ADDer – Page 22

Beware the 'Special Place' Organization Temptation

For people with ADD, organization is a constant challenge. Nowhere is that more true than with something that they KNOW will be needed later. Unfortunately, for most people with ADHD, the importance of an item has no bearing on its ability to be stored and retrieved again later. That leads to special place organization.

Special place organization is when someone, whether and adult with ADD/ADHD, a teenager with ADD or ADHD, or a child with ADD-ADHD, deliberately put something important in a special place. Inevitably, the special place is chosen for being both safe, someplace unlikely to suffer an accidental throw away, and for being different than the standard location important and semi-important items are put.

When the day comes that the item is needed, it cannot be found. Sometimes, the person with ADHD won’t even remember that they put it someplace special. Even more often, the person with ADD will remember that they put it someplace special, but they won’t remember where the special place was!

What follows is a frantic top to bottom search of the house or bedroom, including all of the "usual" places objects are kept. If the ADDer is lucky, they will stumble upon the item’s special location (and THEN remember that they put it there.) If not, the object becomes yet another lost item which cannot be found when needed.

The best bet it to avoid the "special" place all together. Instead, find a way to protect the item and then put it in one of the "usual" spots. For example, put an important document inside of a page protector, or a receipt inside of a cardboard mailer. This will make sure that nothing bad happens to the important piece of paper, but when the time comes to find it, it will be easy because it will be right where you always look.

ADHD ADD Organization Tip

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Some tips and techniques to help adults with ADHD-ADD or kids with ADHD-ADD are complicated. Others are little tricks that are so easy that they might seem like they couldn’t possibly help, but they do.

One trick that many people with ADHD-ADD find helpful is to add color to standard organization tools.

Customizing ADHD-ADD Planners

If you have a planner you use as your ADD planner, try adding some color to it and see how the planner’s organizational effectiveness increases.

There are some requirements.

First, the colors must be mutable, that is they must change from page to page, weekly, monthly, or whatever. Having a colored block or area pre-printed on your planner won’t help, because your mind will eventually block it out.

Essentially, the ADHD-ADD mind begins to ignore things it perceives as common, boring, or rote. The first time it encounters a colorful page in your planner, it will gleefully pay attention to all of the colors (perhaps at the same time).

But, as each page goes on, the brain becomes more used to the colors and perceives them not as new and novel, but as the same old thing. As such, the ADHD mind will not divert its attention from whatever else is occupying it to make anything other than a cursory note of those colors.

Instead of getting pre-colored pages or sheets, use highlighters or markers to add your own dynamic colors.

For example, highlight your most critical task in the to-do list in yellow. Highlight that critical can’t miss meeting in orange. Highlight your spouse’s birthday in blue. Write that important website to check out in purple ink.

Be sure to not overdo the color. Too many colors becomes just so much noise to any brain, especially the ADHD-ADD brain. Try and have just four or five colors (not including your usual black or blue ink) and use them sparingly.

Lastly, do not highlight the same things the same way each time. Again, the key is to make the page look new and different, not to always have a 9:00am staff meeting highlighted in orange.

Change the color used to highlight your critical to-do item with the color you used to highlight your critical meeting. Also, experiment with thick highlighting, think highlighting, highlighting a whole line and highlighting just a few key words.

You’ll find that there are two major benefits.

One benefit is that you have to actually go through that list you only half-read anymore in order to find the items that you want to highlight which means you will get more exposure to your whole list.

The second benefit is that your mind’s eye will constantly pop to each colored item because they are constantly in different locations and different colors which means you might actually not ignore that super-critical-top-of-the-list item that somehow normally just seems to blend in with things so instead you end up focusing on something like setting the Tivo to record So You Think You Can Dance.

How Do I Tell If I Have ADHD or ADD?

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adhd-questions How to tell if you have ADHD is second only to what is it like to have ADHD among the questions that rattle around the brain of those with ADHD. Unfortunately, the most common answers are either to check with a doctor or mental health professional because only they can make an actual diagnosis of ADHD, or to take a simplified, overly general, test. The test questions are often so broad and inane that they simply perpetuate the myth that the symptoms of ADHD are the same as things that happen to everyone. Ironically, both answers show a fundamental misunderstanding of the ADD/ADHD mentality.

Do I Have ADD or ADHD? Just Answer the Question!

People with ADHD, particularly adults with ADHD, are not prone to react well to either of the common answers to the query of whether or not they have ADD. Typically, a person with ADHD does not reach the conclusion that they do potentially have ADD after sitting in quiet reflection about their daily life. Rather, they are likely to have the thought pop into their head in the middle of doing something else.

One of the most common times to wonder if you have ADHD/ADD is when beating yourself up for a recent failure or shortcoming. “Maybe I have ADD,” is the kind of thought that many ADDers have right after thinking something like, “Why can’t you just get it together long enough to…” or maybe, “Why can’t you stay organized?”

For most adults with ADHD, the next stop is Google and a search for ADD. Ironically, such a search will likely be futile since ADD and the word ‘add’ are the same thing when typed into a search box. A search for ‘attention deficit disorder’ likely follows, and then perhaps after noticing another acronym, a search for ADHD which will yield better results.

