Posts Tagged: ADD Planner

ADD Organization Tips / ADHD-ADD Tips — No Comments
27
May 10

ADHD Organization Tips From Freelancers

MC900434929[1] I’m not really sure if I have ever mentioned it here or not, but I’m a freelance writer. I specialize in several different areas (sort of a oxymoron, I know) including being a freelance financial writer and freelance technology writer. One of the websites I read from time to time is called Freelance Switch. Originally, I believe, it was conceived as a website to help people make the switch from regular day jobs to becoming full-time freelancers. Over time, it has morphed into more of a generalized resource for various freelance entrepreneurs, especially those work at home small business owners. It isn’t focused on freelance writers, per se. In fact, I feel like its focus is more on designers and developers, but much of what is good for freelance design work is also good for freelance writing business, so I try and drop by the site or catch up on the latest freelancing tips via the RSS Feed. Incidentally, if anyone is interested, you can “follow” my shared Google Reader items if you like. Be aware that they are both very self-serving (I share all of my own posts) and not at all targeted to attention deficit hyperactivity disorder or ADD in any way.

I bring the subject up because time management and organization skills for ADHD are often just more intense or specialized advice that comes from standard organization tips and best practices. In particular, the crazy, hectic, self-managed, be-your-own-boss, lifestyle that is being a freelancer requires high-power time management techniques and organizational tricks to keep up on the many tasks that a small business owner must do to be successful.

A recent posting brought up the concept of a not-do list. The not-do list is a powerful companion to the more ubiquitous to-do list.

Not-Do List ADHD Trick Advice

Here’s how it works.

In addition to your usual ADHD trick of maintaining a calendar, adhd planner or organizer with your important to-do list, you also keep a list of things to not be doing.

Now, this isn’t what you might think. A Not-Do list is not for those abstract ADHD traits that you want to manage by avoiding them. For example, do not procrastinate, might be a worthwhile goal, but it is not what goes on the organizing Not-Do list. Rather, the not do list is for items that have been deliberately and rationally dropped from your to-do list for whatever reason.

Generally, the end result of prioritizing your tasks is that some lower-priority items, or tasks with future due dates, are either dropped from your to-do list, or moved to the bottom of the list. One really good organizational tip when it comes to time management is to keep shorter-term to-do lists because they are more manageable. For example, if it is May and you need to register for classes in July, but the schedule isn’t released until June, that to-do item is just cluttering up your list for a month or more. If there is one thing people who are easily distracted do not need, it is extra clutter to focus on.

Which leads back to the not-do list. Unlike the to-do list, which you should look at to help determine what you should work on next, the not-do list is a reminder of the tasks that might draw your attention away from the more important tasks and pressing needs currently at hand, like writing posts for your ADHD blog. (Ahem!)

It’s an age old story among the world of ADDers about people with ADD going off and suddenly doing long-standing projects with laser focus for a period of hours when what they should really be doing is filling out those forms that have to be delivered in one hour. In other words, the not-do list is used to remind yourself of those important, but not pressing needs that might be particularly distracting for that day or week.

Try putting that necessary, but long-term project on your not-do list for this week as a way of maintain focus on those things that must be accomplished this week instead.

Let me know how it works out for you. I’ll be trying it myself.

ADD Organization Tips — 5 Comments
23
Nov 09

ADD Tips Organization Help for ADHD Calendars and Planner Software

add-adhd-organization-planner-software-graphic Anyone that has been diagnosed with ADD-ADHD has tried numerous organizational strategies already. Many of those ideas are based around the ability to schedule and keep appointments. Often, these organization tips come from sources unrelated to ADD and, thus, unfortunately, often end up ultimately failing to provide any better organization for ADHD individuals. However, that doesn’t mean that all organizing methods are doomed to fail for people with ADD.

Examples of ADHD-ADD Organizational Issues and Strategies

Consider a guy named Jeff. Jeff has ADD. Jeff was diagnosed with ADHD as an adult and initially found great relief in finally having a name for the chronic problems he always seemed to be dealing with. As most newly diagnosed people with ADD do, Jeff went through several phases of ADHD once he had been diagnosed. First, he was relieved. Then, he wondered what he could do. Next, he went into research mode. Finally, he moved on to acceptance. (Hopefully, he did not continue onto reluctance, self-pity, or hopelessness.)

