ADHD Experiment #10: Recharge Protocol
Because Google has been no help
Because Google has been no help
You ever try to look up, “how to relax”?
Go for a walk, they say. Paint a picture, they say.
But it seems like I can’t find any explanation on what it really means to rest and recharge.
The internet is full of “how to be more productive”, but no one seems to answer “how to rest better”.
Resting (or lack of) can be a huge limiting factor in people’s lives and growth. It should 100% be prioritized and deemed necessary.
Yet, in a world of trying to increase productivity, improving rest is maybe the most underutilized route.
I have a theory that’s because rest isn’t something that happens naturally for most.
And if there’s one thing I’ve learned since working on improving my life with ADHD, it’s that the brain cannot be left unsupervised or with unclear instructions. And “relax” is about as unclear as it can get.
Rather I think it’s a skill. One that can be cultivated and refined. On that’s vital for growth.
So I’m gonna figure it out.
I thought I had too much going on to rest.
Trying to keep up with weekly chores, work, school, you get it.
Any time I had a chance to take a breather all I had energy for was sitting on the couch, on my phone, with a show I’ve seen 27 times playing on the TV. The crazy thing is looking back I think I did that rather frequently. I felt like I had no time to rest but I’m pretty sure that was a weekly (even close to daily) occurrence.
With everything else being chaotic it was easy to find excuses to rot my time away. But in the last couple months I decided I didn’t like feeling that way. I wanted to figure out how to actually feel rested.
So I tackled what I thought was the main issue and created my Weekly Calibration.
A process to help me make sure all the usual weekend responsibilities (cleaning, meal prepping, laundry, etc.) were taken care of without eating up 2 days.
For those of you who joined more recently you can read all about what Weekly Calibration is more specifically and my trials with setting it up in the Chaotic Archives on my site.
Weekly Calibration helped a lot. It’s not perfect (my processes never are because I think of small changes frequently), but it’s helped me confine my chores to about half a day.
But it also showed me one glaring problem:
I don’t actually know how to rest.
With the extra time I freed up I found myself either finding more chores/work to do until I really did run out of time, or right back on the couch like I did for all those years.
I will say I don’t think this problem is as deeply rooted as my sleep problems (you can also read about my current sleep experiment on my site, it’s going quite well). But it’s definitely at least 7 or 8 years old. For reference, at the time I’m writing this I’m 26. I left home at 18 to join the military so that’s likely when/how it started.
I also want to say I fully know this is a first world problem. Not knowing how to rest is 100% a problem I’m very lucky to be able to focus on. But I also don’t think that makes it asinine.
Lack of rest is starting to limit my growth in other areas.
Lack of quality rest means I don’t feel recharged.
So I have less overall energy.
Making basic maintenance much harder to keep up with.
Resulting in things required to grow feeling impossibly difficult.
See what I mean?
So time to build a rest skill
I’ll be perfectly honest, I have no idea where this experiment is going to go. I have some audiobooks lined up on rest to see what I can learn. I also have a list of questions I aim to answer (which will almost definitely change as time goes on btw):
Obviously, how do I relax?
What does that mean for me?
How do I know when I’ve “fully recharged”?
What kinds of activities help me do that?
How long do I need on a weekly or daily basis?
Can I build a flexible practice that allows me to reliably rest and recharge when I need it?
For now, I’m setting something up as a starting point based off what I already know.
I know that spending all my off time scrolling or watching TV makes me feel like shit (not morally btw just like mentally sluggish, it’s important to me to keep morality out of it).
On the flip side of that, I know that I really struggle to stick with what I call analog hobbies (or acoustic hobbies if you will). I’m willing to bet it’s because I’m so used to getting such a massive amount of dopamine from just sitting on my phone that anything requiring effort feels like too much effort.
I know those analog hobbies require persistence in order to refine the skills associated with them. And the whole idea of enjoying hobbies is to enjoy that refinement.
But I know that all my attempts to integrate those hobbies right off the bat into my everyday life have failed.
And finally, I know with my time management skills if I try to confine this experiment to only an hour or two in the beginning it will get completely missed over and over again.
So here’s the experiment
I will set aside 8-12 hours (for now) of one day a week to be a recharge day. And that day will be split into 3 parts. They are scheduled in the day based off the concept of mental entropy, something I first heard from the creator Dan Koe.
Entropy means chaos. And mental entropy changes throughout the day. For myself, mental entropy is lowest in the morning. During this 2-4 hour window (sometimes less, sometimes more) is it much easier for me to focus and have control over the monkey brain, so to speak. In the evening the monkey brain is much stronger.
💡 NOTE: My focus hours are something I have continually developed and practiced over time. It was not something I starting magically doing. It’s not easy and it’s not a cure for ADHD. It takes work, but is very worth it. When I started I capped out at around 10 minutes. Total. Per day. If you’re interested in hearing about how I did/do this, reply to this email with “Focus” and if I get 5 I’ll write out a newsletter on it. BUT again this is not a cure and is not a replacement for psychological or medical advice. Just how I went about it.
Forge time (previously development time but forge sounds cooler): Time to refine and develop skills I want.
Time dedicated to things I know don’t give the biggest dopamine hit, but only because I’m not good at them or haven’t worked on enjoying the growth process with them yet.
Things I crave spending time on but have difficulty because of the level of dopamine I’m used to with scrolling and binging TV. Drawing, playing music, wood working, you get it.
This time is scheduled for the first part of the day when mental entropy is lowest. Making it much less likely to be skipped.
Chaos time: Time to let the brain run wild.
Following random research rabbit holes, making plans for a new hobby (or new plans for an old hobby), building a Notion tool I’ve been thinking about, literally whatever is sparking the brain that day.
This time is scheduled second. When mental entropy is getting a bit higher, but I want to let the brain run a while off leash before settling into rot time. This is usually the time I get my best ideas.
Rot time: Time to let the brain be mush.
Video games, scrolling, TV, etc.
Just because I don’t want these to take up all my time doesn’t mean I want to give them up entirely. I fully believe they have a place in a balanced Recharge Protocol just like chips and ice cream do in a diet. If I don’t structure it in, it will lead to binges, guilt, ignoring the other times, and not actually resting (ask me how I know).
