Latest / JOY LOVING HOME - SAHM, Productivity, Home Organization, Declutter, ADHD Mom, ADHD SAHM, ADHD Brain / 268: Midyear Reset: One-and-Done Tasks to Conquer the Rest of 2026
Transcript
- 0:00If you are listening to this in real time, today is July 2nd,
- 0:06and that means we are at the exact halfway point of 2026.
- 0:13So what does that mean?
- 0:15Hopefully, it will actually help your brain's need for urgency to kick into gear.
- 0:23Let's talk about how right after this.
- 0:26A wise person once said everybody is a genius but if you judge a fish by its
- 0:31ability to climb a tree it will live its whole life believing that it's stupid well fish,
- 0:36quit trying to climb trees while getting advice from well-intentioned monkeys
- 0:41it's time to jump in the water and learn how to swim with the current of your life I'm Joy
- 0:47a professional organizer mom of four and fellow fish brain if you're looking
- 0:51for a place to get understanding encouragement and ideas for your home that
- 0:56actually fit how your brain thinks, then I'm glad you're here.
- 1:00Let's ditch the type A advice and embrace what makes our brains and our homes unique.
- 1:06Together, we could have a joy-loving home.
- 1:12If you're the type of person who enjoys sort of playing around with goal setting,
- 1:16but you're not super great with following through after you set the goals,
- 1:20now might be your moment.
- 1:23Because we are exactly halfway through the year 2026, that means that there
- 1:29are exactly 26 weeks left in the year, which means if you created a 26 for 26 list,
- 1:39then your brain may just now start getting excited about it.
- 1:44Because you could now keep up the pace of trying to accomplish one thing each
- 1:49week right up to the end of the year, and you could still accomplish everything on your list.
- 1:54Or if you're like, I don't, I didn't make anything. I don't know what you're talking about, Joy.
- 2:01What is this 26 for 26 list that you speak of?
- 2:05I have been a big fan of Gretchen Rubin over at the Happier podcast,
- 2:10and every year she and her sister Elizabeth create, so in like 2019,
- 2:15it was a 19 for 19 list, and 20 for 20 list, and 2020, you get the picture.
- 2:20Because we are in 2026, it is a way to create, instead of a New Year's resolution,
- 2:28because we're not great at consistency, and we can't seem to follow one thing
- 2:33all the way through the course of a year,
- 2:36and then we feel like failures when we break that before mid-January,
- 2:41this 26 for 26 idea is a really awesome way to throw out some goals that you
- 2:49might have for yourself that you can still accomplish,
- 2:53anytime because you're not trying to be super consistent with it.
- 2:58The key to these is they need to be accomplishable, one-and-done type tasks.
- 3:07And because you can really feel the dopamine hits of.
- 3:13I took a goal, I completed a goal immediately, and I can check that goal off
- 3:19of my 26 for 26 list, it has that energizing feel for our brains that helps keep us going.
- 3:27Bonus points if you're just now creating this and you decide to write at least
- 3:32one thing down that you can finish immediately.
- 3:36For me, knowing I was about to record this podcast, I have been needing an eye
- 3:41appointment forever and ever and ever.
- 3:43I've never had contacts or glasses.
- 3:46And the last time I went to an eye doctor, I believe was right before I fell
- 3:50off my parents' insurance when I was maybe 20.
- 3:54And to be fair to me, the eye doctor said, your eyes are perfect.
- 3:59You're not going to need anything until readers. So one day in your 40s,
- 4:04you know, when things start getting fuzzy, go show up at an eye doctor again.
- 4:09I am now approaching mid-50, not quite there,
- 4:15and I've been grabbing the, you know, the drugstore readers for probably the
- 4:22last two years, but I'm feeling like I need, like, the actual exam.
- 4:27It's probably time. Health of my eye might be important. So anyway,
- 4:31I knew that needed to be on my list because I had not made my 26 for 26 list this year,
- 4:36and I was able to write it down, immediately schedule that appointment,
- 4:40which will be on July 14th, and check that off, which feels amazing.
- 4:44So think about, you know, hacking your dopamine by creating at least one thing
- 4:50on this list that you can then immediately do.
- 4:56I will also say if you happened to do a 26 for 26 list way back on January 1st
- 5:02or 2nd, and you forgot about it, see if you can find it dusted off.
- 5:08And look over it because the amazing thing about our brains is while they don't
- 5:12seem to hold on to information while we're trying to work on it.
- 5:16Somehow it's sort of subconsciously there, and you need to look over that list
- 5:21because it will not surprise me if you can check off, you know,
- 5:25four or five things that you didn't even think about.
- 5:28Oh, that was actually on my list, and oh, hey, I already did that. That's really cool.
- 5:32You might get a nice little surge of dopamine going back to a dusty old list
- 5:37that you didn't even realize you had made, but you actually,
- 5:40well, you might have realized you made it, but you didn't realize you were actually
- 5:43accomplishing things on it.
- 5:45Because now you're taking the time to actually look at it again,
- 5:48check it off, and get sort of a resurge of excitement for it.
- 5:51So if that's something that sounds fun and interesting, I will tell you if you
- 5:59go and look over at Gretchen Rubin's podcast,
- 6:03she and her sister actually just did a halfway day kind of check-in on where
- 6:08they were with their hits and misses of how things are going with their goals.
- 6:13And it will give you some ideas of some different things you can put down.
- 6:17They're really great ones that are super simple.
- 6:21And then they have others that are sort of more achieving, like Elizabeth will
- 6:26always do some sort of exercise goal.
- 6:28But instead of it being like, I need to exercise three times a week every week,
- 6:32which is easy to break, is she's like, by the end of the year,
- 6:37I wanted to have hiked a canyon 15 times.
- 6:41Well, she can keep track of that and see how close she's getting.
- 6:44And by the time she gets to the end of the year, can she even squeeze 15 times
- 6:49into the last 30 days, let's say.
- 6:51So those are the type of goals that are much more friendly to our ADHD type
- 6:57of brain, these fish brains as I call them. And,
- 7:01this sort of new spin on this deadline, this 26 for 26 in 26 weeks.
- 7:10Will hopefully get your brain itching and excited to see what you can accomplish.
- 7:14So let me know if you choose to accomplish a 26 for 26 list,
- 7:20if you've got one in mind, or even you can email me joy at joylivinghome.com
- 7:24if you can say, hey, I grabbed out my list, I dusted it off, and guess what?
- 7:28I had 10 already done. And whatever the case may be, I'd love to hear from you.
- 7:32Yeah, and that's it. Until next time, I hope you're enjoying your summer,
- 7:36that you get some motivation to get a couple one and dones off that list,
- 7:40and that you continue to choose joy.