My wife is back!
Thank God!
But I didn’t unravel. I give the credit to the rules, although having the structure of writing on the next book was also helpful.
Report on the rules:
- No alcohol. – I scored 100% on this one. It wasn’t very hard. However, I’m ready to resume the cocktail hour with my wife and the Friday night frozen margarita with Mexican food. We’ll have to watch the effect on my weight.
- Only one free cell game per day. – I managed to stick to this. It was very tempting to do more. My other little voice- “Come on, just one more won’t hurt.” Does that sound like an alcoholic? Free cell is addictive, at least for me.
I plan to lay off of free cell again. There’s nothing wrong with playing free cell cell except it’s addictive. I can spend the same time practicing the guitar or the harmonica. That’s relaxing too. I remind myself, if I only play one game a day and it only takes five minutes (fat chance), that’s over a half hour a week and over 30 hours a year. I think even I could improve my guitar playing with 30 hours more of practice.
3. No TV. – I never turned on the TV. Our neighbors had me over for coffee and they were watching football. I enjoyed watching the last minutes of U Texas getting beat. High point of my day. Surely this doesn’t count against me. I was tempted to watch the Raven’s game, but that would’ve taken up a lot of time and wouldn’t have been as much fun by myself. So I passed. I didn’t miss it.
Report On Goals:
I can get a lot of work done. – I did. Finished the first draft of my next book and started on the second. Yea!
Maybe lose weight. – Lost 4 pounds. Very difficult. Lots of salad, small portions of other food, only one dessert the whole time – couldn’t very well pass up the lemon meringue pie. I must confess I ate the fantastic banana nut bread my wife had baked for me.
Do more guitar practice. – I did! Caught up on some old pieces I had lost and learned some new fretboard and techniques. I owe thanks to my nephew Ron and the videos he made for me. He’s an excellent teacher.
Strategy:
I used the “locked in” strategy. By posting to you what I was doing and knowing that I would report the result, I was locked in. That improved my chances.
Summary:
Rules can be helpful.
Doug 
Some days with ADD ADHD just surviving is a great triumph..
Bonus Link: Dr. Brown on myths about ADD ADHD
@addstrategies #adhd #add @dougmkpdp
ADDadultstrategies 
Thanks for sharing, Doug. Like Vicki says, it’s very inspiring. I’m still figuring out WHERE to apply strategies, as crazy as that sounds. I feel like my life has very little structure because I live alone and I’m my own master and sometimes it’s hard to figure out >what< isn't so random that I can apply a strategy to it. But this kind of posts helps – seeing what others see as a personal goal can be quite insightful sometimes.
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ram – thank you for the kind comments
i think of structure as routine, not exactly the same as strategies which address specific problems, like losing my keys or forgetting appointmens. i may post about this in a week or two.
for strategies, you pick one or two problems that are causing you the most trouble and work on them until you have the good habits, then pick some more. takes time.
thank you always for commenting
doug
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vicki- you’re welcome. and thank you for sharing your comments, they help too.
doug
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Great job, Doug! Thanks for sharing your experience. It helps.
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