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You Don't Have to Do It All at Once: Organizing Your ADHD Brain Can Help You Do the One Next Thing
When I first became passionate about organizing, I went all in.
I was determined to have it all figured out and was absolutely positive that it would be an easy process and one that I would conquer in as little as one WHOLE day of doing it.
I also did NOT know I had ADHD and what that even meant. I thought organizing meant taking everything I owned in one space, sorting all of it into piles, and putting things back meticulously in places they should then never move out of.
I still have a video of me sitting in a pile of my girls' colored pencils, art activities, markers and more.
The infamous craft closet took me at least 5 tries and many bins to get it to a place I was proud of. And pride usually equaled having a perfect before and after picture I could show off on Instagram.
Sometimes I would spend hours just crafting what the perfect label would look like on the outside of one of those bins.
The All or Nothing Trap
This is a classic all-or-nothing trap that can sometimes encapsulate our ADHD brains. We want our space to be perfect and yet, the executive function it takes to get there is enough to prevent us from doing anything at all. I have some clients who are embarrassed to admit they are perfectionists, because the look of perfect only lives in their imagination, where making it come to life may never happen.
While I was making progress in this space (when I finally did get started), I would dedicate entire days to making it "better."
There was never a plan. I would simply decide in the moment that it was finally time to make the change again, likely avoiding other, more pressing tasks that I did not want to do.
Maintaining the space never occurred to me. I had assumed that I could simply organize spaces and then they would stay organized. How silly I was, with my tiny humans running around thinking they would put things back in meticulously labeled bins when they couldn't even read.
Fast forward to today, I still see ADHD content all over the place, full of the hilarity of people starting an amazing project and losing all will to continue halfway through. It makes sense.
The dopamine led us to start the adventure, and we forgot that eating, drinking water, and taking breaks are real human needs that sustain us, causing us to burn out.
What's even more annoying is that this feeling we get—the burnout—lingers. It becomes part of the feeling we remember that's associated with organizing, and it can be a huge reason why we avoid doing these projects when, of course, we don't "feel" like it.
There Is Another Way
There is actually another way. Seriously. And it's really good.
Don't do it all at once. I KNOW... if only it were that easy. But what if it is?
We just need to recognize when we are living in our emotionally reactive brain versus our logical thinking brain.
Could it be possible to make just one decision at a time to make progress?
The answer is yes, AND the reality is that it's the only actual thing we can do.
When our brain sees a space with a hundred mini decisions in it, it tells us this is dangerous, and that it would be much safer to NOT make any decisions right now.
Even in the spaces we're ready to "attack," we can only make one full decision at a time. A decision that does not keep us coming back to the space to make the same decision over and over again.
Organizing Your ADHD Brain First
My challenge to you is this. The next time you find yourself avoiding tidying a counter, a closet, or perhaps a craft closet, can you interrupt the moment and ask yourself to make one decision? Pick up one item and put it in the place you would go to look for it.
That's it. That's the practice.
NO, you're right, that's not enough. UNTIL it is.
-Megs
Season four is here.
Click the headphones and listen to the most recent episode now.
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