Hi there. Things have spiraled out of control lately, I don’t have a stable job at the moment and when I do, I mostly work from home.
I urgently need to establish some kind of routine and find a way to follow it. Productivity isn’t even the priority as I do have a good amount of free time. Problem is that I don’t use this boredom effectively at all.
I wanted to know if there are books/guides that could help ADHD people establish routines and how to keep them up. I’m autistic too, which means I greatly benefit from routine.
Thanks for any kind of advice!
For the most critical tasks, like taking my medication, I have what I like to call “sacred rituals”. These are things that must be done the same way at the same time, every time. They are “sacred” because nothing, and I mean absolutely nothing, comes before them.
When I get out of bed in the morning, the first thing I do as soon as my feet hit the floor is take my daytime meds. Nothing else is permitted before that. At 7:00 PM sharp, I stop whatever I’m doing and go take my night time meds. To me, these are rules, not simply suggestions. If I break these rules, I WILL forget.
To manage everything else, one of my “sacred rituals” is that if it’s going to happen, as in I’m going to do it, it has to be written in “the book”. If it’s not written in the book, I’m not going to do it. “The Book” is a leather bound planner that runs my entire life. If it’s something I need to get done, I write it in the book, do it, and check it off.
I guess it’s kind of ironic that a software engineer relies on pen and paper to run his life but I’ve been doing it that way for a long time and it does the job.
thanks! As you work with computers - how do you manage working from home (in case you have experience with that) It is something really hard for me to deal with when I don’t have the spacial separation thanks again for you answer :)
I actually do work from home. I’m fortunate to have a dedicated office. It would be very difficult to get anything done without it. Mostly because my wife and I also have little kids who constantly want to know what ‘dad’ is up to. If you can’t find a quiet place at home, do you have access to a local library? Coffee shop? Any place where familiar distractions are minimal and it’s quiet enough to get things done? Honestly, if I’m just not feeling it on a given day, sometimes I like to go down to my favorite cigar bar for a smoke and a beer while I’m working. Just the change of scenery helps shake the mental cobwebs out.