Regardless, while the ADDer will read a dozen sites in a row – and indeed may enjoy doing so – to get the answer to their questions, they are not likely to stop and take a boring test, and are even less likely to call and schedule an appointment with a doctor or therapist. Thus, the most helpful scenario for someone with ADHD is to provide a real answer, and not a bunch of legally approved boilerplate language about getting an answer from someone else.

Unfortunately, I can’t tell if you have ADD/ADHD since I am sitting behind a keyboard, and quite possibly am nowhere near it while you are reading this, not that it matters because even if I were sitting at my computer, it’s not like I can see you through the Internet or anything.

If that sentence sounds like something you say, or something you write, or have to stop yourself from writing, then signs point to yes. If you read that sentence and started considering the possibility of video phones or video conferencing or some sort of online video conference, like Skype, then signs point even more so to yes. If you didn’t get to this paragraph despite it being in italics before opening a new window or tab in your browser to lookup something about video conferencing or other tool or method, then the signs really point to yes.

Test To Find Out If You Have ADHD / ADD

The official tests used to determine if you have ADD or ADHD aren’t much better than the ones that you find online. For the most part, they ask you to rank from 1 to 5 (Never through Always) if certain things happen to you.

As you take the test you’ll find yourself saying, “maybe” or “sort of” a lot. In those cases, I would encourage you to choose 4 or 5.

That aside, I’ve developed some of my own ADHD quizzes to help determine if someone has ADHD. These ADHD tests are not generic, are not boring, and are not official. They won’t give you anything more than a real answer to your question. THEN you can schedule an appointment with a professional or family doctor.

And that, is how the ADHD mind works.

Next Step —> ADHD Tests (In my next post coming as soon as I get it formatted.)

Improve Your ADD/ADHD Organizational System With Expiration Dates

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add-filing-sytem-picture One of the most interesting things about ADD is the defense mechanisms that develop in the people who have it. Add to the fact that there are many different types of ADD/ADHD and differing levels of severity to the different experiences everyone has depending on friends, family, environment, socio-economic standing, and so on, and you get a million different ways to handle the little inconveniences that crop up due to ADD.

However, despite the unique nature of how people cope with the curve balls life throws at them, there are some themes that emerge as common actions or reactions for certain groups of people. One of those common defenses is keeping everything just in case something is important.

Packrat Defense Syndrome

Having been burned one time too many by not having the right piece of paperwork or having accidentally thrown away something that was actually important, many ADDers respond by keeping virtually EVERYTHING, just in case. I like to call this Packrat Defense Syndrome. (I like to name my own things 🙂

Packrat Defense Syndrome, or PDS, works because IF the need ever arises, then the person will undoubtedly still have whatever scrap of paper, receipt, contract, box, packaging material, or whatever. There is usually a question of just where the necessary item resides, but for a big enough issue, it is worth digging through a very big pile. The trouble is, that PDS leads, by necessity to either very complicated organization or conversely, disorganization.

The average household generates an amazing amount of records that either can be important, or seem important each and every month. From form-letter type notices sent by companies, to cancelled checks, to bills, to insurance statements, bank statements, brokerage statements, and all manner of receipts, it all quickly adds up to a large amount of stuff. So much, that it can quickly overwhelm a filing cabinet and numerous file boxes. The only solution is to start organizing the organization.

Boxes with serial numbers consisting of month-day-year and then a 01, 02, 03, etc. to designate months with more than one box, all stacked vertically in storage by year, is just one example I’ve seen. Some resort to electronic systems, scanning nearly every piece of paper to cross their desk. Again, complicated spreadsheets or databases or tagging systems are necessary to keep track of it all.

In other cases, closets stuffed to the ceiling with piles and boxes of papers and other records virtually define pack rat. Finding something in there requires time and effort to dig it out. Generally, the amount of time and effort required must correspond favorably to the nature of the need, or the ADDer decides it isn’t worth it and just takes the hit like they didn’t have whatever is needed instead.

The Expiration Solution

One solution that has worked wonders for those with PDS is to stage your organization with expiration dates.

Whether very organized or not organized at all, a large amount of any paperwork or records lose their potential to be important over time. For example, receipts and packaging kept just in case it was necessary to return something lose their value after the window to return it expires. Leases, rental agreements, and even contracts stop being valuable after their termination date.

Unfortunately, with PDS, there is no purging of records and thus, even though the system has become overwhelmed, it must continuously expand rapidly.

Expiration dates can make a huge difference. Try taking a single filing box and marking it with a date 90 days from when it gets filled and you put the lid on it. For non-organized types, any box with or without a lid will do. Just throw something on top of the box so nothing else gets added once you write the date on the box.

When that date arrives, pull the box out and go through it piece by piece. As you do, you will come across things that you no longer need. In fact, you might even wonder why you saved it to begin with. Things like ATM receipts, directions to a party that you’ve already been to, and so on can all be shredded or recycled. Other things will still need to be kept. Just make 3 piles, Keep It, Shred It, Recycle/Toss It.

When you are finished, put the Keep It pile back in the box and cross out the date. Write in the date 180 days from the current date. After another six months, even more of that pile will have lost all purpose and you can further winnow the stock. Repeat the process. Anything remains after this second sorting can enter your permanent organization system, whether it’s the closet or the numbered filing cabinets. Either way, you’ll find that your system grows at a much slower rate and your organization will be that much better.