Navigating Life with ADHD: Practical Strategies and Systems

In this episode, Ash and Dusty continue their exploration of effective systems that help them manage their lives with ADHD. Dusty shares how implementing multiple overlapping systems has allowed her to better organize her time and prioritize quality moments with her child, emphasizing the importance of novelty in maintaining motivation. She discusses how creating a visual weekly schedule for her child has enhanced their planning and engagement in activities together. Ash contributes by highlighting the significance of finding win-win situations in parenting, sharing his experiences running errands with his teenager, which fosters connection and communication.

The conversation transitions to household management, where both hosts share their unique approaches to cleaning and organization. Dusty explains the importance of setting up a minimalistic environment to reduce clutter while Ash discusses his strategies for keeping track of infrequent tasks, such as scheduling appointments and maintaining home maintenance. They conclude by reflecting on the value of planning ahead and establishing routines that align with their personal preferences, showcasing how understanding oneself can lead to more effective systems in daily life.

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Episode Transcript:

[00:00:00] Ash: Hi, I’m Ash.

[00:00:02] Dusty: And I’m Dusty.

[00:00:03] Ash: And this is Translating ADHD. This week, we’re doing a part two on systems that are working for both of us. Dusty, what do you got?

[00:00:13] Dusty: So many things. And I know last week, we were kind of talking about a few sort of meta things. And I want to start off by saying that, like, what’s working for me now is working in part because of, you know, all the work that I’ve put in understanding myself and my ADHD. And one of the things I know to be true about myself is, I am a It’s better for me to have multiple overlapping systems, even though that means more work in maintaining them than just one system, because I’m always liable to not, like, to not do anything consistently, including check whatever that one system is.

So for me personally, I’ve learned that having sort of like multiple overlapping systems makes sure that So, it means that fewer things fall through the cracks, but it also means that like more of these systems die off quicker because novelty is really the thing that works for me. And whereas, in the past, I would have like a lot of systems that like were kind of burgeoning and not working and I wasn’t using them.

So, on top of all these systems, I was still not doing the things I needed to do. These days, I think I’m quicker to just like switch them out. And again, that’s like a little bit more upfront work, but for me, personally, I know that’s what works really well. So, for example I had made a routine for myself that I would follow on Sundays, and first I was using it, first I had it written in this app that I use called Brilli, which is a routine app, and it had a number of tasks that I wanted to do on Sunday to get ready for the week, and one of those tasks was to sit down, look at the week, and then plan out some activities with my child, because if I didn’t do that conscientiously, I would end up, like, just You know, kind of going through the daily motions of all the things that I had to do in a day, and I, without thinking ahead, I often found that I wasn’t having a lot of quality time with my child, because I’d be like, doing whatever, and then all of a sudden she’d be like, Mom, let’s play, and I’d be like, Oh, I’m doing something else, or I’d be like, Hey, let’s play, and then she’d be like, I’m doing something else.

So I thought, okay, you know, I need to plan ahead to maybe like, do some crafts with her or like plan an activity. And the first thing I tried was having that as part of my Sunday routine to sit down and plan. Plan out the week. That worked fine for a while, and then it stopped working. And so for a while, even though it was on my sort of weekly agenda, I found that I would like skip it, or I would kind of like half heartedly do it, and then it like wouldn’t really work, like I would write it down, but the day would come and go, and we wouldn’t do whatever I had written that day.

So I’ve just recently switched, and what I started doing, because my child can read, is I went into Canva, and I made her a weekly schedule. And every day, I would write, What was happening for her and then I would print it on Sundays and post it on the fridge so that she could read it. But , what I’m finding is that I’m also referencing that schedule, like somehow by making it in this like cute visual format for her, it makes it easier for me to be like, okay on Tuesday, we’re like baking cookies together and then You know, what was happening before is I would say, I would write that in my agenda, like bake cookies on Tuesday, but you know, it would be like Tuesday afternoon.

I’d look at the agenda. I’d go like, Oh, yeah, I said I was going to bake cookies today. I don’t have any ingredients by putting it on a specific schedule for her, which I put on the fridge, it somehow helps my brain be like yes, we will bake cookies on Tuesday. Therefore on Monday, I must go and collect the ingredients.

