Fall Transitions Made Simple: 5 Key Tips for ADHD 

The transition from summer to fall can feel uncomfortable for adults and kids alike, especially when navigating ADHD.

Cognitive flexibility (or rather, inflexibility) makes it challenging for us to easily shift into new schedules and routines.

And this extra demand on our executive functions can leave us feeling a bit untethered and “off.”

Whether you have kids heading back to school or you’re facing intense fall deadlines now that everyone’s back at the office, we all navigate this shift in season.

Fortunately, you can follow five simple steps to help support that transition with greater ease, which we explore in episode 213 of the I’m Busy Being Awesome podcast.

You can listen to the episode above or stream it on your favorite podcasting app here.   

Prefer to read? No problem! Keep scrolling for the entire podcast transcript. 

In This Episode, You Will Discover

• Where to focus your attention during this transition
• Tactical approaches to managing your shifting routines and schedules
• How to iron out the wrinkles of transitions without feeling so rushed

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Episode #213: Fall Transitions Made Simple with 5 Key Tips for ADHD (Transcript) 

Are you grappling with the fact that we’re already at the end of August? I sure am. And in fact, that’s what inspired this week’s topic. Because in today’s episode,  we’re exploring the transition from summer to fall and back to school.

Now here’s the deal, whether you have kids or not, there is often a notable shift into the fall season. I know there is for me.

In fact, I often think of fall as the other “New Year.” There is just something about this time that signals a real shift in our days. And many of us might feel mixed emotions about this shift from summer to fall. Again, I certainly do. And I think this is a beautiful situation where we can hold two contradictory truths.

For myself, I know I’m both sad to say goodbye to the relative flexibility and freedom that accompanies the summer months and I’m also eager for the fresh start of fall, a return to regular routine, starting more traditionally fall activities, and doing so with a bit more structure.

How To Transition Your Routines From Summer To Fall

Today we’re talking about how to make this shift from summer to fall in a way that feels super supportive for our ADHD brains.

Because as I talk about all the time on the podcast, our cognitive flexibility – our ability to shift and transition between routines, schedules, in and out of tasks – can be a real challenge for many of us. We can find ourselves feeling untethered or a bit foggy or on edge. 

This can happen on both a small scale from weekend to weekday or going on a vacation for a week before coming back to your regular daily life, and it can also show up on a bigger scale, like the shift from summer to fall. And today we’re talking about how to make this latter shift a big easier this year. 

To do this, we’re going to explore five steps that I encourage you to consider in your own life. You may notice that some of these steps are more applicable to you than others,  and that’s great.

As you listen to these five categories today, notice which ones seem like they’ll be most helpful for you as you shift from summer to fall this year. And I encourage you to lean into the ones that stand out the most to you. 

Step 1: Create Clarity: What’s most important?

I know for myself how easy it is to get overwhelmed thinking about all the different things that need to happen as we shift into fall mode.

Just off the top of my head and from recent conversations with clients, we have things like…

• New sports or after school activities
• Back to school night
• Going to work in person at the office more
• Establishing a more regular bedtime routine
• Making time for all the life admin tasks like grocery shopping, cleaning and yardwork that you had more time to do in the summer when the kids didn’t have their entire day taken up by sports tournaments, etc.

When we think about these different transitions we want to plan for and accommodate, we can get wrapped up in trying to get a handle on everything at once. So as a throwback to episode 207, the first step in helping us ease this transition from summer to fall is to navigate any overwhelm by zooming out and focusing on what’s most important to you (or you and your family) this season.

What matters most to you as you make this shift?

Where do you want to dedicate your time and attention?

• If you have kids, is it getting the school supplies and everything your kids physically need so they’re prepared for the first weeks of school?
• Is it getting back into a sleep routine since many of us stay up later in the summer with the longer days.
• Is it figuring out and sticking to regular meal times rather than the casual grazing that many of us do in the summer?
• Do you want to focus on how you can maintain fun/connection time → easy to slip back into “work mode” and forget about the fun and leisure of summer. Do you want to focus on maintaining that?

Before we do any planning for this transition or the fall season generally, take a few minutes to identify what matters most about this fall season to you. And also, what would make this transition easier?

Use Your Answers As An Anchor

You can use these answer to help ground you when things start to seem like too much. Rather than the brain going into the spinccycle, we can instead come back to this one thing that matters most and make your decisions based on that.  

So if the most important thing is getting back into a regular sleep schedule, then when all the questions about sports and homework schedules and extra curriculars and all the things pop into your mind, you can ask yourself, what decision will help ensure that we’re getting enough sleep this fall?

Or if the most important thing is maintaining fun time even though the fall tends to become a busier, more scheduled season, you can keep coming back to the anchor of: how am I ensuring I’m scheduling and honoring that fun time each day or each week to recharge my batteries?