Somewhere in the what-to-do phase and research phase, Jeff turned, as many ADDers do at one time or another, to electronic time management gadgets. Electronic organizers, or Personal Information Mangers, also known as PIM, like Palm Pilots or Blackberrys have long seemed like the perfect solution to difficulties with organization and planning, for both adults with ADD and for people without ADHD alike. Since Jeff works in an office environment, he also turned to task manager and planning software installed on his computer, such as Microsoft Outlook.

While, everyone with ADHD responds differently to specific organizational tactics and strategies, there is a frequent hiccup for people with ADD trying to use electronic solutions to organization and planning. That issue is that successfully using organizational software for ADHD or using a  PDA to help with ADD involves several different steps, each of which must be completed successfully for improving organizational skills. Students with ADD and adults with ADD typically have difficulty initiating or completing one of these critical time management steps.

Using Blackberry, Palm Pilots, iPhones, and Computer Software to Help With ADHD-ADD

Unfortunately, it can be difficult to see where the step-by-step organization or steps of time management break down. That leads to frustration. All to often, that frustration ends up causing the entire process to be considered unsuccessful, when in fact, there may be just a single step that needs more focused attention to make the entire process more efficient.

Let’s say that our ADHD worker, Jeff, gets a Blackberry through his company. Most ADDers love trying out new things and Jeff is no exception. Jeff is also a technology buff and good with things like electronics and computers, so he is particularly excited about his new PDA phone. He spends hours setting up his Blackberry and connecting it to the company network and email systems. Ironically, he ends up neglecting other more important, but less interesting tasks. Jeff tells himself that it is all fine, because once he has the Blackberry setup, he will be so much more efficient, that it will be worth any delay caused in getting to important items on his to-do list.

For a few days after Jeff gets his Blackberry programmed with everything he needs to overcome ADHD traits or ADD issues that have plagued him in the past, the Blackberry does as promised. He is more organized, using his time better, and planning and scheduling better. Events are on his calendar and he can see at a glance what he needs to do each day. In short, Jeff feels like he has made a huge stride forward.

Unfortunately, Jeff, like many ADHD-ADD students and adults, has been here before. Often when something is new and novel, the ADD mind pays great attention to it, sometimes too much attention. However, as the newness wears off and the novelty of the new organization tips goes away, something happens. Jeff reverts to old patterns and the Blackberry, new ADD planner, computer software, notebook, note cards, journal, or whatever else is being tried out, fades into the background noise like so many items before it. Soon, Jeff’s Blackberry isn’t helping at all and he decides that the Blackberry is not helping his ADD-ADHD traits. He returns to his old methods, or he seeks out a new "better" way to help manage his time.

Steps For Time Management, Organization, and Planning Success With ADD-ADHD or Not

In order for a time management system, scheduling gadget, or calendar utility to actually help keep Jeff on track for more than a short period of time, he needs to break down the individual steps that go into using the device or program. Then, he can concentrate on which one of the steps is breaking down. Only, then, can he figure out what the real issue is and work on fixing it.

Step-by-Step Instructions for Using ADHD Planners or ADHD Software for Time Management (coming Wednesday…)

Otherwise, Jeff will be back in his bosses office, office supply store, or department store, in six months looking to buy something to help with ADD-ADHD again. And, chances are, if he buys something new, he will use if for a week and it will stop being helpful.

(I’m going to have to re-write this article to sound like the book If You Give a Mouse a Cookie. That would be fun. – I’m so proud of myself for not doing it right now instead of moving on to the next critical items on my task list!)

ADHD — 2 Comments
25
Jul 09

ADD Planner Update

Our custom add-plannerADD planner is nearly ready.  We’ve ironed out those pesky bugs and soon you’ll be able to preview the planner that was specially designed for people with ADHD/ADD by people with ADD/ADHD.

