I talk about low-energy days a lot. You don’t usually see much from me on those days, which makes sense. I’m generally busy having one.
So, if I’m going to put my money where my mouth is, here’s what today actually looked like: low energy, high frustration, and emotions with the volume turned up.
This is what a low-energy day running a business with ADHD looked like for me.
I started with the classic lie: How bad can it be? I’m capable of doing my adulting.
Apparently, pretty bad.
I was working on my website. There are still things to fix behind the scenes, and the indexing, SEO, and redirects have formed their own weather system. Every time I touched something, three more things seemed to need attention. I briefly considered hiding in the bathroom. Not as a strategy. More as a location.
Fine. Move on. What’s next on the list?
First I had to find the list.
The last thing I’d finished was the Lake Ontario Reset Retreat. That helped. It was fun to make, and I’m genuinely happy with how it turned out. On a day when my brain wanted to present everything as evidence of failure, there was a finished thing sitting right there.
Then I found my next task: email.
There were 17 emails. I dealt with all 17.
I’ve been working with a five-point plan for decisions and things that keep repeating in a business. I’m teaching it at my September 30 workshop, so I won’t unload all five points on you here. The relevant bit today is that I didn’t have to invent my approach to email from scratch while already frustrated.
Seventeen emails handled. HURRAH. I would like a small parade, but I’ll settle for acknowledging that I actually did the thing.
Then it was time for my weekly class on the tools available to me on the platform. They’re amazing, and more keep arriving. I’m also behind. Way behind. I’d caught up on some of the previous material, but not all of it.
Someone in the room seemed a little off, and my brain took its usual two-stop trip: I wonder if they’re okay? followed immediately by I hope I didn’t do something.
There was no evidence that I had. My nervous system did not seem interested in evidence.
The class began, and the first two things we needed depended on work from the previous class—the work I hadn’t finished. I could feel myself getting anxious and starting to kick myself for being behind.
So I left to catch up. Was that the right call? Honestly, time will tell. Maybe I’ve just shot myself in the foot. But staying in the room feeling worse wasn’t helping me learn, either.
I tried watching the video I needed to catch up on. My mind went everywhere except the video.
Okay. Enough. Walk away.
There’s now a pot of homemade beef-and-barley soup on, made with soup bones. I’ve had lunch. I’m going to spend a few hours working on a new sock pattern.
The website still needs work. I’m still behind in class. None of that vanished because I made soup, although this is excellent soup and I’m willing to give it a chance.
But I dealt with 17 emails. I noticed when frustration was making every decision harder. I stopped trying to force learning into a brain that wasn’t taking delivery today.
That’s part of what I mean when I say a business needs to work on low-energy days. I want the important things—including customer messages—to have a place to land without requiring me to become a fully charged, emotionally unbothered version of myself first. Some decisions need to be made ahead of time, so I’m not making every single one again on a day like this.
Today included 17 emails, lunch, homemade soup, and socks. Tomorrow I can find the list again.
Until next time friends...