Embracing Growth: 5 Key Areas I’ve been Focusing on in 2024

I feel like this year is a journey of self-discovery for me. Last year I was formally diagnosed with Autism and with the help of my psychologist, we have also discovered that I also have ADHD. Now that I have been diagnosed with these conditions (though I don’t have a formal ADHD diagnosis at this time, there is a lot of certainty that I have this condition), I now feel like I have the opportunity to find out who I really am and what my needs are.

This will also hopefully allow me to move on from some of my past struggles and have the opportunity to finally heal. I hope that it will help me find my true path in life.

In this post, I want to share a few things that I’ve been working on this year, and some of them relate to why I am sharing my first post for 2024 at the end of the year.

The 5 Key Areas That I’ve Been Focusing On In 2024

Self-Care

This Year I am trying to embrace Self-care more, and when I say self-care I don’t mean face masks and bubble baths, though if that works for you no problem we all deserve to have moments of self-indulgence occasionally. When I say self-care I mean checking with myself regularly to see how I am feeling and what my current needs are. As someone who has ADHD, I can become super focused on something and forget to do this, so I need to try and remember to do this to prevent burnout and unnecessary stress and anxiety.

I have been trying to add more moments of Mindfulness into my everyday life through practicing meditation, and journaling, both are things that I have struggled to do regularly, but I am actively trying to do both of these and have found it extremely helpful. However, I do still find there are periods when I forget to sit down and do them. I am also trying to add more movement (when I can) and self-compassion, as well as allowing myself to take regular breaks from the online world without feeling guilty about not sharing or posting things.

I haven’t been active or shared on social media at all this year and I am trying hard to be okay with that and relieve the pressure of feeling like I should. My relationship with social media is complicated and I want to make it a positive experience and not one that causes me anxiety and stress. This is definitely an ongoing issue that I think will take time to work on.

Part of my self-care also includes being more present and remembering to spend time with the people I love, and not spending all my time by myself.

Cultivating Better Habits and Routines

I have always struggled with routines or changing my habits, but since my diagnosis, I feel like I now have the opportunity to learn how my brain works and how to work with it, not against it. It has given me a lot of opportunities to discover different things that can help with managing my neuro-divergent brain like embracing different types of routines. it’s all a work in progress but it’s been interesting to explore techniques to get through my everyday life.

I have been trying a bunch of things to help me get things done instead of procrastinating about it, which often leads to more anxiety and stress. If you have ADHD you will know what I am talking about, especially when your brain blows out a five-minute task that it thinks will take you 5 hours.

I’ve been trying things like Writing To-Do Lists to help me keep track of things that I need to do, this is something I have struggled to do in the past but I have found writing things down very helpful to get them out of my head, sometimes I will even do it multiple times just so I can stop thinking about it.

I have also found Breaking A Task Down into multiple steps helpful because it again helps me feel less overwhelmed by a task and know what needs to be done to complete that task. This could be anything from my daily morning routine to what cleaning I need to do. Keeping it simple is often not how my brain works so it’s something I am having to remind myself to do and breaking things down does help relieve those overwhelmed thoughts and feelings.

Other helpful things that I have been trying out include Using Timers for tasks. This has had both positive and negative effects. On one hand, it helps me stop getting distracted and getting things done but I have also found myself rushing and then getting stressed, so this is definitely a work in progress. The timer needs to be more of a guide than a deadline, so I’m trying to think of them in that way.

Setting Reminders and using Focus Modes have also been quite helpful. Reminders help me to remember to check in with myself and take breaks. Again this is something my brain can forget to do so I have multiple reminders each day that help me remember to eat and check in with how I am feeling. Focus Modes on the other hand have helped me limit the time I am spending on apps as well as the amount of time I am spending using my devices.

Setting Intentions & Assessing Goals On A Regular Basis

When it comes to Setting Goals I am trying something new, I am setting Intentions instead of Goals. Why? because I feel like goals can be restrictive and don’t allow room for change. Life is anything but predictable and things are constantly changing in our lives so there are times when goals we have set don’t go as planned and setting an intention instead of a goal allows room for that. For example how many people make New Year’s Resolutions and give up within the first few months because things didn’t go as planned.

For my goals, sorry intentions, I am allowing myself time to achieve them, and when I feel like things aren’t going in the direction I had hoped they would I try to check in and go okay why is this not working and what can I do or change to make it work better. Or is this something that is important now or can I put it to the side and come back to it later.

I am also trying to show myself compassion and kindness because I know I have a tendency to put too much on my plate and so this is why I like to reassess my goals regularly.

Being More Financially Responsible

I have struggled with things like overspending and budgeting in the past, I have tried to curb my spending on and off but often struggled because I felt that I was more impulsive with my spending when I was going through a hard time.

I am fortunate though that I virtually have no debt and I have always only spent money that I actually had and have never ventured into the world of credit cards or loans.

This year though I really wanted to work on this and become more responsible with my money. I wanted to add more to my savings and try to cut down on buying things that I don’t need. I don’t mean I can’t buy myself something I want but I am trying to be more mindful and think before purchasing.

One thing that I think has really helped me is getting a budget template for Notion. I purchased this one by TheProductivePlans off Etsy and added it to my Notion workspace, which was a fairly simple process. I did find it a bit hard to set up once I had it copied but I now feel like I’ve got the hang of it and I am finding that it has really helped me keep track of my finances and is helping me be more mindful of my spending.

Spending Less Time on Devices and Social Media

Spending less time on devices and social media is a major goal for me this year. It is a constant work in progress for me, there are times when I do really well and times when I spend hours scrolling much like most people (YouTube has been my problem area more recently.) So I am working to find a happy medium, where I feel that I can keep using my devices but in a more positive way and remember to take breaks when I have been using them for a long period.

I really wanted to try and enjoy some of my favourite hobbies that don’t require being on a device like exploring traditional art mediums more, getting back to reading but also just spending time with my family and getting out more generally (you know instead of sitting inside on my phone or computer.)

Setting Timers and using Focus Modes has also really helped me in this area a lot. I decided to set up App timers, especially for those problem apps like YouTube or Instagram as well as a Sleep and Blackout mode that disables access to those apps as well as activating things like Greyscale or a Timer.

I hope that you enjoyed this post. I am currently in a place where I am figuring out what direction I want to go with my content, I have a few ideas that centre more around the topics of self-care and cozy hobbies. I feel like these are things that I am trying to lean into more myself and so I thought that It would be great to share some of that with other people through my content on my blog, YouTube, etc.

What it might look like is something I am still figuring out. I want to take my time and not put too much pressure on myself by giving myself a time frame. I want to explore some different things and when I feel ready to share something then I will.

I have also done a huge declutter on my blog and YouTube, so you might notice that I’ve deleted a lot of posts, particularly my old makeup posts. This was a passion of mine but due to health issues I haven’t really worn much in the last few years, so my passion isn’t really there anymore and so I thought It was time to move on and start sharing content that I feel passionate about Now.

I hope to see you in the new year with some new and fresh ideas to share.

Until then I wish you all a happy holiday season.

Erin.

Disclaimer – This post is not sponsored and doesn’t contain any affiliate links, links included are for reference only in case your interest in checking out anything mentioned in this post. Ai was used to generate the Title and Excerpt for this blog post and then edited appropriately by me to fit my style. It was not used in any other aspect of the creation of this blog post. Read full Disclaimer here.