Hello! I am Alina, and I am currently in my last year of BA in Special Education program at The Education University of Hong Kong. For my diploma project, I am studying executive functioning, coping strategies, and well-being of emerging adults with ADHD (while being one myself).
Two and a half years ago I had the privilege to get assessed and receive a diagnosis, get medication, and be granted accomodations from my university. I've benefited greatly from them (I'm mostly using deadline extension requests, they really save my grades and allow my work to be evaluated properly).
I've decided to do my diploma work on ADHD as almost all research that is now out there was conducted by neurotypical scholars, and more often than not take a stigmatizing, or medicalized approach to it. By having a firsthand experience of living with ADHD, I'm taking up the challenge of conducting a writing a study that would feel that it was done *for* and *about* us, not *on* us.
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Good morning mental health blog! Yesterday I talked about my task menu and Megaboard, and the ridiculous system I have for organizing tasks. I'm happy to say that so far, it's working pretty well! It's been especially helpful keeping track of the tasks I ended up wandering off to during the day— it helps my self esteem to realize that I'm still accomplishing a lot, even if I can't see it on my to-do menu. I don't have to feel bad or argue and justify to myself why nothing got done in a day.
Today, I want to share something I call Random Encounters! I got this idea from How To ADHD on YouTube, and I decided to call it something fun and D&D related to gameify it and make it fun. It's pretty simple.
all it takes is a D20 die, some phone alarms, and a place to write/type a list. I wrote out a list of 20 small activities I can do without effort or planning, with a focus on physical movement and changing my environment. It's important to be REALLY specific; "do 3 squats" is a lot less paralyzing than "do squats", so I'm more likely to just accept it and do it right away, and "throw a juggling ball for 5 minutes" is less likely to distract and throw off my whole day than "throw a ball". Being specific helps quiet the brain fog voice that says "but that could mean anything, what's even the point? Will just throwing an object once or touching my toes for 5 seconds really even do anything??" And empowers me to actually do the things, because I know they're quick, effortless, and will definitely make me feel healthier. Some of the activities are more complicated or more sustained than others, but having to take the chance of rolling them adds to the fun. It's like playing a game with your friends where you could end up drinking a shot of pineapple juice with sugar OR straight lemon juice; the fun is in the chance that you could get a challenge instead of a treat.
To keep myself accountable and make sure I actually use the tool, I set 3 alarms at slightly weird times through the day. Times like 11:13 and 2:20, when I'm less likely to get into the rut of expecting it to happen. I also used a ringtone app to set the noise to JoCat (A Crap Guide videos on YouTube) saying "clickity-clackity you're about to get attackity" for a little added D20 fun 😛 every time JoCat tells me to roll for initiative, I roll the D20, check the list, and do whatever activity I landed on. After, I'm free to continue whatever I was doing, or use it as a refresh point and pick another Menu item to accomplish.
And that's it! It's just a fun little way to break up my day a bit and get me doom scrolling a bit less, and the bonus is that it helps my awareness of time. Here's my Random Encounters table, in case anyone wants to use it or take inspiration from it:
5 toe touches
Hang off my bed upside down
Go to the living room for 5 minutes
Put some ice in my waterbottle
Look for Blyth (he's very good at hiding)
Bug my roommate's cat for 5 minutes
Play with my roommate's cat for 10 minutes
Go to the porch for 5 minutes
Move to a song - you only have 2 minutes to pick one!
Spin in my desk chair for 3 minutes
5 lunges
3 squats
Stretch my arms and shoulders on a doorframe
15 calf raises (tiptoes)
Throw a juggling ball for 5 minutes
Change a piece of clothing
Hang from a doorframe
Plank for 10 seconds
Put one thing away
Wash 1 dish
Ironically, my Random Encounter alarm went off as I was writing this post. I rolled a 3 for going to the living room, and then realized I haven't had breakfast yet, so instead of timing it for 5 minutes, I decided to use the excuse to change my scenery and have breakfast in the sun 😊 because of that random encounter, I'm eating a meal, taking my meds, got to say good morning and pet Mars, and I got to see another human as one of my roommates was on his way out for the day. Promising myself to be accountable for at least the bare minimum has already made a major improvement to my day and my health.
