As always, I endeavor to keep my website and posts as neuro-friendly as possible. Photos can be found at the bottom of this post. Look at this organized desk. I could never. Here's a summary of the last 15 days of my 30-day challenge! Click to read the full posts and leave a comment to let me know which trick resonated with you the most. Day 16 - Labels & Reminders I'm not just talking about labeling where things go. I'm also sharing pill reminders, lunch prep reminders and tools for getting out of the house on time. Day 17 - Mental Health Posters I sometimes need a little bit of science in the form of charts and reminders to help me zoom out when I'm feeling disregulated. These have been a great help. Day 18 - Chicken Little - Stop Losing Your Keys Find yourself the most ridiculous container, something that brings joy, so you stop losing your keys. Day 19 - Assigning A Noise - Memory Trick I assign noises (ones I make with my voice) to remember certain tasks. I don't know why this works for me, but it does. Let your freak flag fly! Day 20 - Easy Meal Prep I'm talking eeeaaassssyyyy. If it has more than eight ingredients, I'm probably not going to make it. Day 21 - Dividing Snacks This started to keep my kids from fighting, but as it turns out, it's also really wonderful for making sure they don't eat all the snacks with 24 hours of buying them. Day 22 - Money Tracker Why is it so many ADHD/AuDHD people have trouble tracking money and budgeting? I tell you what I use. Day 23 - The 24-Hour Rule It's so easy to want to buy anything and everything we want online when the marketing is so good. I wait 24 hours. It's a hard rule, and it saves me thousands. Day 24 - Study Music I can't listen to music with discernible melodies (because I automatically harmonize and sing along), so I use these two types of music only. Day 25 - Red/Yellow/Green - Study Method - SCHOOL EDITION This study method saves me time and headache! I learned it from my kids and let me tell you, it's a great tool! Day 26 - Highlighter Jobs - For School and Life Giving my highlighters jobs makes finding information much easier. I use this technique across calendars, planners, for schoolwork, and even at home. Day 27 - Buying In Bulk I use this method to reduce the amount of snack wrappers in my kids' bedrooms, to save money over the long run, and to reduce my fears of food insecurity. Day 28 - Night Before Lunch Prep Anything to make mornings easier for me and the kids! We have it down to a science at this point. Day 29 - Box Of Socks This one surprises a lot of people, but boy is it effective! I have Jordan Page to thank for this trick. Saves me from headaches! Day 30 - Year-At-A-Glance Calendar For bottom-up processors like me, it's extremely helpful to have a way to step back and see the year all at once. It really helps to put things into a better perspective. Mental Health Posters - Day 17 Highlighter jobs - Day 26 Pill Reminder - Day 16 Labels & Reminders - Day 16 Were any of these tips meaningful or helpful for you? Let me know in the comments. I would love to hear. -J

As always, I endeavor to keep my website and posts as neurofriendly as possible. Photos can be found at the bottom of this post. Look at this organized desk. I could never. Here's a summary of the first 15 days of my last 30-day challenge. Click to read the full posts and leave a comment to let me know which trick resonated with you the most. Day 1 - Time-stamped Water Bottle I show you how you can make your own if you don't want to buy one Day 2 - Emergency Audio Card If you're feeling overwhelmed and need a quick brain break without any distraction, make one of these. I carry mine on a lanyard with my keys. Day 3 - Earplugs I show you three different kinds of earplugs and list their pros and cons. Including custom-molded earplugs. Day 4 - Loop Breaker - 9-step Thought Transformation Tool I created this workbook for myself, and I'm giving you a free digital downloadable version and also showing you the book version. Day 5 - Glass Marker Seriously, this trick helps keep me sane. So simple. Saves me time doing dishes. Day 6 - The Hanger Method I discovered this method with my daughter and it works for kids and adults alike who struggle getting dressed in the morning. Day 7 - The Folder Method - SCHOOL EDITION This trick saved my son in elementary school. Now I'm using it in nursing school. Day 8 - Kinesthetic Learning - SCHOOL EDITION Who knew that studying on the treadmill at the gym would improve my recall? Day 9 - One Item Only How only having one of a certain item means you will take better care of it. Day 10 - Keeping Like Items Together in One Area of the House Instead of keeping arts and crafts in various places all over the house, we keep them in one space and one space only. Can be applied to: Makeup, Scissors, Office Supplies, etc. Day 11 - Home Store My favorite trick for minimizing clutter while maximizing your dollars! Day 12 - Homework Station & Routine We have a dedicated space in the dining room for doing homework with minimal distraction. Day 13 - Online Grocery Shopping This trick alone saves me thousands of dollars per year. Day 14 - Dinner Immediately After School This one is polarizing, but was life-changing when my kids were in elementary. Sometimes we still need this. Day 15 - 5 Sacred Minutes of Sunlight This little daily ritual resets my mind and body in a way that few things can I carry this emergency audio card with QR codes with my keys - Day 2 Pointing to my water bottle with military times - Day 1 A few different types of earplugs I own - Day 3 Loop Breaker! I love this tool. Click on Day 4's post for your free digital copy Marking glass - Day 5 The Hanger Method - for adults & kids Day 6 The Hanger Method - for toddlers and elementary school age kiddos - Day 6 The Folder Method - Day 7 The Homework Station - Day 12 Were any of these tips meaningful or helpful for you? Let me know in the comments. I would love to hear. -J

