thinkythink

Getting Things Done/ Flexible Structure

I recently received a comment form a post I wrote last year, called "Must Always Be So Flexible...". npnn writes:

"Thanks for the post.  I have the same issues with structure.  In many ways they work well for me, but I have a hell of a time sticking to them.

Are you familiar with David Allen's book Getting Things Done?  If so, I'd be interested in your reaction.  It's a productivity book, not an ADHD book, but a lot of the themes of your post (flexible structure, dealing with varying levels of energy, on-the-spot decision making) are things he talks about at length.  And he argues that his method is the best way to deal with them.

I use a GTD approach myself and it's been incredibly useful.  **That said** it doesn't solve my issues with structure.  It itself is a structure and it can hard to stick to.  But when I do it makes flexibly deciding what to do based on my current context and energy level a lot easier."

First of all, thanks for the comments. I love comments everyone! (I'm assuming they are well-considered and not mean!) This might be a boring response if you know me, but here it is. I think that GTD is useful for some people. For others it has some of the pitfalls that I think of as classic in ADHD-land particularly..

• we get excited about the novelty of the approach
• we get excited about "solving everything" with a given system
• we implement all of it at once
• we can't keep implementing all of it, without help, anyways
• we get bored of it after a while
• we get overwhelmed by the amount of structure involved

But maybe that's the cynical side. Because many people I know, coaches and organizers including this organizer I collaborate with sometimes, (we team up and coach and organize with the same client) use GTD with clients and for themselves. Others use elements of it. I guess as with Flylady, which I talked about recently, I would urge people to look at which elements are useful to you, and take them on bit by bit. Don't turn your back on things that are already working for you because you're so caught up in a new shiny system! Don't take on so many changes that you lose sight of what you know about yourself and how you work!

Getting Things Done is worth reading, keeping all that in mind. Here are some good points:

• It can give you some good ideas, and food for thought, about the flow of information and paper in your life
• It offers some useful procedures for dealing with that information and paper, which you can integrate into your way of doing things (a bunch of different way of going through papers, filing papers, clearing your desk, etc)
• It offers some ways of thinking about what you do with your stuff
• It works this into some ideas about thinking strategically about what you can do with different pockets of time that you have

Healthcare Takes Time, It's Not Just You.

A lot of people talk to me,  or generally get frustrated at me, about how many appointments they need to make regarding their health. Now many of these people have specific ongoing or short-term health issues that take up more time. Others may be playing catch-up for check-ups of various kinds as they get more organized, or when they are lucky enough to get insurance again with a new job (we're not going into that issue here!) Many people are concerned about missing work as well, feeling like it will look like they are taking an exceptional amount of time to go to doctors.
I realized that we are all supposed to go to more doctors appointments than we might realize, especially as we age. Here are some of the standard appointments recommended for preventative health (I'm not making any judgment on doing these or not, just saying they're "standard."):

- Physical every 1 to 3 years, depending on age
- Eye exam 1x year
- Dentist 1-2 x year
- Dermatologist - skin check for cancer- 1x year
- OB/GYN 1 x year (women)
- Mammogram every 1 to 2 years (women over 40)

This is without going into colonoscopies, and whatever I am not really aware of at all, or specific screenings for people at higher risk for specific illnesses.
And it is not including medication management for anything from ADHD to high blood pressure; nor treatment for any kind of injury or ache or pain. Or check-ups to make sure an earlier issue is still resolved.

Just that short list puts us at about 6 check-ups per year, or one every other month. I think that if you look at it that way, it seems like a lot of doctor's appointments, even if you are healthy, which hopefully puts into perspective that it is "normal" to have to take time to go to the doctor.

Declutter Action Group

I'm starting a new group program in August called the Declutter Action Group. I wanted to tell you a little about how it works, and why I'm doing it.

For years I've used a strategy for getting certain kinds of things done: I tell someone "hey, I'm going to deal with this annoying pile of papers right NOW!"
This has often worked best with one of my sisters. We are both business owners, and we both hate dealing with things like piles of paper on our desks that need to be sorted, filed, destroyed, answered, or otherwise processed- but we like working at relatively orderly desks where we can find things we need. So sometimes we'll call each other- or e-mail- or in the last couple of years, chat online, and one of us will say "hey I have this terrible pile of papers to deal with." The other will reply. "Ok great! Deal with some and call/email me back and tell me you did it!"
It works.It works for getting through laundry, cleaning up the kitchen, dealing with a backlog of phone calls. It works to have someone know what you're doing. It helps that you're committing to a short burst of work at one time. It helps to check in. It helps to vent frustration, and break down the steps (or step) you're taking next so you don't get overwhelmed.

 I've worked with enough ADHD (and non-ADHD) coaching clients to find out that this kind of approach is strangely, magically powerful for some people.  Most people do best when they commit to a certain time to do these annoying and ADHD-unfriendly tasks, but committing to it only works, or works best, if there is someone besides themselves involved.

