Take time to prepare yourself mentally for de-cluttering. Here’s why:
Bringing order to your home office is often one of the more challenging tasks for the person with ADD. This is because one is facing hundreds, even thousands of papers, and each one requires making a decision. One’s office is often the repository of memories of bad decisions or threats of financial ruin! Previous failed attempts to bring order to your office may also spring to mind. You could add your own reasons, but the bottom-line is that there can be many negative emotions associated with your office. If that is your situation, it could be the bad feelings themselves that you have been avoiding more than the work itself.
Begin by recognizing and accepting that bad feelings are likely to emerge. By anticipating them, you can better prepare to deal with them. Using Self-Talk is one way to prepare. Take a few deep breaths and say gently to yourself: I know that I’m probably going to start feeling anxious, guilty, irritable, etc., but it is okay. I am deciding not to allow those feelings to derail me. If the feelings begin to feel too overwhelming, I will work for 5 more minutes and then stop. Whatever I accomplish is a positive step. As Dr. T says, “Any is better than none”.
De-cluttering one’s office can also lead to “dithering” – that paralyzing sense of “overwhelm” that is characterized by escalating anxiety and mentally shutting down because of the overload. If you experience this sort of overload, see my tip on decreasing dithering before you begin.
For some with ADD, the best “mental preparation” is a Clutter Buddy. A Clutter Buddy is someone who is willing to be with you when you work on tasks that leave you “overwhelmed” or “dithering”. Your Buddy can actively help you in sorting, or he/she can simply provide a presence to help you stay on task.
Now that you have prepared yourself mentally, let’s begin to tackle your office:
- Label Sorting Bins (Boxes):
- To Be Shredded. Thanks to identify thieves, we all need a shredder. (I call my to-be-shredded box “Ollie” in memory of Oliver North.) You will need to shred any papers that have identifying information such as your social security or account numbers. You can either shred the papers now, assign the task to a responsible older child, or plan to shred a few whenever you have a few minutes.
- To Be Filed. This is for papers you must keep (e.g., financial records for taxes) or want to keep (e.g., children’s school records; keepsakes). We will address filing systems next week. For now, just toss them into this bin.
- Bills/Action Needed. Use this only for items that require action, either near term or later.
- Put Away. To avoid getting distracted, use this for items that go elsewhere in the house.
- Think “Zones”. Divide your office into Zones and tackle one at a time. Zones might include the top of your desk; one file drawer; one desk drawer; one table top; one book shelf, etc.
- Work in 15-minute blocks. Set a timer - one you cannot tune out - and begin de-cluttering a small portion of one Zone. Sort items one at a time into the bins. Use the OHIO principle (“Only Handle It Once”) to force you to make a decision about each item as you go.
- If you have not completed the portion you selected when the timer goes off, set it for an additional 5 minutes to get to a good stopping place. If you cannot get to a reasonable stopping place in a total of 20 minutes, you are probably trying to do too much in one session. Set smaller tasks so you can finish each session successfully.
- Move all Bills and Action Needed items to your Bill Pay Basket, making sure each item is placed in the appropriate envelope.
- Take two minutes or less to distribute “Put Away” items to the appropriate room. If possible, delegate this task to another family member.
- Set your timer for 5 to 15 minutes and shred papers. It is important to use a timer because it can be difficult to pull out of this task.
- Store the bins in a corner of your office so that you can find them quickly the next time you have 15-20 minutes to tackle another Zone.
We will begin setting up a file system next week. Meanwhile, keep having fun!! How can you make a game out of de-cluttering your office?
