Latest / JOY LOVING HOME - SAHM, Productivity, Home Organization, Declutter, ADHD Mom, ADHD SAHM, ADHD Brain / 267: Summer Fixes in 5 Minutes: Dopamine Boosts for Your ADHD Brain

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267: Summer Fixes in 5 Minutes: Dopamine Boosts for Your ADHD Brain · JOY LOVING HOME - SAHM, Productivity, Home Organization, Declutter, ADHD Mom, ADHD SAHM, ADHD Brain

• 0:00
  Having a bit of a lazy summer, we all know summer is sort of built for that,
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  but every now and then you want to feel a little bit productive.
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  So I'm going to introduce to you what I think should be our operating system over the summer.
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  And there's a two-part system to it that I think you're going to love because
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  it just conforms to these crazy summer days that are very spontaneous and ever-changing.
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  And it's going to work right through that and give you a feeling of still getting
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  some stuff accomplished over the summer.
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  So stay tuned and see what you think a wise person once said everybody is a
• 0:43
  genius but if you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree it will live its
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  whole life believing that it's stupid well fish
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  quit trying to climb trees while getting advice from well-intentioned monkeys
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  it's time to jump in the water and learn how to swim with the current of your
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  life I'm Joy, a professional organizer, mom of four, and fellow Fishbrain.
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  If you're looking for a place to get understanding, encouragement,
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  and ideas for your home that actually fit how your brain thinks,
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  then I'm glad you're here.
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  Let's ditch the type A advice and embrace what makes our brains and our homes unique.
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  Together, we could have a joy-loving home.
• 1:26
  Let's face it, summer is quite chaotic and you have to go with the flow because
• 1:33
  things are always changing and there is no such thing as any set routine.
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  I am actually recording today from in my guest bedroom.
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  I was kicked out of my normal quote unquote office in the house where I have
• 1:49
  my full podcast set up because I have a kid having an internship that
• 1:55
  he works from home on certain days and needs a,
• 1:59
  quiet place to be able to do all those Zoom calls.
• 2:01
  And so my office has been hijacked, which I'm thrilled for.
• 2:05
  It's a, hopefully we'll set him up well for the future. And,
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  you know, we all bend and flex when we need to. So hopefully this podcast doesn't
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  sound a whole lot worse than normal.
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  I actually let AI do all the editing, so hopefully it can filter out what feels
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  like it's echoing right now, but we'll see.
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  Anyway, the point of this podcast is that summer is probably,
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  while we want to relax and chill.
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  It's probably one of the more chaotic times because we have to just adjust to its spontaneity.
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  Sometimes we have kids in camps, The camps are different hours every week.
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  We're on vacation. We're off vacation. We have visitors in. We're trying to
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  find anything to do to beat the summer boredom.
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  All the things are just happening in sort of just a chaotic state.
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  Kids are underfoot 24-7 and bedtimes usually shift. So it is really silly for
• 3:06
  us to think we're going to keep to any sort of.
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  Cleaning routine or, you know, a chore routine. And so I've been trying to give
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  you guys different ways to experiment.
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  And it just hit me this morning that probably the best approach is if we literally
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  toss out any idea that we're going to have any kind of routine or honestly be
• 3:28
  all that productive over the summer.
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  But sometimes we have this itch of this feeling like things are sort of creeping
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  in that need to get done. And we might want to feel slightly productive just
• 3:41
  because it gives us a little mental boost.
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  And so there's this two-part system that I want to introduce and see if it hits
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  you as a great way to lean into that summer spontaneity.
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  And when there's a down moment or the kids happen to be occupied or you have
• 3:59
  a little bit of time here or there, then this might make you feel a lot better
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  about what's happening over the summer with your tasks and in your home.
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  So step one is about closing loops and one and done tasks.
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  Very simply, let's say you're out of the pool keeping an eye on your kids or
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  you're at the park keeping an eye on your kids and all you've got with you is
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  your phone and you're not wanting the doom scroll because you need to stay a
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  little bit focused, then open your notes app.
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  You do it right now while you're listening to me.
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  Start a brand new note and across the top, you can call it one and dones.
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  One and dones are those things that literally have a start and a finish that is super quick.
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  There is a little feature at the bottom, if you've never used it before,
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  that creates a checklist.
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  It puts little bubbles next to anything you write, and it allows you,
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  as you are completing things, to put a little check, and it will move it to
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  the bottom as completed, and everything else will skewed up.
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  It is the perfect digital version of what I like to call the non-linear pending list.
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  And if you've never heard about my nonlinear pending list before.
• 5:18
  You know, search that up.
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  I don't know what, I don't know what podcast number that is.
