Staying Organized with ADHD
According to ADDitude, ADHD is a disorder that interrupts executive function, and executive function, of course, is the part of our brain we use to stay organized and on task. This does not mean that everyone with ADHD struggles to be organized or that organization is impossible for people with ADHD. However, if you struggle with certain executive functions, you may find staying organized to be more challenging.
How Challenges to Staying Organized with ADHD Can Feel
Staying organized with ADHD is a challenge not only because it’s easy to lose focus or forget what you’re in the midst of doing but because of the stress and anxiety you may experience from feeling overwhelmed by clutter. You might feel depressed or overwhelmed; you might get anxious or feel stressed. Take a deep breath. Getting organized is not impossible. The key is to work with your ADHD, not against it.
Perfection Is Not the Goal
For many people with ADHD, they’re not just battling the ADHD to get organized; they are battling their own tendency toward perfectionism. Perfectionism, however, can stop your efforts to organize in their tracks, because you get so hung up on being perfect that you are incapable of taking any actions at all. Instead of focusing on organizing your whole home and keeping it in perfect order (an impossibility for any of us who don’t have a fulltime cleaning staff) focus on a few key areas that generate the most stress and anxiety for you.
Start with 10 Minutes
For some people, including people with ADHD, tackling too large of a project can be overwhelming. It can keep you from starting at all. So instead of trying to tackle a whole room or even a whole closet, just commit to 10 minutes. How you use those 10 minutes depends on where your stress is. Are you stressed because you can’t serve dinner on your dining room table because it’s piled with mail? Are you frustrated because every time you come into the house there is a pile of shoes in the doorway? Are you late to work in the morning because you can’t find anything to wear in your closet? Choose one thing that is stressing you out the most and spend 10 minutes bring some order to that area. Remember, what you organize is up to you – there is no right or wrong. And how it looks at the end of the day is also up to you.
Maintenance + Growth
Once you’ve chosen a space to organize, make it a goal to keep it that way. For example, if you’ve decided family dinners are going to happen at the table, then do what you must to make that happen:
Sort mail at the trash can so that you can get rid of everything you don’t need to keep.
Create a homework space for the kids so that they don’t need to use the dining room table to store their stuff.
Clean up after dinner so it’s ready for the next day.
As you build that into a habit, consider another area that needs your attention. It could be as simple as walking through the house each night with an empty laundry basket and gathering items from each room that don’t belong and return them to their rightful space. Or if it’s your room that feels overwhelming, get in the habit of making your bed every morning and setting out your clothes the night before.
Set Small Goals and Step Back If You Need To
Staying organized with ADHD should not make you more overwhelmed and stressed. It should help release you from stress.
Take it slowly and celebrate every step of progress.
Take pictures before you start so you can see how much progress you’ve made.
Choose a time of day that works best for you; some people do better tackling projects early in the morning while others prefer later in the day.
As for help from a friend or a professional.
Staying organized when you have ADHD can be challenging, but it’s not impossible. Be kind to yourself, even if you have a setback in your progress. Remember, the idea behind being more organized is to help you feel less anxiety and stress and be more in control of your environment and surroundings.
If the idea is too overwhelming, it’s never a bad idea to enlist the help of a professional organizer. Organizing Maniacs specializes in helping people with executive function disorders and approach each individual with a personal touch and a level of expertise that helps conquer many of the challenges.