So that’s something new that I’ve switched to doing. And I might’ve talked about that last time, but one thing I’m trying to really highlight here is just like, that switching systems when you notice that your system has stopped working is really helpful for me.

[00:03:31] Ash: Dusty, we touched on novelty last week, and I’m glad that you’re reinforcing that today, because again, these episodes are not intended to be prescriptive, just to kind of let you know what’s working for us and what our thought processes were to get to this point. Something I’m noticing about your system with your kid and something that I’ve started intentionally doing to spend time with my kid, who is a 14 year old, so it’s a very different situation, is trying to find the win.

So my kid really likes to run errands with me for whatever reason, but they don’t get home from the bus until about rush hour time. And especially this time of year where it’s dark so early, but really any time of year, I don’t like running errands super late at night. So the win there is a couple of things.

Number one, if we’re going to do an errand day, I pick them up from school because that gives us time to get a couple of places before traffic gets too bad. Okay. And they don’t have to ride the bus, which they don’t particularly enjoy. So that’s really nice for them as well. Number two, it gives us some time in the car that’s quiet and there’s space, you know, so often when we’re home or if we’re not spending time together, we are off doing our own things.

So this creates that time and space for my kid to share about what’s going on in her life, which she often does during those errand running days. So I would say. Overall, I would prefer to run errands alone, but there’s a nice accountability piece of setting that intention with her and knowing she’s looking forward to me picking her up.

That means if I’ve told her we’re doing errands this day, I will be there. And it gives me that time and space as a parent to you. Make space for my teenager to share what’s going on in her life, which I really enjoy. So yeah it’s something that is nice for both of us. And I think when you can find those win wins with your kids, where it’s working for both of you, especially when you’re both neurodivergent as myself and my kid definitely are that can, that’s just been a huge win for us in this household.

[00:05:32] Dusty: Yeah, and I mean we again, you know, I know we’ve already talked about parenting a week It’s been a whole episode on this but like for me finding things that I can do together with my child has been really important and then also creating like designated time and space for other people to do things with her is part of it for sure and I feel The same we kind of talked about relationships before but like something that’s always really worked for me is like date night having a night of the week or like a standing date that you do like once a month my sister and I get together and we do like a budgeting finances thing because we were like both kind of struggling with our finances so we Have a reason to get together.

We hold each other accountable. We’re also spending time together But we’re like also helping each other So that body doubling and like the recurring like looping other people in is something that also works for me really quick example, recently I’ve been struggling with sleeping, not getting enough sleep.

And I have sort of like a chat group of like, these friends who are these girlfriends of mine. And they were all talking about the same thing. So I asked them, would you guys want to do like a little, like, what if we all sent each other stickers? Like, I’m gonna get stickers for you, you get stickers for me, you send stickers to her.

And we all sent stickers on Amazon to each other. And then I made us up like a little chart and I said, Why don’t you guys pick like four to five sleep habits you want to work on? And so every day now we’re like all reporting in on our like out, like sleep hours that we’re tracking and whether we’re doing our sleep habits.

And like, we all got each other cute little stickers. And this is a very short term, like, we’re not going to do this forever, but even if we just do it for a month, we’re all helping each other and we’re all putting a big focus on our sleep. But because it’s like a fun, funny sticker friend thing, it makes it easy to put a lot of effort into it.

And so I also, I do a lot of the like, I’ll do a lot of short term systems like that when I really need to, like, pump up the jam on one area of my life where I’m struggling.

[00:07:19] Ash: So Dusty, here’s where I’m going to share that for those of you out there that have heard body doubling as a really strong support for ADHD and for a lot of people with ADHD it is, body doubling actually doesn’t work for me. It can often have the opposite effect, especially if it’s an ongoing commitment.

I become, I’m really prone to becoming resentful of ongoing commitments on my calendar. It starts to feel like an obligation and it just doesn’t really work with my life because my weeks are different every single week. But what I do like to do with my friends is, again, find that win, that opportunity to spend time together that also helps one or both of us get something done.

