Post lyme procrastination encouragement? (my odd post, ha, ha)

I don’t think there’s ever been a post like this before here!

Lyme is the official time and money, sucker upper!

Getting your life back together and “normalizing” after decades of this is not easy, it can be overwhelming if you have lots of things that you did not do that should’ve been done. Since I live alone, there’s nobody constantly reminding me to get things done either, plus no one else to help out.

I did a few big jobs last summer, which needed to be done before winter, but that was just the beginning.

Since my health and finances have always been number one, home projects (unless they had to be done on emergency basis), were of minimal importance for years.

This may sound crazy, but then again, maybe not, ***if I see in print what I actually wrote that’s a reminder to self that this is now important and I need to get stuff done****.

I’m thinking the only way to do this is one step at a time because when I look at the grand scheme of things, it can be hard to know where to start. Last fall I started going through all my supplements, I had that had overtaken my kitchen counter, and a box on the floor of them.

I’ve also noticed, as I get older, and still work full-time. I need part of Saturdays to kind of recoup my brain and energy, then I do stuff on Sunday. My older friends say it’s the same way with them, and it started in their mid-50s.

****Let the spring cleaning organizing and repair work begin! (inside for now outside once it warms up). This is easier said than done, and will probably last all summer. ****

If you can relate, feel free to mention….

Post Edited (astroman) : 4/23/2023 9:43:19 AM (GMT-8)

Hi, Astroman. I can relate to some of this, for sure.

I still have health struggles (I usually say I'm reliably about 85% of my pre-TBD health) but I'm much better overall than I used to be. Sometimes I find that I am still in the mindset of not being able to do certain things, though, because they used to be impossible. I never learned to drive because I lived in cities in which having a car would have been a liability, and I always liked public transit and biking. By the time I needed to drive (my kid's activities, parents getting older, living in a smaller town with worse public transit, etc.) I got sick and disabled, and couldn't learn to drive. I was far too dizzy, with crappy proprioception, and the anxiety of learning to drive as an adult (when you understand mortality!) would just jack my brain fog to 11 and knock me out for days afterward. I would be physically sore and my foot on the pedal would shake. Not worth the aftermath! So lately, now that I feel better, I have been learning to drive, but it's so difficult to motivate myself past that old mindset. Even though I know better, a little voice inside still says I'm not well enough to drive and can't be trusted! And honestly I still feel pretty worn out afterward, but I'm sure it will get easier once I have practiced more and built up some muscle memory.

So it's not the same as what you describe, exactly, but I can relate to the challenge of finding energy and time for the things we couldn't do when we were really sick. I spent so long yearning for the ability to do basic stuff, and now I can! But I wish adding to that didn't feel so taxing. I'm sure you're right that simple aging is also a factor.

I can relate for sure. I was always a person who wanted things neat and organized. Visible clutter and undone jobs wear on me mentally and emotionally. I have been living in my car for the past two years, so the yard and the outside of the house are always staring me in the face. It’s also the first time in my life I have been responsible for taking care of property.

At first, it was overwhelming, because when I moved into the house, I immediately got sicker and was scared of the house. I was physically and mentally challenged. After moving into my car, I went through weeks to months of unmasking which is almost like a withdrawal from mycotoxin exposure and MCAS. Then I got better and was able to do stuff. Still, I can’t work fast enough or long enough to outpace the vines and unwanted trees and invasives that grow overnight.

I try to do something almost every day. It makes me feel better. When I get a big job done, I definitely feel a sense of accomplishment.

I simply cannot accomplish as much as I used to, and I have learned to accept having to approach tasks differently. I am okay with doing a little here and a little there and switching to another task before finishing one. I used to couldn’t handle that, LOL!! I had to finish the job or die trying in order to rest.

P.S. - If you’re asking for any advice or suggestions about how to get organized, I might still remember a few pointers.

“If you’re asking for any advice or suggestions about how to get organized, I might still remember a few pointers”

I’m always open for suggestions.

I just installed a new smoke alarm since that’s obviously important. Then moved on to a visual paper clutter pile. It’s a proven fact that clutter adds to anxiety. I keep it pretty clean, but there’s certainly clutter cause there’s not that much space for things.

I have a small home, so there’s not much room for extra stuff and closets are small. Plus, I am the guy who people just give their used stuff to. So after a while, if I don’t use it, I have to get rid of it with out reminding them of it. Lol.

We’re having a cooler than usual spring so that gives me more time to work inside before I go outside. It even snowed again a couple days ago.

