I do believe you are asking too much of your boss. She has her own job to do and cannot take the time to guide you. You were hired to do a job. You are not new at 6 months. You are an adult now and you must find the tools to enable you to do your job. Do not copy or envy how others work. You have your own special skills and abilities too. BUT you need to sit down (perhaps w/ an ADD therapist) and list the things you have trouble with. If you lose keys - put up a special hook. Forget to shut your computer ? Then put a note on the monitor to remind yourself. Keep a notepad with you for 2 days and write down how you handled each task and how you felt about it. Make the task list with fewer things on it and allow for breaks as you may be over scheduling your day. You CAN ask the boss to help prioritize your daily tasks so she gets what she needs first. A 10- minute meeting with her or your co-worker everyday to go over the list is NOT too much to ask from the boss. Focus on that and wear a watch w/ an alarm. - VERY IMPORTANT - If you give yourself prompts during the day - such as 10::5 start filing and allow 40 mins. then 1:00 read and respond to emails for 30 mins etc. ... if that is not doable try having the alarm go off every hour or half hour - its a great way to make you aware of where you are in your day and not get "lost" in a task and you will quickly see what you can accomplish in one day. You should probably come in earlier then your co-worker too just to set up your desk and make your list before work begins - that looks very responsible and pro-active too. You 'll know if this is a doable job for you too but don't even think about looking for work until you get this one under control - think of it as a practice job for the future.

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I know what you are feeling. I am in a job where I wear many hats. There are only 2 of us in the office. I find myself sometimes doing some major multi tasking. What we have done is set a priority code for what needs to be done. Pri A is stuff that has to be done immediately or needs to be done before the stock market closes. Pri A are items that if they are not done right away the office will come to a standstill. Pri B items are items that can be completed by the end of the day or week. Pri C items are items that can be done whenever. I will, if I'm not perfectly clear on the deadline ask my partner for an exact deadline on each of these. Pri A items are usually pretty clear. There are times though where something I think is Pri A is actually a B or C. We are getting in the habit of making sure we mark down when the deadline is. Sit down with your boss and make a list of what constitutes each Priority and ask her to give you the category of each item. Eventually it will be a habit and you won't have to clarify as much.

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