Just this morning I texted a friend of mine who I haven’t seen in a Always likes to go to the piercing and tattoo shop with me for whatever reason and told him I wanted to change out my septum piercing and ask them if they would want to join me. And so we set a date for that. And that is something that I would have an intention to do and then never get done on my own.

But because now it’s a fun thing where I get to hang out with my friend. And I get to have somebody with me who’s got a good eye, who will help me figure out what’s going to look good on me. That makes it a much easier thing for me to tackle. So, that’s something that’s neither urgent or important, honestly, but it’s something I want to do.

And by making it a date with a friend, it’s going to get done.

[00:08:42] Dusty: Yeah, that, it’s interesting to hear you say that and for sure I’ve experienced that, like, there’s a, you know, like a sub, you know, it’s a, you’re one or the other, right? Like, you’re either, you’re in one of those two camps, and I do find that for some people with ADHD like That oppositionality, right?

Like, don’t tell me what to do. And like, once it becomes on the calendar, it feels like an obligation. I’ve I totally get that. I mean, not for me, but I’ve heard it a lot from clients. What’s interesting for me is largely I find that routinizing things and like time boxing things and saying this time is designated for this Really does help but only if there’s body doubling, right?

Like if I set time aside once a week and I go I’m gonna work on whatever like, you know I’m gonna blow that time off, but if I’m doing it with a friend, then I’ll definitely follow through And over time that will like erode. So for example Danny Donovan and I who’s a friend and a client of mine, we meet every Friday and we do what’s called avoidance murder.

And we get together to body double in the morning and we just like, quote unquote, murder whatever we’ve been avoiding. And this year we’ve both had a lot going on and like, we’ve kind of fallen off the wagon. And I started noticing like, oh, you know, one or the other of us would cancel Or we just get together and chat or we were just doing regular stuff, which is not what that time was meant for.

So like recently I was like, Hey, like, let’s make sure we’re doing this. And now we’re telling each other in advance, like what we’re going to do. So we’re we both noticed that like the wheels were about to come off and then we both kind of like course corrected. So I do find that like from time to time, even those systems need resetting for me.

And I think just like finding ways to include other people for me is a way of creating systems. So there’s two things that I’ve done recently that I’m really enjoying. One is my housemate and I are we’re like binge watching House MD. But in the evening before I go to bed, I’ll want to tidy up.

And so I’ll actually like get the laptop and I’ll ask them to hang out with me in whatever room I’m cleaning. And I’ll just like put house on the laptop. I will sit them in front of it. I will have them watch it while I’m cleaning and I can hear it. So we’re like watching it together, but then I can be like, what’s happening, what’s going on.

And then my roommate can describe to me what’s happening. And literally I just have them sit in the room and then we’ll take the laptop and we’ll move. from room to room so that I can like tidy my stuff. But I also feel like I’m getting time with him, but I also feel like I’m getting to watch my show.

And like, it just, it’s like so magical. Like it works so perfectly.

[00:11:02] Ash: Dusty, as you were talking, I realized I do have an alternative to body doubling that does work for me. And this was actually something that came from a client. client’s daughter also has ADHD and they have this cute little practice of sending each other a text message when they’ve done something, when they’ve done something that was difficult to do.

I’ve accomplished this thing, no matter how big, how small, and the other person responds with confetti. just a little gif of confetti. So the practice for my client was getting my confetti, which I thought was really brilliant. And that actually works really well for me too. Again, setting an intention with someone else makes it feel like an obligation in a yucky way.

It’s negative motivation. It’s demotivating for me, but I do have a friend that I got this.

But I do have a friend that we have a similar practice to my client’s confetti. We don’t send each other confetti, but I will send him text messages when I’ve done things that were difficult for me to do. He will send me text messages when he’s done things that were difficult to do. And we will affirm each other in that, right?

I’m proud of you. Good job, et cetera. And that feels really nice. It’s a nice little way to celebrate. That’s actually also why we have the channel in the discord for the same idea. Because so often with ADHD, we don’t stop to appreciate what we’ve done. We look around at everything that isn’t done and we don’t take a moment to celebrate the wins.

So sharing with someone else can be a great way to celebrate the wins. Now Dusty, I want to change gears a little bit and talk about some stuff around my house and particularly in my kitchen, which has been an ongoing battle since I moved into this house. My co parent, my ex husband previously was sort of the manager of the kitchen.