Functional Bullet Journal for ADHD (and whoever) #1
Gonna do some of these partly as info-posts, because looking through my bujo... uh... this isn't gonna be about the aesthetics. I'll post some like they're aesthetic just for solidarity but i don't know who's going to enjoy these lol
Anyway, I have a number of pages I always do over school breaks, so here's the first winter break spread:
Please excuse the poor quality image my lighting is questionable today -_-
I'll get into using decoration as visual cues in a later post probably, but for now I want to point out that the left page solely exists to make me enjoy my bujo. I can easily track wordcount on my computer, but I've found using progress charts that I color in creates a wonderful motivation feedback that makes me feel great. That good feeling sparks a little every time i look at the journal, which makes me want to open it. I won't see my reminders to self if I don't open it.
The Success Stickers is a mind game on a similar vein. You'd think it's an exercise to appreciate myself more, but no. I only give myself a sticker when I already feel good about something I did, and that way I associate the bujo with good productivity feelings. I basically finish a task and am like "I want to go tell my journal about this!" It's all just maintenance on my Pavlov training.
Moving on, on the right page is my updated key. For reference, the first key was on page 14 of my third bujo. The system just wasn't developed enough until then.
So to explain what I use: I had to build it to mitigate stress and shame. That means I need a symbol to recognize that I got SOME of it done, one that says the goal wasn't attainable so it's understandable that it isn't done, and one that allows me to move tasks to later days.
I'm not bothered by empty squares personally, but I know that's a huge source of stress for others, so, some might benefit from a "it's not done but I'm putting it behind me" symbol. Might also benefit from not drawing the square, but I find I can't read which points are actual points if I don't draw one sooo
(and I have a frowny face symbol bc sometimes I want my journal to know my distress lol)
Then the next spread for funsies:
I really let the washi tape do all the work don't I
The "Winter Break Activities" page is another source of enjoyment. If I'm feeling adrift or my ED is kicking up I'll consult it like one might consult a menu, determine which one sparks the most joy and go do it.
(It also helps me not feel like I'm wasting my time while doing any of those things. I wrote it in my bujo! That makes it a valid goal!)
And I basically added the "general notes" page because I don't like starting my planner on the second page, but it is nice to have a place to list stuff that's going on for memory's sake. It's meant to be empty so I can fill it up as I need.
And have a planner spread because it's ready anyway:
This is what we call a mistake! Tom foolery!
If any of y'all are in the market for washi tape, (first off don't buy at a craft store it's cheaper and funner on Etsy and second) try to find solid-color and simple pattern tapes because this spread is NOT functional.
I can read the words but is this conducive to thinking about my plans for the week? Really? Does this look easy to process? It's lucky I don't really need to use it urgently because my brain is too busy staring at that pattern to think.
(and my handwriting is bad so I need to use simple layouts to compensate rip)
ANYWAY, there's a lot to say about formatting an agenda but in keeping with the theme of the post I want to point out that there are certain things on the list that I will not need any extra motivation to get done. In fact, I'd already done the dishes before I wrote "run dishes" on today's space. It's important to make sure there's something you can be checking off at all times. It tricks the brain into not wallowing in despair that the other (necessary, difficult) points are too out of reach.
....
So. I'll be doing more posts like this in the future, just probably way shorter. This one's only long because it's the first one and I feel the need to Speak lol. I'll try to address color theory, visual cues, washi tape vs not and especially troubleshooting for the barriers I've found with popularized bullet journalling in the future.
Tagging the ppl who commented on the original post--I won't tag you again unless you ask me to but I figure you'd be interested:
Read about ADHD and what you can do to manage your own ADHD
ADHD coaching by a coach with ADHD. All the blog posts are broken down into very specific categories. I particularly enjoy his weekly reset posts because you can sign up to have them emailed every week. So once a week I get a little list of tips and encouraging words.
He also does most of his posts in lists or keeps things short and comprehensive! Which is something I appreciate given how long other ADHD sites can make articles.
