ADD and Routines

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ADD and ADHD

 

For some of us, creating routines is natural and comfortable.  We love repetition and the sameness of routine.  However, some of us like spontaneity and the excitement of new and fresh!  Can there be a balance or a way to merge these two ideas?  With the challenges of ADHD, often there is a big void of routines.  It is unnatural and uncomfortable.   However, a few important small routines can make a difference.

  • Start with an awareness of how routines can make a difference for you. If you have ADD or ADHD,  think about how whether having one day established for a certain task might be helpful?  The time does not have to be rigid, but it should be compelling.   I suggest having one hour of administrative time once a week to catch up with tedious, required tasks.  Having a routine set for admin time, such as Sunday afternoon between nap and dinner, make certain that paper is acted on. A routine might be something that happens daily or weekly.  Laundry days can be every day in the morning or every Monday and Thursday.
  • Add on one simple, small step to an existing routine.  If you are already successful at a task, add on a related task as the next step in your routine.   It can be simply empty the trash in your car each time you get gas.  Toss the junk mail right after you put the kids to bed.
  • Add a partner to get a task finished.  You and your kids, spouse, or friend can fold and put away clothes, clean up the kitchen, or file and chat.
  • Give yourself permission and time to do a routine well.  If bill paying is the priority, that is all you need to accomplish in one day.   It is okay to accomplish one big job in a day.
  • Use a checklist to successfully begin a new routine.  Your checklist will prompt you visually with the steps in  your routine and you won’t have to rely on working memory. Your checklist will ensure completion too!  A checklist can be used at the beginning or end of the day and placed in a spot where you will see it regularly.
  • Don’t give up a routine easily.  It takes at least 3 weeks and up to 6 weeks to get a routine established.  Have tenacity and a compelling reason to keep your routine going.

What are routines that work well for you?  What is your “secret?”

ADD and Organizing

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When I started my work 10 years ago, many of my clients were experiencing the same difficulties in getting organized, especially with paper.  It was hard for them to get started, work on their own, and most especially finish up and maintain their organization.   It was at that time that I realized the value of my work with clients with ADHD and ADD.

Working with clients with ADHD, I work as a partner with them, bringing energy, focus and resources to the mix.  Our work starts by narrowing where we will work.  Once defined, we work through the area to get to 100% , fitting their degree of order with their lifestyle.  As we work, we discuss the maintenance aspects of the space, talking through the how’s, why’s, and more of getting things back into order on a regular basis.

Here are a few tips for ADHD and organizing.

  • Start with a compelling reason with a deadline to get organized.  Wanting to be organized is sometimes not enough! Plan a party or invite a guest to stay at your home are scary but huge ways to get you moving!  This deadline will make you kick into gear but also keep you on track.   If you are a parent, wanting to model organizing, can be equally compelling. 
  • Work with a clutter buddy or paper partner, professional organizer or ADD coach.   Having a partner makes things happen! You have dates for accountability, fresh ideas flowing, and energy from your partner.
  • Start with a vision of what your space should look and feel like.  If you start with the end in mind, you will stay on track and get to your personal finish line.
  • Start small and focus on one step at a time.   You are already overwhelmed!  Working in one spot makes for success.  The hardest part is to keep from “zigzag organizing,” moving from room to room.  You start in one spot and just place sticky notes outside the door for the rooms you will be distributing items to or have a basket at the door that will collect item to distribute later. 

There are challenges for those with ADHD  or ADD and organizing.  It can be done!  I invite your posts on how this could help you get started or get finished on your organizing!

Distress and Disorganization

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It’s that anxious feeling you have when you are running late for an appointment and you can’t find your keys.  It’s that sinking feeling of depression while looking around your home, knowing you are overwhelmed by the disorder in different rooms.   It’s that stomach ache you have when you know you have to do your taxes, but you can’t find your forms or papers to fill in the amounts. It’s even that “discussion” you had with your husband about dinner or laundry and who is responsible for what at your home.  We live in a world of high expectations,  where guilt and shame underly our lack of organization.  When we want to connect, disorganization is a barrier to having company in our home.  Being disorganized causes all kinds of stress, whether it is physical, emotional or psychological. 

The first step in de-stressing is to take care of yourself.  It is usually the last thing we do! Taking care of yourself is assessing whether we had a good night’s sleep, ate a healthy breakfast and gave ourselves enough time to do a task to start with.  Take stock of all these aspects, putting your “own oxygen mask on first.”   This is the first area to attend to if we are to make a change and de-stress.

