ADHD Experiment #8: Weekly Calibration Part 1
Big Fail
Welcome to the very first letter of Chaotically Consistent! I’m super stoked that this is the topic of the first letter because it’s a concept I’m really excited about.
For anyone who doesn’t know, I’m Savannah, the personal trainer with ADHD. I started this newsletter because I really enjoy creating/experimenting with processes/systems to make life easier for my brain, and I wanted to start sharing what I’ve been learning. Let’s get into it!
So what even is a “Weekly Calibration”?
The purpose of my Weekly Calibration Process will be to set myself up for the week ahead, while simultaneously optimizing my rest on the weekend. Yes I do think fun names for systems matter.
Why bother?
Setting up a system is a lot of fucking work. So why do I want put myself through that?
Because I’m tired.
Every week it seems has one of 2 outcomes:
I either try to “set myself up” and end up doing some form of work all flippin’ weekend. So when I’m supposed to start work on Sunday (I work Sunday to Thursday) I feel absolutely drained because I haven’t actually rested at all.
OR
I decide to “relax” which anyone with ADHD will know is really a guilt ridden 2 days where I try to ignore all the thoughts that I should be doing something to prepare. Even if I do manage to actually rest, the work week is massively scattered and unproductive because I didn’t set anything up on the weekend.
And I think that’s bullshit. Just because I can’t manage to do this shit on autopilot doesn’t mean I have to sit and suffer. So I’m determined to create a process for myself that sets me up for the week, AND optimizes my rest on the weekend.
DISCLAIMER: I do believe that learning to actually rest is a skill that needs to be practiced. I have a little bit of practice, but I believe having this system set up will allow me to get even better at resting effectively. That’s probably the subject of another experiment.
Eventually I want the process to take as little time as possible (ideally a single day, maybe split into 2 parts). I want to create the flexibility to use this not only for weekends, but also for holidays and vacations. Having a process to do before leaving or taking multiple days off will allow for more mental relaxation and will make coming back easier to handle.
This whole idea was sparked by Thanksgiving weekend actually. The work week after that SUCKED and that was the final straw for me.
For now it will have to be sort of a strict process until I work out the kinks. Then I can really work on the flexibility aspect.
Set up
I knew that when left unsupervised I find a million things I “have to get done”. Spoiler alert: most of them actually don’t matter. So I started off by listing all the things I actually do have to get done on a weekly basis. And here’s the important part: I made sure none of them had anything to do with new projects. Everything is maintenance only.
In the little tool I made to go along with this I broke everything down into individual steps to give me a real clear idea, but here’s a condensed version of the list:
Laundry
Errands
Including grocery shopping
Weekly Review
A digital clean up basically. I track expenses, clear out emails, organize my calendar, meal plan for the following week, etc.
NOTE: This process was solidified in place before even thinking about the Weekly Calibration. I wouldn’t try to figure both out at the same time. Honestly kinda wish I’d thought of Weekly Calibration first but ¯\*(ツ)*/¯ ya win some ya lose some.
Meal prep
Clean the house
Dishes
Normally would be done daily, but I don’t have a kitchen right now because of a leak so dishes have to be done by hand in a bathroom sink and are a separate beast
Self care tasks
I wanted to schedule time for weekly basis self care things like cutting my nails and stuff so I don’t forget and have to do it during the week
In the first version of the list I had:
the tasks
their status
date last completed (because some things can be skipped but I wanna know if I’ve skipped them for too long)
and how long each one takes (which I ultimately got rid of because I totally forgot to keep track of it anyway, BUT might be a helpful idea for some)
All that was left was for me to test it. Considering I set up the protocol Thursday morning (the day the thing was supposed to start), I was already doomed to fail.
Run 1
Here’s everything I can remember that went wrong
Didn’t do anything Thursday night to get started
Had a doctors appointment scheduled Friday morning
Tried to go grocery shopping and do my meal prep on the same day (Friday)
Meal prep didn’t start until around 1500 (3pm)
Ended up having to make a second trip to the grocery store because I forgot stuff
Did not try to clean up dishes as I prepped
Had to finish prep Saturday
Which was a slow cooker meal, easy enough to make but a pain in the ass to store because it took FOREVER to cool down. I didn’t finish until like 2200 (10pm) that night
My Weekly Review took at least 3 hours because I kept getting distracted by fixing pieces of it
Dishes took an HOUR AND A FREAKING HALF
Not really my fault but a fact nonetheless so it needs to be considered
Didn’t get to cleaning AT ALL
Barely got through my self care tasks, which this week was literally just cutting my nails
Honestly probably more went wrong that I forgot about. But it was an absolute disaster.
What I learned and will be implementing
After run 1, I learned a few things from my failures. Here’s the changes I implemented:
Weekly review needs to be capped at 1 hour
It is very easy for time to slip away from me during this process. I easily get caught up in changing structures of tools or diving deep into ideas emails sparked or a million other possibilities.
So I put mandatory things at the top of list (tracking finances, meal planning, etc.), and marked ones that are ok to skip if time runs short
I also added in a new rule: I’m not allowed to make any tool changes during that time. I gotta schedule them in somewhere else
Only do 2 meal preps instead of 3
One of these days I’ll explain my meal prep system in full. Long story short, I make huge batches of stuff and freeze it. Over time I end up with my own little freezer section like at the grocery store
BUT it’s also easy for me to go overboard. So new rule: only prep one breakfast option and one dinner option (I make like 20 servings and dinner options are also used as lunch options, I promise I’ll explain it more in a future letter because it’s a system I’m really proud of)
Grocery shopping needs to happen Thursday not Friday
I don’t think this would have been as much of a problem if grocery shopping was the only thing we did Friday morning. But having to wait to start meal prep until like 1500 (3pm) because of how long errands went did NOT work out at all
So for next week, grocery shopping was scheduled for Thursday after work
I also considered possibly cutting veggies Thursday night to have ready for prep on Friday
Starting prep earlier in the morning
I decided that next week I needed to be able to start meal prep Friday morning, no later than like 1200 if I was going to finish at a reasonable time
Doing most of the dishes Friday and attempting to clean them as I use them instead of letting them pile
This one doesn’t need much explanation. And really won’t be a factor in the final product because hopefully we get a kitchen back at some point.
Leaving Saturday mostly empty to relax before starting work on Sunday
Having Saturday full of crap before starting work on Sunday was NOT the move. I felt terrible. So next week the plan was to do everything in my power to keep Saturday as clear as I could
Conclusion
Overall, rough freaking start. But honestly I expected nothing less. As messy as it was, it clearly showed me a lot of rough spots to plan for and adjust.
One of the most annoying parts about a system like this is since it’s a weekly process I can’t do it every day to work on refining it. I have to wait for the next week to roll around.
But I feel very hopeful about the discoveries I made. Not that next week will be perfect. Far from it. But I know how I want to move forward.
I’m going to leave this one here because it’s getting way too long to hold even my attention. Can’t imagine what you guys are feeling. I know it’s a bit of a cliffhanger. I am actively writing about how week 2 went and plan on sending it out next week! So keep your eyes open for part 2 of ADHD Experiment #8!
Savannah