He doesn’t mind doing dishes. I do not like doing dishes. And so that was not my, and he was also the cook. So kitchen is just really not my forte. And so that’s been a big learning curve for me in the last few years since I moved in. And a couple of things that have really helped is number one, if my trash can is three quarters of a way full, I take it out.

I take it out because otherwise I’m going to have something too big and trash is going to start piling up. And as long as I’m doing that, I quickly survey the fridge, the freezer, the pantry for anything that’s obviously old, expired, needs to go, and use that extra space to store it. For that, if there is something that needs to be tossed, but either way, three quarters of the way, full the trash just goes out.

Otherwise, it’s going to become an overflowing nightmare. Same with my dishwasher. If my dishwasher is three quarters of the way full, I run it because if I wait until it’s perfectly full by the time it’s through its cycle, especially since it’s I have an old house, so it’s not a built in dishwasher. It’s one of the ones you have to roll over and attach on.

It takes like Four or five hours to run a full cycle with the dry cycle. So if I wait until it’s perfectly full until I’m running dishes, now I’ve got a backlog of dishes that needs to go into the dishwasher and they’re never not dirty dishes around on my counter. So three quarters of the way full and it goes 

[00:14:06] Dusty: Yeah house stuff is such a big thing. And it’s something I think, again, that, like, we, we don’t talk about, but everybody with ADHD struggles with, you know, and for me, there’s sort of like 2, there’s 2 pieces to this. There’s how you set up your household and then, like, what the routines are.

So. For me, I became a clothing minimalist. Like all of my laundry fits in one load. I’m also we have like four plates. We have four plates four bowls for like small plates right now We have too many cups. I don’t know how they seem to multiply but like we keep a minimum amount of things like laundry and cups because like I don’t want to have to deal with them.

I try to always have a place for everything in my home because it just makes it easier for me to be able to put it back. It like reduces that friction. And there’s always going to be some small amount of stuff in my home that doesn’t have a home. So I kind of have this like bin or basket that’s like my, it’s like my doom box, but it’s like the active doom box.

So I, whenever there’s something that doesn’t have a home, it goes in there. And when it gets too full, I like reset it, right? Like I find homes for things, or I throw things away, or I. I sort of have to, you know, if I’ve been putting off, fixing a thing with glue, right, it’s going to be in that one little doom box, but it’s contained.

And so how I set it up makes a difference. And then the routines work better. So I’ve tried having like housekeepers in the past, and sometimes it’s been good. Sometimes not. Depends on the housekeeper. A dishwasher is like a non negotiable for me. Like I will not hand wash dishes. And same thing. I find that for me, there’s three levels of cleaning.

There’s like. Deep cleaning or like cleaning like floors and dusting, but then there’s like daily things you want to clean like you want to wipe down counters or you want to get the globs of toothpaste out of the sink. Weirdly for me, like, I have to clean the bathroom mirror like every day.

Like, I hate having the toothpaste smatters on the window or on the mirror rather. And then there’s like, Tidying, right? Like picking up crap and so because to me those feel like three different things I’ve kind of had to come up with three different ways to deal with them So the deep cleaning I still do have a housekeeper for and I have a cleaning chart So sometimes I do the deep cleaning sometimes the housekeeper does it and we sort of keep track of like Have any rooms recently not, you know, had swept under and cobwebs, whatever, that’s one thing, right?

The clutter busting has to, is the hardest part, right? Because both me and my daughter are super messy, we leave crap all over the place. So I, as much as I can, I try to clean up after myself, but I find that’s the end of the day thing, where one of my end of the day tasks has to be just going room to room, and I call it like resetting the room, like I walk into the room, I look at it, I pick up all the stuff that’s not supposed to be there, and I put it away.

And I don’t do that every night because some nights I’m too tired, but it just makes me feel better to wake up in the house when, like if I don’t do it once a day, it just gets out of hand, right? But I do have kind of like staging areas, right? Like I have the doom box that I can put things in if I don’t want to or put, can’t put things away.