Make a plan and work your plan.   Take stock of what you do well and what you don’t.  Work from your strengths and make a plan of what you can get accomplished.   List your goals and priorities and see if you are aligning your daily commitments.  If not, it’s time to un-calendar some tasks.  If you “should” accomplish a task and find it is not a strength, create a team and delegate tasks.  Tasks may not be done the way you do it, but it will be done!  Write out your plan so you can see it daily,  including weekly routines with set days and times for certain tasks and open, untethered days to rejuvenate. 

Use tools that work for you.  In our world of technology, using your smart phone for your calendar and task list can make all the difference. Instead of keeping all the details in your head, get them out onto your calendar and task list so you are working high speed on what you need to accomplish. 

Disorganization and stress can be remedied with baby steps to change.  What ways are you working toward making a change?

Last minute tax time tips

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last minute tax preparation

 

If you are paralyzed about tax time, here are a few ways to get started and unstuck.

Items you can get off the internet if you don’t have the papers you need.

  • Use your year end credit card statements.   These are already categorized for taxes.
  • Go online to your mortgage company and download your mortgage expenses and property tax for your 1098.  Property taxes  and mortgage expenses are the biggest deductions in Texas.
  • Use your online pay stubs to find the taxes you paid on your final paycheck for 2010.
  • Visit your online banking and print statements out needed for income and expenses.

If you have papers, but are overwhelmed and not sure where to start.

  • Go through your papers and mail to find all the 1099s, 1098s and any other envelope marked important tax document on the outside of the envelope.
  • Spend one hour sorting income and expenses.  Spend 30 minutes sorting income into interest and dividends and then stocks for capital gains.  Spend another 30 minutes sorting medical into doctors/dentists, labs, eyeglasses, out of pocket and deductibles.    Spent another 30 minutes sorting charitable deductions.  Spend another 30 minutes using  ItsDeductibleonline.com to tabulate your charity non cash donations. Finalize with 30 minutes of wrap up.
  • Group your credit card and other receipts by categories for your small business, such as advertising, meals (with the name of who you worked with and the work you did written on the receipt), office supplies, mileage and educational expenses.

The hardest thing about taxes is getting started! Just do it, jump on it, get help with a professional or tax software, and you will be very glad you did!

Effective, Efficient, Productive Home Office

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Organizing your home office, whether it is for personal or business reasons, makes all the difference!  Getting down to business at your desk is a chore if it is piled with papers! Establishing a comfortable area for paper work and other office activities is important for productivity. Use these tips to create a space dedicated to effectiveness, efficiency and organization.

Create a Work Zone
As you begin, determine what tasks you are doing in your office and the tools needed for these tasks. By making these decisions at the outset, you are preparing your space for accomplishment. Create areas specifically designated for most frequent activities. As for room arrangement, place your desk in a position that allows maximum use of natural light. Position the desk in a direction that allows for direct viewing of all who enter without you having to turn.  Add an L shape or credenza behind for easy access storage for your command center or project files. 

Desk drawers should have only what you use at the desk in them. Store your additional office supplies in another area. Keep specific categories of items individually stored in different drawers. One drawer should contain checks and bill paying items, one drawer stationary and note pads, one drawer with a pencil tray holding pencils, pens, tape, stapler and scissors. Again, keep just enough to use and not over stuff the drawers. Place books on book shelves, magazines or reading material in a basket to grab and go. Be sure that your telephone, computer and other essentials are placed easily in reach.

A Personalized Paper Plan
A “paper plan” is most important in this work zone. Create an area for “Action” files. This is a temporary home where papers live until either filed away or thrown away. Papers used frequently or that are a “hot topic” need a basket, vertical file, or other space on your desk. Label them according to what actions or terms fit best with your needs. These files can be call, file, mail, or pay. Or these can be named by client name, project name, or other key word that comes to mind quickly. Clearly label your files so you will always know what is in them, and just as importantly, the labels will remind you what not to put in them.

Arrange for the placement of frequently used files to be placed in the desk’s file drawer. Less frequently accessed files can be placed in a separate filing cabinet. As for filing cabinets, use a low-lying, two-drawer cabinet that can be placed next to or near your desk for the added use of its top for other items that you often need. Filing system should be simple easy and manageable. Create categories in your files for the different major work/home areas. For work it may be clients, administrative, financial. For home it may be home/auto, personal, and financial. Use general key words that come to mind quickly, and sub categorize as needed. An example would be Car – insurance, Car – maintenance, or Insurance – Car, Insurance – Home. Think about how YOU think about the paper to find it. Color-coding your files makes it faster to find information. Use one color hanging file to easily slip information into a file. Label the file with a tab using a label maker!

