8 Organization Tips for People With ADHD

Attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is a type of mental disorder that can cause excessive movement and make it difficult for someone to focus and control their impulses. For many people, ADHD can also make it hard to stay organised—deadlines are missed, projects are started but not completed, and piles of clutter make it impossible to find important items.

Fortunately, there are steps you can take to manage your ADHD and improve your organisation skills. If you’ve been diagnosed with ADHD and you regularly find yourself struggling to stay organised, you may want to:

1. Start using a planner (either a paper calendar or an electronic program).
2. Leave yourself time for breaks (rather than scheduling something for every hour of the day).
3. Create weekly, monthly, and yearly chore charts.
4. Decide where you want to store commonly lost items (for example, if you frequently lose your keys, install a hook near your front door and commit to always leaving your keys there).
5. Use clear plastic storage bins or labels to keep track of where everything is.
6. Go through your possessions on a regular basis and decide whether any of them can be donated or thrown away.
7. Set up automatic payments for bills.
8. Avoid tackling more than you can handle (for example, rather than trying to keep your entire bedroom clean, commit to making your bed and placing dirty clothes into the hamper each day).

Find Out More

If you’ve been diagnosed with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder and you struggle to stay organised, we can help. I regularly treat patients with ADHD, and once we’ve learned about your unique situation, we’ll be able to supply you with specific advice on how to manage your situation, particularly when in a relationship. An ADHD or ADD diagnosis can often spur some relationship issues and I can help you navigate through these.