You betcha!

Hope you can get to an MD who can get your meds "right" (saw your post there). You also need to find a good therapist, a good support group and a good sponsor/coach.

I truly hope you get some of this help because you need it ASAP. Untreated, the ADD gets worse, not better. Trust me, I've seen it too many times in others' lives as well as my own.

Please reach out before things go to the next level - - horribly worse doom and an unmanageable life.

However, know that there is hope as long as you fully accept your ADD condition and seek the help out right away.

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Hello Hamster (love the screen name),

Here's what works for me. I've done this all my life and didn't learn that I had ADD (and that this was a coping mechanism) until just last year (I'm 41). Make certain things a routine. So choose a place for filing, and file every day/week/whatever schedule you choose. Opening Outlook should be something that you do every day, or every morning and afternoon, or whatever schedule is required. Your screen name says it well, actually; you should be a little bit like a hamster on a wheel.

Back in college I was forever losing things when traveling. I once left a backpack, with my calculus textbook and all of my notes for the semester, on an Amtrak train. I think I was returning from Newark after flying home for Thanksgiving. Anyway, no one would release the backpack from the lost and found at the Newark Police Station to Federal Express it to me, and I couldn't get back to Newark because it was the end of the semester and I needed to finish studying and had exams, etc. Somehow I managed to sweet talk a cop in Newark into delivering the backpack to Federal Express so that I could get the notes for the exams. But after that, I made up a little routine for myself, which was that when I am traveling, I always look back to see that I have everything of mine. If I have four bags, I count to four before I move on and look back to see if I recognize anything in the place where I was sitting, etc. It works like a charm. (I always do a run through of every space in hotel rooms, too, now.) I never lose things traveling anymore.

So that was just an example of a routine that you can use to make it automatic. Keys go on the hook by the door, etc. Everything has a place, and it has to always be in that place. It will make you a little bit of a compulsive neatnik (I am) but it will help your life be a little less chaotic.

Hope it works out. Chin up. It'll be ok.

HFQ

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Outlook rox!

Hey, what's with the change in age, HFQ? I thought you were younger!

Hamster, gotta go as I'm being told to go to sleep!!

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Now, Addaway, I don't think I've ever misrepresented my age, here... ;-)

I've been thinking about why routines work, and here's my theory: it's easier to maintain than to catch up. So if you, for example, put the recycling out once a week, then you only have a few bottles, cans, etc. to schlepp out. But if you wait and wait and wait, eventually it's a major job. So if you file every week (as I do, usually), you only have a few things to file and filing is not a distraction, then. But if you let it pile up, then you'll be distracted by it. Eventually, the number of things that have piled up and become distractions becomes overwhelming and you shut down.

The key, it seems to me, is figuring out how often you need to do certain things, and then committing to doing them when they need to be done, but putting them out of your brain when they don't. I've found that recurring tasks in Outlook help me ENORMOUSLY with this one. And the key (as I learned from a Time Management guru and coach) is to keep personal tasks in along with work tasks, because you're going to spend time on personal tasks, so if you don't budget for them, you'll end up having no real sense of where your time is going.

So, for example, on my recurring task list, every day, there are two tasks: exercise, and "morning routine." They're not on there because I would forget to do them. They're on there because I would forget to budget for them. So every morning I arrange my task list with the things that I really need to do on top and the things that I'd like to get to on the bottom, and then I just start plugging my way through them.

It sounds like a lot of work to set this up, and I guess it is. (I have about 150 recurring tasks). But you let them build up over time. I'm about seven months from diagnosis, and it's made a big difference for me.

See y'all.

HFQ.

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I'm awake again after hitting the snooze 2x. Which reminds me,

1. How often do you snooze the 150 tasks or reminders, HFQ?

2. How many x do you skip tasks and, if so, what's your thinking process in making that decision?

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I don't set reminders on tasks. I just consult the list all day. I'm sort of addicted to checking things off.

I will move tasks to another day or decide not to do them "this time" (if it's a recurring task) if there's no way to get it done that day/weekend/whatever. And then I forget about it until it pops up again. My thinking on moving them is that that's how I prioritize. If I've got a brief due or something, then I'll skip the chores that weekend, for example, or move some of them to the week.

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BTW, Addaway,

I skip tasks every day. For example, every weekday I have one "pack lunch," but I often don't get to it. So I don't sweat it. I delete that one for that day and just keep rolling, but the next day maybe I'll check it off. If I never, ever, ever seemed to get to something, then I guess I would reevaluate whether it really deserves to be on the task list, but I can't think of one that I've removed entirely like that so far.

The advantage to the recurring tasks, too, is that you don't have to type them in all the time. If I had to write them out (like you do with those Covey systems or whatever), that would shut me down. I'd have to think too hard to do that and it would end up consuming me. The recurring tasks are just reminders about things that I have to do, but if I try to just remember them, that will occupy my brain too much. So, for example, allergy shots. I get them and I try to go once per week. For a while I was making the appointments out months in advance, but then the time would turn out to be inconvenient and I would miss them, etc. So now I have a task that pops up once a week: Schedule allergy shot. I skip it if it won't work out for that week. If it will, then I schedule it and go. In the meantime, I give it no thought at all.