Naturally this falls in the evening when my mental entropy is highest. On work days, at this point my brain is usually (intellectually satisfied) mush from exercising it in the morning. I notice days where I had a quality chunk of work time I feel mentally tired, but not mentally sluggish. Which I believe to be an important difference. It’s when I feel like this I expect rot time to be the most beneficial in relaxing.
This all seems a bit extra
I know I know. Setting up a framework to rest seems unnecessary. And like a lot.
But here’s the thing.
For me, I know if I don’t have a clear goal in mind for resting, I’m just going to resort back to TV and scrolling.
At the time this experiment was introduced even video games were difficult for me to pick up because they require just slightly more effort than scrolling.
(For the record, when I started this experiment I theorized that this would change over time and it’s starting to which is so cool. I’m starting to crave video games over my phone. Huge step in the right direction.)
I’d like to reiterate that scrolling and TV are totally fine if that’s what you legitimately like.
But I’ve proven to myself time and time again that those things do not make me feel good or rested.
I have strong cravings to do more with my time. I crave creation and growth and skill refinement because I think activities like that are the most fun especially in the long run.
Things like drawing, playing instruments, yoga, etc..
The struggle is those things don’t give the immediate dopamine hit that screens do, so it’s tough to get myself to do them consistently. Consistently enough to build the skill to the point that it’s rewarding anyway.
I’ve done many experiments in the past trying to implement those types of things into my daily life. And they’ve all failed.
Looking back, part of the problem was my weekly maintenance requirements being a bit unmanageable, sure. But I think the bigger problem was I expected to just enjoy those things right off the bat. Even though my idea of a fun weekend at the time was staring at 1-2 glowing boxes for 12 hours straight.
Here’s what I think is gonna happen
If you didn’t catch it, there’s a few points this experiment is aiming at.
Learning what rest really means for me (what it feels like and how to do it).
Improving enjoyment and time spent on analog hobbies (moving away from screens a bit).
Understanding when and how much I need to rest to best support my mental state.
And so there’s a few things I hypothesize will happen:
I’ll be more in control of my rest
The more I consistently initiate Recharge Protocol, the more I’ll understand how I rest
The easier it will get to rest on command.
I’ll understand better when I need specific types of rest.
Like if I had a mentally demanding week maybe I’ll feel better with more chaos and rot time to let my mind off leash. Or if it was a very emotionally demanding week more forge time will help me take my mind off it all. Who knows ¯\(ツ)/¯ but I would love the ability to further tailor my rest days to what I specifically need at the time
It’ll take less time to effectively recharge
Note: this is not the main goal at all. But I do want to develop some flexibility in maintaining my feeling of being recharged. I won’t always be able to dedicate a whole day every week. For now I just need that time to work on understanding the concept of rest better.
As I increase time spent on more mentally demanding (analog) hobbies they’ll be easier to stick to.
I wasn’t fair to my past self by expecting to just enjoy these hobbies right off the bat. It’s difficult to immediately and fully enjoy something that requires developing a skill. So that is why these hobbies will be scheduled in forge time no matter what. If I don’t schedule time to get better at them, they’ll get neglected. I understand I won’t always want to. Which again, is why they’re schedule for the first part of the day.
Here’s how I think it’ll go down: as I give more time to these hobbies, the better I’ll get (because that’s what happens when you practice consistently), the more I’ll start to enjoy the act of getting better, and the easier it’ll be to work on them long term.
This guess isn’t made blindly either. This process is how I learned to exercise consistently and to enjoy cooking consistently
Gaming will be used as a transition to analog hobbies
I think that spending rot time on video games is going to have a similar effect. Rot time is scheduled for when mental entropy is highest for me, when I have a harder time pushing myself to do things. So by filling that time with something that gives a high amount of dopamine, but still requires a little bit of mental effort, I’m working on enjoying effort more and more. Remember, my default is scrolling while watching a comfort show. So gaming requires comparatively more effort than what I’m used to.
This part of the process is already in the works and I’ve already noticed improvements. I’m starting with games I know I’ll like, kinda like choosing a comfort show. But my plan is to work on integrating new games more and more as time goes on to really work on building that enjoyment of effort.
From there what I suspect will happen is the craving to put in effort will spread to other areas. Until I’m craving analog hobbies more than digital hobbies. Not automatically, but by choosing what aspects of the hobbies I’m focusing on improving.
Not that I’ll completely ditch scrolling and TV. I just don’t want to rely on it to relax because it doesn’t feel great. Kinda like how I don’t want to eat chocolate cake every day. It tastes really good but too much over time and I’m gonna feel sluggish.
I’m very intrigued to see how this experiment changes and shifts as I learn more about what I actually need. I’m also looking forward to finally using all the hobby supplies I’ve bought over the years on a consistent basis.
I’m thinking of changing up how I send out stuff on my experiments because I realized I am not great about keeping you guys in the loop lol. I evaluate how experiments are going every Thursday (my Friday). So I’m thinking of sending out a short summary every Thursday with what I was focusing on for the week, what I learned/am gonna change, ending on my focuses for the upcoming week.
If you’re interested in seeing more in depth how I move through my experiments like this lmk. I read all emails. I’ll probably do it regardless if anyone wants it or not because I like talking about it but I want to hear your thoughts anyway.
But that’s all for this one. Until next time.
-Savannah
Thank you so much for reading the Chaotically Consistent Newsletter! I’m Savannah, the personal trainer with ADHD. I started this newsletter because I enjoy creating and experimenting with processes and systems to make life easier for my brain, and I like sharing what I learn. If you’ve ever wished that you had help setting up systems in the 4 main pillars of health; exercise, nutrition, sleep, and rest, then stay tuned because I have an exciting announcement coming soon!
How I Meal Prep With ADHD Part 2
Steps 2-4
Here’s part 2 with steps 2-4! If you missed part 1 you can find that here where I discuss the benefits of setting this system up along with a detailed description of step 1. Let’s jump into step 2!