And my daughter has a One of those, my daughter has a thing on her door, which is like a, it’s a hangy thingy with compartments. I don’t know how to explain it. And so whenever I pick up her crap around the house, I just dump it in there. And when all of those are full, I reset all of them. So there’s like a temporary tidy holding zone.

And as much as I can create those, then I don’t have to fully put things away if I don’t feel like I have the energy. But for that daily cleaning, what I’ve found is like, Instead of thinking of having like a daily cleaning routine or a weekly cleaning routine, I just make a little bit of cleaning part of my morning and my evening routine.

So every morning, I unload the dishwasher, and I do a couple other small things. Every evening, I load the dishwasher. Windex the bowl. bathroom window, bathroom mirror. I Windex the bathroom mirror, and I actually keep a small bottle of Windex in the bathroom, right next to the mirror. I keep it at the point of performance because then I can just wipe it down.

And for me, I hate the sensory the sensory experience of walking on cruddy floors. So most nights, when I can get myself to do it, I will sweep the dining room and kitchen. I don’t mop it a lot, but I do just a quick sweep because I like to have, like, wiped down counters, clean floor. Clean bathroom mirror and clean dishes when I wake up.

So it’s a small number of cleaning tasks in my morning and my evening routine that take me less than 10 minutes. I found that’s the way to like keep everything at a dull roar. And so by actually breaking it up and not just having like one like way of doing it, I’m actually able to do more of it.

[00:18:30] Ash: . Dusty, that thing you said about everything having a home, when I was a professional organizer, clients would look at me and go, Oh, your house must be perfect. And it rarely was, right? It rarely was because especially at that time, I had a very small child and a very big house.

And it was a lot to keep up on. But, what I did tell my clients is the difference between my house and yours currently, and the only difference, is everything has a home. And so, when you’re dealing with the stuff that’s laying out, it’s much easier to put it away if you know where it goes. If you have pause and make a decision or think about where you’re going to put something, then that’s really frustrating.

And that’s what makes the idea of a doom box that is contained and it’s one box, right? Meaning when it gets full, it’s time to go through that box rather than shoving it in a closet and starting another one, which I know I was guilty of in my younger years, the doom bags and the doom boxes that would just fill up my closet can be a really nice thing because it can help you.

Cool. not impede progress from getting the picking up done, but it also puts a limit on how many things can be homeless before it’s time to tackle that as a project and find homes for these things. So really appreciating that one. Dusty, like you, I also do the morning and evening routines. It can be really hard for me to want to engage with picking up or cleaning in any way, shape, or form, but I found that anchoring it to other things I have to do anyway, I’m already, I have to activate for this thing.

really helps. So in the morning, I brew my coffee and while my coffee is brewing, I too wipe down kitchen counters, do whatever needs to be done in the kitchen, dishes, unloading, loading the dishwasher, whichever direction that needs to go, start a load of laundry if there’s laundry that needs to be done.

And then before I cook dinner, I do the same thing. Right? Laundry, trash, kitchen stuff whatever needs to be picked up or tidied quickly, I can do that right before I start dinner. And I really like doing it before I start dinner because then when dinner is done, all that I’m left with are the dinner Dishes, which can go in the dishwasher because there is always room in my dishwasher for our plates.

It’s a small dishwasher for our plates and cups and silverware. And that just leaves the couple of big things that I used to cook dinner to wash, which I know I will do the next morning while my coffee is waiting. So I don’t have to do it tonight. So that means that once dinner is done, I’m kind of off the hook as far as tidying and cleaning for the day goes.

And that feels really nice for me.

[00:21:09] Dusty: Yeah, and I think, like, what I’m hearing, and again, you and I are often very different about this, but like, the key thing I think is really figuring out, like, what works for you or, like, what your proclivities are, right? And then, like, working with that instead of trying to do something you think you quote unquote should do, because that’s how other people do it.

So. It is like, it causes no end of stress to like, people who have dated me, that the garbage can will overflow. Speaking of garbage, like, I will not take the garbage out, like, ever. Like, it will be overflowing, it will be falling on the floor. If I walk by something on the floor that needs to be picked up, I won’t pick it up.

