Boost Your Summer with 1 Exclusive ADHD-Friendly Family Tool

Boost Your Summer

Jul 3, 2022

Boost Your Summer with 1 Exclusive ADHD-Friendly Family Tool

In a previous blog, I shared how I reconnected to my 2022 goals and checked in on using a Word of the Year theme to support reaching them with more ease. Now I am exploring Goals/Aims/Intentions (choose your word) for a shorter time period, specifically summertime.

What do I want to do? Where do I want to go? Who/What do I want to see?

I know from experience how quickly the lazy days of summer can blend into a hazy blur that flies by without anything on my summer list  being accomplished. If I don’t put some structure around what I want to do, it often doesn’t happen.

I also know that if I don’t write down what I want to do so I can actually see it (ISIM: In Sight, In Mind), I often plan more than anyone could ever do in a lifetime, let alone in just the three months of summer!

When Identifying my summer goals, I start with three general areas:

  1. Wellness (Prioritizing time for fun and play to support my physical and mental fitness)
  2. Relationships (Prioritizing time to connect with family and friends)
  3. Home Projects (Identifying what I want to accomplish at home)
  4. **I intentionally do NOT include work/business goals in my list. That is a separate area of focus for me. My intention here is to prioritize my free time during the summer months.

Prompts!

As an ADHD Coach, I know how many good intentions can be forgotten about without a good prompt. Prompts can be anything from audible alarms when it’s time to switch from one task to another to visible post-it notes stuck on the front door to remind you to grab your lunch from the fridge before leaving for work/school. I have included several of my favorites in my ADHD-Friendly shop: https://www.adhdfriendly.com/adhd-friendly-shop/ (**As an Amazon Affiliate I earn from qualifying purchases.)

Once you have identified what you want to achieve this summer, what prompts will you need to support yourself?

Summertime Structure: A Tool for Families with Kiddos

When my kids were small, summertime was both a long slog of open space and a wonderful break from the busy school routine (mostly because of the truce on homework battles).

To make the change in routine work better for my four small children, I created a rough schedule to follow each week. Typically one day each week had a unique outing/focus. For example, one day was designated as the day we would go to the library, another we would have a picnic, watch a movie, have playdates, etc.

To make the routine visible and editable, I put it into one of my favorite tools, a spreadsheet. We often changed it up as we went through the week, but having a rough schedule to work from made it much easier to navigate the time each day.

These are some questions I explored when I was trying to create structure around our summer schedule:

  1. How often do we want to go out?
  2. What meals do I want to plan?
  3. What activities do we want to do as a family?
  4. What programs are available in the community or at the library?

Below is an example of a weekly schedule. Full disclosure: this is a lot of structure. I needed to fill entire days with my kids at home during the summer. If your kids are engaged during the days but need structure at nights or on the weekends, I invite you to explore what you would keep, add, delete to create a structure that works for you and your family. My favorite thing about having such a framework is how easy it is to update each week.

I hope this tool creates more ease and leads to an ADHD-Friendly Summer!

ADHD-Friendly Podcast

To learn more about how I prioritize my summer, I invite you to check out Episode #39: The one where Patty Prioritizes her Summer “Time” https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCEjCfaR4M3gGWjuQZQUn2Yg/videos

Written by Patty Blinderman

To create content focused on leveling the playing field for individuals impacted by ADHD. Patty shares research as well as tried-and-true practices and her own experiences in the hopes that it makes your life a bit more ADHD-friendly!

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