ADHD & Organization: Declutter Your Space to Declutter Your Brain
Did you know, disorganization may be a part of your ADHD? It is a common experience that about 40% of individuals with ADHD report. What does that mean for you? Are you doomed to the piles of stuff you will “get to later” or is there a way to change?
Let’s start by understanding what is happening in the brain. Less reliable executive functioning is often at fault for the build-up of clutter. Executive functioning is the seat of higher-level cognitive processes i.e., planning, focusing, attending, and completing multiple tasks. Individuals with ADHD often struggle to bridge the gap between intention and action. Although you may intend to organize your desk before leaving work, when the phone rings and your partner tells you they need you home soon to help with dinner, that intention goes out the window as you focus on the new task at hand, getting home. Leaving your desk a mess and making it even harder the next day to both clean the clutter and start work on time.
When we declutter our physical space, we also declutter our mental space making it easier to focus on our work, our loved ones, and ourselves. Here are five tips to help you declutter your life.
1. Start Small
When you are looking at a big project, oftentimes it feels overwhelming. How do I organize my entire closet so I can get dressed more quickly in the morning? We open the mess of our closet, close the door, and walk away. But if we break down the task, and create smaller goals, we can feel motivated to both complete the task and have the satisfaction of checking it off our list. There are many ways to break a task down. For physical clutter, one strategy is starting in a direction or starting with a category. For example, organizing your closet from the bottom up. Today I will organize the floor of the closet. Or starting with a category, today I will organize the shoes.
2. Create Mini Deadlines
Related to starting small, make sure that when you break down projects into smaller components each component has a deadline and is on a checklist with times/deadlines to complete the task. This will help inhibit procrastination and give you a good feeling as you check things off your list one by one.
3. Do it Right Away
An important strategy for those with ADHD is the do-it-right-away technique. This makes it so it doesn’t have to be held in your memory, with the chance of forgetting it or putting it off for a later time without a deadline or timeframe. Rather, when you tell yourself to do it right away, you know it will get done. For example, when you open a bill, rather than say I will pay it tonight. Pay it right that minute, and while you are at it, put the bill on autopay and set a reminder (with an alarm) to check your bank balance the week before your bill is due. This means the bill won’t stack up on your desk and you will make sure that you don’t get hit with a late fee, killing two birds with one stone.
4. Write a Reminder with an Alarm
If you cannot complete the task right away, write a reminder on your phone to complete it another time. And this is the most important part, make sure that your reminder has an alarm for a specific day and time to complete the task. For example, if you know you need to organize your drawers, set a reminder for Saturday and have an alarm go off Saturday morning after you are awake and have had your morning coffee so that you can get started. Remember, when that alarm goes off, either complete the task (right away) or reschedule the alarm, never turn off an alarm without setting a plan to do it in the future or doing it right now.
5. Remind Yourself of the Finish Line
With ADHD you likely grew up with punishments for not completing tasks, or being “lazy.” So it is even more important as an adult to remind yourself that is not who you are, and that you can accomplish tasks you just need to approach them in different ways. By completing tasks it is self-reinforcing. Remind yourself of how good it feels to check something off your list, or how easily you can start work when your desk is clear. Reminding yourself of the positive outcome can help motivate you to start the task, rewards are more reinforcing than punishments when it comes to creating meaningful and lasting change.
These are tips to help organize and declutter, for one-off situations. The most helpful way to stay decluttered is to create a system. That system should be easily manageable, ie. using clear plastic bins with big labels on them or files that go into a filing cabinet that is also clearly labeled so that there is less executive functioning required to maintain the system and create organization and peace in your life long-term.
If you have questions about how to declutter, how to organize yourself, or how to more deeply understand what is getting in your way book an appointment online or over the phone with Dr. Rebecca Branda, Psy.D. today.