If a job’s worth doing, it’s worth doing well 

 

... but not necessarily, right now!



The motivation for this post, was a realisation that, at 9.00am this morning, I had, already:

 

·      completed a full workout with weights

 

·      prepared my evening meal

 

·      organised my, forthcoming, book club Zoom meeting

 

and

 

·      started thinking about this post!

 

As I have frequently said, a full and worthwhile lifestyle is of great importance, to my mental health – but was it appropriate to have done all of this, before breakfast?

 

Almost certainly not – and I’ll come back to that in a moment.

 

But first:

 

Cognitive issues arising from my broken brain, include, so called executive dysfunction. This means that I find planning and organisation to be rather difficult. For that reason, I found an advance and articulated lifestyle structure, to be very helpful. I have become a creature of routine, and a detailed “job” list, can facilitate this.

 

Further, the other, big cognitive issues that are faced by Phil v2.0, are long and short-term memory difficulties. It goes without saying, that a written plan will also be a source of, timely reminders.

 

With that in mind, I had fallen into the habit of preparing a weekly “planner” document - in which, I set out my proposed activities (both “work” and (to an extent) “play”).

 

This is an uncompleted, daily extract: 

 

 

Period

Activity

Notes/care

Monday

Morning

 

 

 

Afternoon

 

 

 

Evening

 

 

 

Prior to lockdown, I was preparing and using these, every week.

 

Lockdown has changed and limited, the activities of us all – me, of course included. This has destroyed many of our routines and for the reasons aforesaid, I have found it difficult to deal with this.

 

With hindsight, I didn’t do myself any favours, by treating a “changed and limited” routine, as a reason to abandon my weekly “planner”.

 

By virtue of the psychological difficulties, that I mentioned earlier (and in the absence of a “planner”), my life can now feel rather chaotic and confusing.  

 

That said, as time goes on, I am forging new routines and it would help to reinforce them and enhance a sense of order, through a reincarnation of the “planner”.

 

So far as memory is concerned:

 

I do try to avoid forgetting to do things, by making handwritten, reminder notes. Contrary to my usual desire for tidiness, this has led to a vast number of scraps of paper (many, out of date – which doesn’t help!). It is not just my life that is “chaotic and confusing” – it is my dining table, too!  



So – I should (and will!) start to use my “planner” again.

 

So far, so good - but what about its contents.

 

As I’ve said before, mental fatigue has a clear tendency to stimulate confusion, irritation, and distress. I have found that trying to do too many things in too short a timeframe (like this morning!) is very psychologically draining. Further, getting everything done in a rush, can lead to boredom (through having too little to do), later in the day.  

 

The “planner” is of course an opportunity to think ahead and try to space things out, a little better – leave some gaps, to mentally re-group.

 



 

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