I have meetings all day today starting right off the bat at 9am. The anticipatory stress of that made it difficult to wake up this morning and have me a bit of a migraine so I took my time this morning and made sure to eat a hearty but comforting breakfast and took my supplements and drank a half liter of water. I took a shower to feel refreshed and swept my floor so I can feel clean and not overstimulated by any little grit on the floor. I’ve shut all the curtains as it’s very hot already, and put on the ac and a quiet fan so I have some nice airflow, and I’ve got on my favorite comfortable lightweight clothing. I’ve taken Excedrin and a tums and washed the couple dishes in the sink and wiped and tidied the counters so I don’t get overstimulated by a messy kitchen when I take a break later.
I’ve also informed my meeting mates that I have a bit of a headache so I’ll be keeping my camera off today (no client meetings thank God) and everyone was totally nbd about it (I love my coworkers!). This helped keep me from having to visually mask my facial expressions and have to worry about if I look right, so I only have to mask my vocalizations.
I use Google recorder app mostly just for the live transcription so I can easily refer back to what was said if my auditory processing delays cause me to miss something, but it also reduces my anxiety knowing I can always go back and listen or read the text of the meeting if I need to (I never have lol). I’ve also stopped the flow of conversation when an action item for myself was mentioned to say “ok hold on I’m writing this down” and even said it out loud as im writing to fill the silence and help me not forget, no one has ever made me feel weird or bad for doing that. I write these on sticky notes and keep them in front of my keyboard until they are completed or transferred to my bigger longer term to do list as needed so I don’t forget them or get lost on a bigger to do list if they are more immediate action.
During the meeting I actually tried closing my eyes and visualizing the discussion in my head (this worked because it was a schedule meeting so I was visualizing a calendar and didn’t need to look at the screen, not sure if this would work in other contexts). Doing this and pressing on my eyes as a bit of a massage helped reduce the headache a little and I’m hoping helped prevent eye strain moving forward. Going to keep doing this in my next meeting as much as possible.
I’m between meetings right now so I’m turned away from the computer and put my feet up to relax a few minutes, deep breathing slowly, and writing this to take a mental break. I actually got up after that sentence and did a couple physical movement things: I brushed my cat the way she likes (reduces hairballs!) And took a quick walk in my garden to deadhead some flowers and refill the birdbath, then I refilled my water bottle with fresh cold water and washed my hands and threw some cold water on my face bc it makes me feel clean and refreshed like I’m starting anew, then I put a little of my favorite scented lotion on which makes breathing feel sparkly which is a texture I like a lot.
Now I’m seated back at my desk with 5 minutes to mentally check back in, deep breathing slowly and I’m ready to dive back in, feeling pretty good.
How about you?
Tldr I didn’t read your post, the ADHD struggles with long. But my constants are noise cancelling headphones, good quality. Dimmable colour changing lights in my bedroom and a supportive husband who has the same conditions
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- I did not do any productive tasks as I did not explicitly plan for them.
- I ate a few snacks rather than eat a meal because it is better than eating nothing. I also did not have the energy to prepare a meal.
- I did my minimal morning routine of brushing my teeth and only washing my genitals/anus. This is so I can retain energy for other tasks while getting essential self-care done.
- I do not rush myself with any tasks. This induces unnecessary physical and mental stress.
- I only mentally pushed myself with my routines. This also induces physical and mental stress so it is only reserved for necessary tasks.
I worked from the office this morning, as I’ve recently found that working mornings from the office makes me less lethargic and anhedonic despite how much I’d love to just stay in bed until the last second and stumble across to my WFH setup. After getting a splitting headache yesterday evening I swallowed my fear of looking weird and wore my sunglasses the whole time at my desk. Earplugs too, but they’re much less noticeable. I think it worked, but I should have kept them on for the afternoon too as it’s feeling pretty bright here at home. The only person to say anything was my boss over videocall but we have a good relationship so I could explain why I was wearing them and just got a “fair enough, can’t argue with that!” in response.
Also made sure that my newly-assigned desk will still be there when the office switches from the current desk-booking system to a true hot-desking-hell-free-for-all and that it will be marked as such so no one accidentally sits there like someone did yesterday (wasn’t his fault at all, and he was perfectly lovely about moving, but still wasn’t a fun social encounter).
