Dr. Edward Hallowell talks about being "well enough" organized. What's meant by being well enough organized is that you have a system that allows you to find the most of the things most of the time and you are able to get thing done and be on time the majority of the time. It's not trying to find the perfect system that doesn't really exist. Even the most organized person has trouble finding something from time to time.

To the average person my office and most parts of my home "appear" unorganized. However, most of the time I am able to locate the things I need relatively easily and I'm able to make my appointments on time. My husband and I are both fine with our home not looking as neat and tidy as most homes do too. So I though I was well enough organized!

This past week I started to realize that maybe certain parts of my home really weren't "well enough" organized for me. For example the fact that by brain shut down at the thought of cooking dinner because the pan I wanted to use was dirty was a big sign I was not well enough organized. Also, when I wanted to install curtain rods yesterday and literally tore parts of my home apart trying to find the drill bits was also second big clue that I'm not well enough organized.

Instead of beating myself up (which I've don't plenty of in the past) I've started to come up with a plan to get myself more organized in those couple of areas. I'm going to create a better system that does work for me. Maybe I might actually hire a professional organizer or finally participate in Adult ADD BootCamp. My plan will probably also include time to re-evaluate my systems periodically to make sure I continue to stay well enough organized.

Clutter can be a huge issue for many people with Attention Deficit Disorder. There are probably 101 reasons as to why people with ADD have accumulated clutter but in this post I would like to focus on moving forward and starting to eliminate clutter. I'm sure many adults with ADD would like to begin decluttering but often get stuck on where to begin.

As an ADD Coach I have found that starting with 3 basic categories can be very helpful. In addition to having these 3 categories having 3 different Containers is even more helpful.

The 3 categories are:

Throw Away

Donate

Keep

When stuck on where to begin just start sorting the "stuff" into these different containers. Having these containers in the specific room may also help prevent moving from room to room and getting distracted

Like anybody else people with ADD have strengths and weaknesses. Many times we go through life trying to improve those weaknesses using ways that just don't work for us. We hear things like just try harder or focus more. We are very rarely told to try a different way.

Are you well enough organized? If so, how do you stay well enough organized?