ADHD + learning disabilities / ADHD/LD Awareness Month / life

ADHD tech tuesday: google calendar ramblings [11/31]

• by kerri

The great thing about technology that is great for ADHDers is that it’s also great for like 95% of other people. Most of it is not eve designed with ADHDers in mind, but for everyone. (That is where good design comes in!) However, good technology is even more of a benefit, I think, to those of us with ADHD than it might be for others—if that’s even possible given how much the world now relies on technology.

This is where Google Calendar comes in.

I am not a crazy colour coder. I do use Calendars 5 for iOS which has some colours in it for different To-Do list fields which is okay, now that Microsoft killed Sunrise, because Microsoft is mean that way. (I’m pretty sure they also killed Timeful. Damn it, Microsoft!) But my Google Calendar is not all colour coded. Everything feeds into my iPad, iPhone, and Mac (except I currently lack a calendar app on my Mac because I don’t like anything except for Sunrise which is now dead, and refuse to pay $60 for a calendar app. C’mon guys.)

I’ve been a pretty thorough Google Calendar user for years. And years. Except now that I bullet journal (more on that Thursday), I am less into the Google Calendar. But, with IFTTT (more on If This Then That next week), I do still store a TON of information in my Google Calendar, ready to access wherever I need it. (Because somehow I never lose my phone ever. Miracle.) Foursquare checkins and other such things are pushed into my Google Calendar so I can check back later to see where I was on a particular day, or when I want to whatever place. If I’ve used Foursquare anyways which I usually forget to.

Sunrise made a lot of my Google Calendar-y things even easier. But, hey, maybe sharing my rambly love for Google Calendar with you all is the way I can actually get myself to IFTTT more things to my Calendar. (Maybe not the best idea to keep things uncluttered, but in terms of an archive, it’s super great.)

One thing that I hugely appreciate from Google Calendar that my Bullet Journal cannot give me is alerts. Alerts are SO freaking important to me (although I did get really alarm fatigued by my Fitbit and all my Concerta alarms so I am STILL trying to figure out a way to ensure I take my Concerta at noon everyday…). But for special tasks, they are great. Like submitting a job application or—for next year—I have four reminders set asking me if I want to cancel my Visa card because it keeps auto-renewing and now I finally have a record of the auto-renew date.

Because honestly, y’think I’m going to contact my BANK? I’d need four alerts for that, too ;).

Challenge Update Day 11:

Meditation: Body Scan Bubble Journey meditation last night, 7 minutes.

Plank: Crossed the 100 second barrier today: 105 seconds. It was friggen hard. It’s hard to believe that after just 11 days, I can do 50 more seconds than I could at the beginning of the month. Day 30 will be 205 seconds—ridiculous!
ADHD/LD Awareness Month / life / quotes

[catching up] mantra monday[-ish]. [10/31]

• by kerri

Thanks, Thanksgiving, today is really Metaphorical Monday. So I’m not really late. Actually I am.

Whatever.

My friend Mike started this thing called Mirror Mantras, where he puts a positive phrase or quote on his bathroom mirror to focus on for the week. Of course, I copied him. Here’s mine for this week.

https://i0.wp.com/farm9.staticflickr.com/8669/29641819504_6c4fcc4c94.jpg?resize=375%2C500&ssl=1

“Don’t live down to expectations. Go out there and do something remarkable.”

Plank update [yesterday]: 95 seconds. (Seriously. WHAT!)
Meditation update [yesterday]: I did something except Smiling Mind only gives me ONE meditation history, sooo I cannot tell you what it was. This is why I should update every day. 

ADHD + learning disabilities / ADHD/LD Awareness Month / advocacy / life / wellness

[catching up] self-care sunday: community.

• by kerri

I started this on Sunday. You know, ADHD. Point is I am finishing it and I still did the plank and meditated. BOOM. (Mostly.)

The thing with ADHD is that unless you have it, it’s hard to totally understand. Or as the folks at ADHD U say, “If you don’t got it, you don’t get it!”. While ADHD is variable and no two of us are alike (like, of course, with just about any diagnosis), community helps.

