Dear Reader,

First and foremost, I’m not a doctor, so I can’t really give you medical tips- but I can, however, recommend things to help you through the day. The first tip I have to share with you is simple, yet I know that many of us struggle with our day to day task and executive dysfunction- so let’s break it down.

Not everything has to be perfect- right? Right. It’s easier said than done as I was a person that had to do all or nothing, which was a nightmare and not exactly sustainable to clean from top to bottom in each room. It set me up for failure every day as I was too overwhelmed to do anything and ended up doing something that made no positive difference to the mess that was overwhelming me. But I had to clean, so what the heck was the answer?

A starting point- a starting task. Mine happened to be dishes, which I knew better than to let grow large or I would be too stressed out to even go into the kitchen. So, I started there, each day putting away the dishes, even if it was a few from breakfast or from the night before, I started with the dishes. I knew that I didn’t want them to overwhelm me- I didn’t want to give grandma’s ceramics that kind of power.

You may be different, of course, because who likes do dishes? Not me. But maybe, you hate dishes (loathe them, despise them…the dirty dishwater… okay, okay, you get it), so don’t use dishes as your starter task, but find something you know you can do- even if it’s picking up the toys in the living room or folding laundry or bringing the trash out. Find your task and stick to it and it will get you and your brain moving enough for you to maybe jump to the next task…and the next.

And the best part, the starter task gets easier to start each time you do it and maintain it. I’ll never have a large, looming pile of dishes waiting for me, because I refuse that- I refuse to wake up with smells and mess waiting for me. Maybe you refuse to trip over your kids Lego’s one more time or can’t stand your shirts being wrinkled in the basket, but find those things that are convenient and make you happy. Start- it doesn’t have to be perfect, it doesn’t have to be every toy, every piece of clothes, every dish- just start.

xoxo, Tabby