Working on more than one plan at a time can be challenging, but there are ways to make it easier! Here are a few tips that may help you with this!
Tips for Scheduling Exposure Activities:
Just like usual, use the Weekly Practice Plan worksheet to schedule your exposure activity practices for the week. Instead of scheduling activities from just one plan of action, you will now create a weekly schedule that has exposure activities from all of your plans.
When making your schedule, try to balance activities throughout your week so that you don’t become overwhelmed. You don’t need to practice activities from all of your plans every day. You can switch up which one you are focusing on from day to day, and you can also schedule rest days. Create a schedule that works for you! Just be sure you are making progress and working on an activity almost every day.
Think about what you need to prioritize. Some of you might have a plan of action that you need to pay more attention to than others. For example, George has been working on two different plans: one for his fear of germs, and another for his anxiety about making new friends. Since George will be starting at a new school soon and feels a bit better about germs now, he may want to pay more attention to his new plan. This means that he will be practicing activities for his anxiety about making new friends more often than activities for his fear of germs.
Tips for Organizing Your Plans:
Give each plan of action a name that helps you know what each one is about. This will help you tell apart one plan of action from another, so you don’t mix them up!
When making your weekly schedule, try using different colors for each plan of action to tell them apart. That way when you write out your exposure activities for the week, you will be able to see which plan of action each activity is from. Or instead of colors, you could use different pictures or symbols. Here are examples from Sophia (View PDF)
Organize your worksheets and activity logs based on which plan of action they are for. You may want to make a folder for each plan so that you can keep all your worksheets/logs from the same plan together. You could make digital folders on your computer or use physical ones!
Stay Flexible:
Some exposure activities may take longer to complete than you expect them too. Be open to changing your schedule if needed. If you cannot get to every single activity on your schedule, don’t feel discouraged!
If unexpected events change your availability, or if you run out of time for an activity, that’s okay! Try adjusting your weekly schedule when you run into these issues and try to set aside another time to practice activities.
Building Confidence:
Small improvements are still improvements! Celebrate small victories with points or motivation boosters. Sometimes, tackling one fear can build up your confidence and give you the motivation to tackle another one.
Have patience and grace with yourself while working on more than one plan. Nobody can do everything, so don’t put too much pressure on yourself to accomplish everything on your weekly schedule all the time. Keep your focus on the things you ARE doing, and not on the things you haven’t done or haven’t gotten to yet.