Each day I talk about one thing that makes my life easier as a neurodivergent mother raising neurodivergent kids while going back to school full time in my 40s. Welp. We made it! 30 days of things that make my life easier. What better way to go out than to tell you about my year-at-a-glance calendar. You can buy these year-at-a-glance calendars online, but if you want to make one at home like I did, here's how: Tape together 8 sheets of paper Draw 12 equally spaced columns (I do this in pencil first so I can erase later) Add numbers in rows down the lenght of each column for each month. (31 for January, 28 for February...) Figure out where your weekends are (look at a calendar online) and draw a doubled thick line to denote your Saturdays & Sundays I draw a single line of the same color used to mark the weekends for the Fridays Then I add a dot for the Wednesday to denote the middle of the week, this way I don't have to write M,T,W,Th,F,S,Su for each column over and over again. I always know the dot means Wednesay and a single line means Friday Finally, I go over everything in pen or marker and erase any pencil markings I don't need Why this year-at-a-glance calendar helps me: It helps me keep things in perspective. I am a bottom-up processor. I have difficulty zooming out to see the big picture unless tools like this are visually available. It allows me to step back and see my day within the context of a larger span of time - like a year. It helps me reverse-engineer how to prepare for things like exams, packing for a trip to see family, etc. Being able set smaller goals for myself based on a due date helps offload some of the cognitive overwhelm that comes with mothering and studying in a different language. For example: If today is Monday and I know I need to work out three days per week before my weightlifting exam next Monday, I know I can space my workouts a day or two apart giving my muscles time to recover in between now and then. I can mark those workouts on my calendar and all I need to worry about is following through. Aggghhhhhh. Follow through and ADHD. That'll be for another series. Until then, which post of this series of 30 days did you find most meaningful? Leave me a note in the comments. -J

I'm Jaren, a neurodivergent Mom of neurodivergent kids going back to school in my 40's. In this series, I'll be posting about things that make my life easier. Today I want to talk about the power of ONE ITEM. First, let me preface this by saying that motherhood has prepared me for the worst. You only have to be stuck without a diaper and an extra set of clothes once or twice after a blowout before you start packing extras of everything with you wherever you go. Additionally, we live in a world that promotes overconsumption. I'm guilty, too. Forgot your blue pen for the exam? No problem, I have 10 extra in my locker for this moment. Forgot a hair tie? I have a dozen in my bag somewhere. Need a bandaid? I got you! But where the hell are my tubes of mascara? Why do they all disappear??? Hint: because I don't care about them. The Power Of One Item affords my brain more "space". Instead of having to keep track of a bazillion extra things, you only have to keep track of one thing. Obviously, this is very difficult when you live with teenage girls who steal your mascara, but you can teach them. Kinda. Once I decided to weed things down, and once I chose a landing spot for each of my singular items (with the exception of earplugs and lip balms), the clutter in my house started to reduce...pretty drastically. *Here's where I confess to my addiction to highlighters. I want to buy all of them all of the time. This year, I am challenging myself to use the rest of what I have on hand before buying any more. Same for all of my office supplies. Here are the biggest benefits of pairing daily stuff down to ONE ITEM: 1) Save $ 2) Less waste 3) Save your back from carrying all the extras 4) Save your BRAIN from having to keep track of all the crap, all the time 5) Cleaner, quieter, calmer home - who doesn't want that? 6) Fewer panic attacks trying to find things you know you put somewhere but can't remember where but that you really really really need it RIGHT NOW! The trick with this, you see, if you choose the item you love the most, so you have incentive to remember to take care of it. It's much easier to remember where something is that you enjoy and use regularly than to remember where you put a bunch of copies of the same thing that you care less about. It ends up as clutter - and AuDHD, my AuDHD, cannot function with clutter. Even though I am soooo messsssssy. Fancy hair tie you love? You'll keep better track of it because it's more important to you. Fancy pen you love to write with? Same. The one pair of sunglasses you just love over all the rest? They're designed to be worn, honey. Wear them every day and store the rest for now. We'll get to the "extras" in another video coming soon. For now, an easy way to practice pairing down is to start in a room that tends to end up with a lot of clutter and go slowly, when you feel like taking on a challenge. For us, that's the bathroom. Between the makeup and the skincare, we end up having doubles and triples of things for no reason, which then end up all over the house. Easy things to try pairing down: Makeup Challenge yourself to choose a minimalist set (ex: one of each of your favorite products) and store the rest for a few weeks while you try it out a more minimalist routine. Hair stuff If you're feeling daring, try keeping only one of each of your hair products nearby, and one of each of the hair ties and brushes / combs. Skin Care Products I have more than three face creams. Not because they have different functions - they don't. It's because I forgot I had one open, so I opened another. Tarot Decks Just kidding. I will never pair down the number of tarot decks I have. I love them all. But you get what I mean. In a society where it's cool to have a bunch of something, try having only one and see what happens. -Jaren

