It’s been years since I considered making resolutions for the New Year. Most of us know by now that most New Year’s resolutions fail, and in my past experience it’s always been true for me. I’ve never been good at following through on my resolutions. Even when I just call them “goals” I tend to fail on at least half of them. The truth is, I didn’t realize that for most of my life I’ve been suffering from ADHD.

My ADHD

I was diagnosed with Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder about 3 years ago, and put on medication to help. While medication drastically improved my life, it’s still hard to get past a lifetime of bad habits learned through coping with the disorder. My medication helps me focus better, but I still fall back to bad habits such as avoidance and procrastination.

ADHD Benefits

Sure, I have learned to embrace the upsides of ADHD. Didn’t know there were benefits? Well there are. I get wonderful bursts of creativity and focus, and if I ride those bursts I can get a lot of things done and come up with some really wonderful creations. Multitasking comes easily to me, and this has gotten me very far in my work. Also, even though ADHD is known for lack of focus, most of us with ADHD have two modes-can’t focus, and too focused. Too focused can be a negative, since it’s hard to switch gear when you’re in that mode, but it can also be a blessing when you need to get something done fast.

My ADHD Failings

Even though I’ve embraced the positives, I’ve also clung to some of the failings. My worst ADHD failing? Procrastination. I put off everything until I absolutely have to do it… Due to this, my house gets a lot more cluttered than I’d like, and then I end up having to spend hours reorganizing and decluttering. My finances are a mess-not because I can’t pay bills, but because I tend to run from anything that stresses me out. If bills are hard to pay, or I can’t set up automatic payments, they often get missed.

Setting Goals with ADHD

In an effort to set some achievable goals for 2019, I’ve been reading articles on how to make goals easier for people with ADHD. I found some wonderful tips, but the biggest one that stands out is to look at the “why” behind the goal. It’s said that focusing on the “why” more than the end result is more successful for those of us with ADHD. Why is that? Because we can easily focus on why we feel a certain way, and not always on what will make that feeling go away.

Get My Home Organized and Simplified

The truth is, my home is much too small to own as much crap as I do. That means it’s always much more cluttered than I want it to be. There’s always too much laundry, mostly because I own too many clothes-and to be honest, so does Chris. I need to get rid of stuff, and stop holding on to everything even if I think I’ll need it or wear it again.

My Why

My home stresses me out. Searching for things causes stress, or moving things to get to other things. This in turn makes me less productive, and I spend more time cleaning than enjoying my home. It’s time to stop hating my home and getting stressed because of clutter-it has to go. I also don’t want my daughter growing up with the same bad habits as me, so I need to change for her benefit.

Small Steps to the Big Picture

Here are some smaller and more specific steps to take over the upcoming year to get my house to a good place:

• Declutter My Clothes – Make some tough calls, I love my clothes but I have too many. Time to sort into three piles-keep, sell (anything really nice that I can make a little extra off of on Poshmark), and donate.
• Junk My Paper – Go through all my filed paper and stacked up mail and shred anything I no longer need to hold onto.
• Clean & Organize the Kids’ Room – The boys room needs to be cleaned and organized so they want to actually spend time down there instead of bringing all their toys upstairs all the time.
• Setup Amelie’s Crib – We still cosleep, but it’s time I start getting her used to sleeping by herself. I’m going to set up her crib in my room so she’s still close, but safe if I have to leave the room.
• Re-Arrange the Living Room – Amelie needs more play space than her little play pen, and I think she’ll enjoy it more if she can come to us on the couch and then go back to her toys easily.
• Find a Better Way to Store Keepsakes – There are some items I can’t get rid of. Family heirlooms, keepsakes, etc. Unfortunately I don’t have room to display all of these things, so I need to find a better way to safely store them.
• Overhaul the Garage – The garage is a black hole. When my grandmother lost her house a TON of her stuff came to live in my garage, now you can barely get in and out of it-and half of I don’t want. This Summer I’m overhauling it and will do a yard sale for anything that’s sellable, and donate or trash the rest.
• Get into a Better Routine of Picking Up – I tend to put things like dishes and picking up off. I need to make a better habit of doing it a little every day.

Get My Finances & Credit Back on Track

I won’t lie, my finances are a mess currently. It’s not a new thing for me, but I worked hard to get them all better about 3-4 years ago when I bought my house, and after that they’ve gone downhill again. Lack of money is not the problem, or at least it wasn’t to begin with, the real issue is procrastination. Anything that drives my anxiety up gets put in a “I’ll deal with this later” pile. Do I deal with it later? Sometimes… But often I forget until it gets to a really bad place like collections. Blah.

My Why

I want to sell this house and buy a new one. This means I need to get my credit back up so we can get a good rate on a new loan eventually. Our house is too small for a family of 5-we need a 3-4 bedroom instead of our little 1.5 bedroom.

Small Steps to the Big Picture

Here are some smaller goals that will make it easier to reach:

• Get a list together of all debts and their monthly payments.
• Keep better track of bills and dates in my planner.
• Contact any debtors that may not have been spoken to in a while.
• Get all bills in good standing and paid up.
• Practice the snowball effect to pay off debt.
• Stop eating out and start meal planning.
• Start learning how to budget and stick with it.
• Practice several no-spend months.
• Sell any sellable things around the house (clothes, items, etc.) to make a little more money.
• Find a new revenue stream with my blog.

Refocus My Blog

I’ve been blogging here on My So-Called Chaos for nearly 11 years. My blog has always been one of my favorite things, and I love it as side hustle. However, blogging has changed over the years, and now I find myself struggling to keep up with the new way of things. It’s time for a new direction for the blog. Time to find a new source of income while getting back to some deeper and more honest posts.

My Why

I love my blog, and I love the time I put into it. Lately I just haven’t put enough effort into it and I’m not making enough money from it to pay for it’s expenses. It’s time to find a new way to make some revenue from my blog, without sacrificing quality.

Small Steps to the Big Picture

Here are some small and more specific goals to check off…

• Go through and edit all posts to do the following:
  • Remove suspicious links or set them to no-follow.
  • Make sure they have pinnable images.
  • Delete any posts that are no longer relevant.
  • Update tags and categories.
• Write more quality posts.
• Avoid questionable partnerships.
• Make more partnerships that are profitable and meaningful this year.
• Work more with my affiliate programs in better ways.

What are your 2019 goals and how are you going to achieve them?