this post was submitted on 30 Sep 2023
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ADHD isn't functioning in chaos. It's causing chaos while functioning.
Big difference.
If you have ADHD you should make special efforts to keep your place cleaner than average, at least in my experience.
It's a lot easier to manage stimulation when you have things tidy. It's just extra effort to get there.
But then how do I remember the things I need to do if they are not all over the place? (I don't even know if I'm joking)
"Out of sight, out of mind" is often said as a good thing, but for people like me, it's chaos. I love it when desk, desktop and inbox are tidy because that means that I have nothing to do or worry about.
My life is a never ending whirlwind of fast forward because of this, leaving so much unfinished behind
I would love to hear more of this wonderful fairy tale...
I have 2 categories of things:
Resources and Reminders.
Resources are always put away. When I'm working on a project my mind can easily recall where a resource is. I can then track it down. Things like specific bolts, old Ethernet plugs etc all get packed up out of the way.
Reminders can never be hidden. Things like my keys and wallet are easy examples, but reminders also include that book I want to read next or that coding project I wanted to work on. Reminders are always front and center on my desktop, they're right by the door (sometimes on hangers attached to the door in the case of wedding rings) and I don't forget them because they're obvious.
So things you need to do? Reminder category. Set calendar events for the things that need temporal reminders, or have to be put away.
Resources? Keep them out of sight.
I will have to do this
My system may not work for you: make changes and make it yours.
But as a kid with raging ADHD diagnosed at 8 and never been medicated: this is how I function, and it works well.
It drives me nuts when I visit my mother's house (also raging ADHD) because it's chaos everywhere.
I know that you think you might be but I also suspect you aren't.
"How can I find anything in all this order?!?"
That's exactly me. I have an organized mess!
my room is "clean" but my personal adhd clean where i put something somewhere because im a genius thatll remember it and then i look where it should be and its not there and im like well shit i guess its gone until i stumble upon it right where i needed it.
not until after i spend 30 minutes looking not where i needed it.
sometimes i completely clean my space and then ill stop thinking about it and kinda go about my day and suddenly 4 different unrelated activities are on my desk.
i just watched memento for a class and i kinda feel like the guy in memento except to a much much lesser degree
When it comes to resources if I look somewhere and don't find it then I'll be sure to place it where I first looked on cleanup.
It usually amounts to a chaotic system with only a marginal amount of sorting but it's all out of sight most importantly.
The visual noise of things everywhere is maddening.
Yeah, I find it’s much easier to keep everything immaculate than it is to make my place kinda tidy.
I find that if there’s one object on the side that needs to be put away, it might as well be eight objects. So I’m either in a mindset where I put every single item away or none.
Sorry, but no. If my place is tidy I'll manage to trash it before making breakfast. If it's not that tidy it'll stay that's way.
I thrive in chaos. Too controlled and I'll start intentionally wreck shit just for a hint of dopamine, too chaotic and I'll start organising things (again, dopamine).
In 33 years that's what functions best for me and the other ADHDers I know.
But it's far more of a spectrum disease than people think and there are a ton of flavors to ADHD.
Ymmv.