As you near the end of the planner year, it's the right time to reflect on two questions: What is working for me now? What needs work in the coming year? Take a moment to reflect on the skills you worked on over the year. Executive functioning skills included exercises on: list making (to-do and done lists), chunking information, habit bundling, anticipating anxiety, planning out a year, color coding, self-care, prioritization, structuring your day. Think back on the skills, exercises, and organization in the planner that worked for you – maybe there’s a trick you picked up on that worked really well for your brain, your life, your household. It’s amazing what our brains can do, and frankly, how silly...
What would your day look like if it ran perfectly? Pick a weekday, weekend, or a work day. Think through the day: What time would you wake up? How long would it take for you to get out of bed, what would you do first? Would you check your phone, or would you get up and go for a walk? What about stretching when you wake up? What would you eat or drink to fuel yourself? How would your body feel with your choices? When would you ready yourself for the day and what would be the best way to go about it? Now think through the productive part of the day - would you work or work out? Would...
Revisiting: Plan for the long term. Macro-level thinking is long-term and big goal-focused. Micro-level thinking is the small steps that build a foundation towards the bigger goal. These close-up, detailed views are important because they help you make lists, check off to-do’s, and make slow, steady progress. Now that you are further along in the year, have learned about micro and macro level planning, you can add more context to your plans: When planning your long-term project, use these two different levels/views to set milestones and keep yourself on track. Start with the macro view. Find today’s date and mark it as your starting point. Mark the date your project is due or when you want to accomplish your goal. Check how...
Color coding is like "brain candy" for people with attention and focus issues because it taps into the brain's attraction to visual stimuli, offering a simple yet effective way to organize information, stay focused, and manage tasks. How information is organized and presented profoundly affects our brain’s ability to process that information. It can affect how quickly we can understand the information or how well we can remember it. Take these two lists as an example, which list would help you structure your time better? To Do's: Email family about party Unload the dishwasher make dinner fold laundry pack tomorrow's lunches lay out kids clothes Check tomorrow's schedule Load and start dishwasher To Do's: Email family about party Unload the dishwasher...
Plan for the long term. When you need to tackle a large project or have a big goal you want to accomplish, it can be helpful to understand the difference between a macro-view and a micro-view of the tasks involved. What must get done now? And what can wait? Understanding macro and micro can help us prioritize when there’s too much to be done at one time. Macro-level thinking is long-term and big goal-focused: completing a year of school, renovating a room, and completing a large work project. These things take focus on the long-term. Micro-level thinking is the small steps that build a foundation towards the bigger goal. These close-up, detailed views are important because they help you make...