You’re standing in the kitchen with a coffee that went cold an hour ago, trying to remember what you came in here for.
The geraniums you bought on Saturday are still on the porch in their plastic tray. The dentist’s office closed at noon and you meant to call before then. Your walking partner left for the lake on Sunday and won’t be back until July. Book club is on pause until September.
None of it felt like a big deal in the moment. Each one is just one thing.
But you waited all year for these months. And somehow the days are starting to slip past.
This week’s worksheet, Rebuild Your Summer Anchors, walks you through which small things quietly hold the week together, which ones are about to disappear, and how to pick the few worth replacing now, before the rest of summer slips by the same way.
Your brain on borrowed structure
For decades, our brains leaned on external cues to function. The alarm went off. The meeting started at 9. The commute carved out the morning. Lunch happened because someone said let’s grab something. The end of the workday told you the day was over.
None of that was your executive function working. That was the environment doing the heavy lifting. Our brains have a harder time guiding behavior from the inside. The internal functions that keep a day on track without outside help, things like self-talk, self-regulation of motivation, and the ability to break tasks apart and reassemble them, are the exact ones our brains struggle with. The weaknesses in planning and self-monitoring are central to ADHD.
When work ended, most of that scaffolding went with it. You built new anchors to replace it. A walking partner three mornings a week. The Tuesday class. Book club on Thursdays. The standing Sunday lunch. They weren’t a schedule but they were enough.
Then summer arrives and those anchors quietly scatter. The walking partner heads to the lake. The class pauses until September. Book club takes the summer off.
And you’re left relying on the exact system that’s impaired.
What should I do first. When should I start. How long should this take. Should I call my sister back today or tomorrow. What about the garden. What about that thing I said I’d do last week.
