I have noticed that if I don't plan things, I don't do it. And not just planning as in "I plan to clean my room", but really plan it! I have to write down exactly what I want to do.

So my planning looked like this:

7:30 Get up ( I have a morning routine, but I won't go into details)

8:00 Go to the morning prayer

8:30 Breakfast

9:00 Make my bag for class, check for tasks to finish, make certain I have all the papers I need

9:30 Check bills and send mails to make certain people pay, send mail concerning meeting, check mail

10:00 Quick clean my room

And so on.

For the first things on my list I have a routine, and it goes well, but when I don't have a routine, I can't do it well. For instance, if I make my bag for class, I ponder putting a bottle of water in. I decide to do that, so I get my bottle. Turns out it doesn't fit in the sink. So I have to but the water in the watercooker to be able to put it in the bottle. As the water is in the cooker, I decide to make myself some tea. I sit down to enjoy some tea and turn on my computer so I can read my mail while I drink tea. As I read my mail, I see there's a new post on one of the blogs I read, so I go over and read it. When I'm there I decide I should write on my blog. So I start making a post, but I've only written a few senteces when I realise I was making my bag. So I continue making the bag . Should I put some fruit in or not? What fruit do I have? Oh, Clementines, I'd rather eat one now! My hands are sticky now, so I decide to wash them. I notice the sink is dirty and I start cleaning it. As I'm cleaning, I decide to clean the rest of my room too. All of a sudden it's past noon and I have to eat lunch, and hurry to class, where I notice I don't even have my books with me.

You know, that's a typical day for me. They even have a name for it: AD(H)D. But it doesn't really help to know that. What does help is hard work. You see, I have to plan every detail of my day and see my planning constantly to accomplish anything. I've been trying to create a morning and an evening routine, so I won't be in my pj's till noon and go to bed after midnight. It's beginning to work, but now I have to create some routines for the rest of my day. I'm using a planner I found online. It's a good one, because it doesn't only have hours, but also a list 'today's priorities'. If I don't manage to follow the planning, I can still look at that list and see what is most important. If that list wouldn't be up there, I would give up before the day was half over. I've noticed it's very good for me to know what is going to happen that day. Having a structure really MAKES my day.

I hope to keep you updated on my new routines. Maybe updating this blog will be one of those. I seem to be unable to write on here on a regular basis.

If you would like to know more about living with AD(H)D, let me know, and I'll gladly write about it.