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  I will try to look and put it in the notes, the show notes before I post this podcast. But,
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  In a nutshell, the nonlinear pending list is something for our brains.
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  You are not great with numbered lists in which you have to go everything in
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  order because if you get stuck on number one, you'll never do any of them.
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  And so when you have this digital version with these little bullet points next
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  to it, you can look through, pick any single one of them.
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  And when you're done and you click check on that bubble, it reshuffles the list for you.
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  And that's such a beautiful thing because it allows you to stay in the moment
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  of whatever interests you, grab anything off the list. So for right now,
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  our job is just to brainstorm that list.
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  I was doing it right before I hit record.
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  And I have things like stain the spot on the front post where the woodpecker.
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  Destroyed a spot of the post. We're not going to repair the whole post right
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  now. It's not something we want to do, but it looks pretty bad from the street.
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  But I know I have a can of the stain in the basement. It would be so easy for
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  me to just grab that stain, dab a little sponge brush in it and darken in that
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  spot and then we're not going to have to look at it.
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  Like it's just going to essentially disappear and I can kick that job down the
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  road for another time. That is literally going to take me all of five minutes.
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  It's a great one and done that will make me feel better.
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  I need to schedule all the kids well visits. I need to schedule the kids dentist
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  appointments. I need to do those for me.
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  I so desperately need an eye appointment.
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  I can make all those little lists. I wanted to put flowers in the front porch
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  pots. I've yet to do that.
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  All I usually do is zip over to Lowe's or Home Depot and grab those drop-in
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  pots because I am horrible. I'm horrible with plants. I know that about myself,
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  but I love the look of them all summer.
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  That is a one and done type task. So all those different things you.
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  That you can think of that are just, I'm not asking for the world.
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  I'm not asking you to like overhaul your storage unit. That was last week's podcast.
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  I'm just asking you to think through these little tidbits while you're sitting
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  on a park bench, while you're, you know, stuck in the car waiting for pickup,
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  whatever the case may be.
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  And then anytime you have a moment, you close a loop, complete any kind of task
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  you can think of on those one and don'ts.
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  That's going to make you feel great. It's the perfect type of spontaneity that
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  you need over the summer when you want to feel productive. Just pull that app
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  up, look down the list, knock something out.
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  All right, part two is all about keeping your house up for the summer.
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  I want you to ignore any thoughts of routines or systems or,
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  you know, weekly handling anything. What we're going to shift to is that ad
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  hoc cleaning routine I've spoken about before.
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  Ad hoc is literally a Latin phrase that means something that is created or done
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  for a specific immediate purpose rather than planned in advance.
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  It is not intended for long-term use. This is literally a perfect description,
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  in very simple statement of, hey, we're shifting to ad hoc cleaning over the summer.
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  That means if you find out some friends want to come over and do s'mores one night.
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  You've got an hour, two hours before they get there.
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  You send somebody to the store to get the marshmallows and the chocolate and
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  the graham crackers, and you make sure one bathroom is clean.
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  You've got the outdoor area where you're doing the fire pull together,
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  and maybe a quick dash through the main space that takes them from the outside to that bathroom.
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  That is an ad hoc cleaning. If you are like, hey, kids need,
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  camp clothes for the sleepover camp next week, then everybody rounds up the
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  laundry, you get enough done to pack that, and you don't worry about it again.
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  If somebody's going to sleepover somewhere, you dig out the sleeping bag and
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  you get it cleaned if it wasn't cleaned from the last camp two weeks ago,
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  and you send it on its way again.
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  It is not like, oh, every time this happens, then we have to do this right away.
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  If you're going to have a pull day and you don't even know where the pull towels
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  are, you dig all that stuff out in the moment, you get it ready in the moment,
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  and you don't worry about it again.
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  Ad hoc cleaning is as needed in the moment for the specific purpose.
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  That's all you're going to shift to for your summer cleaning routine.
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  I'm using routine lightly with air quotes there.
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  So hopefully this one-two punch, we're closing loops and we're ad hoc cleaning.
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  It's all you need to be dealing with all summer long.
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  But it's still going to make you feel this sense of accomplishment.
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  In the moment, you will get a dopamine boost every time you get to check something
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  off of that one and done list.
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  And you will feel that sense of accomplishment, another dopamine hit,
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  every time you do the immediate cleaning for the actual task that's needed.
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  Any kind of routine daily slash weekly clean is not going to be appreciated
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  over the summer everybody's too busy and running all the time and exhausted
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  when they get home to even appreciate whatever you've done so,
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  don't don't overthink it and don't fuss all right all in there but I hope you
• 11:04
  are having the loveliest summer and until next time continue to choose joy.