Counter-Intuitive

I have something that I doubt you’ve ever heard someone who is ADD say: There is something very relaxing about organizing, for me, at least.

I feel at peace when I lose myself in an organizational system.

Part of this, I am sure, is that I am usually organizing to procrastinate doing work, as I am tonight. I mean, yes, I can’t do this project until I find all the sheets I need in my messy binder, but there is not reason I need to organize the binder as I do it. I mean, dude, the class ends tomorrow. (Well, technically today, it is after midnight)

But I think that it is deeper than that.

In my educational psych class, we learned about disequilibrium. Short summary, it is when your mind is a little out of whack, and you need to be in disequilibrium to learn something. For example, a child sees all things that swim in the sea as fish, and know that fish don’t breathe air, then see a dolphin breathing air, they must go through disequilibrium and confusion to learn this new fact, and assimilate it.

My theory is that because of the ADD, my brain is always a little out of whack, always trying to keep up with everything I am trying to process. When I lose myself in an organizing system, I do what the system tells me to, and my brain can calm down, relax, and just rest. It doesn’t get to do that much.

I wish I could figure out how to achieve this piece when I’m not in the middle of a crisis period, though.

Excitement of the Day

I organized both my school and personal inboxes! Go me. Now I will actually be able to find messages that I am looking for. Gmail is my savior.

Today is the last day before the summer semester ends. I am totally overwhelmed, I feel like I didn’t get enough time to hit my stride, and now it is over. I have a huge long To Do list of things to do today, but I am already at the library hacking away on it. I made the right decision that staying at the house would result in watching BSG and sewing, neither of which will help me passes my classes

I was afraid that I would be too distracted by warm weather to concentrate on summer classes, but apparently the weather has been convinced that June is actually March, so that has not been a problem

I’m Feeling a Sense of Deja Vu…

Most people with ADD have a problem with organization. I’m guilty. Very, very guilty.

Recently someone described me as, “Nic can organize and yet be disorganized.”

I have systems. They are good systems. They even mostly work. But every week or two weeks, I still have to go through all the piles and sort them. Just about everything I own does actually have a place it is supposed to be, but getting it there is always the bigger battle.

It’s something I have come to terms with, so I try to take an hour each weekend to just put everything to rights again. If I start the week off with an organized desk, folded clothes, and proper To Do Lists for the week, things turn out better.

Of course, I’d rather lounge around in bed and drink my coffee. That is not ADD, that’s just lazy.

Note-Taking

Note-taking is a touchy subject for people with learning disabilities. If you are documented with your school, talk to disability services to see what sort of help they offer when it comes to notes. There is a chance that you can get outlines from professors, help from classmates, permission to tape lessons, etc.

For those of us who are undocumented, for whatever reason (a post for another day), I have, over the years, and with the help of some books, advice of friends, and lots of trial and error, come up with a system, and some tips: