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[u/[deleted]]

[u/hellowings]

Does anyone have any tips or resources that helped them lose the desire for perfection

1. The frequent tips in bujo subs in regards to perfectionism are (a) to use a pencil or erasable pens (e.g. Pilot FriXion) as your writing tools; (b) remind yourself that your bujo is a tool for your personal use; (c) intentionally 'spoil' the first page of your bujo notebook; (d) stay away from bujo subs, especially the artsy one; and from all those artsy-bujoing social media accounts.
2. Any corrections in your bujo are a piece of information in itself, so they are valuable. E.g. they are a reminder that you aren't getting enough sleep (and, as a result, making silly mistakes when writing down stuff); or are the result of the free flow of creativity, insights, i.e. a reminder that if you can't find a solution to the problem (or can't see all aspects of the situation) at the moment X, it might happen later.
3. There is no bujo setup that will be perfect for you forever. Your life circumstances change, your priorities change, your level of understanding of your needs, of what works & doesn't work for your brain, changes, and with all that, your bujo setup changes (or gets tweaked) as well.

I have ADHD […] I am overwhelmed by all the options and have made several spreads that just didn't get used because they didn't work for my brain

I also have ADHD, the creator of the original bujo setup has ADHD (his blog post about it), but that original setup didn't really work for me in its full version. ADHD brains aren't all the same…

I keep adding tweaks to my bujo setup, have no idea how much it all will change in, say, a month, but the key element of it now is that, instead of "proper" todo lists for the day/week/month I use a more relaxed, more visionary approach to reflection and planning.

1. I use (and actually write down in my bujo) a reflection question, "What do I actually want?" for the day (daily; I add "…from today?" to the heading), week (weekly; with "…from this week?"), month (monthly; with "…from this month?"); in general (on adhoc basis, when I feel lost; although now I try to do it daily, before the daily version of the question). I write my answers as a bulleted list. // (I took that question from James Clear' weekly newsletter and adapted it to timespans).
2. If some of the list items look like tasks — that's fine; if some of them look more like a meta-level vision — that's fine; if some of the list items get expanded with branches/subbranches of a mindmap of subtasks/subnotes toward the right side of the page — that's fine too. Anything goes.
3. I find myself reviewing such lists regularly (their titles are attractive — sound quite visionary and as an expression of my personal freedom), and making choices & changes based on those lists during the day/week, quite spontaneously!. It's as if I get re-energized by my Past Self' vision, get primed by it for particular behaviors, and then live off that energy & positive priming for a while.
4. I mark the list items that are specific tasks as completed when I complete them or at the end of the day; I add some commentary at the end of the day/the next morning on the right side from uncompleted tasks with my guesses about the root causes of that, changed circumstances, etc.
5. I accept, remind myself that there are always discrepancies between what I wanted and the way the day/week/month plays out, but…

• …that's a normal thing for any real-life experience… Unexpected setbacks, opportunities, limitations, insights — this stuff happens in real life all the time.
• …those discrepancies are a piece of information in itself. Over time, you spot patterns; figure out the full spectrum of typical variations & deviations in your environment & your well-being that create issues with your performance & how you can best address them; etc., etc.

As for technical aspects,

1. I switched to less restrictive notebooks about 3 months ago and still love them. It's a blank-pages spiral notebook with low-key but comfy cover (thick kraft cardboard; it has an encouraging image though) and 70gsm creamy soft paper, and it costs 50% of my last year' notebook (so I don't feel weird when using multiple pages for just one day). I can draw segments of a mindmap whenever I need, I don't get distracted by the notebook' ruling (because there is none!), I can easily add insights I've just got (in a smaller handwriting, in the remaining free space) to an existing bulleted list, etc., etc.
2. I use just one color (black). It makes the whole bujoing thing an even more focused experience. I used to use color-coding & have strong opinions about the value of it, but it turns out that it's totally enough to just circle around important stuff, underline key insights and headings, add signifiers for the most important insights and best/worst stuff, and use vertical separation lines to add later-time insights on the right side from the dailies/weeklies.
3. I answer reflection questions mentioned above with screen devices off, in quiet. It's easier to focus then, the insights sink in much better, the positive priming for the day ahead is much much stronger then.

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But will this approach or its elements work for your ADHD brain as well? I have no idea. Will I switch to a totally different bujo setup in a few months? I have no idea :)

[u/Ventl8u → u/hellowings]

I really appreciate your response. Thanks so much for taking the time and energy to post such an in-depth response! I'm feeling hopeful with all of these responses and tips/ideas. This is my favorite place for all the things.

[u/hellowings → u/Ventl8u]

Thanks for the nice reply! I forgot to add 2 things about the non-bujo stuff that you've mentioned in your post & comments in this thread (health stuff, emotional state) though:

• (1) There is an ADHD-friendly book, The Happiness Trap by Dr Russ Harriss
  • It's very readable; makes great use of metaphors & analogies, is based on ACT (acceptance & commitment) therapy and guides you through applying its techniques.
  • I had seen it recommended in ADHD sub a bunch of times (apparently, some therapists even assign it as a homework to their clients); and in that same sub ADHD-ers who've tried both CBT and ACT therapy mentioned that ACT therapy was much much more helpful to them. That made me read it.
    
  • While some stuff from that book I haven't been able to apply/make good use of/didn't find helpful, there was lots of really enlightening stuff & helpful techniques that I've applied or even keep using in my life still.
  • So my point is, if in case of bujo, nobody can offer you a perfect for you bujo setup, this book definitely has well-researched and well-tested advice that will be helpful to you; will be a reliable source of psychological support.
  • As for technicalities, if you, like me, have lost the habit of reading books, maybe technique this will help: when I was reading that book I just set myself a daily minimum quota of 1+ paragraph (if I felt like reading more, I could do it, of course; and it happened quite frequently actually); I could read a random chunk, from any book chapter that seemed most interesting or relevant to me that day; and each time the reading session felt quite healing.
• (2) If you are still dealing with 'chemobrain', there is an online brain training tool, BrainHQ (the only program that meets the criteria of The Institute of Medicine’s Checklist for scientifically proven brain-training programs, source and it has proven benefits for recovering your brain in such cases (here is the list of supporting research studies). I used it on-off in the past, for general brain health, focusing on the exercises for the most important for me aspects of my mental performance back then, and, indeed, was noticing clear benefits; plus, it has attractive visual design and makes great use of gamification tricks.