Shopping
Like I said in my thread, unfortunately there’s only so much I can do about going out in public.
BUT there are a plethora of ADHD taxes you can pay to help, such as grocery delivery or even grocery pick up. But for all the produce control freaks like me here’s 2 things you can do.
Have a dedicated shopping day
In our house it’s changed a few times but lately it has been Thursday afternoons.
I don’t think the actual day matters too much, we mainly chose Thursday so we don’t have to leave the house all weekend.
But I do know I will never have Sunday be my shopping day. At least around here that’s the store’s busy day and I like to avoid crowds as much as possible.
The added benefit of having a set shopping day is you can put a recurring calendar event or reminder in your phone so there’s less mental energy involved with actually remembering to go. After a few weeks it at least for myself, it started to feel more routine.
Plus with a set day for it it’s almost easier for me to mentally prepare to go. Versus if I look in the fridge on a random Tuesday and realize there’s no food then the demand avoidance kicks in hard and dragging myself to the store nearly empties my energy budget for the week.
Organize shopping list by section
This really helps eliminate going back and forth across the store because your list is all jumbled up.
It also really helps decrease the mental load of looking at the list and trying to make sure you get everything in the section you’re in before moving on.
And then probably having to go back anyway because you’re eyes skimmed over “bread” that was between “carrots” and “milk”.
More bonus points if your sections are ordered by how you usually go through the store.
For us we usually hit produce first, then meats, then the center isles before making our way to frozen and dairy. We move one direction. We hardly ever have to backtrack. And we hardly ever forget anything as long as it’s on the list.
This is something that my tool does and it’s also got a mobile friendly page so you never have to worry about forgetting your shopping list on the counter again. As long as you remember to take at least your phone.
Cooking
Cooking can be another mental (and sometimes physical) nightmare. Countless times I’ve slaved away for 7+ hours on meal prep, draining every ounce of mental effort I have making sure all the recipes turn out right and absolutely decimating my feet and back.
And I was totally sick of it.
Unfortunately again there’s only so much you can do about the actual cooking itself. But there are some things you can put in place to lighten the load, and I can vouch they make a huge difference. I only spend max around 3-4 hours prepping now and that’s on a long day. All of these I’ve found through trial and error FYI so you may have different ones or even more.
Know your limits
From experience I know I can’t make a breakfast, lunch, dinner, and snacks every single week.
I mean I technically am physically capable, and I’ve done it before.
But it takes forever, is completely exhausting, and I usually need a day or two to recover afterwards. And I just don’t find that an effective use of my time.
Like I said earlier, I find it’s so much easier (on the mind and body) to make a lot of a few things rather than a little of many things.
Designate a prep day
This has similar benefits to having a specific shopping day. You can again set up recurring reminders (probably set for just after the shopping reminders).
And with a set day you can mentally prepare yourself for it.
Plus after you experiment a bit and get a feel for how you physically and mentally handle meal prep you can play around with picking days that best support you.
Maybe you feel best if you have a day off before prepping.
Maybe you’re more consistent when you have a day off after prepping.
Maybe you like prepping immediately after grocery shopping or you need to put them on different days.
I thought I was a different day gal but with my system in it’s simplest form I don’t mind prepping on the same day I shop. Depending on the recipe. I won’t start a slow cooker recipe at 1700 for example. But I may precut the veggies for it or something. Which leads me to…
Plan steps ahead of time
The complexity of this is determined by the complexity of your recipes. And the less recipes you have the easier this is.
For example let’s say the lunch/dinner option I have for the week is stir fry (don’t forget I always do breakfast chicken). My plan for prep day would look something like this:
Start breakfast chicken first so it has time to cool before freezing
preheat oven
line pan
oil and season chicken
start baking (and take out whenever it’s done to cool)
While that’s baking, chop veggies for stir fry
Make the sauce
Lay out all ingredients next to the stove in the order that I’ll use them
One of my favorite cooking hacks, helps prevent the mental scramble of trying to find what I need
Make stir fry on the stove (I don’t have the recipe next to me but you get it)
Transfer to freezing molds to cool
Move breakfast chicken to a bag once cooled and freeze
Move stir fry to freezer once cold as well
You can see how that would easily get more complicated the more recipes you have to deal with.
There is absolutely no shame in doing one recipe entirely before moving onto the next and so on. I just like to keep meal prep as short as possible.
The way I kinda structure my steps is I like to think of the recipes that will take the longest (either to cook or cool) and do those first.
If my lunch/dinner was slow cooker chili I would’ve started that in it’s entirety before even looking at breakfast chicken.
If the recipes seem about the same then I’ll try and cut all veggies/meats needed for all recipes to get it knocked out.
Then I’ll look at cooking methods. I usually start anything that needs the oven before I start anything on the stove. Because as long as I set a timer I can do other things while stuff is in the oven but stove stuff usually requires more attention.
Of course there are some ADHD taxes to make all this easier. Buying precut veggies and meat is a fantastic option which I use quite frequently. Cutting veggies is usually my longest step so I like anything that helps cut down on that time.
Storing
Here is where this system shines. In the past I’d only use the fridge to store my meal preps, which is totally fine if that works for you.
But my struggle came when I felt like I had to eat the preps I made for that day, so the demand avoidance kicked in along with the ick, and then like half of my preps would go bad because I couldn’t make myself eat them without gagging.
The pressure to eat something within the week of making it because that’s how long it lasts in the fridge is way too much for me. It took me quite a while to realize that was a problem of mine, but once I did I decided to start freezing everything.
Not that things don’t go bad in the freezer, they definitely do. But having the span of a month (more often like 3 or 4) to eat something drastically reduced the pressure for me and helped make eating actually enjoyable. Which is very important to me.
And by making things that can be frozen, whatever doesn’t get eaten week 1 can be options for following weeks. This is how I can meal prep one thing but eat different things throughout the week.
The other added benefit is if you decide you want to cook something fresh with all that energy you saved from simplifying meal prep, you absolutely can. No guilt for not eating what you already made because you can just eat it at a later date.
This happens in my house a lot.
