Hey, it's Erica here. And today I'm going to keep talking about this theme of setting priorities and managing your time so you can stick to them. And specifically, I want to talk about strategies for avoiding overwhelm, and for avoiding the overcommitment that many people with ADHD make to themselves. And what I mean by that is feeling like, oh, there's 100 projects that I really need to do my backlog of to dues is 400 items long. And certainly, there's some stuff in there that has to get done. And certainly, there's stuff in there, that's that you've made a commitment to other people. But a lot of it tends to be projects and ideas and things that actually, one has just decided you're going to do, you're going to do it for yourself, and unfortunately, often shifts from this sense of joy and delight into this sense of burden.So I'm going to talk a little bit about some of the strategies that have worked for me and for some of my clients, when it comes to reducing that overwhelm, and avoiding the over commitment to yourself trap. I'll tell you a story. I have an uncle named Bucky, yes, and uncle named Bucky. And he's an artist. And I recently visited his art studio, and he had been isolated with COVID in a remote area for a long time. So he had made a lot of art. And he very generously gave me quite a lot of pieces of his art, which I took home and I appreciated. And I thought to myself, he's kind and proper person. And he would really appreciate a handwritten thank you note, all right, um, a handwritten thank you note it, put it on my to do list. I didn't do it that week. And so I moved it to the next week, and the next week and the next week. And meanwhile, this is something that's going to take a short period of time. So that's why I didn't take it off the to do list. And it became this drain on my energy. I'm gonna just felt so guilty that I hadn't written the thank you note. And ultimately, it got to be months later, I found out an hour before that he was going to be at a holiday party. And I felt panicked, which is so silly, because I hadn't written this thank you note, I walked in. And I said to him, I'm so embarrassed Bucky, I just have to tell you, I've been really wanted to write you a thank you note to tell you how much I appreciated the art and I just haven't gotten a chance to do it. And he smiled, and he said, Oh, I gave you some art. Oh, I forgotten I did that. Well, thanks, I really appreciate the compliment. And that was it. And I just laughed at myself, not just because I did it that one time because I do it all the time. And a lot of ADHDers, I know do this too. So I'm going to start with chatting about the concept of do it, drop it, delegate it, kind of three things you can do with stuff, right, you can do it, you can do the what people say is, you know, eat the frog, you just do the thing you're avoiding first thing in the morning, nothing else can taste as bad the remainder of the day. But you can also decide to drop it, dropping it and delegating it are really powerful strategies. So honestly, if I look back, I should have just dropped the idea of a thank you note, the world won't end, if he doesn't get a thank you note, and I won't have to feel guilty and terrible.You can also drop a lot of projects that you came up with a while ago. And that just I don't know, they don't have the pzazz anymore. Even if you bought the supplies, just give them away. At one point, you know, somebody I know made a shift toward having a lot of creative ideas and artists and deciding there would be a period where instead of feeling compelled to make that art work, she would just enjoy the having of the creative idea. Just sit there and fully appreciate the having of this idea that it would be amazing to create a sculpture with this shape in it with these materials. And then just release herself from a sense of obligation that that needed to happen. Another way to drop it is to use a method that's kind of like the Konmari method. If you've ever watched Marie Kondo, and she's become so popular, doing a clean out of a house, right? And using this evaluation of does this spark joy picking up each item and saying Does this spark joy? Or is it is it important to who I'm becoming? And then if it doesn't spark joy, and isn't part of who you're becoming, just bless it and say thank you for what you've given me in the past, and I'm letting go of you. And I believe that you can do the same kind of process with your projects, with your ideas. I have all this beadwork that I was going to put onto this jacket and it sits there and makes me feel guilty but actually, it doesn't spark joy at all. It just sparks guilt. And I can say thank you thank you for being a possible projects then I'm letting go of you now so that I could do other things. You can pay attention to how your body responds when you pick something out. often ask yourself whether it brings you joy because actually that can be a pretty good indicator of whether something is a project or a commitment that you made in the past that still feels wonderful and still feels important or just feels like a drag. And then last, delegating one of the most successful ways I've seen ADHD people operate is they delegate delegate delegate beyond what might seem obvious or beyond what might seem okay in their budget, find somebody to clean their house, find a bookkeeper find someone to cook their meals. And I know this sounds crazy to most people who live on a budget. But frankly, I know a lot of people for whom not having the late fees on the finances, not not having the crazy experience of the supermarket timewarp impulse shopping huge bill situation. Instead, having somebody who just shops and makes the meals can actually save you money, and it can save you time. And it's also quite possible to delegate in a way where you swap projects with other people. So many people out there love to organise papers, and they love to do things. And if you've been putting something off like that, you know, maybe you can swap and do something for somebody else, it all comes back to the do it, drop it, delegate it, that can be kind of a mantra if you want to go through a backlog of things you feel committed to. And the only thing I'll say is, it's really nice to have a list. That's a to do list, but it's a someday, maybe list. It's a great place to put things that aren't exciting. You'd really love to do some day, and you can revisit it and be excited, but it's not something you're going to commit to doing right now.So remember to consider what is humanly possible, and what's humanly possible for you. Your life is really a sequence of what you pay attention to. And many of the things that may feel like burdens, or commitments you made to yourself at a time when your perspective was different or at a time when you were impulsively imagining you had unlimited time. So free yourself from that because now you've identified some priorities that are really important to you right now. And you want to clean out the space and clean out the guilt so that you can commit yourself fully to where you are moving forward. Until next time