I'm Jaren, a neurodivergent Mom of neurodivergent kids going back to school in my 40's. In this series, I'll be posting about things that make my life easier. Kinesthetic Learning I had just turned 42 when I learned what I'm about to share with you. I mean, technically, I've seen bike-desks and walking-desks for years, and have used them myself for work-related things, but I never thought about using movement for the express intent of improving my memory . A friend of mine who sat next to me in my Licensed Practical Nursing course would occasionally get up and walk around the back of the classroom during lectures and, one day, I asked him why. He said it was how he learned best. He was a kid who had difficulty sitting still in class, and instead of his parents trying to change him to fit the school, they fit the schoolwork to him. Each day after school, they'd have hime walk around the house with his school materials. That's how he studied. It paid off, because let me tell you, I have never seen this guy take notes and he's a total whiz. So, in an effort to kill two birds with one stone starting on my 42nd birthday, I decided to take my schoolwork to the gym (yeah, this year I decided to get fit!) and study while I warm up on the treadmill before my weightlifting routine. My, oh my. What a difference. This is the magic of kinesthetic learning. Does it work for everyone? I have no idea. I'm hoping you'll try it out and let me know. Most stairmasters, treadmills and stationary bikes have ledges on them where you can rest your phone. That's where I rest my binder (which I'll be talking about in a future episode for better note-taking). Do I get weird looks? Probably. But I'm getting A's in all my classes, y'all. What do I care? -Jaren Here's a screenshot showing how I study my nursing notes while I'm warming up at the gym for 20 minutes. 10/10 would recommend!

I'm Jaren, a neurodivergent Mom of neurodivergent kids going back to school in my 40's. In this series, I'll be posting about things that make my life easier. Now that I'm in school full-time, I appreciate just how exhausting it is for our kids. Expanding our brains constantly is hard work! To make organization easier, my son and I came up with a two-pocket system for filing classwork because expecting him at (then) 10 years old to be a master at filing and organizing sheets into a binder with tabs was causing all kinds of headaches. So I asked his teachers if we could simplify, and they agreed. Here's how the Folder Method works: Step One: All paperwork for the week, including printouts, notes, you name it, go into the left pocket of the folder, labeled "THIS WEEK". Step Two: On the weekend, after we do a full review, we then stack everything together neatly and staple it (or secure it with a paperclip), write down the week number or the date at the top, then move it over to the right side, labeled "ARCHIVE". Complete! Once the right side gets too full, we remove older weeks of archived work to a folder or notebook at home. I couldn't find an empty folder (kids are at their father's) so I made a mini one out of paper scraps to show you. I hope this helps. Since we started using this method two years ago, my son has graduated to more involved methods of organizing and now confidently files things away the same as his peers. Sometimes we just need to stop and simplify things before we can move forward. :) -Jaren