So step one is to reflect on this transition from summer to fall.

• You could do a brain dump of all the different things on your mind.
• Notice all the thoughts and obstacles that your brain offers you about this shift.
• And slow down that spin by asking yourself, what matters most in this transition time?
• Where do I want to focus my attention first? What would make this shift easier if I put my focus there?

Step 2: Create Space – What needs a reset?

As we think about moving into the fall season, we may also require a shift or update in our physical space.

Maybe the dining room was the holding place for summer projects, the drying rack for pool towels, and anything else that was either ‘in progress’ or ongoing throughout the summer.And now that school is starting back up, maybe we want to swap out the pool toys for a designated homework space after school.

Or maybe it’s time for a clean slate with all the papers. You know the fall can be a busy time for papers – especially with back to school.

In this situation, you might follow a simply 2 step process.

1. Go through the current paper: piles of mail, flyers, art projects, etc. Sort into piles depending on what’s most relevant to you. It might be Pay, Act, Shred, Recycle, File or something like that.
2. Create designated areas for the next season. How do you want to approach incoming papers? One basket that you go through each week? A few different slots for your kids’ forms/permission slips, bills, invitations/upcoming events?

So step two is all about your physical space. As you think about that space, I encourage you to consider what shifts you might like to make.  What would make this transition from summer to fall easier, and how might we take one small action to get that into motion today?

Step 3: Timing and Planning

The shift from summer to fall is perhaps most strongly felt when we think about the timing of things and how we approach planning our days.

For many of us, we’re moving from a relative flexibility of summer to a more structured routine.  While this isn’t the same level of shift for everyone, there is often some discernable change that unfolds. 

Important to ask yourself, realistically, what does this shift look like on a daily basis?

At the university where I worked, in the summer, the administrative staff had the option to work four-day weeks. They’d extend their workdays Monday-Thursday, and they took Fridays off. Maybe your company has a similar shift, and you’re gearing up for another day at work with the return to fall.

What will this look like? What are the shifts that will happen?

Maybe you now have two different school pick ups and drop offs because your kids are at two different schools, and you need to account for that in your planning and scheduling each day.

Is there an influx in after-work or after-school activities? Are you taking a class in the fall or has basketball started up for your kids and you want to make space for that in your weeks?

Maybe there is an increased pressure around deadlines and the sheer amount of work picks up at your job. In the summer more people take vacations and there can be a more flexible state around deadlines, response time, etc. (not for all jobs, but for some) and the shift to an expectation of quicker response times, faster turnaround for deadlines, and a general increase in workload might require additional time and planning.

Or perhaps we think through the lens of routines.

For example

Perhaps now that the kids are back to school and you’re making their lunches, you decided to pair that with making your own lunch for work the next day rather than grabbing something from the food truck or whatever is in the breakroom during lunch. But with that comes the need for some new routines.

When you pick up the kids after work, you all empty out your lunch boxes together. They grab the granola bar and fruit they want to bring the next day while you prep the sandwiches, and then they’re in the fridge, ready for the next day. 

Thinking back to our idea of creating time for fun, perhaps one of the biggest challenges with the transition from summer to fall is a more full schedule.

With that in mind,

• How do you want to intentionally schedule downtime?
• How can you create that time for rest and play outside of work or school?
• Do you want this time to be structured or not?
• Is it on both weekdays and weekends?
• What is realistic during this season?
• How can you honor that to make sure everyone gets the time they need?

Step 4: Ironing out the wrinkles of transitions

This entire episode is essentially a look at this big picture transition, but step four is a micro look at this overarching shift. 

Often we try to pack too many things in our days because we forget about the time required for transitions. To get into our shoes, gather up the homework, find our computer cord, and additional traffic, which is usually a bit lighter in the summer and comes back in full force in the fall.

How do we make the big picture transition of summer to fall easier by ironing out the wrinkles of these smaller transitions in our days?

We do this in 3 steps:

1. Gain awareness of the transitions and when they happen throughout the day
2. Acknowledge and accept that they’re there rather than fighting with reality
3. Actually build in the time you need to ease that shift and not feel so rushed.

The truth is, these transitions are going to happen no matter what. Just because we don’t want traffic to be so bad doesn’t mean it won’t. 

We might as well acknowledge and allow time for them in our plans so that we’re not feeling that constant pressure all the time.

• What are the changes happening for you as you move from summer to fall?
• Identify them and then ask yourself what the timeline looks like with those shifts.

As mentioned earlier you may be going into the office one more day each week, which not only includes additional commute time, but also one less free day in your schedule.  There are pickups and drop-offs for your kids both at school and activities.

There’s the transition when you get home from school and need to get a snack and transition into homework or getting ready for karate class. There’s probably a transition to earlier bedtimes. 