Check back soon.  (Next week!)

ADD Organization Tips — 6 Comments
10
Mar 09

ADD Planner 2X

For many people with ADD / ADHD a planner, organizer, calendar, or day timer is the first recommendation they receive.  Ironically, it is probably also one of the things they have already tried a million times before.

You see, people with ADD are not dumb.  Far from it.  Most ADDers are actually quite intelligent, and even more are very self-aware.  It doesn’t take long after you notice that you are different from everyone else before you start trying to figure out how you are different, and eventually why you are different.

For students to professionals with ADD one of the first things they’ll notice is that they are disorganized.  ADHD can be manifested in many different ways, but one of the most common traits is a lack of organization, whether it is losing important papers, or just your car keys, or whether its forgetting important meetings, or forgetting to eat lunch.  It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to come up with the notion that if you could just get organized and keep track of all those important things better, that might change how things go down for you.

The irony is that for most ADD / ADHD adults, just remembering to actually pull out the planner and look at it is half the challenge.  That is if you’ve already mastered the part about actually remembering to do the mundane easily forgotten task of writing down those important things in your planner in the first place.

Twice the Planners or Planner 2X

The frustration of having, starting, and using so many calendars or planners only to fall into the same old pattern of forgetting not just the meeting, but also to write the meeting down in the planner in the first place is one that drives some ADD / ADHD people to periodically throw their hand up in the air and just give up on the whole planner thing.  Interestingly, the answer might be to take the opposite course.

Of course, everyone is different, but for ADD businesspeople who spend a majority of their workday at a desk, the solution to the organization dilemma may lie in a simple ADD trick for organization.

The first part is the same one that every ADD coach, every ADD book, and every ADD group suggests: Get a good planner that you like and is small enough that you will actually carry it around with you.

The second part is where the magic happens.

Get a big monthly calendar to put on top of your desk.   This is your 2X calendar.

The desk blotter style works great if you can handle it covering that much of your desk, but if not, a smaller calendar works just as well.  The key is that it must sit on your desk in the main work area, whether that is under / in front of your keyboard, or under your mouse, or where you fill in forms.  Something like this work just fine.

desktop-calendar-2XDo not use a calendar on the wall, a calendar across the room, or put a calendar on a table or section of desk that you don’t always use every day.  This is supposed to be in your face on your main workspace.

The best calendars are plain without any pictures to take up extra room.  You want a calendar that is as big as you can stand having on your desk all day every day.  For me, I threw away my mouse pad and use my 2X calendar for my mouse.

The point is that you now have a paper calendar that is virtually begging to be written on, front and center on your primary work area.  This will distract you.

That is right, the calendar will distract you.  You have just turned your ADD traits into a strength to help you.

Imagine, you are talking on the phone.  It is a long boring conversation.  You look down at your blank calendar.  You might as well write something on it.  How about the Tuesday Morning staff meeting.  It doesn’t really need to be written down since you have it every week (and are late to 1/3 of the time anyway because your forget what day of the week it is), but you will write it down because you have been distracted by the calendar.

Later, you might get distracted by the fact that you don’t have any blue on the calendar and you’ll write something else down.

When your boss calls in the middle of a detailed project and tells you about the client meeting on the 13th, you would normally go back to your task after hanging up the phone because you were in the middle of something and didn’t want to lose your thoughts by finding your new day timer (is it still in your bag that your brought from home?).

Of course, by the time you get to a stopping place, you have forgotten to write it down, and your organizer sits unused in the bottom of your drawer.  But, with your 2X calendar sitting right there on top of your desk, you can just grab your pen and scribble something down really fast without having to find and pull out your planner while you are still on the phone.  Then, when you finish what you were doing your wandering eyes will scan across the date, see what you scribbled and that is when you will grab your little Filofax calendar that you bought especially to get more organized and jot it down.

The 2X calendar won’t help you remember to check your little Franklin Covey planner each morning, but since it is sitting on top of your desk, IT might be what reminds you of all those important little events instead.  And, if in doing so, it gets you used to checking and adding things to your real day planner more often, then so much the better.