I don’t know what it, like, it feels so hard when I’m already in the middle of doing something else to stop what I’m doing and pick up something, even though it’s a very small action. It feels hard for me to stop what I’m doing and take the garbage out. And the thing is, sometimes I plain just, like, do not notice that things need to be done.

So, for me, What has made a big difference is arbitrary routines that are time bound, right? So, for example, my daughter and I both wash our hair once a week. We both have very thick hair, so this works for us. The thing is, I always wash it on Sundays.

If I happen to miss a Sunday, I will fully go two weeks without washing my hair, and it’s only at the end of two weeks that I will actually start to get like an itchy scalp and be like, ugh, my hair, it’s greasy, because my hair is just that thick. But, so like, I wash my hair Sundays, I wash my daughter’s hair Sundays.

I take out the garbage and the recycling in the morning if it needs to go out, because that’s, like, I, look, that’s part of my, like, morning thing. , oh, and then like, I have this specialty recycling that can’t go to the curb. It has to go to the recycling center like batteries, styrofoam, and I started noticing that would overflow and then I’d see it and I’d say to myself, Oh, I’ve got to take that back.

And then I never would. So now once a month on the last day of the month, I take the recycling, the special recycling back if it needs to go. Sometimes it doesn’t, but I know that the last day of the month is my day to do that. And by assigning arbitrary times to do things, they actually get done. I used to do this.

I don’t do this anymore because my work schedule has changed. But it used to be the case that the third week of every month, I didn’t have as many clients, and so I, at one point, designated the third week of my month to be like, car cleaning week. It didn’t have to be a specific day or a specific time of the day, but the third week of the month, because I had more time, I would take my car to the like, vacuum place, and I would take it to the, you know, car wash, and so once a month, I would clean my car, but it always happened that week.

And so for me, like, it just feels easier to, I have to have like a designated day or time. Because I cannot count on myself to notice that it needs to be done. And I also cannot count on myself to like, stop what I’m doing to attend to something, even if I do notice that it needs to be done. It just doesn’t work that way for me.

 I’m curious Ash, like, How do you keep track? Because something that I have had a hard time building systems for, and still kind of struggle with, it’s getting better.

But like, things that don’t need to be done on a daily, weekly, or monthly basis, like things that need to be done less often like that, like, you know, say dentist appointments, or like, something for me is like, my dog needs to be groomed when he needs to be groomed. And if I book an appointment with the groomer, it’s usually so far in advance that I’ll, like, forget it.

But then he’ll be, like, way too hairy. Like, how do you deal with the stuff that only needs doing very occasionally?

[00:24:33] Ash: That’s a good question, Dusty. And for me, it’s a couple of things. If it’s an appointment, I have to make with somebody else, like my barber or my dentist. I schedule those appointments while I am there. My barber has an online booking system, and I still ask her if I can just book with her while I am there sitting in her chair, because if I don’t, it’s not going to get done.

And if my hair is not Cut once every four weeks. It starts to look really terrible, really fast. Same with the dentist. I go ahead and book an appointment based on just The best I know about my schedule at the time and what generally works for me. And even if on the rare occasion that time comes six months from now, and I absolutely cannot keep that dental appointment, having that placeholder is a nice reminder That I then need to call and reschedule, but more often than not, I will do what I have to do.

Even if my schedule has radically changed, I usually see clients at that time, I will just make it work that week to make it to the dentist so that I don’t have to reschedule . When it comes to stuff that isn’t making appointments with other people, I do also use the calendar. Christmas often sneaks up on me and this was my fault because I didn’t do this year.

But normally, during Christmas time, I will set a reminder for myself for like next October. Just like, hey! Christmas is a thing. It would be a good idea to think about shopping, to do you need wrapping paper, start making your plans for when and how you’re going to decorate, et cetera. And that way I have that little prompt just to check in.

For household stuff, that’s a little tougher. I don’t know. I’ve never owned a house by myself until now. I always had my co parent and he was really good about stuff like the furnace filter and cleaning the air conditioning unit and those house maintenance things that just need to be done every once in a while.

So that one I’m still working on for the furnace filter. I’ve just made a habit of looking at it. Every time I walk by that space, my furnace is in my storage room slash workshop area. And so I am in there relatively frequently. I mean, at least once a month, if not more often, I have to go into that space for something.