Post Edited (astroman) : 4/23/2023 2:57:12 PM (GMT-8)

I can relate to this
Before lyme my sense of well-being had always been linked to what I could get done in a day - achievements, being productive etc

With lyme - when you are operating at say 20% of your prior physical or mental abilities - all of that goes away – as all the time and energy that you do have is taken up with the bare essentials - so its v hard to get the same feelings of satisfaction. A balanced lifestyle of multiple buckets of the usual things like social life, work, self-care, hobbies etc is nigh on impossible.

Now that I am part way recovered ( say 50-60% of my prior ability to get stuff done in a day) things are a lot better - but I recently found myself v frustrated.

I live alone also and I am still treating, I make all my own herbal tinctures and medications, I cook 3 meals a day from scratch, i do at least a 45minute walk every, and do weights every other day – as well as all the usual things like shopping cooking cleaning etc to look after myself. And I have recently bought a house – that is old and needs a lot of work.

I was pretty organised – I had lists of things I was trying to get done – but I rarely seemed to get to the things that would give me some sense of satisfaction or achievement and I was finding all my time taken up with just the day-to-day humdrum tasks that are needed just to get by and not really getting anything done on my important longer-term goals – like fixing the house up. life felt like a bit of a dull drudge of endless necessary but unrewarding tasks.

I started to try to figure out was out of this and i came up with a method that really worked
I was sceptical as I have tried many different productivity type methods in the past in both my home and work life - and most have some benefit – but I was usually somewhat underwhelmed.
This approach is from a MIT computer science professor and writer on society called Cal Newport.

He is very much anti the “hyperactive hive mind” of email, slack, zoom, “just throw everything in there and let people figure it out” type modern work culture - and has become an outspoken advocate for “deep work”

He has a method called “value centred multilevel planning”

It’s a bit too long winded to explain here- but the basic idea is to start with the future state of your life you are working towards – then quarterly, weekly and daily plans - so you have line of sight from what is important to you – down into what you plan to do with your time each hour of the day –
by starting with what's important in your head - and allocating time to that in the real world - it makes a big difference

He has a video channel on youtube that goes through the basics - and a podcast where he talks about these issues each week
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=doqpzlzuyse&list=pl8xk8kbhhux43vvxo3b7so_hxs72rf6eg

This was surprisingly effective for me – I went from feeling that my days were just full of endless unrewarding task and that’s just the way it had to be - to getting significant chunks of more strategic and satisfying tasks done each week – And feeling completely differently about my days

I also started a philosophy and productivity journal where I could capture and reflect on lessons and ideas that I learned from this process, as I went along so I could continue to adjust and improve as I went

If you have not tried it – it might sound like a lot of work for little gain – but try it and you will be surprised

in fact I think anyone with a chronic life limiting illness would benefit from it – as your time and energy is limited – there’s lots of demand on what little energy you do have - and you need all the positive re-enforcement you can to do the best with your life, and stop the situation getting you down.

Wow, Garzie!! Kudos to you! I can’t imagine doing anything that rigid. For all my need for order and knack for organization, I don’t adhere much to clocks and time. I was always late for everything.

My garage needs cleaning out and organizing, but there are obstacles that I don’t have an answer for yet. I have some storage shelving and carts that I can use, but I can’t put them up until I get the obstacles out of the way and clean the floor.

The “obstacles” are all the heavy, mostly immovable (for me) items lining every wall in the garage that I don’t know what to do about - leftover drywall from the restoration work, boxes of extra flooring, leftover tile, leftover molding and quarter rounds, and two massive mirrors that were removed from the bathroom walls.

Nevertheless, today I did “SOMETHING.” I threw away one bag of stuff - just grabbed it and threw it in the garbage. Then, I pulled out two boxes of something that was shipped to the house for the previous owner two years ago. We called her about it, and she said she didn’t order anything. I opened the boxes, found them both empty (?) and put the packaging in the recycle bin. Now, there’s less stuff covering the floor.

I did “SOMETHING.” After a few more somethings, I might come up with a solution to one or more of the obstacles.😊

“ I always meet in an open public parking lot when selling things versus my home address.”

Lol - That’s what my husband does sometimes….especially if he’s meeting someone in a bigger city.
And if it’s in our smallish city - he prefers to go to their house rather than they come here.

Yeah, I know what you mean. My apartment is a mess most of the time. If I don't feel like doing it, it generally doesn't get done. I keep trying to persuade myself that I should keep things cleaned up..... luckily I don't have that much stuff, so things don't get as bad as they could be.

I feel dumb sometimes, being back at school and trying to keep up with people that are much younger and smarter than me. I don't get the best grades now-- and I used to get all As. Part of it is that my priorities are different than when I was younger, and I feel I have so many things competing for my attention. When I was sick for long and not having a lot of stuff to do, I could really focus on things that were important to me. Now I have to sort things out all the time and decide which things I should leave undone.