ADD-Friendly Ways to Organize Your Life
by Judith Kolberg, Kathleen Nadeau
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Book Reviews of ADD-Friendly Ways to Organize Your Life
Book Review: Solutions, Not Just Analysis!
Summary: 5 Stars
I've not read the entire book yet, but I already know this book will change my life. (No, it isn't a cure all. We all know there isn't one, though we secretly wish one could be found.)
I just finished reading Chapter 5, "ADD Decision Dilemmas". This chapter wonderfully describes problems I've always classified as "procrastination", but really aren't. I'm 40+ now and being introspective, I've really figured out some of my behavior patterns and partial reasoning for it, but this book really nails it. Not only will this book help you identify those behaviors earlier, it provides suggestions that will help you deal with it!
Being the typical ADDer, I couldn't just read the book cover to cover. I've been skipping around (and this book is wonderfully arranged so that you can). I loved the suggestion about having a few files with labels like "I can't believe I haven't called about this!" and other file titles determined by your reaction to the task. (Chapter 17, Fear of Filing) How lovely! I've started countless piles of "things I need to take care of, and soon", that end up just being shoved in with other junk so I can clear a space... Well, now I've got a new plan for that. I'm going to order the "filing crate on wheels" or similar, also from the book, so that I can create files like "take care of this or I'm screwed". Of course, I still have to work on getting to the 'taking care of it' part. But with better organization, the rest should be easier. I'm sure I'll find a good suggestion or two in the book.
I disagree to some extent with the reviewer that rated the book 3 stars because so many of the suggestions involve others. It is true, there are a lot of suggestions involving others. That isn't the book's weakness; That is just a fact of ADD and of life. Lets face it, having more people around to help us deal and remember is simply handy (especially if they don't also have ADD.) I'm single and live alone. Lots of these suggestions can be adapted. You can make use of helpful people that don't live with you. My sister visits from out of town from time to time, I have friends at work that are understanding, etc. Some suggestions may even be adaptable to remote interactions - telephone conversations and emails. As I read the book, I try to think of how these ideas could be adapted. Don't get me wrong, if another version came out with more suggestions targeted toward singles, I'd buy it again!
Bottom line - if you've struggled with organization/disorganization, get this book! Especially if other organizational books haven't helped you. After all, ADD, like everything, is a matter of degree. Besides, you don't have to be diagnosed with ADD to find techniques crucial to ADDers helpful.
Book Review: Who Knew?
Summary: 5 Stars
I was just diagnosed with ADD a few months ago. Since it was new to me (I wasn't self-diagnosed and knew very little about it), I came to Amazon to buy a book that had been recommended to me. "ADD-Friendly Ways to Organize Your Life" was the other half of a "better together" offer with that one, so I went ahead and bought it. I just finished writing a 3-star review of that recommended book. I've learned more about ADD in general from this one, to say nothing of organizing.
Okay, I have two post-graduate degrees and work in research, so you'd think I could figure these things out by myself... But if the only ideas I retain from this book are to organize on shelves instead of in drawers and vertically rather than horizontally, it will have been a savior. Reading the sentence "Retire your dresser" was a eureka moment! Who knew that something like that could make such a difference? I now have shelves in the closet for my clothes and actually put them away after I do laundry. At the office, I've grabbed an abandoned metal magazine rack from the supply room so I can keep current projects vertical and in sight without having to put more on my desk than is already there. There are some suggestions in the book that seem counterintuitive, or contradict common advice on organization, but as soon as I read them I knew they were just what I needed. Whether there really is something about the "ADD brain" that makes these off-beat suggestions work, I have no idea, but I don't really care.
My closest match in the book chapters was "Chaos," and I have a long way to go, believe me. I think the fact that the person presented in that chapter was single was a big help to me. As some others have said, I can't use all the suggestions in the book for using outside resources, and not all of the chapters fit my situation, but the suggestions I can use are more than worth the price and the time. Something that made the book even more useful is that it doesn't cover just home, or just work, or just any other part of life, but has ideas that can be integrated into the whole.
