No fancy OP this time because I am running on E! I'm definitely not a couple of days late! This week's person of interest is you, dear reader. Tell this fat frog lady all about your lovely selves this week. Tell me what makes you laugh and what brings you joy in this hell on earth we call home.
As always, we ask that in order to participate in the weekly megathread, one self-identifies as some form of disabled, which is broadly defined in the community sidebar:
"Disability" is an umbrella term which encompasses physical disabilities, emotional/psychiatric disabilities, neurodivergence, intellectual/developmental disabilities, sensory disabilities, invisible disabilities, and more. You do not have to have an official diagnosis to consider yourself disabled.
Mask up, love one another, and stay alive for one more week.
I can attempt to put one together tomorrow, and maybe others can chime in once we get the list started. I have taken a lot of mental load off of myself by having sets of instructions for things, even as simple as doing laundry, but I've never really written them down in one place, so it's a good opportunity to do that. If you haven't heard from me for a bit I probably ran out of spoons, but I do want to try! Glad you've been on the mend, and thank you for the idea
Its like all the people who need such a tool aren't really in a position to make it, and all those who don't need it can't understand why it would be necessary, or what it should include. Some catch 22 amiright?
Absolute needs:
Should do daily:
Prepare for tomorrow:
Weekly:
Just a few off the top of my head. Thanks for the support
sad
downright utopian for me to even be able to do half of these on a good week lol
I usually miss a few. I used to miss a lot more. Try to do one extra today for the you that wakes up tomorrow or next week <3
Easier said than done, I know.
some ideas for edits & additions:
Laundry
if you can afford it & can store them, it can be helpful to have enough changes of clothing to only have to do laundry weekly instead of daily.
you could do a Home Day once a week, where you do meal prep and other cleaning in between loads of laundry and get your bedding, towels, and clothes all done in the same day, but I find it's less overwhelming for me to have a Clothes Day and a Towels Day and a Bedding Day.
Exercise
trying to make this a daily habit helped me get better at actually doing it 2-3 times a week 🤦🤷 maybe you're more disciplined than I am 🙃 but if you find this hard to do as a 2-3x/wk, maybe try breaking it into daily 15 minute sessions and see how that goes.
To-Do List
this is another thing I had to move to daily for similar reasons
Sticky Notes
no suggestions on the placement of this, just have to know: do these work for you?!?!? genuinely envious 😅 for me, they quickly just become bright, beautiful visual clutter that gets filtered out once I get busy or overwhelmed. I have to put things on my phone calendar and set up several reminder notifications in advance 😐
Taxes
Weekly: enter & categorize receipts in spreadsheet, put other records to appropriate files/piles.
Monthly: sort & total income & expenditures.
Annual: check everything, file taxes.
Gifts
put their dates on your calendar. (Google calendar automatically adds birthdays etc from your contacts, others probably do the same.)
have an easy-to-access note/list on your phone (or something else that is with you whether you're at home or out & about); add to it whenever your loved ones mention their interests or needs or when you see something you think they might like or find useful.
Weekly: check for important dates 2-3 weeks out; make or shop for card & gift.
Monthly: is it November or December yet? if yes: Stress About Holidays. if no: try to forget the winter holiday season exists. ❄️🙃❄️
The sticky notes do work for me when I'm very overwhelmed, in fact I just use some of those little tiny ones you use to highlight sections in a book and don't even write anything on it. I often put one on the door knob while thinking "remember to grab the X you need today" and I'm not allowed to remove it until I physically have it in my hand. I also try to dedicate a specific place for all the things I need and collect them, or a "token" for them, in that place. Like if I need to remember to bring something like pasta salad with me which has to stay in the fridge, I'll put the serving spoon on the table instead.
All this stuff sounds like the kind of advice people give you, and you think "if only it was that easy" it isn't so easy but it's all you can do you know?
I don't tend to "forget" exercise when I'm on top of it. I start feeling really antsy when it's my "day" but if I can't exercise that day for whatever reason that's inevitably when I fall off. The 2 feet of snow certainly isn't helping right now.
These are great additions dustbunnies thank you <3 You got this too!