Too disorganized to get organized? --- ADD Tip o the Day 333

[doug puryear]

  

My good friend with ADD or ADHD says she loves the blog posts but doesn't have the compulsiveness to put them to use, too disorganized to be able to get organized.  She makes notes and lists on yellow stickies but they fall on the floor or she loses them or just forgets where she put them.

So how big a problem is this for her?  How much effort is she willing to devote to improving?  Some compulsiveness is helpful indeed, but not essential (too much compulsiveness can be crippling); not compulsive enough may sound like an excuse.

She can get an appointment book showing either a week or a month at a time, and keep all her yellow stickies in it and keep it with her at all times (excepting bed and shower). Then she needs to make a habit of looking at it and the stickies at least five times a day.  And all stickies go in the book, nowhere else.

She can make sure all of her clothes have a pocket ( if they don't she can change this, if it's important enough to her).  Or get a pouch to hang around her neck, either inside or outside of her top.  Her purse will not work unless it is with her every moment, which I doubt.

If she does this, and sticks to it thru the successes and the lapses, over time she will note real improvement.

Tackle one thing at a time.  First she needs  to learn how to use the appointment book , then her next step will be to learn how to use the to do list.

But is it worth all the effort?  Or would she just prefer to just keep on disorganized?

doug        

that won't work for me   clik here

each one of us has to find what works for us

clik here

[doug puryear]

margaret

you are exactly 100% right - a to do list is worthless, or worse, its a trap failure and burden, if we dont know how to use it-  takes strategies.

thank you

doug

[Margaret]

Doug, I think that part of the problem is that we don't know HOW to be organized, and lots of "helpful" sites, blogs, etc, don't break it down enough for us. SO, yes she could get an appointment book and put her stickies in it. Does she use the stickies? Does she know how to best use a to do list? When you don't actually know these things, it doesn't work well, so we recognize a todo list in any form, and, having experienced failure (multiple times) in the past, we assume it won't work for us again, not understanding that it didn't work because we didn't know how to use it. I used to make todo lists with about 20-25 items a day, that I expected to be able to manage to get done. I had no idea how to choose the important things from the list. It became too overwhelming!! I didn't know how to use a todo list properly.

By the way, I love my iphone and ipad for these things - it will alarm to remind me of stuff!

[doug puryear]

but good for you, you got it!  

my experience with the i phone is that it takes a long time to learn (still working on it) but it's worth it (but i dont use it for my to do lists).  the trick is small steps - learn how to do one thing at a time

thanks for the good comment

doug

[Liz♥]

oops *help should be "end"  ~ a bit stressed today with lots going on

[Liz♥]

I used to use to do lists, but I would help up with a few different ones and then try to re-write them onto a new list but I gave that up.  I got myself an appointment book and use a pencil to write anything I need to remember, Appointments, paying the bills, grocery lists, etc.  It has helped me and I  take it everywhere with me.  I would love to get an Ipad or some electronic gadget to do this but I think it maybe too time consuming to learn how to use it :P  Maybe someday