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Areas › Focus, starting, and ADHD › Systems for daily life
Expect a fair few blocks to pass unused, particularly in the first month. That is not the system failing, it is the system doing what it does, which is shifting the odds rather than settling the matter. People who abandon calendars usually do it after one missed block, having been sold something far more certain than anyone can deliver. Aim for more of them landing this month than last, and let that count as it working.
When you have decided on a course of action, put your trust in God (Quran 3:159). You do the planning, and then the outcome is not the part that was ever yours to guarantee.
آل عمران
فَبِمَا رَحۡمَةࣲ مِّنَ ٱللَّهِ لِنتَ لَهُمۡۖ وَلَوۡ كُنتَ فَظًّا غَلِيظَ ٱلۡقَلۡبِ لَٱنفَضُّواْ مِنۡ حَوۡلِكَۖ فَٱعۡفُ عَنۡهُمۡ وَٱسۡتَغۡفِرۡ لَهُمۡ وَشَاوِرۡهُمۡ فِي ٱلۡأَمۡرِۖ فَإِذَا عَزَمۡتَ فَتَوَكَّلۡ عَلَى ٱللَّهِۚ إِنَّ ٱللَّهَ يُحِبُّ ٱلۡمُتَوَكِّلِينَ
By an act of mercy from God, you [Prophet] were gentle in your dealings with them- had you been harsh, or hard-hearted, they would have dispersed and left you- so pardon them and ask forgiveness for them. Consult with them about matters, then, when you have decided on a course of action, put your trust in God: God loves those who put their trust in Him
Qur’an 3:159read it in the library
Translation: M.A.S. Abdel Haleem, The Qur'an, Oxford University Press, 2004.
A systematic review of fifteen years of research on adolescents with ADHD coded the studies against standard criteria and calculated effect sizes for both medication and behaviour therapy. Effect sizes are precisely the point here: help of this kind moves the odds by some amount rather than deciding the matter. The review covers adolescents and formal treatments rather than diaries, but it is a fair reminder of what any of this can honestly claim.
Sibley MH, Kuriyan AB, Evans SW, Waxmonsky JG, Smith BH. (2014). Pharmacological and psychosocial treatments for adolescents with ADHD: an updated systematic review of the literature.. Clinical psychology review doi
Strength of evidence: one line of research. A single study, or a theoretical account.
A plan improves your chances rather than guaranteeing the outcome, and knowing that in advance is what stops you throwing the whole thing out after one bad week.
If you cannot start, the step is too big. Shrink it until it sounds daft: open the document, write the date, put one plate in the sink.
A task needs smoothing at both ends. If it looks big and horrible you will not begin it, and if the middle is full of snags you will not see it through.
Medication can make the learning possible. It does not do the learning. If no tools get built while things are steadier, there is nothing standing there when the dose wears off.