This simple strategy is one that I've often wanted to be able to share with other people. A group can be encouraging, and most of us don't have people who "get it" at our disposal in our everyday lives. As a coach, I feel like this is a way I can offer support that doesn't have to cost a lot, and can help a lot. This isn't a group where I tell you how you should do something (though I can help you break down what you're going to do). There are groups and programs for that - but I really wanted to do something for people who have already figured certain strategies out, just need some support carrying out the tasks.

And so I came up with the Declutter Action Group. Here's how it works:
You commit to a series of three Thursday mornings (this time round. I will offer it at different times in the future.) from 9:30-noon. You bring the projects or piles you want to work on, at home or in your office. If you're a bit stuck, or over-ambitious, we have half an hour from 9:30-10 to chat (online) through it a bit and define the step you'll take next. From 10-11 the whole group gets to work! At 11:00 you get back on the web chat and me and the group what you got done, and what's next. From 11:05- 11:55, it's back to decluttering! And at 11:55 we get back online and close it up- what are the final steps, like clean-up, or driving to Goodwill? Are you going to buy some supplies for the next week?

That's it. I made it 3 weeks because that's enough time to really make an dent in something, and clear some clutter, but it is short enough to commit to. It's all online, so you can do this while your kid is yelling, or in the office without your coworkers hearing all about it. Here are some of the things I would work on in a time frame like this:

-receipts I haven't logged (and may have lying around in half a dozen bags) for my business

-the papers I really need to get rid of on my desk

-the addresses and contact info I need to move from the old computer to the new system

-the kitchen drawer that is causing me grief because it's full of crap

You get the idea. If it sounds like it will help you, please come join me. We have a super early-bird special for this first offering available for the next few days, so please check it out.

6 Ways to Deal With a Slow Mind

Crap! My ADHD just hit me like a brick.

I've been relatively lucky so far during this pregnancy- my ADHD symptoms have been limited. (This is something a lot of women with ADHD seem to report, that their ADHD  isn't as bad when they are pregnant.) But today I am experiencing what I remember from pre-pregnancy days. My "planning brain" is slow or non-existent. I'm kind of sluggish in the thinking and the mood.  Maybe it's a good time to revisit some of the things that help on slow-brained days:

1. Notice your mental state.
2. Plan to suit #1. (I'm slow so I can't expect my mind to jump from project to project fluidly).
3. Use rituals (like a cup of tea) to set the stage for planning.
4. Lower your expectations. (Plan only a few things.)
5. Write a few things down that you want to do today (Even if it's hard to get up and a get a pen, or even open the self-addressed email.)
6. Check your list and see if it's realistic. You can't do the same things when your planning brain is on vacation, so pick the right tasks.

I'm off to make a cup of tea.

I'll take it.

Yesterday my husband was getting ready for a work trip. It's rare that he is home with me while our son is elsewhere, but it was a work day for me so the tot was at daycare, hence a rare opportunity for a few quality alone-time moments. Alas, my husband was a bit hyped up, following up on quote requests before leaving the office behind; packing; looking up baggage fees for the airline; finishing some work on a fence he's building; and so on. So when he couldn't sit with me and chat for a few minutes we had this conversation:
Him: I'm sorry. It's just that my mind is racing in a thousand directions right now.
Me:  Oh. Yeah. I kinda feel like that on a daily basis.
Him: I know.

So I realize, he may not get all kinds of girl stuff, like needing to be "understood" or "heard" or  wanting to be hugged RIGHT NOW. But apparently, he gets a fundamental chunk of what it's like to be me. I'll take it.

Mad Motivation

I work on Tuesdays and Thursdays, as well as Friday mornings. My little one is at daycare on Tuesdays and Thursdays, and those are the days I usually work on blog posts, and other ongoing projects. This Tuesday I was visiting relatives in Philly, which I really needed to do as some of them are quite old. I was going to do some work while I was there, but there were just too many visits to be made in the limited time. The Thursday before, I ended up doing family stuff with a different part of my family, which was supposed to be mixed with work but there wasn't any time for more than an emergency email.
I think that I've gotten pretty good at going with the flow, knowing that I'll get more out of whatever I'm doing then, and knowing that fighting it is often counterproductive. But even as I did this, it made me mad that I wasn't getting any work done. I wanted to post. I wanted to work on some projects I'm busy with. But you know what? That's ok for two reasons:

1. Being mad means I want to do my work. That's a good thing. It means I like what I do, and it's important to me.

2. Being mad can focus and motivate me. I noticed that back when I was writing a master's thesis; I was balancing part-time work with the thesis, and after a while of not being able to get focused time on it, I'd get annoyed. That's when I could cast other things aside and get a bunch done.

I'm not saying that anger or frustration are healthy long-term strategies for focus, but they are reasonable as indicators that it's time to buckle down, and useful sometimes to get your mind on a certain task for a while. Do they work for you, or does focus backfire when you're mad about not having time to do something you want to do? Do have other seemingly odd strategies for focus and getting things done? Please share in the comments!