Don’t Forget The Smallest Changes Make A Difference

All these things add up, and sometimes the smallest shifts can make a big difference. 

I always notice once it gets cold enough that I can’t just head out the door with my sneakers and Bruno and instead need to bundle up – and when it’s cold enough get his coat on, too.

And sometimes even his boots, which takes entirely too long. (Yes, I am that person who puts boots on their dog, but the big rock salt on the roads burns his little paws so badly and putting on boots lets him actually walk outside in the winter). I would never anticipate that extra time, but it’s probably an additional 10 minutes I need to account for in the early morning before we head out for our walks. That adds up.

So again, think through your days. What are the transition points, especially with your new schedule? Identify them. Acknowledge them. Plan for them. 

Step 5: Give yourself grace and space to make this shift.

Again, this transition can be an uncomfortable one, and step five is to give yourself grace as you figure out these new routines and rhythms for yourself and your family.

Even for those of us who rebel against routines, the sheer fact that we’re challenging our rhythms and the current status quo of how things have been operating can leave our brains feeling untethered – especially when we aren’t the ones who initiated this shift, and instead, it’s something that simply happens as the seasons change.

You make find yourself feeling uncomfortable during this adjustment time. You may feel foggy or spacey, or maybe you’r’re more on edge, and little things set you off more than they usually would.

Maybe you’re making more mistakes than normal with double booking yourself, misplacing your keys or that permission slip or overextending yourself and committing to one to many things for a few weeks. 

This isn’t fun to feel, but it’s also a completely human thing to experience during times of transition, so I encourage you to give yourself grace.

Check In With Yourself

As often as possible, check in with yourself and ask, “What do you need right now? What’s off?” And listen for that answer.

When things don’t go as planned, or you did double book yourself, or you’re snapping at your family about things that normally roll off your back, check-in.

Use this as a signal to lovingly ask yourself, “What’s going on? How can I support you right now?” And notice what comes up.

Chances are, you’re in the messy middle of a transition, and it’s very common to feel this as you adjust. And you will adjust. But also, you might be missing some of the relative freedom that summer often provides. 

Maybe as you listen to yourself, you realize you need more relaxation time because all that time you had in the summer has been eaten up by additional transitions as you play parent Uber to and from school and activities.

Perhaps you’re missing that putter time in the early morning in your garden because the sun comes up later and everyone needs you as they get ready for school.

Or maybe you need more sleep because even though you’re back to a more rigorous schedule, you haven’t adjusted your bedtime to allow for more sleep so you have the capacity for that more demanding schedule.

So again, step five is to give yourself grace during this uncomfortable shift. It’s a little bit like trying on a new outfit that’s not your usual style. It takes getting used to. And you may need a few adjustments if you don’t like the particular fabric, or you need to cut out an itchy tag. But eventually, you’ll settle into it. 

And for the areas that don’t settle, check-in.

Again, this is where you can make a shift after learning what it is you need. If we stick with the new outfit analogy, maybe you realize that even though everything fits properly, and you’ve cut out the itchy tags and it’s all 100% breathable cotton, you just don’t like the feel of high-waisted jeans.

No problem. We can make an adjustment to make this new outfit work for you. 

The same is true with our shift to the fall schedule. If and when you find something that really isn’t working for you, it’s okay to make a change. And the best way to approach it is by checking in and seeing what you need and what works best for you to help make that shift as supportive as possible for you. 

Recap

So as a quick recap as you navigate this transition from summer to fall this season, I encourage you to follow these five steps, while leaning into whichever steps stand out most to you. 

1. Create clarity on what’s most important. Where do you want to put your focus this season and use that as an anchor as you move through this uncomfortable transition.
2. Create space. What physical spaces might need a reset to prepare you for the fall season?
3. Identify the changes in schedule and timing and create clarity on what supports will help you make that (often increased demand) on your time more doable
4. Get clear on the smaller transitions happening throughout your day. Identify them. Acknowledge them. Plan for them. 
5. Give yourself grace and the space to be in this period of transition as you figure out what works best for you and your family right now.

And as always, let’s connect over on Instagram; I’m @imbusybeingawesome. I’d love to hear what’s working for you. 

If you’re ready to take these concepts deeper and apply them to your life. If you’re ready to learn how to support your ADHD in a way that works for YOU, then I invite you to check out my small group coaching program, We’re Busy Being Awesome. And if it sounds like a great fit for you, you can add your name to the waitlist so you’re the first to know when the next cohort begins. 

Also, have you grabbed my free ebook 10 tips to work with your ADHD?  It is filled with actionable strategies that you can use to help reduce your overwhelm, reclaim your time, and get things done. Grab it HERE!

Until next time, keep being awesome. I’ll talk with you soon.