HFQ

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Thanks for all the suggestions. We've been without power from about 10 PM Monday til bedtime last night. I didn't think about the router needing power, so I turned on the laptop and . . . played games. :)

Along with setting routines for home and office, I need to get my support system on board. My staff is wonderful; it is my husband and board members who don't truly understand that I'm not making this up. I told the board about the ADD three years ago. Last year at evaluation, I explained that I file better with a body double. Two of the members actually laughed at the phrase. So much for trying to educate. Oh well, it's back to the drawing board to find what works for me.

Thanks again! BTW, I got the idea for the Hamster screen name from a "Boss's Day" card that my staff gave me. Of course, the hamster was supposed to represent their working hard for me, but it just "said it all" for me.

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Hamster: Glad to hear you're feeling better and taking some control one step at a time!

HFQ: Thanks for the excellent suggestions (btw no Covey for me). Your Tasks list is like a big "grocery" checklist - - you just peel off a sheet and see what you really need (to do). That saves a lot of writing, I agree!

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Someone's gonna be on my a$$ for posting right now when I should be finishing up a memorandum. ;-)

But yes, Addaway, my task list is a little like a grocery checklist, like one of those that you might buy where you just check off "milk" for example. But it's a little more sophisticated than that in this sense: things only pop up on the days that I tell them to. So "pack lunch" is every weekday (an option in Outlook). "Add to tasks" (to remind me to put in new tasks for anything new that I took on that day) and "Enter and close time" are on there every weekday, too, but not weekends. "Exercise" "Morning routine" and "Cook dinner" all pop up every day. The only one of those three that I consistently check off daily is "morning routine," but I often get to check off "exercise" and "cook dinner' and I find it satisfying when I do. I also am reminded when I decide to keep those things on the list that "cook dinner" inevitably takes two hours, minimum, because of cleanup, etc.

"Laundry" pops up once per week on Saturday and becomes "overdue" on Monday. Same for things like "pay bills." "Wash sheets and towels" is every two weeks, for example, as is "clean bathrooms." Things like "prune roses" come up once per year. "Take rugs to rug laundry" every three years. (Are you starting to realize how unbelievably anal I am?????!!!!) The value to this is that I stop worrying about these things. I don't walk past the Persian rug and think "when last did we have that cleaned?" and then end up having to root around in my files to figure that out. It's in my task list, and therefore it is out of my brain. Same for vacuuming, dusting, etc.

It's made a huge difference for me. The work-related tasks are more general, things like "write brief for such-and-such case." The time management guru would say to put in all the little tasks for that, but I think that that would overwhelm me and take too much time. So those tasks are on a little list that I reuse and adjust for each case, adding on handwritten notes here and there, whatever, as I go. In the end, that document and my briefs themselves form the basis for time entries later. Hope that helps, Addaway and Hamster.

HFQ.

Am I in trouble, Addaway? ;-)

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I just ordered books about using Outlook "Take back your life!" by Sally McGhee and "Total Workday Control Using Microsoft Outlook." I couldn't decide which was best, so I bought both and figure I can give one away. I don't use Outlook for email, but I am going to have to switch anyway according to my IT, so it's perfect timing. I certainly didn't know you could turn an email into a task! I think I'll have IT guru switch my email while I'm waiting for books to arrive. This could be fun!!

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Oh, yeah, Hamster. When Outlook is your main email inbox, you'll be in it all the time and then you'll really derive the benefits from the calendar features and tasks. Good luck.

HFQ

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I use Outlook to record tasks and appointments. However, I almost always ignore them. I find the font on the reminders too small and the box too unobtrusive to really get my attention. I once tried a special program that created electronic Post-its that pop up with any font you choose and appear in neon colored boxes. I thought that would get my attention but I still just ignored or deleted them if I wasn't ready to take care of it. I just have no self-control with that kind of thing.

However, I have tried to block off a certain amount of time before meetings to prepare, using Outlook. I stick to that pretty closely because I know I've built in extra time. Often, I schedule three or four hours the day before and another three or four hours the day of. If I get caught up in something else and then remember that I should be preparing for the meeting, I allow myself to finish my task at hand and then move to the meeting prep. This has helped me a lot! I still need to work on blocking off time after the meeting to type out my meeting notes and create reminders of the things I said I would do in the meeting.

Also, I used to be an event planner (probably the most terrible job for an ADDer!) and I learned the value of checklists. When you prepare for a meeting, write down a list of all the handouts and items you need to bring with you. Schedule time in Outlook for at least 8 business hours before the meeting to gather the items. This will give you time to handle any problems that come up like a broken copier, collating copies, etc. For board meetings, I'm sure there is a standard list of things you bring every time. Make a template list with those items and then just add additional items to the list for each meeting. I create Event Lists and Reports for every event and meeting I manage. It's the only way I could survive! (Don’t forget to put pen, your nametag, etc. on the list as these are common items we ADDers seem to forget.)

A note on Outlook, you can set it up so that it opens automatically as soon as you log into your computer every morning. This ensures that I see my email and calendar first thing in the morning. Otherwise, I might not open Outlook for hours.

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