We’ll prep for the week, but for whatever reason inspiration strikes and I want to try making a new recipe just for one night. Or we both get cravings for Lo Mein so we decide to go out. Again, no guilt for not eating what we prepped.
That really is the core of this system.
The point isn’t to lock you into a strict meal plan for the week. The point is to prep some food ahead of time so you always have something nutritious available when you need it.
I like to think of it as creating my own little grocery store frozen meal section but way cheaper.
I recognize that not everyone has access to a large freezer so space can be limited. But even keeping 3 or 4 meals on hand even if it’s just for a couple dinners can make a huge difference in reducing mental load.
Particularly on days where you have very low energy and taking that time to really rest will help recharge you faster.
Freezing in single serve molds is my favorite way to go now. But if you don’t have access to them they are absolutely not required.
When I first started taking full advantage of my freezer we full on just used Ziplock bags and those cheap plastic meal prep containers from Wal Mart. I think for a long time I also just used those really big silicone ice cube trays, also from Wal Mart. Those work really well for sauces and soups and stuff.
So how tf do you implement this?
For a brief recap, here’s my system:
I meal plan and make my list on Fridays
We shop the following Thursday
I make anywhere from 6-20 servings of one recipe for breakfasts and of one recipe for lunches and dinners
Numbers are based on math I did for how many servings my bf and I roughly need for 1-2 weeks
I freeze everything in single serve molds
I wanted to touch on implementation, because I know that trying to add in all of these steps at once is a lot.
I do not recommend entirely ditching what you do now right off the bat.
Instead start by making slow shifts.
Maybe once a week you start of with just practicing meal planning and getting a shopping list together.
After that feels good, then you can start by making a small amount of 1 thing to freeze. Something that you just keep on hand for low energy days.
Keep adding in small steps over the weeks and before you know it you’ll have a full inventory of freezer meals on hand, you only cook for sustenance 1 day a week, and you have so much extra mental capacity to do whatever you want with.
I will never lie to you guys and say setting up a system is a piece of cake. It’s not. It takes a lot of work. But unlike the work it takes to just embrace the suck and deal with things how they are, the work put into setting up a system is 100% an investment that pays back crazy amounts of energy in the long run.
In addition, this process won’t work for everyone.
I would not be surprised if I am one of the only people that every part of this system works for. And that’s ok.
My hope with sharing this system is that you guys can take parts and experiment with them to find what works for you. Maybe you take and change other parts or maybe you leave them out. Maybe you combine it with other things you’ve tried in the past. This is not “the ultimate meal prep system.” It’s just the one I like best right now.
In fact it even changes for me constantly.
Lately I’ve been enjoying cooking, so I put less emphasis on making sure I make all the servings on prep day or stick with my criteria for picking recipes.
The point of setting up a system like this isn’t to confine you to a box that you stay in forever.
The point is to provide a safety net that you can fall back on when you need to.
I feel good lately in cooking many days out of the week. Even trying long and complex recipes because I enjoy them. I also am really interesting in getting into gardening and processing a lot of stuff I grow myself. When I get into that this system is going to have to change to accommodate that.
I also know that I will hit another low energy period. They always happen because that’s life. And I know that when that happens I can come back to this system to make sure I have good nutritious food on hand without having to expend all the energy I have available during those times.
Because honestly, for myself I’ve found that one of the fastest ways out of low energy points is to rest. And that’s real hard to do if I have to expend all my energy making sure I’m fed.
But that’s all I have for this absolute novel. Thank you so much for reading and I sincerely hope it helps you guys ease some of the mental load around getting fed! Until next time!
-Savannah
How I Meal Prep With ADHD Part 1
Because I can’t photosynthesize yet
Because I can’t photosynthesize yet
This week I’m breaking down my meal prep system in detail! Even though eating is required for survival it is one of the great nuisances of my life. So I created a way to make sure I do it regularly without completely draining my energy bank.
Some quick admin stuff:
Thank you all so much for your patience, I know I promised this one a while ago. It was an absolute BEAST to write. I amaze myself with how much I have to say sometimes.
As a result I’m splitting this into 2 parts because let’s be honest, I have a decent idea of what y’alls attention span is and I want this letter to be actually helpful.
So part 1 will cover all the benefits of setting up a system, a broad overview of how I set mine up, and a detailed description of the first step. It’s the longest and takes the most mental energy, so frankly it kinda deserves it’s own letter.
Part 2 will be steps 2-4 and discuss a bit about implementation. It’s scheduled to go out in 2 days to give you guys a chance to play around with step 1.
Ok, back to it ⬇️
I feel like I see a lot of things claiming to be “The last meal prep system you’ll ever need” or “The only right way to meal prep”. I’ll tell you now that’s not how this letter is going to be.
Frankly I think it’s possible that this system in it’s entirety may not work for anyone EXCEPT me. But convincing you to use my system is not the point of this letter.
My hope is that my system gives you some ideas to improve (or even create) your own system.
I hope that you pick it apart, take what sounds good to you, and experiment to create something that keeps you well fed without eating up all your mental capacity.
The benefits I’ve gotten from creating a meal prep system that works for me have been astronomical.
I cook once a week
Obviously one main benefit of meal prep in general is cooking one day a week. I realized this aspect was important to me a long time ago when I used to tell myself I was just gonna wing it that week for lunches and dinners.
The mental load was stupid high for coming up with meals on the spot, making the actual cooking feel even more daunting. Daunting enough that I would frequently resort to chips (or even nothing) for dinner because I didn’t want to deal with the thinking.
For the record I’m not saying chips for dinner is the worst thing in the world. Fed is best. BUT I can’t ignore how physically terrible I would feel and I don’t think just because I deal with executive functioning challenges means I should just suck it up.
I rarely allow food to go bad
This benefit is like a two for one.
It saves money.
And it really lowers the mental load associated with trying to eat everything in time before it goes bad.
I honestly think that a lot of the high cost we see with eating healthy comes from food going bad too fast rather than the actual cost of the food itself.
Unless you buy snacks marketed as health food. Or organic. Which I do not. I know, sue me.