The ladies—especially our team of administrators—at Smart Girls with ADHD are equally good at providing empathy and laughing at ourselves for the things we do… At volumes that only ADHDers seem to do those sorts of things. Even when I am not posting or responding frequently, if I do something that the other ladies will relate to—usually funny, sometimes frustrating—I will most often pop over to the group and share it! It’s fun to see the comments come in of other girls’ stories from the preceding few days saying “I get ya!”

Community is important to know that you may be different from most people around you because of ADHD or LD, but that you are not alone. I shared a blog post earlier this month, and I always don’t know how to feel when I get a response like this:

Mostly, I am overjoyed that someone knows that we get it. However, there’s still a part of me that still hurts because we are so enthusiastic to find people that get it because of all those who don’t get it. This, though, is why community is so important—and for me, an important part of self-care, one that I can choose to access more when I need it, and less when I don’t. Because when nobody gets it? The ADHD community—whether that’s our Smart Girls (or the Smart Girls admins), the #ADDcheckin tweeps, or just sending off a message to a friend who I know gets it, like Aaron or Jess if I’m needing to be a tad less public about the whole thing.

I’ve said it before about chronic disease, but it really applies to ADHD too. Find your people, your community. The ones that get you. Even if they’re halfway across the country or the continent or the world, my little neurodiverse, ADHD community is so important to me to have—to know that even in my brain’s quirks, other people have the same variation of normal that I do. And just having that safe space to share or rant or whatever is so important, and often reminds me that yes, patience is important and that applies SO MUCH to being patient with myself, too.

ADHD + learning disabilities / ADHD/LD Awareness Month / advocacy

ADHD fact friday #1 [7/31]

• by kerri

adhd fact friday

Week One Fact:

ADHD is a neurodevelopmental disorder. ADHD is caused by genetic and biological factors that affect how the brain develops. Like most neurodevelopmental disorders, it can be mild, moderate or severe, and affects each person differently.

Challenge Update Day 7:

Meditation: Body Scan meditation last night, 8 minutes.

Plank: 85 seconds down—think my form was better than yesterday but it was hard. I get two more 85 second days so that should be doable.
life

adhd tech tuesday: tile [04/31]

• by kerri

Lose stuff all the time?

Yeah, me too. Thanks, executive functioning fail.

I’m pretty sure that since Christmas, Tile has saved me at least 30 minutes per week I spent looking for my keys. I don’t know where my spare key(s) is(are) because I don’t need to. Because I can find my keys with my phone. By hitting a button in the app, my keys emit this cute tune via the Tile.

https://i0.wp.com/farm6.staticflickr.com/5121/30009507322_84b9e92e7c.jpg?resize=375%2C500&ssl=1

Yeah, there’s some mild grossness on my Tile because duh, it’s like constantly in my pocket/backpack/etc. Which means it’s actually useful.

The badass thing is that I can also find my phone using my keys! The “e” is a secret little button that you can press and make your phone ring even if it is on silent. So I am only screwed if I lose both of them. I guess I could put the Tile app on my mom’s phone, but she’s misplaced her phone more times this year than I have in my life, so… 😉

The only drawback for Tile is that the battery is non-replaceable. But, given the popularity of the Tile vs. others, and the community aspect of it (other people’s phones running the Tile app pick up other Tiles—they just can’t see where they are—and transmit your Tile’s data to you in the event your item is lost).

My keys are the only thing I’ve put a Tile on, but, with the new slimmer Tile out, I’m considering putting one in my wallet, too. Just in case ;).

I don’t know if the people who made Tile (or anybody else that has made similar technology) have ADHD, but this kind of tracker is a godsend for those of us who do!

Day 4 Challenge Update:
Plank: 75 seconds. Tomorrow’s an app rest day, but I’m going to plank still. ‘Cause it’s a MONTH LONG plank challenge, yo.

Meditation:  
I should probably just stop noting that I’m using the Smiling Mind app, but hey. It’s good stuff. I did the Bite Size meditation called Internal Weather. My internal weather was just sleepy so I was happy the meditation was Bite Size ;).