Productivity, and Pattern Planning Strategies

Today was a jam-packed day. I was suffering from a fever and the remnants of a virus that I got over the weekend, and so I stayed home from work. After some resting in the morning, I was beset with a feeling, almost a challenge to myself, to get a few things done. Today was going to be a productive day.

So I:

1. Ran two loads of dishes through the dishwasher
   
2. Cleaned the kitchen
3. Caulked the basement bathroom floor boards with silicone caulk
4. Took out the recycling and garbage
   
5. Folded towels and put them away
6. Tidied and vacuumed baby's playroom
7. Vacuumed main floor with hand vacuum
8. Put clothes, and old bed sheets & blankets for donation into a bag, and into my car to bring to the thrift shop tomorrow
9. Reduced the piles of washed laundry on my sofa and folded many of them and put them away in drawers
   
10. Folded blankets and stored them away in storage room
11. Made and baked a meatloaf for the little boy's dinners - he loves peas and carrots and meatloaf
12. Set garage door security system and saved password instructions safely
13. Washed dog blankets and coverings from dog's bed in the laundry
14. Remade the pooch's bed
15. Attached a Baby on Board sticker in the back window of my car
16. Deodorized and cleaned several pairs of shoes
17. Tidied and vacuumed the main area of my basement office (this was a gargantuan task - I have been meaning to tidy this for months - still about 30% left to go, but damn!)
18. Set up a basement bookshelf for my books. I normally take books out of our upstairs library and they end up piled up all over around my desk. I realized that a shelf contained items that hadn't moved in a couple of years, so I put them to the side onto another disused shelf and took over the desk shelf with my books. I'll cycle them in and out from the library upstairs, but at least now I have a decluttering solution for my books!
19. Phoned to confirm time of my next doctor's appointment
20. Implemented some pattern planning to organize my life in the future

Let me write a little bit about 'Pattern Planning' as it is called and described by Drs. Hallowell and Ratey in Driven to Distraction: Recognizing and Coping with Attention Deficit Disorder from Childhood through Adulthood.

In Chapter 8, entitled What Can You Do About [a diagnosis of ADHD] - The Treatment of ADD, several strategies and treatment principles are described. Education, Therapy, Coaching, Medication are several methods - and so is implementing Structure.

"By taking ADD into account and trying to get rid of long-held negative perceptions of oneself, one rethinks or reshapes one's self-image; this is the internal restructuring. And one rearranges the nuts and bolts of one's daily life, setting up means of improved organization and control; this is the external restructuring.
[...]
The ADD mind is like spilled mercury, running and beading. Structure is the vessel needed to contain the mercury of the ADD mind, to keep it from being here and there and everywhere all at once. Structure allows the ADD mind to be put to best use, rather than dissipating itself like so many tiny beads of mercury on the floor.
[...]
We particularly recommend a scheme of reorganizing one's life that we call pattern planning. This system of time management operates on the same principle as automatic withdrawals from your bank account: by making the withdrawals (of money or time) from your account automatic, you don't have to plan them every time; they just happen. You plug certain regular appointments or obligations into the pattern of your week so you attend to them automatically. This frees up your limited planning time to focus on other activities. Simple in its conception, pattern planning can reduces the stress of planning one's life considerably.
[...]
It is easy to set up. You start by making a list of of all the regular tasks, obligations, and appointments that you have every week - your fixed-time expenditures, so to speak. You then make a grid of your week on a calendar or appointment book and plug each fixed obligation into a regular time slot.
[...]
Before you know it, these regular appointments take root in your subconscious.
[...]
Through the use of pattern planning you can streamline your life considerable. It is remarkable how much mental energy the planning of these humdrum, everyday task can take, and how easy pattern planning can make them."

I really highly recommend this book. It is one of the vital books you need to have if you have a diagnosis or suspect you have Adult ADHD.

I use Google Calendar to organize appointments, and use it for pattern planning. Or at least my first steps of pattern planning. I highly recommend it. It can e-mail you alerts leading up to an event, and helps you set up reoccurring events easily.

Day 12 on Strattera seems to have helped me find a way to be productive. It was hard, staying at it, remaining on tasks for hours at a time, but it was a conscious trouble - I would from time to time stare at the mess and shake my head, but I didn't suddenly become distracted and then find myself doing something entirely different. I kept at it. It was as though the struggle became conscious and obvious and using all the skills I have learned in my life, I was able to take on this challenge. A most interesting experience.

I will be going to bed early tonight - I am pretty much wiped out and need to be ready for work tomorrow. I see on my BlackBerry that I have a lot of e-mails to follow up on, and a management meeting to prepare for, along with a few other meetings which will need my full attention and sober focus.

Hope you had a good day.

Cheers,

Mungo

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