I’m trying to learn more about the feeling that I’m not doing something right and that my priorities are wrong because I’m not considering the full picture.
It feels like I have something I need to do, but I don’t know what it is, but it’s gonna bite me in the ass when I realize it.
Do you all have any techniques or ways of thinking that help you evaluate where you actually stand in terms of doing all the things you need to do?
How do you go through your life and re-priorotize?
How do you feel confident in thinking I don’t have to do anything right now? I can just rest or do what I want?
Over the years, I adopted a few tools to help me manage what feels like “open drawers” in my head :
When a task I need to do spontaneously pop in my head and it’s not urgent, I write it on my whiteboard on my wall. If I’m not home, I quickly put it in my notes app. Then, and it’s the crucial trick, I forget about it. That way, I can focus on the task(s) at hand and just organize my future tasks later, instead of juggling with them all at once.
This helped me compartimentalize a lot and I found myself being able to feel free during the day here and there and on most nights, instead of being a sack of anxiety 24/7.
When I consolidate my tasks, I use a card system like Trello. (I don’t recommend Trello specifically, it seems to have enshittified.) I keep it mostly pen-and-paper, but I’m sure there are some FOSS tools you can find that do just that.
A card system was a revelation for me, being able to do a quick assessment of when a task is due and put it in the right column was a game changer. I’m the type to do everything at the last minute, so putting up little deadlines everywhere helped me do more.
This could not be helpful for you, but I take ADHD medication. The first one I tried for a few months, but it made me even more anxious. I then stopped taking anything, but decided after a year to try another molecule. This time, I found my dosage and it definitely worked.
Before that, even with my calendar, tools, alarms and support system, there were weeks to months where I felt lost in thought, apathetic and disorganized. Now I can post a lengthy answer to a topic close to my heart without feeling like I’m not doing enough with my day.
Side tips :
Good luck on the journey, I wish you the best!
How do you remember to do all this?
For medication, an alarm on my phone. For writing the tasks, it became an habit when I realized it would flush anxiety from my system to write what I just thought about doing and stop thinking about it. For remembering I need to do tasks, I put my whiteboard on a very obvious and accessible place and keep a pocket notebook and a pen in my pocket.
But mostly, it became an habit like reading emails or opening Lemmy, to just look at them and assess the time requirement to do them. When I am a few hours before a deadline, the pressure to do the task becomes clear and I hyperfocus on it until it’s done. Maybe not the most efficient way to work, but it worked for me!
Thank you! This is very helpful!
I forget about the tasks in the app too, but then I get this dread where I don’t want to look at them.
Planka is like Trello was 5 years ago, fyi. Foss and self-hostable.
Thanks for the shout-out recommendation! I use the nextcloud boards function for Trello, sort of.
It looks good, thanks!