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.
Managing Multiple Plans - Example
Let’s check in with Sophia to see how she manages two plans of action at once.
At some point, it might be a good idea to start on a new plan of action. Earlier in LUNA, you watched Sophia create her first plan of action to help her overcome her social anxiety, or fear of others judging her. Sophia has spent a lot of time focusing on just this one fear and she has made a lot of progress! She has learned about all the ways that she avoided social interactions, and she has used her plan of action to slowly face her social fears instead.
Sophia is now comfortable having a conversation with someone she doesn’t talk to often. She is also able to give a presentation in front of her family without getting super anxious. Sophia’s plan has helped her realize she is capable of a lot more than she thought she was. But she still has some work to do before she reaches her final goal: Giving a presentation in front of her history class at school. She still wants to get more comfortable with uncertainty- such as not knowing if someone is judging her or what they are thinking about her.
Sophia has been keeping track of her anxiety intensity levels during her exposure activities. During her last few practices, her anxiety levels have gotten lower and lower. Sophia finally feels ready to use her new confidence and skills to start working on a new plan of action. She has always wanted to work on her anxiety around routine changes, so this will be the second plan that she creates.
Sophia will now work on two plans at the same time- one for social anxiety, and one for her fear of routine changes.
After creating her new plan, Sophia needs to figure out when she will practice her exposure activities. She makes her weekly schedule and writes down activities from both of her plans. Sophia knows that working on more than one fear at a time can be challenging, so she is prepared to use a few tips to help her out.
First, Sophia names her two plans: “Social Anxiety” and “Routine Changes”. When she makes her schedule, she uses different symbols to represent each plan to easily tell them apart.
Sophia doesn’t want to get overwhelmed, so she tries not to focus on both fears every day. She only schedules activities from both plans on the same day, if they are lower on the anxiety intensity scale for her. When there are other challenging things going on in her life, such as a math test, Sophia gives herself a break from her exposure activities. During break days or rest days, Sophia tries to reflect on what she has accomplished to see if she can learn anything new about her fears.
Sophia’s mom supports her by making sure she stays organized and by helping her make changes to her schedule if something unexpected comes up. With all these tips and her mom’s support, Sophia is ready to start the week and take on both of her fears.
As you saw in the video, Sophia will now be working on two plans at the same time. If you have more than two fears or worries you would like to work on, then you may even think about working on three plans at once! However, working on more than three plans at a time will not be helpful for most of you. Remember, you can always wait to start on a new plan if you need to.