I'd read the reviews here before I bought the book, and wondered if I'd find it "dumbed down" in wording or format, but it doesn't seem that way to me. Maybe it's because I spend a lot of time online and reading technical material, but I'm so used to reading things with bullets, and charts, and lists, that it just seems natural. It may not be great literature, but it's not meant to be. It is the most helpful material I've ever read on organizing my life.
Book Review: Great insight and ideas
Summary: 4 Stars
This book has lots of great ways to organize your life if you have ADD. There is a lot of general advice in each chapter followed by a quick summary. The book is divided into the following sections:
Getting Started
Taking Charge of Add
Thing Organizing
Time Organizing
Paper Organizing
Conclusion
Resources
What I found most useful were "no-brainer" tips like the following:
Pre-pack a lunch;create a "launchpad" by the front door; only buy matching socks; organize your wardrobe around one color; pare down the clothing in your closet.
This last one has been very helpful. I used to rummage through clothing that I was keeping around "in case" I lost weight or that I hadn't worn in years; now my wardrobe is a lot thinner but less time-consuming. Women tend to have a lot more "upkeep" than men and it's easy to get bogged down with extra makeup, beauty products and other detritus.
Caveat: I definitely agree with the reviewer who said this book was geared towards those with roommates or spouses who can help with reminders, assist in organizing, etc. The book mentions ADD coaches, which sound great--I'd love to have one-- but they are not affordable for the vast majority of ADD-ers out there ($200-$400 a month for someone you speak to weekly).
In summary, this book is filled with lots of insights and general organizing ideas for ADD-ers, but you have to read and absorb the book and decide what applies best to you. It's not a laundry list of tips. that you can grab and implement within seconds. The best advice in the book (for me) was SIMPLIFY.
Book Review: ADD-Friendly organizing tips from the pros
Summary: 5 Stars
Even if you don't think you have any level of Attention Deficit Disorder you may want to read ADD-Friendly Ways to Organize Your Life. In contrast to books that say, "Just do this, this and this and you will be organized," ADD-Friendly goes further with very specific methods on how to establish order that will last.
The authors have experience with ADD-ers on two fronts. Judith Kolberg is a professional organizer who founded the National Study Group on Chronic Disorganization when she realized that traditional organizing techniques did not work for a significant number of people. Giving insight on working with the psychology behind disorganization is Kathleen Nadeau, Ph.D., a nationally recognized authority on adult ADD.
The authors share strategies that ADD folks can use to help themselves, how to use the help of friends and family, and when to look for professional guidance. With the wealth of techniques given to tame the big three- things, time, and paper- you are sure to find one that will work for you!
Even the page formatting accommodates short attention spans with side-labeled chapter titles to encourage skimming, bold headings that break up the page, and large font text that makes it easy to delve deep in the section that grabs your interest.
Get the book and read it before you pass it on to the messy person you think really needs it. You might be surprised how much you will personally benefit!
Read a more in-depth book review from MentalHelp.net if you want to know more before you recommend this book to a friend.
Book Review: Condescending and Not Helpful
Summary: 2 Stars
I read this book immediately after "View from the Cliff" by Lynn Weiss. It suffered in comparison. I don't need large type books with large arrows and swirls -- I actually can become happily absorbed in an interesting, informative book. I don't see that the suggestions in the book would actually work. Work on taxes for a half hour every day? Develop a schedule with activities slotted in half hour, 45 minute and 1 hour increments? I thought that a marker of ADD is not having that kind of sense of time? Of needing to be absorbed, interested in a task? Everything recommended in this book struck me as pure misery.
Moreover, I object to being told that I need to be medicated so that I can follow the authors' every-minute-should-be-scheduled and there's-a-color-coded-plastic-container-for-everything life. Dr. Weiss' book illuminates and assists -- this is your personality, these are your strengths, these are your weaknesses. Play to your strengths and develop tactics/mechanisms such that your weaknesses don't negatively impact your life.
The whole notion that people who don't fit into the definition of "normal" -- as defined by someone who is a "professional organizer" -- need to be medicated is offensive. If you believe that being creative and having new ideas is more important that doing your laundry on a timely basis -- this book is not for you. (I am not an advocate of lack of responsibility or sloth -- I have an MBA from an Ivy league school and run my own successful business -- I just do not see the professional organizer's life as an ideal.)