Thriving in a Linear World: Strategies for Organization and Time Management

1.  When we can better understand our own brains we can see the strengths and also areas where we might need to be more mindful and make changes to go against our natural tendencies when our typical mindset or approach is not working for us.  With regards to task completion for example, a strength for someone who processes the world as described above may struggle with task completion and need to find new strategies, but a strength is that this person is also very spontaneous and willing to take risks to jump in to try and work on a problem.

2.  For parents, I find that better understanding a child’s brain and how he or she is experiencing the world around him or her can change the parenting approach taken.  For instance, it is often much easier to give their child the benefit of the doubt and not take a child’s behavior personally when the parents can tie that behavior to a type of brain processing.

3.  We can bring awareness to how other people process things linearly since sometimes people struggling with attention difficulties don’t realize that others value things like time and interpret a sequence of events from a linear perspective.  Bringing awareness to this difference and then teaching some key skills necessary for living in an often linear world can be helpful to assist the person in building successes in a variety of areas including organization, time management and relationships with others.

Here are some tips and strategies for organization and time management.  I am choosing to only include a few that target broad areas.  There are, however, great resources available in the form of books and articles that target specific areas that a person may be struggling with.

1. For at least one week block your day into 10-minute periods with alarms.  At the end of each 10-minute period take time to reflect how much you were able to accomplish.  I often find that for people who process time differently this week-long challenge can be very illuminating since to be mindful and place attention on how long things really take can be helpful.  For example: I have clients who have altered their morning routines when they had awareness regarding the typical number of minutes that different parts of their morning tasks were actually taking.  For parents and children, I will often use this concept but not make it a whole week of tracking, but instead focus on a certain period of the day prior to switching to a different time.  Common times I have had families track with their children include: morning routines, homework time, evening/bedtime routines.  Parents can also include self-monitoring in based on the child’s age and developmental level.  I am a big fan of bonuses for this challenge too–children being prompted that the timer is being set and to pay attention to what they are getting done and then bonuses for talking about their realizations after the timer goes off.

2.  Start tasks with 15-minute blocks [2]

When you are having trouble starting a project, try this exercise:

-Set a timer for 15 minutes

-For those 15 minutes, focus on that one task only.  When the time is up, decide if you can keep going for another 15 minutes.

-If you can, reset the timer.  Keep going at 15-minute intervals for as long as you can.

-If you can’t do any more, stop and try again later or the next day

For children, I recommend that some parents will need to shorten this to 5 or 10-minute intervals to be able to get focused attention from their child.

3. Check your planner 3 times a day

Whether you have ADHD or just too much to remember, getting into the habit of putting all appointments and activities on a calendar can lead to success. This also can be a good spot for a daily and weekly to-do list. People can use a day planner or a smartphone app.  Keep it in one spot and check it at least three times a day.  Make it a habit to check at the same time each day.  Some people find it helpful to set an alarm a few times throughout the day to remind them to look at their calendar or scheduler.

For children, I find that starting by discussing how organization is important and how other people are engaging in doing things like writing in a planner can be helpful since children often are missing this happening around them in the classroom.  Often an IEP or 504 accommodation plan can also create systematic ways that teachers are assisting a child with attention difficulties to do things like consistently write in a planner until the skill can be completed successfully with consistency.

4.  Focus on what is happening and what could happen next

With regard to struggles related to connecting action to consequences one of my favorite strategies is to be mindful regarding what is happening and then thinking about what could happen next.  For children, one of my favorite challenges is to stop while reading a comic book or pause a TV show and ask questions like, “What is happening right now?” “What might this character be thinking or feeling?  What is making you say that?”  “What could happen next?”  The more this can be seen as a game and done in quick little segments where it feels more fun and less like a lesson the better.  Again, this is an area where I often provide bonuses for children giving answers and participation.

While it is true that it can be complicated to be a curvilinear thinker in an often linear world, there are many ways to celebrate a brain that sees things from another angle and at the same time develop successful strategies to navigate linear expectations.  Taking steps in this area to be more mindful and trying new skills can lead to big gains.

https://www.additudemag.com/slideshows/decoding-the-adhd-mind/?src=embed_link?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=adult

[2-3] Daily living tips for adult ADHD.  Webmd Online Article.