Ignore the Sparkly and Make Some Progress

So, I have discovered that I am ADD. (Attention Deficit Disorder)

Not news to others in my life apparently, but news to me.

This does explain a lot.

My extreme need for new input.  Why I get bored to distraction so easily.  And why I can’t get my act together unless challenged by time constraints.  Just to name a few.

Knowing that my personal compass is broken made me feel a bit adrift.  Until I realized that its always been that way and I just wasn’t aware of it before.  And that I’ve made it this far the hard way.

Now that I have direction again the work begins.  I’m working on new ways to organize, cope, and manage my life.

I’ve also found that I did pretty good at managing this ADD already.

My card system for getting things done around here is one of the biggest.  (Sorry long time readers but here it goes again.)

I have a 3x5 card with every conceivable job that I do around here.  And I do mean every.  Light bulbs to closet corners.  Cobwebs to toilets.  Windows to refilling the condiments containers.

Some job descriptions are general, others much more specific.

All marked with day of the week and time.  (Not time as in 2:37 PM but how long before I need to do it again.)

They live in a large file box.  Full of tab cards to keep them in order with days of the week, weeks of the month, months of the seasons, seasons of the year.

The cards are color coded to help me even further.
White - Daily.  Yellow - Weekly/Biweekly.  Green - Monthly/Bimonthly.  Pink - Seasonally/Yearly.

Daily I pull out my cards for the day.  A rainbow of jobs to accomplish.  Once done the cards are recycled back into the file box year at their needed intervals.

This works great on a lot of levels.  It shows me that when big jobs are broken down they are easier to cope with.  I can go with the flow of the day and still get things done when an outing, phone call, or unexpected company interrupts my chores.  When I’m easily distracted I can come back to jobs and not forget and leave them half done forever.  On sick or busy days I can distribute jobs back into the next week easing the overload I once felt when I was knocked off my routine.

I’m still not a great house cleaner and never will be.  Mostly because its just not that important to me to live in a dust free environment.  (I still think cobwebs are cool.)  But I don’t lose things (Mostly time) nearly as often in the mess and I‘m less likely to trip on the latest half done project.

Do you have any more tips I could use?