In general produce is relatively cheap. The issue is it just goes bad so fast. Even faster when it takes 1-2 business weeks to build up enough executive function points to actually use them.
This fact was one huge driver for me to create a system that prevents this from happening.
I’m a huge fan of paying the ADHD tax up front if it’s available, which helps a lot.
Buying chopped carrots, pre-minced garlic, the sliced and washed mushrooms, etc.
I don’t absolutely love it, as I’d really like to use as little plastic as I can and save that money eventually. But paying the ADHD tax is the most sustainable for me for now. My hope is eventually I’ll learn to free up energy in other areas to dedicate more to cooking.
Meats are on the more expensive side but again that’s why having a system to prevent things going bad is so important.
And all that doesn’t even account for the mental load of eating traditional meal prep.
Raise your hand if you worked your ass off to make 7 breakfasts, lunches, and dinners, landing you in ADHD paralysis jail for at least a day after, just to have the ick for everything you just made?
And then feeling massive pressure to eat it all anyway because you spent time and money on it and plus it just feels horrible to have food go to waste?
So the whole week is just full of mental turmoil where the guilt over letting food sit in the fridge wars with the sickening feeling of having to eat something you really don’t want to and that’s where all your available energy goes?
✋🏽
Yeah me too.
I easily get my protein and veggies
Now I will say I do crave protein and veggies. But I wasn’t always like this, it was something I had to work on.
The issue I was trying to solve with this system was the mental load associated with making sure I get them in.
Because let’s be honest, even cravings for healthy food can’t be the only thing that’s relied on to make sure they’re consumed, at least not with ADHD. I can barely rely on my hunger signals, let alone cravings.
Back when I would try and “wing it” I would always either have way too much of one or the other, or way too little. It was really difficult for me to create “balanced” meals. I mean I could. But the mental effort of doing so was a lot even for one night, let alone a whole week.
I don’t have to eat the same thing for 5 days straight
I’ll be totally real, I definitely eat the same thing for multiple days in a row sometimes.
BUT those are times where I’m just legitimately enjoying what I made. There is absolutely 0 pressure for me to eat everything within a week.
I believe that fact alone has made my apatite so much more regular.
I’m sure if you’ve meal prepped the usual way before you know what I’m talking about.
Just like I said above, you spend hours and hours making perfectly portioned meals for the whole week, but then by day 3 you’re really not feeling the now slightly suspicious looking chicken alfredo that’s been sitting in the fridge.
But you feel guilty for potentially wasting the food so you push through.
For a day.
And then the pressure the next few days make you not want to eat at all. And then stuff goes bad and you have to throw it out and all the bad feelings come up and you decide meal prep isn’t for you.
Yep I’ve been in that exact spot.
How?
(Remember: all of this is optional. You do not have to copy any of this step for step. This is just how I did it.)
When I was working on setting up this system I tried to think about all the things that I absolutely hated about cooking at home, and how I would fix them.
The first thing was feeling stressed about the entire process in general.
Trying to pick out meals, making the list, remembering to go shopping, and then remembering to use everything I bought, etc.
Also remembering to block out time to cook because for some reason my brain thinks everything should only take 5 minutes so when things took an hour I’d get stressed AF.
Every. single. week. I’d have to start from square one.
Organize all my thoughts and the steps, to the point that anything related to food took waaaayyy longer than it should, which again, stressed me tf out.
I broke everything down once and for all.
Then systemized as much as possible so my brain is responsible for as little as possible.
Here are the main steps:
Planning
Shopping
Cooking
Storing
There is a bonus 5th step that a wonderful creator on Threads pointed out which is cleaning up. I do plan on smoothing out this step to include it but have not had the chance to experiment with anything yet so I’ll only be including the first 4 in this letter.
Fair warning: setting up a system does take a lot of effort.
Going through the trial and error to find what works can be very draining.
But I am here to tell you that unlike the drain of just accepting how it is, the energy put into setting up a system is 100% an investment.
Planning - the mental nightmare
(This is the longest section because it takes the most mental energy. Stick with me, I promise it’s worth it)
I’ll reiterate what I said in my thread; I HATED this step before this system. I’m sure anyone who’s had to decide “what’s for dinner?” and then proceed to make a shopping list after can agree.
I swear that question is like that gadget in Men in Black. As soon as it get’s asked (doesn’t matter if it comes from someone else or myself) it’s like I forget anything I’ve ever eaten (let alone liked) ever.
To make this step easier on myself I picked it apart to find the specific parts I hated:
Trying to think about what kind of food I was “feeling”.
Having to Google breakfast, lunch and dinner recipes every week based on said feeling.
Sifting through said recipes to find what would actually be feasible for me to do.
Going through the mental gymnastics of writing a shopping list that isn’t missing anything.
This was the most draining part for me. I’d always either skim over something that was important or end up buying stuff I already had in the house no matter how many times I looked over the list.
It seriously felt like so much freaking effort and I’d dread it all week. Forcing myself to sit down and do all that felt like dragging myself across a bed of nails.
I fucking hated it.
And I was tired of how drained it left me.
You’re telling me this is how adult life is supposed to be? Being so drained from setting up basic survival needs that I hardly have energy for things I love?
Nah I don’t accept that. So here’s what I did to make this step easier.
I picked 1 day as a meal plan day
I put a weekly recurring reminder in my phone and made a point to sit down and meal plan no matter how I felt.
Yep that meant plenty weeks the meal plan was just a variation of chicken rice and broccoli or some sort of pasta, but I had to get that habit going to save my sanity.
I also dabbled a bit with meal planning monthly and have thought about trying to do quarterly or even yearly. But I think I’ll have to have some more structures in place if I ever want that to work.
Honestly, and surprisingly, weekly has worked pretty well for me so far.
I stick to a prep style
I am 100% sure that I have not tried all the possible styles out there.
As I’m writing this I Googled meal prep styles just to see what came up (and to make sure it can actually be looked up before I talk out of my ass) and there’s definitely some I haven’t given an honest effort to.
In the past I remember trying to do full meal preps (breakfast, lunch, dinner, and snacks) because I thought that was what meal prepping was.
I’ve done simple ingredient preps where I would just make some rice and chicken and use that in whatever.
Not a terrible option and it made prep really simple but I still really struggled with the mental load of deciding what to do with them when meal times rolled around.
Now I just like to make a huge batch of 2 things. For myself I’ve found that it’s easier to make a lot of a couple things than a little of many things.
I could probably get away with just doing a big batch of 1 thing but my absolute favorite breakfast is chicken, broccoli, and toast.
I know I know it sounds gross and I swear it’s not because of the whole chicken and broccoli gym stereotype. It’s literally because it’s the breakfast that makes me feel physically the best.
Plus it’s super easy to prep. We order diced chicken from the butcher (my favorite ADHD tax to pay because I hate touching raw chicken) and we bake it in a big batch. Then we freeze it in a bag and buy a big bag of frozen broccoli. In the mornings we pour a little bit of frozen chicken and a little bit of frozen broccoli into the air fryer and I’m eating in 8 minutes.
I make my own bread because I think it’s fun but I don’t think I’d recommend it for meal prep.
I’m really picky with my recipes
I think this may be the biggest contributor to making meal prep easier. The recipes I pick have to meet a certain criteria if I’m going to attempt to use it for a meal prep:
Needs to be freezable:
Recipes won’t always say if they’re freezable, but a lot of times you can go to the comments if you’re finding the recipe on Google and see if someone asked the question (hit ctrl + f and search for “freeze” to save time).
Or you can look at the recipe itself and with some experience you’ll be able to tell. For example I now know (from experience) that I cannot get many dairy related casseroles to freeze right. Cheesy pasta dishes do ok but I’ll never forget this one hashbrown thing that ended up as a watery, disgusting mess. Yeah you’re gonna fuck up recipes some times (or probably many times in the beginning) ¯\(ツ)/¯ it’s part of the learning process.
Needs to be big batch compatible:
This can mean paying attention to equipment. For example I have some pretty big pans but a really small food processor so I’m set for cooking on the stove but I pay attention if something calls for a lot of blending.
It can mean paying attention to cost. I’m not going to make a huge batch of something that has like shrimp as it’s primary protein because that shit is expensive.
It can mean paying attention to capacity. I really love freezer burritos. I think they’re the shit. But sometimes they’re a huge pain in the ass. Laying out all the tortillas, getting all the toppings put on, rolling all them up so they don’t come apart, etc. I’ve done it before. And I do love them. But I don’t always have the energy to deal with them. Slow cooker meals on the other hand are fantastic. All just in one big pot that I transfer to freezer molds later.
Or whatever other factors that play a part in allowing you to batch cook.
Needs to have decent protein, vegetables, and carbs:
What can I say, I’m still a personal trainer and nutrition coach so of course this is a requirement for me. And I think it’s so important to add good stuff in rather than try to cut stuff out. So I make sure all the recipes I collect for my meal preps have at least 20-30g of protein per serving.
Veggies I’m a bit more lax on but only because I make sure to keep steam-able bags of vegetables in the freezer at all times. Like I have this Korean Beef recipe that’s delicious but the meal prep is literally only the ground beef itself and a sauce. When I actually eat it I make some rice in the rice cooker and pop a bag of vegetables in the microwave and call it a day.
Carbs come so naturally I don’t have to think about them too much, but I do shoot for whole grains as often as possible to get some more fiber. And similar to the veg situation above sometimes the prep itself doesn’t have all the carbs I like so I add them in later. I have a chili recipe which is ground beef, carrots, bell peppers, kidney beans and black beans. The beans and the veggies have some carbs but when I go to actually eat it I like to make a little bit of fresh whole grain pasta (spirals of course) and mix in some extra cheese to make a chili mac.
Find a way to save and organize recipes
Doesn’t matter how you do it, you can write them all down by hand, you can store all of them in a bookmark folder on Google, you can print them out and put them in a binder, whatever floats your boat.
But find a way that works for you and use it for all your recipes.
I’m telling you, this helps a TON when faced with the “what do I want to eat?” question that always seems to wipe our memory.
If you have them all collected in one place, instead of trying to pull something from thin air you can flip through what you have saved like a catalogue.
And hey, some weeks maybe you’ll have more energy and you can look for something new. But if not, you’ve got some basics to fall back on.
Bonus points if you organize them by something.
All my recipes are sorted by 2 criteria, newness and difficulty.
Recipes are marked as; “New”, “Needs Work”, or “Tried and True”, so it’s easy for me to see which I’ve tried before usually go well and which need some tweaking for them to be considered trustworthy. And then they’re marked as the basic “easy”, “medium”, “hard”, so if I‘m lower energy I can pick something easier for me to handle.
Systemize your shopping list
This is definitely in the more advanced category of setting up a meal prep system but it does help a lot.
A huge struggle for me for a long time was putting together a shopping list from multiple recipes.
I’d have like 4 recipes on different tabs in my phone and then my notes app pulled up. I’d keep switching back and forth between all the recipes and then back to the notes app trying not only to make sure I got everything down, but also to make sure there are no duplicates and then had to go through the kitchen to see what we actually have on hand.
Everyone reading with ADHD can see how that’s riddled with pitfalls.
Short term memory issues made making the shopping list initially feel like hell. I could only remember one item at a time and would not remember which recipe I got it from, meaning I switched between all the recipes several times.
What should have realistically took like 5 minutes max would take upwards of 15-30 minutes because I just couldn’t hold the information in my head.
Not to mention trying to scan for duplicates or missing ingredients, losing focus halfway through the list and having to start over. 3 times. And THEN trying to go through what I already have so I don’t waste money. But then I have to go back through all the recipes to check the amounts of ingredients I’ll need and I’m back to Google tab musical chairs.
Systemizing this can look different for everyone.
My first solution to this was to keep a note on my phone that was a huge checklist of every ingredient I frequently bought at the store (separated by section and alphabetized because I’m a nerd). The default was for everything to be checked so when I needed to make a shopping list I would just find the ingredient and uncheck it. That way if multiple recipes needed it I could see it was indeed unchecked. This worked really well for a while. Then it graduated to a Google Sheets document and now it’s a Notion tool.
This is where I’m goin to end part 1. Hopefully you got some good ideas to help streamline your planning process and free up some mental energy. Talk to you in a couple days.
-Savannah
Thank you so much for reading the Chaotically Consistent Newsletter! I’m Savannah, the personal trainer with ADHD. I started this newsletter because I enjoy creating and experimenting with processes and systems to make life easier for my brain, and I like sharing what I learn. If you’ve ever wished that you had help setting up systems in the 4 main pillars of health; exercise, nutrition, sleep, and rest, then stay tuned because I have an exciting announcement coming soon!
ADHD Experiment #8: Weekly Calibration Part 3&4
*Kronk voice* Oh yeah, it’s all coming together
*Kronk voice* Oh yeah, it’s all coming together
Hello and welcome to the Chaotically Consistent Newsletter! For anyone who doesn’t know, I’m Savannah, the personal trainer with ADHD. I started this newsletter because I really enjoy creating and experimenting with processes and systems to make life easier for my brain, and I wanted to start sharing what I’ve been learning. Let’s get into it!
What is Weekly Calibration again?
(This is the same explanation as last week fyi in case you caught it last week and want to skip it)
I started this experiment after Thanksgiving when the holiday weekend completely threw me off of everything. I spent the whole weekend relaxing (aka stressing about all the stuff that wasn’t getting prepped for the week) and so the work week after that SUCKED. I’m scattered anyway but when I don’t prepare for my weeks there’s like 3x multiplier.
But even before Thanksgiving I didn’t have a good system. “Preparing for my weeks” meant I filled up my weekend with the most asinine shit because it felt like, “I have the time so that means I have to wash all the baseboards, organize every neglected drawer, and landscape the yard right now right?” 🙄
I decided I was fed up with either working the entire weekend in an effort to set myself up for the week
OR
trying to “relax” while being filled with so much guilt that I was somehow less rested than when the weekend started. Plus nothing was set up for the week. Double whammy.
This is part 3 where I talk about my third trial. If you want to read how the first and second trial run went in more detail, you can read that here: 1 & 2
But to briefly catch up,
I’m not gonna leave you totally in the dark about parts 1 and 2 if you don’t want to go back and read them (hey no hard feelings, I get it). So to give a quick recap…
The first run was horrendous. I was doing some sort of work all flippin weekend. But not because there was too much. It was solely based on my poor planning.
With that first run I learned there’s a lot of things I make harder on myself. I let some processes run longer than they should. I make some processes more complex than they need to be (looking at you meal prep).
I also learned a bit more about my limits as well, as in how much I can handle in one day, and how that makes me feel in following days.
I like to make a point to recognize this kind of insight because it’s really what helps drive change. I like to remember how much consequences of certain decisions or actions sucked and to weigh them out. Like, does the reward of doing this thing outweigh the suckiness of doing the thing. Or on the opposite side, does the consequence of not doing this thing suck wayyyyyy more than just doing the thing (meal prep is a huge one for me).
Run 2 went so much better. I had a better idea of what level of planning and time was needed. It still took a lot of Thursday and Friday but I actually had time to myself on Saturday. Huge win.
2 main problems popped up though. First, I forgot to account for quality time with my boyfriend so we didn’t get time together (he works Saturdays). Second, I didn’t know what to do with my off time. Absolutely no clue how to relax.
So through run 2 I learned that I could probably condense Weekly Calibration even further (one day, or even half a day), and that I need to learn how to actually rest. That leads us to run 3
Run 3
This run went SO MUCH BETTER. I got damn near everything I needed to get done on Thursday. At least all the big things that take the most mental energy.
Laundry
Grocery shopping
Meal prepping
Cleaning
But my Weekly Review (a weekly digital clean up basically) happened on Friday morning. Didn’t love it at first, but I sort warmed up to it. My boyfriend wanted to be a part of it this week because part of it is tracking finances and he wanted to get a look at what we had going on. And I won’t lie, it feels kind of nice starting off my weekend by getting some things sorted out. As long as I keep it capped at an hour that is.
I keep the dishes on Saturday because I like to start with a clean slate for the week. Although I still did them throughout the weekend to keep the pile down. But dishes won’t always have their own spot in the system. It’s only because I don’t have a kitchen right now (hot water leak in the floor, everything had to get ripped out).
Of course, once again I didn’t know what to do with my time off
Run 4
I’m including run 4 in the same letter because it just happened 4 days ago and went very similarly. Except I was able to knock out my workout on Thursday as well!
Unfortunately for me, before we left for grocery shopping we found another water leak in our bathrooms. We will be losing those this week as well. Pretty sure we’re going to have to stay somewhere else at this point. I could make it without the kitchen. But no kitchen and no bathrooms? So that was a fun little surprise.
That about wraps #8 up
All that aside, I am officially declaring Experiment #8 a success! At this point Weekly Calibration has proven doable and effective. These 2 runs were enough proof to myself that I really can get all the difficult points done in one day and still feel relatively good. All that’s left for this process is to continue to practice and refine it. Making small changes to how things are ordered to best make use of the time.
This may come as a surprise to some, as it’s nowhere near perfect (and will be heavily tested in the coming weeks thanks to the pipes). But something I’ve realized when making these processes and systems is they’re never really 100% perfect or done. You get them to a point that they function well enough, and then as time goes by you allow them to flex and change as you do. But the basic concept of the process stays the same until it no longer serves you.
I cannot tell you how many processes and systems I’ve built, used, and let go of in the last couple years. And that’s not to say all of them were bad or poorly thought out (don’t get me wrong, there’s plenty of those too). But many of them I just grew out of. And that’s ok.
There’s no doubt in my mind that Weekly Calibration will change countless times. But there’s also no doubt that it’ll be around for a while.
I am so unbelievably grateful that I happened to have this system set up before losing the bathrooms. Instances like this remind me exactly why I do what I do. Having Weekly Calibration in place means that even with things getting shaken up, I have this anchor point. This system that helps me make sure the admin stuff that helps me feel good each week gets done. Helps me maintain maintenance.