Using Vertical Space

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Using an “organizer’s eye”, there is often space in a home, closet or office that is unused.  Vertical space can be a great asset for organization.

  • Use a section off your kitchen as an office nook with calendar, bulletin board and wall pockets for information.
  • Use a narrow bookshelf with baskets at your back door to keep all the last minute items you need.
  • Use a mud room installation at your entry for backpacks and shoes.
  • Use hanging canvas organizer in your closet with plastic bins to hold lingerie, pajamas, and socks.
  • Use decorative hooks on a wall to hold hats.
  • Use clear push pins near the bathroom mirror to hold jewelry.
  • Use a wall pocket just inside your office door to hold unprocessed papers before cluttering your desk.
  • Use a dry erase board to list projects at your office.

What clever uses of vertical space do you use?

Paper Triage

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paper management

 

We hear that philosophy, Only Handle It Once, OHIO, for paper all the time. But what if we thought of a new mantra for our paper strategy, paper triage.

 

What is paper triage?

Paper triage is when we sort the important from the trash. We make the first brutal decision of what to keep and what to eliminate. In this one step, we are taking paper from overwhelming to in control. We are making decisions about what is a priority or not.  Just like triage in the medical field, we are getting to what is most important first.  To be most effective with triage, we need to be honest about what we keep and why we keep it.  Empower yourself to make bold decisions and keep less.  Except for bills, many papers will come around again, such as electric rates, credit card offers, and information in general.

 

Resources for what to keep and what to toss.

If in doubt there are two great resources for what to keep.  On www.oprah.com, look at the ABCs of Important Papers by Julie Morgenstern (http://www.oprah.com/home/The-ABCs-of-Important-Papers).  This is a lengthy list of what to keep and for how long.  Also you can review on www.realsimple.com the five steps to simpler record keeping is a quick reference (http://www.realsimple.com/home-organizing/5-steps-to-simpler-record-keeping-10000000688976/index.html.)

 

Paper triage routines

Do you already do some sort of triage?  I hear from clients “I sorted my paper in the kitchen, but now what?  There are still piles!”   This is when we add admininstrative time to a weekly slot.  We commit to a time we can now really work on the paper, again by prioritizing.  Make a list of the tasks associated with each paper, then review and prioritize.  Establishing your command center with these slots, Action, Pay, Pending,  and File, give you another visual reminder of what your tasks will be during admin time.  If you need additional categories, Receipts, School and Church may help you too.

Best time to triage? Its really up to you! Can you do it right when you get the paper and work at your command center? Do you need time without distraction?  Set aside this time daily to prevent being overwhelmed.

When will you do your triage and get your paper under control?

 

Need new ideas for paper management?  Check out my pinterest board Paper, Paper, Everywhere.

Weekend Warriors: Taking Care of your Car: My Vehicle’s Glove Box is Full of Paper! Help!

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This is the fourth in a series about “Weekend Warrior: Organizing and Taking Care of your Home and Car.”  This guest post is by  Lynn Beckwith, owner of Beckwith’s Car Care, sharing ideas on what papers to keep in your glove box.  

Our glove boxes become miniature filing cabinets over the years as we continue to add copies of vehicle registration, inspection forms, maintenance receipts, repair receipts, and miscellaneous purchases.  Just like any filing cabinet, they frequently need to be purged.

So, what should be kept?

Keep your owner’s manual.  It is a handy guide to understanding everything from the type of oil you should use to what that crazy little light on your dash means. 

Keep only the current vehicle registration and insurance card.  Many of us tend to put the new one in and leave the old copy too, just in case we ever need it, loose the new one, or some other reason.  Guess what, they are expired, no good . .  . chunk them!

When it comes to your maintenance receipts, you have two choices.  The first option is to keep all of them. When it comes time to sell your vehicle this proof of maintenance goes a long way towards comforting the buyer that they are making a good decision.  Proving that proper maintenance has been performed can also be important when dealing with factory and extended warranties.  Of course, I am assuming that you have maintained your vehicle on schedule.  If you have not maintained your car properly, then toss them.  Proof of lax maintenance is not going to help you out.  If you are keeping your car forever, these records can help you stay on top of your scheduled maintenance.

