8 Organization Tips for People With ADHD
Attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is a type of mental disorder that can cause excessive movement and make it difficult for someone to focus and control their impulses. For many people, ADHD can also make it hard to stay organized at work—deadlines are missed, projects are started but not completed, and piles of clutter make it impossible to find important items.
Fortunately, there are steps you can take to manage your ADHD and improve your organization skills and compensate for your frequent distraction. If you’ve been diagnosed with ADHD and you regularly find yourself struggling to stay organized, you may want to:
- Start using a planner (either a paper calendar or an electronic program).
- Leave yourself time for breaks (rather than scheduling something for every hour of the day).
- Create weekly, monthly, and yearly "chore" charts for work tasks or deadlines that repeat.
- Decide where you want to store commonly lost items (for example, if you frequently lose your keys, install a hook near your front door and commit to always leaving your keys there).
- Use labeled files, drawers, and storage containers to keep track of where everything is.
- Make it routine to go back and check for imcomplete tasks.
- Set up automated routines or automatic alerts to prompt yourself to complete important tasks or meetings.
- Break things into individual concrete steps to avoid tackling more than you can handle without getting distracted.
Find Out More
If you’ve been diagnosed with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder and you struggle to stay organized, Sugar Bend Center can help. We regularly treat patients with ADHD, and once we’ve learned about your unique situation, we’ll be able to supply you with customized advice on how to better organize your home, your workplace, and other aspects of your life. Contact us today to schedule an appointment with one of the skilled therapists on our team.