I'm Jaren, a neurodivergent Mom of neurodivergent kids going back to school in my 40's. In this series, I'll be posting about things that make my life easier. Some of us struggle with getting dressed in the morning. I struggled for ages for all types of reasons, but mostly it came down to these three: 1) I had too many clothes in my closet to choose from This ultimately overwhelmed my system and would lead to stress attacks that affected my entire day. What a way to kick off a Monday. What to choose? Too many options. 2) The clothes I did have were not comfortable I wouldn't wear them even though I adored the way they looked. Pleather? Not in a million years. Too sweaty. 3) I didn't know what my style was I still don't know, because I don't really care. I dress primarily for comfort. But with some help from Pinterest and AI, I was able to curate a few looks I easily repeat with what I do have each week. Without a headache. *I've included my AI prompt at the end of this post. So, how did I streamline getting dressed in the morning? With the help of my kid, actually. I write about it here in my book . To sum it up, I was fighting with my daughter every morning (she was 5 at the time) about what to wear for school. When you fight with kids, you always lose because they don't use logic when making decisions. They use emooooootion. So I got smart one day and invited her to join me in putting laundry away, and boy, did we have fun! This is how we developed the Hanger Method. The Hanger Method We grabbed a hanger (or two, depending on needs) and she chose: A bottom (pant, skirt, short) A top (t-shirt, longsleeve,) A sweater in case And a pair of underwear around the top of the hanger. BOOM! One outfit complete...minus socks (which we keep near the front door - check out day 29 of 30 for details). Pictures of my kids' shared wardrobe back in 2016 using the hanger method My daughter loved choosing what to put together, and I loved that she wasn't fighting me. By the end of our laundry adventure, we'd created seven different outfits, one for each day of the week. Each morning, she would skip over to the closet, grab one of the outfits she "designed" and merrily get dressed. By herself. Hallelujah. Then, I thought, why don't I just do the same thing for myself? Duh. So that's what I do now. I use the hanger method , seen in the video above, but you can also use one of those hanging closet organizers with the 5 or 7 cubbies. They also work, unless you are including bigger outerwear, like heavy jackets. This is not an ad. I'm not getting paid to show this - just linking an easy one I found on Amazon. Every morning, I blindly grab an outfit and that's what I wear for the day. They're all comfortable, so I don't care which one my hand lands on. Just hang a few outfits already assembled and...voila! So there you have it! If you need a prompt for AI, you can use mine and adjust accordingly. "I am in my 40s and need help curating my wardrobe. I care most about comfort, but I would like to be able to wear something appropriate for a workplace setting. I do not wear high heels or tights. I do no carry a purse, and I do not like super feminine clothing, though I do like a femine accent piece. I tend to lean more minimalist in terms of style. I prefer a few timeless pieces over many trendy one. Can you help me curate a capsule wardrobe that will allow me to style 20 different looks using minimal options?" After having checked the list of items from the feedback given by AI, I pick through what I have already and thrift the rest (because I love an excuse to go to Value Village or Good Will). Let me know how it goes and if this post helped! Bonus points if you have other, even better ideas for making mornings more fun and less stressful when getting dressed. I am on this planet to learn. -Jaren

I'm Jaren, a neurodivergent Mom of neurodivergent kids going back to school in my 40's. In this series, I'll be posting about things that make my life easier. Today's particular post might sound a little silly, but it has saved me hours of cleaning, searching, hauling things back and forth, etc. If you have thirsty kids, you'll know exactly what I'm talking about: the water glass. The answer to running out of water glasses during the day is not to buy more water glasses. I know. I've made that mistake more than once. The answer is not even to have a designated spot on the counter for every person't water glass, because they will inevitably get displaced and end up under a teenager's bed next to the eight other water glasses they "forgot" to bring back into the kitchen. No, the answer is to write your name on them in permanent marker. Don't worry, it comes off, so long as the glass isn't textured. This solution does two things really well: ONE: It prevents everyone in the house from mindlessly grabbing an extra glass out of the cupboard because they can't remember where they put the last one (most of the time) TWO: Even more importantly, it keeps the users of those glasses responsible. No more "I didn't put that there!" and "It's not mine!" It has your name on it , homie. It's yours. Did I mention how much space in my dishwasher is saved for other things now? Or how much less time I spend hand washing? Spend your time doing something better, like watching Heated Rivalry. :) Jaren

