Self Care Journal 11 -

Describe your ideal week.

This prompt is very fitting for me at the present moment because I was literally just laying in bed trying plan my week ahead. No joke, I just read a random article on how to find your motivational flow. It was a good article, but I really didn’t need to read it. As a therapist, I know a ton of skills, strategies, and hacks to help create a sense of structure and productivity. It’s not the knowledge that’s hard for me, it’s the follow through.

I hear that a lot from other people too, this whole follow through thing. It traps a lot of people in its wings. I have a perfect plan for the week ahead but very little room for deviation. That’s the issue- having things so methodically thought out that there’s no wiggle room- no room for, well honestly , humanity.

So one thing I like to do to try to combat this nasty all-or-none spiral cycle is to make two sets of plans. One that has all the frills and details and bells and whistles, and one that has a much wider format. I like to chunk my day into very general categories (such as “work” or “home stuff” or “chill time”). Then, when and where I have the capacity, I’ll add in some potential details with a little more structure. This way, when it suits me I have everything lined up in a nice designed flow. But on days where I just can’t do the specifics I can at least focus on the general category. Maybe I had planned to clean out my closets today but that just ain’t happening. Instead of giving up completely and throwing in the towel, I can ask myself if there’s any other “home stuff” that seems at least mildly tolerable.

It may not turned out exactly as planned on my specific schedule but, i actually still stuck with the bigger picture plan.