I am completely new here and very glad to have found the site. I have searched, but what I'm specifically looking for are ways to manage time during the day. If you follow schedules, etc., could you give me a peek? Schedules always helped me when I worked but home is getting out of control for me...I'm having extreme difficulty with time. Stress level has beenr eally high, so all my symptoms are worse: distractibility, frustration threshold, and TIME...I have black holes I step into with regard to time. I can't tell you how many times I look at the clock and say, "OMG, how'd it get to be 3???"

In trying to develop a schedule for me to follow that still leaves room for my variances [taking 45 minutes to complete a 15-minute task] and allow for some sponteniety....I'm leaving holes so that things that reallyshould be completed every single day are sometimes not done. I'm listing, etc., but....keep finding things forgotten, left out, unfinished, etc.

Ladies, those of you who have been successful with time management --- what are you doing?

I do use timers throughout the day, and that helps. Maybe I need to do something to remind me to return to a task from which I've been interrupted. I did incredibly well when I was working, but time was so short at home that I had the added stimulation/motivation necessary to follow through. Now, I'm noticing if I get distracted from one task....it can go forgotten until the next day or next time it comes up on my chore chart and then I'm overwhelmed and surprised that there's so much still to do.

Any tips?

Thanks in advance.

Failingmemory,

I wish I had some advise to give you, but unfortunately I am in the same boat. I am a SAHM of 3 boys and I find myself doing the same things as you, especially that "OMG, how'd it get to be 3??"!!

My oldest son is in kindergarten and his bus drops him off in the afternoon and there have many times that the bus driver had to beep the horn for me to get outside because they won't leave him unless there is an adult waiting for him (it's an age thing, not sure of the cut off for that). You should see me, I'm like a hurdle jumper in the olympics jumping over all the dam* gates in the house, to get outside.

I like your timer idea, I think I will have to try that for when I get on the computer, I am here way too much.

How old are you kids?

Have you tried medication, or are meds an option for you at all? I am trying to get myself on the right meds as we speak, it's been a slow process. Right now I am on Strattera and I am still not sure it is helping at all.

I'm sorry I don't have any real advise, but I hope it's at least a bit of a comfort to know that you aren't alone.

I am completely new here and very glad to have found the site. I have searched, but what I'm specifically looking for are ways to manage time during the day. If you follow schedules, etc., could you give me a peek? Schedules always helped me when I worked but home is getting out of control for me...I'm having extreme difficulty with time. Stress level has beenr eally high, so all my symptoms are worse: distractibility, frustration threshold, and TIME...I have black holes I step into with regard to time. I can't tell you how many times I look at the clock and say, "OMG, how'd it get to be 3???"

In trying to develop a schedule for me to follow that still leaves room for my variances [taking 45 minutes to complete a 15-minute task] and allow for some sponteniety....I'm leaving holes so that things that reallyshould be completed every single day are sometimes not done. I'm listing, etc., but....keep finding things forgotten, left out, unfinished, etc.

Ladies, those of you who have been successful with time management --- what are you doing?

I do use timers throughout the day, and that helps. Maybe I need to do something to remind me to return to a task from which I've been interrupted. I did incredibly well when I was working, but time was so short at home that I had the added stimulation/motivation necessary to follow through. Now, I'm noticing if I get distracted from one task....it can go forgotten until the next day or next time it comes up on my chore chart and then I'm overwhelmed and surprised that there's so much still to do.

Any tips?

Thanks in advance.

Welcome to the forums!:)

What is currently helping me a lot is a program designed and research test on ADDers called Mastering Your Adult ADHD: A Cognitive Behavioral Therapy Program by Safren, Sprich, etc. There is a client workbook that I'm working my way through with good results. They suggest using it with a trained therapist, but even without a therapist you'd probably learn some useful skills.


One of the suggestions is having a notebook with you all the time and writing down anything like a business card, appointment note, phone number, etc that comes your way in the notebook, so you don't lose the little slip of paper (then throw away the little slips of paper!). The other is always carrying the notebook and a calendar with you at all times. It take some practice, but it has helped me. They suggest just doing it simply -- stop trying to do it fancy or perfect, because that just gets put off and not done.

Take care,
Scattered

My best tip is to get ADD-friendly Ways to Organize Your Life by Kolberg and Nadeau as soon as you can. It will explain ADD obstacles with time and organization in a way I've never found elsewhere, and really good ways to work around it. Not everyone's ADD works the same, so you kind of have to tailor things to yourself. Scattered, yours looks good too, I'll be checking that one out.

Just a few things that have helped me, besides the timers--I play background music to keep track of time.

After reading the book mentioned above I figured out that I used to leave a lot of things out in sight because I knew I wouldn't remember to do them if I put them away. Then when I walked into a room I would either be overwhelmed by all the visual reminders of stuff that still needed to be done, distracted from what I was working on, or lose time looking for something in among all the 'important' stuff. If it got too out of hand, the clutter would really start building up and I'd get too overwhelmed to do anything. So now I have a system to keep things out of sight and still remind myself, and it's actually been working for several months. I did the same things with lists; the lists would get so long I would overwhelm myself, but I couldn't shorten the list because I was afraid I'd forget something.

One of the ideas I really like from the book is to have a 'homeless' basket in each room, and a transfer basket--the homeless basket is for stuff that belongs in a room but doesn't have a place yet, but in the basket it doesn't become 'clutter' and start growing. The transfer basket is a place for everything that belongs somewhere else while you're picking up.

Another great idea is to limit your scope and actually tell yourself when you start something--limit what 'cleaning the bath' means, which unless you're spring cleaning doesn't include regrouting the tile!! but sometimes ADD means becoming aware a few hours later that you're remodeling when you intended to spend 15 minutes wiping things down. Or when de-cluttering, strictly limit the scope. ONE closet shelf, ONE room. Or set your timer for 5 minutes and just get as much as you can done with that 5 minutes. A lot of time that's so satisfying it's easy to set the timer for another 5 minutes when time's up.

Another one... ADD tends to stack several time slots in the same space. Visually 'blocking out' hours for tasks is usually going to result in a lot more realistic scheduling.

If you like these, get the book... it's an easy read, a great explanation of how ADD affects people in various ways. I spent the entire time saying, "THAT's why I do that!"

seriously though, how do you get thru those kind of books ? :(

heck i cant even get thru a book store :cool:

Who can get thru a bookstore? :rolleyes: Way too many choices. Guaranteed overwhelm. Order online, and don't get snookered by the "other readers who bought this book ALSO bought...." This is the one you want to start with, and you only need ONE book at a time!

Ok, seriously now... ADD-Friendly Ways to Organize your Life is one of the few books designed for the person with ADD, and that includes visually friendly layout, to-the-point text and suggestions will actually work. You can read just the parts you need and it will still make sense.

The first time thru, I actually read it aloud to my husband, 30-45 minutes at a time in the evenings. We both found it entertaining, and he had the gallantry not to commentconstantly on how well the book fit me. I've been thru it a couple of times since, once to refine my system and once to skim a couple of sections I needed more help on.

I've seen some books that made similar claims, and the others I've seen so far just didn't have the punch or common sense.

seriously though, how do you get thru those kind of books ? :(

heck i cant even get thru a book store :cool:Well the book on Mastering your Adult ADHD is a workbook and isn't very long -- they wrote it with us in mind!:p It's in modules with specific sections -- I've only read the ones I'm most interested in so far.

Scattered

Scattered, is there a book the workbook goes with, or is the workbook the book.... if you get my question? I'm definitely checking this one out too.

Books can be hard to get through, can't they? :)

For me, my days would be "blocks" of time. So 9:30-11:00 are "chore" times. This is all the time I would devote strictly to chores. Personally, I don't do well with hour by hour type of schedules. Too restrictive. So if I have a block of time, it still has the advantage of a schedule, but the freedom to do what I need to do.

Pick days of the things to do "big" projects like vaccuming, laundry etc. So Mondays, Wednesdays, Fridays would be laundry days. Adjust as you need to.

Make sure you're not finding yourself vaccuming everyday. I mean unless you really do live with messy people, a daily touch up ought to do the trick.

Multi tasking! Yeah ADD :) Cause lord love us we love to do six things at once ;) If you get things like a crockpot, you can cook dinner, do the laundry, and vaccum pretty much at all once. Well you wouldn't personally be doing these things, but you see where I'm getting at.

A little planning ahead could also help. So meal planning might help too.

Stocking up - Make sure you stock up on the things that you tend to use a lot of. Seriously, go and buy like a months supply of toilet paper, cat food etc. whatever. Again, pick one day to do this and it'll save you the hassle.

And it always helps me to get perspective. Sometimes that 15 minute job really is supposed to take 45, so maybe you're stressing over something that isn't realistic. Or why is it taking you so long to do something? (Aside from the ADD) Is it that you don't have the right tools, the right know how.. etc.

Finally, remember that ADD can make anything you do that much harder. *rats* ;) So if you do take 45 min on that 15 min task, it's perfectly ok! :)

Scattered, is there a book the workbook goes with, or is the workbook the book.... if you get my question? I'm definitely checking this one out too.The client workbook has the text in it as well as question spaces to answer -- I found mine at Barnes and Noble. There is also a therapist manual which I recently ordered through a psychological book service, but that text is mostly about how the therapist can help with the program, I haven't found a lot of additional information in it for the client. I liked this workbook, because it wasn't so big. I hate organization types of books and generally won't read them, although I'm going to take a look at ADD Friendly Ways to Organize Your Life. I'm guessing it has more specifics than Mastering Your Adult ADHD which focuses of a few basic principals and techniques applied to everything.

Take care,
Scattered