ADHD: Budget in “Blow-Out” Time
One of my best success strategies has been to take a day off and do whatever I damn well please with it...
The idea of a need for regular “down time” is almost a cliché, it’s been around for so long. Nonetheless, most people don’t take it seriously, particularly us Hunters. I’ve always tried to either take Saturday or Sunday off from work, although have never accomplished the discipline that Mark brings to it. We can all learn from him.
Mark on CompuServe wrote:
I have to have my Saturdays. During the week I’m a good boy at work, and with my friends and family, but on Saturdays I allow myself to totally veg out.
I don’t clean the apartment on Saturdays. I don’t answer the phone very often. Sometimes I’ll even have a few beers in the middle of the afternoon (maybe three or four times a year, usually when there’s a good game on TV). Sometimes I’ll go out of town, or take a drive in the country with the top down, or just read a good book.
Whatever it is, I’m beholden to nobody. It’s my day. I make absolutely no commitments for Saturdays.
I got this from my parents, who kept trying to be Orthodox but rarely kept it together for more than a few months at a time to really keep a kosher kitchen and keep the Sabbath. But the idea of that one day off, even though I don’t do it in a religious way like they did, is something I think is really important to ADHD people.
We get so wound up during the week, that if we don’t take a day off we just go nuts. I think Moses himself must have been ADHD (look at all the things he did impulsively), and he knew (or maybe they’re right and G-d knew), that people, particularly us Hunters, need a day off each week.
So my best success strategy has been to take that day off and do whatever I damn well please with it.