Excellent overview with practical tips!
thank you!
Betsy

CHADDofCHGO@... wrote:

> I was pleased. It actually gave me a better starting point of view, more
> realistic. And, apologies to all for the length of this reponse ............
>
> The first and most important bit of info for me was that the point of the
> organizing is not how pretty or colorful the folders, labels, storage and
> containers, but how EFFICIENT the system is, for we are talking about how
> easily and quickly "it" can be acccessed/found. I have been wondering what I
> needed to own in order to do it.
>
> Then, she explained, that we should start by organizing current things so
> that we are immediately up-to-date. That sure helped me as it was
> overwhelming to a) figure out where to start, and b) to feel that with all
> there was to do I could never get it done. She suggests to next go to the
> stuff which is lying around and last go to your filing cabinet. For paper
> stuff it sounds like the organizing starts with what is delivered that day,
> then on to the desk top and then to the stuff around the room and lastly to
> the filing cabinet ............ that may mean to have to utilize temporary
> storage bins.
>
> For the papers, reinforced manilla folders were recommended; Monica said that
> the couple of extra dollars are worth it for the durability. It starts with
> creating temporary files and using post-its as labels until a system is
> refined and ready for permanent labels. It seems we all wonder what to label
> each folder and that is a very personal thing ......... use the words, names,
> labels that call up for us what is inside; she doesn't think that she or
> anyone else should be naming our folders. At the early stages post-its are
> used to assists with the sorting until we can seem to know what actually will
> go into a folder .......... early on it may start with more than what will
> finally be there; that early on categories are large and begin to break down
> into subcategories as we work with our stuff. Meanwhile the temp labels are
> allowing us to locate.
>
> That was the generic advice for beginning with anything anywhere in house,
> office, life ........
>
> She used statistics I cannot recall to tell how much time we do spend on
> finding -- something like 6 weeks per year for most people -- the purpose of
> organization is to create time to do more pleasant things.
>
> She also pointed out that it takes 30, THIRTY, repetitions to create a habit.
> That is a way of telling how tedious it is to truly get this in place and I
> wonder if it takes more for ADHDers.
>
> Briefly she then touched upon organizing office, kids, time management
> (including PDAs, to do lists and phone logs .......
>
> kids: the point is to train them, to teach them and to work with them ....
> look at an early childhood classroom as an example of how to setup (as an
> early childhood teacher I would say look at a really good classroom as an
> example) -- clear containers so as to easily see what is inside, one
> container or place for each thing -- then to be specific with the help by not
> just sending a kid to put away but by being there to say "what's this?" ...
> "where does it belong?' that guidance is needed .......... remember those 30
> repetitions to create a habit?...........
>
> Time management: she prefers paper and pencil rather than PDAs ..... but that
> is a personal choice ......... there are programs which are helpful, such as
> daytimer.com and palm.com (I think)
>
> to-do lists: her recommendation is to just create an ongoing list crossing
> off when something is completed rather than many shards of paper
>
> phone log: all the calls she takes and makes are in one place
>
> I didn't think I'd be writing a term paper from this .... hope it helps
> ...........
>
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