I decided to try using military terminology in this post because it sounds cooler. And if there's one thing I know about the military, it's that it's full of systems and lives to streamline for efficiency. Which, coincidentally (flips hair over should like Cher), is my goal in life. I tell you, you have to be really smart if your end goal is to be lazy. So in this post, I'll be sharing what I learned from my 30 day challeng where I shared things that make my life easier as a neurodivergent part-time single mom of neurodivergent kids, going back to school full-time in my 40s...in French. Say that ten times real fast. What was supposed to happen? To be honest, my goal was really just to complete 30 days of posting something on my blog and on my YouTube channel. I think my intention was to get over my fears of both posting regularly and possibly looking like a dumbdumb online. I also wanted to test the waters to see if there's space for me somewhere in the world wide interweb. Maybe I'm too niche? Maybe there are others out there like me? I'm don't actively search out my kind. What actually happened? I learned a lot! Primarily, that I can post daily while going to school right this semester. I did get some engagement on my YouTube channel and managed to grow it by 88 subscribers, I think. That wasn't my intention but I'm happy if people are resonating. What went well (Sustains)? As it turns out, I discovered the joy of writing daily. I endeavour to keep this up. What can be improved (Improves)? Oh, plenty! For one, I think it would be a lot easier if I wrote out everything I wanted to say before recording instead of just plopping down in front of the camera, winging it, then trying to make sense of it all in editing later. Thank god for descript.com . So, what's next? Well... having looked at the stats of which posts performed the best, I came up with a 7 day challenge: 7 Days of Money Tricks From This AuDHD Mom Which, to be honest, will probably end up turning into a 14 day challenge because I have a lot to say. Who knows. I will take the next week to organize it all and start shooting over the weekend. Welp. There you have it, folks. Starting off modestly. Comfortably. I like this pace. What projects are you working on? -J

I’m Jaren—a neurodivergent voice artist turned student nurse, and you’re listening to the audio version of my blog series T he Pivot : my journey through motherhood, medicine, language, and music and the art of the mid-life remix. AI-generated image of a woman walking into an unknown forest with a pair of boots in her right hand. The Beginner Mentality *NOTE - I attend a CEGEP, which is a unique public post-secondary education system in Québec, Canada. CEGEP is situated between high school (Grade 11) and university and offers two-year pre-university programs or three-year technical programs. I'm currently in a three-year technical program. Holy smokes, being a beginner at something after having spent the last couple of decades being more or less of an expert in the field of voice work has sure been a mind f*ck. I hated it at first. I still dislike it, only I love learning more than how much I dislike not knowing what I want to know. Does that make sense? In my head, it does. In my case, I'm a beginner at everything : attending higher education, learning in a language that's not my own (yet)...I'm a beginner in all of my courses (except psychology, which I have always had an interest in and studied on the side). Being a beginner requires that I shove my ego deep into my pillowcase each and every morning and leave it at home to rest. At first, I thought this would be terribly painful, but that's not at all how I would describe the feeling. I'd venture to say a better adjective would be freeing . It has been freeing to leave my previous identity at the door and walk into my school as someone entirely new. Nobody knows me here. I don't really know me, here. That unknowing has allowed me to discover new sides of myself - ones I didn't know existed. Like the fact that I'm now an A student , even in another language. (I'm sorry, WHAT?!!) 17-year-old me would never believe this. She'd roll her eyes, call me a loser, and tell me I sold out . But it's true. And I've become more than a great student. As it turns out, I'm pretty awesome at breaking down concepts for my fellow neurodivergent classmates, and even more surprising...I've turned into somewhat of an advocate for higher learning. (I'm crinkling my nose as I write this because I've done my fair share of complaining in front of my kids about not liking school as a teen.) So, what changed? Well...I did. I felt forced into school at the time I made my decision to return because I didn't have a university degree (still don't) or a grasp of the french language great enough to find work locally. I tried, believe me. But after a full year of full-time studies, I can confidently say I made the right choice. I feel good. I sometimes wonder if I feel a similar sense of awe, joy and overwhelm as my young colleagues who are out of the house for the very first time, wondering who they will become. We are like a bunch of caterpillars cocooning with our text books and our pens, decorating the inside of our interior worlds, trying to figure out what kind of winged creature we'll transform into, all the while fully aware of the pressures that await us in the outside world. One thing is for sure: I might be one of the oldest students here, but I have life experience. And that's been something of a gift for myself and my professors. Heck, even some of my young classmates. For one, I am genuinely interested in what my professors are teaching. I am studious. I am dedicated. I ask questions from a different perspective, which benefits all of us. The same way my young classmates' fresh perspectives benefit me. Somewhere deep down, I hope I am showing them that it's never too late to change careers. If one day they wake up and decide to change course, I hope they'll remember me and think if she can do it, I can do it. It's a nice thought. Before starting CEGEP, I worried my classmates would make fun of me for being older. But I realized quickly they mostly just think I'm one of the teachers unless we converse. They've been kind and respectful, and I have to say I have so much hope for this generation. If you would have asked me what I thought about teenagers five years ago, I would have probably said they're terrifying. Instead, I find them resilient, inspiring, and constantly searching for answers. I'm searching, too. All this to say that if you have been thinking about returning to school, but you're scared - be scared and do it anyway. It's what the cool kids are doing. Join us. -J