The second and best option is to utilize a repair facility that will keep all of these records for you, even better if you can access them on-line when needed.  Whether you have a fleet of one vehicle or many, a quality independent automotive repair shop should keep your records and help remind you when maintenance is due. 

The repair receipts should be kept at least until the warranty on the repair runs out.  This applies to everything from alternators and batteries to tires and water pumps. Even if your repair shop keeps these on file for you it is a great idea to keep them in your glove box in case you are traveling.  High quality independent repair shops offer a nationwide warranty and your receipt should have the contact information listed on it.   Theses receipts can also be helpful when selling your vehicle because some components tend to fail in cycles. A recently replaced part could help assure that it will not be needed for a while. 

So, whether you are selling your car or keeping it forever it is a great idea to keep your paperwork in order.  If nothing else you won’t have to fumble for your registration the next time you are pulled over.

In general:

  1. Look for a shop that will help you develop a customized maintenance plan that takes into account your vehicle specifications, your driving style and your budget.  Find one that will help you stay on schedule with reminders and maintain your records for both warranty and re-sale purposes.

 

The staff at Beckwith’s Car Care specializes in developing customized maintenance plans that have kept their customer’s vehicles safe and dependable for over 20 years.  The Better Business Bureau has selected Beckwith’s as not only the best repair facility in the Houston metropolitan area, but also as the recipient of their Ethics award.  The award winning staff includes one of the 2011 Top 20 automotive technicians in the nation.

 Lynn Beckwith is committed to the automotive industry.  Watch for her features on Fox 26 and visit the archived videos on-line.  She can be reached at 281-540-2000 or you can email your automotive questions to help@thatcarlady.com. Please visit her blog at www.thatcarlady.com or on facebook at www.facebook.com/thatcarlady.

 

 

Organizing for the Busy Mom Teleclass

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Take a fresh perspective to improve your and your family’s quality of life! 

The Family Manager™system transfers management skills and strategies from the business arena to running your homeand personal life.  Teambuilding, delegation, standard operating procedures, and other sound

business practices will help you reduce daily stress, create a smoothly running home, and have time for self care and recreation.  The teleclass is offered by Ellen and Marla Regan. 

In this teleclass series, Ellen and Marla will focus on 4 departments in the Family Manager™ series.

4-Part Teleclass featuring:

  1. Learning how to have a Family Team creating House Rules to guide your family’s interactions and form Standard Operating Procedures for the running of your home.
  2. Organizing tips for your home.  Learn how to declutter your home and use your Standard Operating Procedures to ease the stress of daily life.
  3. Techniques for time and schedule.  Learn how to manage the family calendar and daily schedule.
  4. How to have “you” time. Learn to care for your body, mind and nurturing your spirit.

Classes are every Wednesday in October, October 6, 13, 20 and 27.   Cost for all 4 classes  is $49.  Call in to the bridge line (long distance charges apply) and be a part of the class.  Register today as class size is limited!

More than paper management

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Paper is an overwhelming source of frustration and emotion! There are so many levels of this that I see with my clients.

  • Being overwhelmed with the tsunami of paper.   You don’t know what to keep and how long to keep it.  You need a list as a resource.  http://www.oprah.com/home/The-ABCs-of-Important-Papers.  This online resource will get you started, but every one has a little different “tweak.”   Be sure to consult your accountant for your special needs.
  • You love articles and information.   Having a paper copy reminds you to read the information. However you are getting overwhelmed with information now.  Begin an awareness of how to gather information in other ways, from people, the internet searchs, blogs and other mediums.   Remember that even information “gets old” in our era. 
  • Needing a system to deal with paper.  You know what to keep, but you have no categories to work with paper.  You need a command center system to deal with your papers, and a routine to follow up. http://www.professional-organizer.com/tips_family_communication_center.html.   This online resource will help you move from overwhelmed to in control.
  • Emotional flood when seeing papers.  You experience guilt or shame when reviewing your papers. Your papers remind of you of people you did not call, tasks you did not follow through with, or general remorse about how to deal with paper.   Papers are more than just paper.  Working together with a professional organizer/productivity consultant and therapist can help you move forward with your paper challenges. 
  • Paper systems need to be perfect.  Being a perfectionism keeps you from getting started in dealing with your paper. There must be a perfect system and you strive to create it.  Working with a professional organizer/productivity consultant can help you create your personal system and routines.

It can be more than just bits and scraps to you.   Identifying where youare paralyzed can be powerful.  Partnering with a professional organizer/productivity consultant will get you unstuck. 

What awareness comes to mind for you with paper?