In October of 2022, after reading and sharing about Atomic Habits, I wrote about how a lot of people had come on to my social feeds with anti-goal energy. I wrote about how ableist that take is, and how important learning about goals, including the often invisible microgoals that are the foundation of our lives, is for folks with ADHD. I say this as a caveat to readers: this isn’t the place for anti-goal nonsense. Without goals, structure, and systems, I’d literally be dead, so, yeah. Not today. Not here. To further clarify, this is NOT about externally generated goals that shame me into behaving like a neurotypical person. This is about internally generated, loving goals that help me survive, live, and maybe even thrive.
My gorgeous, funny, ADHD brain is like a bobsled. You don’t want it flying through the air. You don’t. It needs a track. On a track, it’s still going at warp speed, but it’s power and challenges are contained. Setting goals is one of the ways that I keep this bobsled brain on its track.
I’ve done a lot of different things with goal-setting, and like many folks with ADHD, I switch up my planning and goal setting routines regularly. The important thing is, I no longer beat myself up about that. Is there a rule that you have to use the same planner for the rest of your life? Is buying a new planner some terrible sin? Let’s be real here. We are a group of people who love novelty and who buy new planners. Sue us! Yeah, I’m done feeling shame for that. Look around you. Look at what some people do to each other and the world. You can buy a new planner. It’s okay.
This year, my goal-setting and planning setup looks like this:
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