ORGANIZATIONAL SKILLS FOR ADULTS

In Adult ADD by Thomas Whiteman and Michele Novotni, the authors offer some brief ideas to aid organizationally challenged people with ADHD. These ideas follow a chapter on organization.

Whiteman and Novotni divide their organizing strategies into three categories – "The Three S’s"
Self
Space
Stuff

Their ideas about Self include:

– Structure your environment/routine.
– Practice prioritizing - first things first
– Break tasks into small steps and be realistic about the pace of change.
– Devise a creative system to remember appointments and obligations. (My addition– and "marry" that system!! Commit yourself to it.)
– Allow time to plan your day in advance. (Either at the end of the day or at the beginning.)
– Procrastinate less.

Space

– Identify specific places for important items like keys, bills, etc.
– Use functional storage containers
– Regularly evaluate the immediate value of the stuff taking up your limited space.
– Don’t hesitate to throw away or donate stuff from time to time.

Stuff

– Take fifteen minutes each day to decrease clutter
– Use bright colors and interesting containers
– Cut down on your reading material
– Make a list before you shop
– Handle papers no more than twice
– Ask yourself, "How much is it worth to have an uncluttered environment?" and give yourself a "throwaway budget" (Example, Is it worth $1000 to have an uncluttered environment? Use that as your "throwaway budget". Then when you throw away something, say an old lamp, put a price on it to replace it and reduce your budget amount by that amount. It is likely that you will never replace the lamp but you then can have less guilt about throwing it away.

Keep at it. Organizational skills are very hard for ADD people to master. Keep trying until you hit upon a system that works.
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