And so I’ve just made it a habit to just slide the filter out and look at it and see whether it’s dirty or not. And always keep extras. I always have. At least three furnace filters and when I use the last one, I immediately order more. I’m an older millennial. I do most of my shopping sitting at my computer.

I don’t like to shop on my phone, but I will pull up the Amazon app and just order more filters right then and there. And that way, because what happens if I pull it out and it’s dirty and I don’t have filters as I stick it back in and I don’t do anything. If I pull it out and it’s dirty and it’s two seconds to swap the filters, it’s done.

[00:27:23] Dusty: That’s exactly where my system broke down because I was going to say that I had a really good system. So I went on Etsy and I just downloaded a cleaning template. I think it was like two bucks. And what I liked about it is it was all on one page, but it was like daily, weekly, monthly cleaning tasks. And then it had a little section for like quarterly, bi annually, and annual cleaning tasks.

And I was like, Oh my God, I love this. Because like, yeah, like it, it made all of those things visual because I could write them out and they were all on one sheet. And so one of the quarterly. Cleaning tasks was the furnace filter because my furnace filter said change it like every three months or whatever.

And so last year that worked really well, like every three months I was like, oh, gotta change the furnace filter. And then the system broke down when I ran out of filters and I didn’t get more and I was like, oh, I need to get that when I go to Costco, but then I didn’t have time to go to Costco. And I, I completely forgot until you just said that I could just order more on Amazon.

So I should do that because I’ve not changed my furnace filter in quite a while. But before I ran out of, well, I had furnace filters, just having like a checklist where it’s like, you know, you tick it off every three months. I was like, brilliant. Cause you can put all that, you know, it was a house cleaning thing, but I just put a lot of the maintenance stuff on there too.

And that worked for me as far as like the, like, it’s so smart. I think to like book the appointment while you’re there, like you were talking about with your barber. Cause I actually, I also had this problem with my car. I kept going the mechanic and I would say. Do my brakes need changing? And he would say, he said to me a couple of times in a row.

He’s like, you know, your brakes are like a little low, but they’re like fine. You don’t need to change them yet. And then of course, sure enough, like the time that my brakes needed to be changed came and went. And then it wasn’t until like months later. And then guess who needed not only new brake pads, but also new rotors.

Right. Because he kept telling me, you don’t need to do it yet, you don’t need to do it yet, but I can’t count on myself to notice when I do need to do it. So the next, when I went in and I got the new brakes and rotors, I said to him, I am just going to arbitrarily book an appointment with you to, like, get my brakes done, even if they don’t, like, like, honestly, like, It’s the ADHD tax up front, right?

Yeah, it’s kind of a waste of money for me to like get my brakes done when they don’t really need it but it’s ultimately gonna cost me more if I don’t do that because I’m going to destroy the rotors from running the brakes too long like I just have to do it at Arbitrary intervals and I made that mistake last year by like by trusting my mechanic when he was like, yeah You know, you could let go a little longer and then all of a sudden it’s like eight months later

[00:29:42] Ash: So it sounds like the moral there is planning ahead in a way that actually works for you, right? That a way that’s actually going to prompt it. If you can book the thing in advance, book the thing in advance. If it costs a little more, it costs a little more. I do have a Costco membership. It is cheaper to buy my furnace filters there.

If I happen to remember when I am at Costco, I will buy them there. But if I don’t and I run out, I go ahead and just order them. And that is true for. Anything that I can normally buy at Costco, if I just can’t get to Costco, because otherwise systems start to break down, and it’s worth it to pay a little bit more to have it shipped to my door if I just don’t have the time for that particular errand.

Alright, Dusty. This has been really fun to compare and contrast what’s working for us. And it’s really funny how, in some ways, we are so similar and we’ve come to similar conclusions, even though we have never – by the way, listeners, Dusty and I, for all the times that we have sat down and talked and spent time together, we have never talked about our personal systems until we did these episodes.

So I’ve had a lot of fun with these. I hope that these have been helpful for you, our listeners. And until next week, I’m Ash.

[00:30:51] Dusty: And I’m Dusty.

[00:30:53] Ash: And this was the Translating ADHD podcast. Thanks for listening.