Overwhelm

Sometimes it amazes me what people think is an appropriate format to communicate important information.

As an example, I had an event that required a two-page PDF document to share necessary instructions and it was a nightmare for someone with ADHD.

Namely this ADHDer.

OMG! Multiple colors, no way to tell what was important from details that were informational, poor organization. It was immediately overwhelming, just from a visual standpoint, and then when I tried to consume the instructions for what was expected from me, the overwhelm became a million times worse. I ended up printing out the TWO pages and taking a highlighter to decipher the damn thing.

And because of the color scheme, I'm betting there are people with color blindness who have issues with it, too. Luckily, I don't have to deal with that because ADHD is enough.

I don't know who put this together. I don't know who approved this. But it's clear they aren't neurodivergent.

Before I got my ADHD diagnosis, I would have assumed there was just something wrong with me. Now I know it's a document not formatted/created/color schemed/laid out with people like me in mind. It's still frustrating, but at least I know it's not my fault. That's something. 

Weekly Planning Solved (I Hope)

Like I mentioned on Tuesday, I finally found a weekly planning system that seems to be working for me.

The monthly overview I use with dashboard stickers that I buy straightened me out last year and made remembering the stuff I need to get done monthly easy to see.

I laid out a section for bills and cross them off as they're paid. I have a section for tasks that are done every month, including writing my newsletter. I have another section for important dates like doctor appointments. And a don't forget section for more miscellaneous things.

Now I needed to solve my weekly task issue, and it was a huge was a huge problem for me. HUGE!

2025 was my planner experimental year and I never exactly handled my weekly problem. Nothing I tried worked for more than a few weeks.

2026 was a new planner layout with a page I could use as a weekly overview page the same way I had my monthly overview page. I was hopeful.

I ran into problems in the first few weeks I laid out. But I figured out what the issue was. Too many categories. Because I could fit six or seven box stickers on the page, I did. I labeled each one differently and became totally overwhelmed. When the weeks I'd setup before I actually used the planner were finished and it was time to setup the next one, I decided to replicate the monthly more closely.

As few boxes as possible.

The monthly overview has four boxes. I went with three boxes on my weekly layout and it's working. One is for This Week. One is for Projects. One is labeled Important. Fingers crossed that this continues to work.

ADHD Versus Planners

One of the things that leaves me puzzled is all the people who claim a planner will not help an ADHD person. That we'll just give up on it quickly.

As someone with ADHD, I always scrunch up my brow when I read this and think, not me.

To be fair, I tried a variety of planners that did not work. I cannot use a weekly vertical to save my life. I look at it and all I see is a jumbled mess which gets worse when I see someone use a lot of stickers on it, especially boxes.

What I've discovered works for me best is a daily planner. I write everything I want to get done that day on the planner even if it's something I do every single day like fill in my Five-Year Diary or write. Even if it's a simple chore like wash towels. It's on the list. If I run out of time that day, I add a little > mark and then move it to the next available day that I can accomplish it.

I've tried bullet journaling. Not for me because I want the pretty but lack artistic talent.

I've tried a variety of weekly planners. Horizontal works best for me, but I prefer it with a daily set of pages for my lists. I've failed at every weekly layout I've tried except for my day job. For some reason, vertical weekly worked perfectly there. Go figure.

My current planner setup is nearly perfect for me. So close. I'm using the vertical weekly spread it comes with to track weather, words written that day, menu planning, sleep hours, water, what I'm reading, etc. You can see the nearly final layout on this blog post.

This planner also has room for a monthly overview page. Perfect! And I've added a weekly overview page in front of the vertical weekly spread. What would make this planner the absolute Patti-Perfect version would be two weekly spreads for every week. One horizontal for how I actually keep track of my weekly things and one vertical so I can have my layout with all the information. I'd also like this planner not to be hardcover because I love using stickers and washi tape through it and I'm not sure the hardcover is going to handle it well.

Actually, there are three planners that if I smashed them into ONE planner, would make my perfect planner. Sadly, they are from three different planner companies, so it isn't happening.

Which is my super long way of saying that just because I have ADHD doesn't mean I'm incapable of managing my life with a planner. It just means I needed to try a bunch of systems until I found one that worked for me.

I've been struggling with weekly tasks for a long time, but the overview page seems to be working now. More on Thursday about this.

I Would Like to Buy Some Cheeeeese

Algorithms are weird things sometimes. I have no idea why YouTube recommended this video to me, but I watched it.

This isn't the first time I found something interesting that was unexpected. I mean, I'm the person who ended up watching an hour-long TV show years ago about container ships.

I figure it's all fodder for future books.

But I was scrolling through my suggested YouTube videos and saw: Why the Mold Behind Brie Cheese is Disappearing.

For some unknown reason, I was intrigued by this question and watched the video. (Spoiler alert: It as to do with too little genetic diversity in the mold.)

It isn't only Brie at risk. There is also another cheese, Camembert. I'd never even heard of this cheese and it might disappear without my ever tasting it? That seemed wrong.

I began a quest to find Camembert.

It took two weeks and a sale at the grocery store, but I finally got my hands on the cheese. From the picture I was a little worried about one person eating all that much cheese, but I worried for nothing. It was the smallest cheese "wheel" imaginable.

So was it worth the effort to track down this cheese just to try it?

You know what? It was good and it will be a shame when they can no longer make it. I'd actually buy it again. And while I know I've had Brie before, I'm going to buy some of that, too, to remind myself of what it tastes like. Hopefully, someone can figure out how to save the cheeses!

Journal Fails

Guess who hasn't touched her media journal?

It might possibly be the same person who hasn't filled in her reading journal. :-(

The Media Journal is easy. I haven't been consuming any podcasts. Mostly. I have listened to a couple of podcasts, but I didn't actually finish any of the episodes, so I couldn't mark them on the tracker.

The reading journal is another problem entirely.

What's the problem here? It's the reading challenges I'm involved in. One of them allows you to count the same book for multiple categories and I'm also trying to use these books to count for the other reading challenge I'm doing. Which leaves me wondering how many copies of the cover do I need to print?

Is it two? Three? More? Because I want a copy of the cover in my normal book section and a copy of the cover for each of the prompts in the reading challenge that it satisfies. And I'm tracking my reading challenges on StoryGraph and the big reading challenge is broken down into so many categories, which means I need to open multiple categories to figure out the cover situation and it just feels like too much.

So, yeah. Fail.