So what now?
And with that I am super happy to introduce ADHD Experiment #10: Recharge Protocol. I am determined to stop leaving resting up to chance. I will figure this out.
I have some really cool ideas planned for this one so stay tuned! I put updates out on Threads but of course these letters will always have more detail.
If you have areas of your life you want to systemize to decrease the mental load feel free to respond to this email! I read all replies and I might be able to help you out!
I also offer 1 on 1 coaching where I help you start and iterate on systems in 4 major areas; exercise, nutrition, sleep, and rest. You can apply here
Otherwise I’m going to leave this one here. Next letter will either introduce Experiment #10 in full or give an update on #9, we’ll see how the week goes. Until next time! Have a happy New Year!
-Savannah
ADHD Experiment #8: Weekly Calibration Part 2
I’m getting the hang of it
I’m getting the hang of it
Hello and welcome to the Chaotically Consistent Newsletter! For anyone who doesn’t know, I’m Savannah, the personal trainer with ADHD. I started this newsletter because I really enjoy creating and experimenting with processes and systems to make life easier for my brain, and I wanted to start sharing what I’ve been learning. Let’s get into it!
What is Weekly Calibration again?
I started this experiment after Thanksgiving when the holiday weekend completely threw me off of everything. I spent the whole weekend relaxing (aka stressing about all the stuff that wasn’t getting prepped for the week) and so the work week after that SUCKED. I’m scattered anyway but when I don’t prepare for my weeks there’s like 3x multiplier.
But even before Thanksgiving I didn’t have a good system. “Preparing for my weeks” meant I filled up my weekend with the most asinine shit because it felt like, “I have the time so that means I have to wash all the baseboards, organize every neglected drawer, and landscape the yard right now right?” 🙄
I decided I was fed up with either working the entire weekend in an effort to set myself up for the week
OR
trying to “relax” while being filled with so much guilt that I was somehow less rested than when the weekend started. Plus nothing was set up for the week. Double whammy.
This is part 2 where I talk about the second run through. If you want to read how the first trial run went you can read that HERE
But to give a brief recap of part 1:
It sucked. Absolutely sucked.
An appointment Friday morning delayed grocery shopping until like 1300 (1pm).
Didn’t start meal prepping until 1500 (3pm), which took 5 hours and didn’t even get finished.
Did my weekly review Saturday morning which was a bad choice in the first place. Then I took a long time because I got swept up in improving some tools of mine (that happens a lot).
I waited too long to do dishes so they piled up and took FOREVER (like an hour and a half, dishes without a kitchen SUCKS).
Didn’t get to cleaning the house at all.
Didn’t get any time to relax either. My first day of work that week was ROUGH.
I did get laundry done though
How I learned from all those things (and more) and adjusted the process is all in part 1. But now I get to talk about the second run through!
Run 2
Wow this one went so much better. The first run was such a shit show that I was determined to to actually have some time to relax. Thursday came around and I was ready for it.
After doing some work we went grocery shopping. After we got back I knocked out my weekly review (kept it under an hour). And then I chopped a bunch of veggies that I needed for meal prep on Friday.
Friday rolled around and I jumped on meal prep pretty quick. Having only 2 things to make really helped cut down on time. Trying to prep 3 things really was a secret killer last run (I promise promise promise I’ll come out with an explanation of my meal prep system soon).
The only thing I had left to do on Saturday was the last little bit of dishes and my self care tasks.
It was far from perfect though.
Thursday’s activities still ran pretty late, around 1900 (7pm).
And because one of my preps was a slow cooker meal it took a while for it to do it’s thing. I wasn’t moving it to containers to freeze until around 1900 (7pm) on Friday.
That combined with cleaning meant I had hardly any time with my boyfriend which isn’t great.
I also finally ran into a problem I’ve been expecting.
I don’t know how to relax. I had some time on Saturday and I had no clue what to do with it. I know I could have easily scrolled it away. Or played video games. But I know from experience that those things don’t actually leave me feeling recharged which is the whole point of figuring all this out.
What I learned and what I’m changing
It was a relief to know that the process wouldn’t take my entire weekend forever. However this run showed me that I really do want to work on condensing it even more. I hadn’t realized before this run that I failed to account for quality time with my boyfriend. Huge error.
In an ideal world, the entire calibration can be done in one day. But there’s a few obstacles.
First, I have to be really careful not to push too far for one day. Not because I can’t necessarily handle it, but I know in the future if it continues to feel like a lot to push through it won’t be sustainable for me in the long run.
Second, with my boyfriend’s current work schedule he has Thursday and Friday off. I think it’s feasible to do it all in one day. However, at this time I don’t think it can happen on a day I also do work in the morning (I work Thursdays). And I know I need to keep the day before work (Saturdays) clear if I’m going to feel good that work week.
So I’m considering a temporary fix. For now I’m turning Thursdays into like an admin day until his schedule changes in a couple weeks. No work. Just calibration.
I know a lot of people don’t have that luxury. I am not saying it will be permanent. Just until his schedule changes. And it gives me an opportunity to see how well the entire thing functions in a single day multiple times.
I need get a feel for it all being in one day, and prove to myself that it can be replicated without too much strain. After that I’ll look at either condensing it further (maybe to an afternoon), that way I can put it after work on Thursday, or I’ll see if I can condense it to the first part of the day on Friday. We’ll kinda see how things feel. All I know is I want to have at least half a day with my boyfriend and at least one full day to myself.
It freaks me out a bit
I can tell this is the right next step because the idea of trying to get it all into one day makes me a little nervous. But it’s also the next logical step forward. I mean there’s only so many times I can practice meal prepping and doing laundry over a 2 day period.
What’s exciting about this though, 👀 is I can start phase 2 soon. I’m writing this letter after just completing the third trial of Weekly Calibration, and I’ll tell you a little secret. It went well enough that I can start experimenting with ways to relax and rest now!
Otherwise I’m going to leave this one here. Happy Yule!
-Savannah
ADHD Experiment #8: Weekly Calibration Part 1
Big Fail
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