life too, and everything seems a bit smoother now, and I know where things are at last. I also bought quite a few storage containers. I still don't keep on daily things amazingly, like teeth brushing, showering, making a proper healthy meal, exercising. But I am keeping better on top of laundry, putting it away, washing up, and having enough foods stocked up indoors to stop me buying take-away. Haven't had a take away for a couple of weeks, and haven't been having them as regularly, prior to that. So that's been a HUGE win for me. I don't think I could have done it all, without being accountable here and knowing other people were battling through it too, so I'm very grateful to you all for being here. I'm also journaling a bit more often and doing Duolingo more regularly.
I guess my next goal is to work on doing things regularly for myself, like brushing etc, rather than only doing things for the running of the house. Ah the self love, I've never quite mastered.

Sunshine is really helping!

@Springingintolife hello! Can I just say that its great news about your goals; I suppose that the clear out and organisation must have helped a lot. Yay for sunshine.

I have had a mixed time of it and stopped half way through filling a box for the charity shop, then just left it, for example, because I am holding into things too much. You are better than I am! This coming I intend to re-start.

I find it is easier to eat healthily in this warmer weather, with easy salads thrown together.
I now tue my hair back often, so its easy to brush. Just small things every day help.

Oh no, I'm not that great- I just had a collection for charity due to be picked up today and I went back through the box and took some things out! 😂

Hair tied back sounds like a win, along with those salads.

I think I'm done with the big jobs like decluttering now. Want to try and concentrate on the little day to day stuff like yoga, cooking a meal, getting some exercise in. Seem to be keeping on top of food shopping by forcing myself to go once a week, even though I hate it. I get picked up so that makes it easier, but there were weeks I would decline to go due to tiredness, now forcing myself to push past the tiredness because I know the full cupboards help with the rest of the week.

Getting cravings under control for fast food, I think will help me next with the cooking.

Hope everyone is doing their best.

@Springingintolife that all sounds encouraging. 🙂 I have a rule of never buying fast food, cakee, refusing biscuits and just being ready firm on that. I can be good like that, BUT I have slipped massively in that I am always late or doing things last minute now. I need to put my phone alarms on full blast. Agh!

@SuspiciousLampshade that is a great idea about doing stretches. How is that going? I could incorporate stretches into my daily life easily. Thanks.

How’s everyone doing? Been a couple of months since we checked in with each other. How’s everyone coping in the heat? I don’t do well in the heat at all, I can’t wait until it’s a cooler temperature and I wrap up in a blanket, I love doing that

Is it ok if I join the thread? I'm pretty sure I'm ADHD too, always bored, restless, yet at the same time struggle with being active, zero motivation. I tend to waste hours on my phone. It's made worse by the fact my dp is a runner, half marathons etc which makes me feel even worse 😣 we're like one extreme vs another. Plus I over-think like crazy.

Welcome 🙂 please do join. It’s quite quiet here but friendly too. Does anything like a list help you or a bit of a routine? So maybe “7am wake up, 7.15 make a cup of tea” etc, stuff like that?

Yes I used to get a lot of satisfaction setting myself tasks/goals, it's difficult to explain, for example I tend to throw myself into things but then quickly get bored and give up, I feel like I need new stimulus all the time, and then there are periods where I don't want to do ANYTHING apart from scroll on my phone for hours. I suppose at least then I don't have to think? I find my phone quite calming in an odd way 🤔

Could you put YouTube on the phone and clean to however long the music video is or whatever you like watching on YouTube or set a timer for 5 minutes and after 5 minutes, have 5 minutes rest then another 5 minutes on the timer etc

Hiya! It's been ages, maybe we can try and get this thread talking again :)

We're all so busy procrastinating I guess 🤣

I'm currently binge watching some TV. I find it hard to find that feeling of just getting up and doing some jobs each day and getting them done, but I like the idea above of having a list. I feel like I need a huge dopamine top up before I can get moving and doing things. My hair needs a good brush and cut and I'd love to get into a routine with food. I have managed to spend a good chunk of the last few months getting some heavy admin work completed though and getting some form of disability income setup for my hypermobility and brain fog.

I totally get that. I wonder what people with ADHD did to calm themselves before phones were a thing! I think I maybe did puzzles or read books as a child. Would be nice to get back into that.

If you like colouring, I can recommend a colouring app called happy colour. They have new pictures every day and a daily picture. Though it does depend on your preference for physical things versus apps lol. I do a wordsearch app too and easy games like match 3 games when I don’t want to have to think

Listening to something whilst tasking is a good suggestion! One of the weird things that happens all is that when my brain is super active at night I have all these good intentions and plans and then the next day I find it really hard to actually motivate myself. I'm also terrible with tv or movies it's like I have no patience or concentration, it drives dp mad as I can never sit through a movie 🙈

If not YouTube, maybe a podcast or audiobooks? Well some movies are very hard to concentrate on and that’s why I stick to the ones I love like true lies and die hard lol. I have others but they’re my main two and twister. That’s such a classic

Hi, I’m new to Mumsnet and was posting about a personal issue when I found this ND group 😃 I have undiagnosed ADHD (I work in SEND and have done on/off for 18 years, I’m also a qualified counsellor) so I’ve manage it myself however as I’ve got older it’s becoming a struggle (nearly 36!)

I wear headphones a lot and listen to music/audiobooks while doing the housework.
If I find a book I’m interested in I will sit and read the whole book so I save that for the weekend 😅

I will sometimes use a timer for jobs. I have Google calendar and EVERYTHING has to go in there, colour coordinated, with a reminder, else it doesn’t happen 😂

I stim\fidget but I’m not overly fidgety, it’s more internal. Unfortunately I sometimes struggle with Anxiety/Depression due to the continuous conveyor belt of thoughts/feeling I experience. However I usually manage to pull myself out of the hole and continue with life.

Currently hyper focused at work and struggling to step away when I’m at home.
I don’t have much down time as I finish work, do the school run and then dinner/bath/bed.

I’m interested to hear other people’s coping strategies - any advice welcome 😊

It does sound like you've got some really good strategies there. I haven't really found much other than learning slowly to massively lower my expectations of myself and not beat myself up for spending more time and money than a regular person would on managing my day. Like needing take aways and sorting things out at the last minute etc.

Takeaways is a good call, I get one every Friday but could do with one every night 😂