Tackle it Tuesday: Daily Life’s Routines

Welcome to Tackle It Tuesday, a social media series where an autistic employee at AAoM (yours truly) writes workplace (and now more!) tips to better cope with the stresses of a world not built for neurodiversity.

While creating the latest entry for AAoM’s social platforms, I realized that social media alone isn’t the ideal archive for all the past Tackle It Tuesday entries, as it shares space with all the other important work AAoM does. So, this blog companion was born!


This Tackle it Tuesday is on keeping up with chores, a part of independent and interdependent living. For the new year, I want to expand Tackle it Tuesday to include all of the trials and tribulations that come with being an autistic adult in an allistic society.

An image with a green background. At the bottom, there is a person in a purple shirt overwhelmed by clutter and trash. The text reads: "Tackle it Tuesday: Daily Life This has nothing to do with the workplace, but I do want to expand on independence and interdependence as an autistic adult. Keeping yourself alive is labor."

An image with a green background. The text reads: "Tackle it Tuesday: Routines Literally, doing one thing in the day, even if it’s something small like showering, putting some things away, or making something a twinge fancier for yourself feels huge. Sometimes, this can even encourage more things, as you already have the inertia. But even if it doesn’t, you still did something."

An image with a green background. At the bottom, there are 6 white spoons. The text reads: "Tackle it Tuesday: Routines: Spoon Theory Spoon Theory is a system created by Christine Miserandino that describes the energy used to complete tasks by representing them in a finite amount of spoons given per day. This is a system designed for chronic illness, but it works for neurodivergence too!"

An image with a green background. On the bottom left, there is a chart for how many spoons each daily task takes created by https://kaleidoscopefightinglupus.org/. The text reads: "Tackle it Tuesday: Routines: Spoon Theory Think about how many spoons you’d get on a good day vs a bad day, and work out how much a task takes out of you. (This is the Spoon Theory Chart in question) Charts like this can help with ideas!"

An image with a green background. On the bottom left, there is a washing machine with a laundry basket next to it. The laundry basket has clothes in various colors. The text reads: "Tackle it Tuesday: Routines One thing I like to do is to space out big tasks between days. For example, laundry on Sundays, trash day on Fridays, and picking up any stray items that accumulate on Wednesdays."

An image with a green background. On the bottom left, there is an image of a weekly calendar with the title "The Keep Yourself Alive Schedule". Each day has a reminder to shower, Sunday has a reminder for laundry, Tuesday has a reminder for dishes, Wednesday has a reminder for picking up loose items, and Friday has a reminder for trash. The text reads: "Tackle it Tuesday: Routines If you miss a day, you can do it the next day and keep yourself on schedule afterward. Depending on your brain, it’s best to keep it as close to the original day as possible, and give yourself breathing room on your schedule."

An image with a green background. On the bottom left, there is a chart of house chores, with 4 people color coded on the chart. Various chores are split amongst each roommate, with some chores requiring everyone's participation. There's also a sticker of a banana wearing sunglasses at the bottom. The text reads: "Tackle it Tuesday: Routines If you have roommates or family, this is something all of you can devise together. Also, laminate or put some stickers on that schedule: give it some extra pizazz, attach a little extra brain value to it."

An image with a green background. There is that same list, schedule, and a smart phone. The text reads: "Tackle it Tuesday: Multiple Senses Sometimes it’s hard to keep up with something if it only engages with one sense. What I do is engage multiple senses. Phone Notifications Alarms Body senses (good for hygiene) Hunger

An image with a green background. On the bottom left, there is a person in a purple shirt sweeping the floor. On that figure's right, there is a table with a laptop playing a video of room cleaning. The text reads: "Tackle it Tuesday: Body Doubling Something I and others like to do is to do what’s called “body doubling”, which is to watch a task get done while you do it, such as watching a YouTube video. Seeing someone do every step in your chosen task can help keep you on track."

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