overwhelm « Well-Ordered Chaos

A stretch of bad brain days

It’s a well-known truism in ADHD literature that stress makes everything worse. I’ve been a bit frazzled lately, what with looking for a day job, and getting rejected (or just ignored), and having a looming deadline, and my partner starting a new job with a crazy commute, and global warming and world hunger and baseball.

And [...]

Attention Deficit Disorder and Attempted Travel Planning

As I posted the other day, I’m going to Europe in a few weeks, and I have a ton of crap to get done before then. If this trip is like, oh, any other trip I’ve taken in my life, EVER, I’ll get all of it done at 3 am the day we leave on [...]

Stupid pants.

I’ve been hanging out on the Women with ADHD Ning, and recently one of the members mentioned that she’d never really fit in with “the girls”. Several more of members chimed in about how they’d never felt “feminine”. It seems that a lot of women with ADD are just no good with the girly stuff.

It’s [...]

The Value of That Old Routine

I’ve been back from my holiday trip for two weeks now, and since then I’ve managed to be on time exactly once.

Being on time has always been a struggle for me, and it’s an area where I’ve made great strides in recent years. I’m still not perfect, but I used to be late for absolutely [...]

Resolved to get organized in 2010? You don’t have to go it alone.

It’s the New Year, and that means New Year’s it’s time for New Year’s resolutions.

One of the most popular New Year’s resolutions, year in and year out, is to “get organized”. According to the National Association of Professional Organizers, who polled more than 400 adults last November, 71% of respondents felt that their quality of [...]

My Organizing Journey: Getting Started — What’s Working? What’s Not?

After identifying Activity Zones, my clutter buddy and I talked about what was functioning well in each area, and what needed to be fixed. I was overwhelmed by the mess, and initially felt that nothing at all, anywhere in my kitchen, was working. Jana pointed out that the Cat Zone was not only functional, but [...]

My Organizing Journey: Getting Started — Identifying Activity Zones

The big day had arrived. My clutter buddy was at my home and by the end of that day I would, come hell or high water, have made some progress on organizing my home. My confidence had received a boost from learning that my apparently chaotic surroundings were actually a somewhat functional attempt [...]

The perfect is the enemy of my enemy is my … wait, what?

This weekend I wrote a Squidoo lens about tabby cats.

Why tabby cats?

Well, a Squidoo community that I’m a part of has been having weekly contests, and last week’s was to write a lens for the “animals and nature” category. I figured this would be good for me; all of my lenses to date have been [...]

My Organizing Journey Begins

My organizing journey began in the fall of 2005 when a friend of mine called me with an interesting proposition.

“I think we should help each other get organized”, she said.

I was stunned. “Get organized? Help each other?” I asked. “How can I be any help to you at all? You’re pretty [...]

Rats

No, the OTHER kind of rat pack

This afternoon, there was a noise as of heavy construction coming from the ceiling in my kitchen. I went upstairs to the bedroom and checked the closet that’s in that same corner.

I was greeted by a scattering of ratsh*t.

Nice.

My cursory googling indicates that they’re probably roof rats. They probably [...]

Well-Ordered Chaos

Now where did I put that post…