Hit the Refresh Button

Surely you know that as ADDers we have a short attention span.

But that’s not just confined to individual incidents like not wandering off during a conversation or while watching TV.

It’s also part of the bigger picture of our life.

You know how something works for you until it doesn’t anymore? Like for weeks you’ve been able to keep on top of the housework and then all of a sudden it falls apart?

That’s your short attention span at work.

We get bored easily. Some things, like housework and exercise (and stuff you have to do even if you don’t want to) can get boring fast. There’s not a lot there to stimulate and excite us to begin with.

Let’s say you just found a cool new site about organizing or keeping your house clean. You get excited. You go our and buy the stuff you need to get started. If there’s stuff to buy, we’re hooked right away. Just buy the right home organization book and magic will happen.

So you get started on the new system and things are going well and you’re thinking “This is it. This is the magic formula”.

Except it isn’t.

Cause in a few weeks or months, it will stop being new and exciting. It will be old and boring and repetitious. You’re not interested anymore so you start to slack off. And pretty soon you’re back at square one.

Is there a solution to this?

Sure there is. Hit the refresh button.

In other words, you need to be always on the lookout for new and improved. Don’t assume that you will find the perfect housekeeping system and love it forever. It’s not likely to happen.

What you can do is to work on making as much as you can into a habit. My kitchen stays clean and orderly most of the time because I am in the habit of taking care of it. It’s on autopilot.

What doesn’t stay so clean in my kitchen are the stove top and the floor. They’re not nasty or anything, but right now it would be embarrassing for you to see them. I hate cleaning the stove top and I hate and despise doing floors so those things get put off.

It’s the way we are.

Now what I need to do is to work on making cleaning the stove top a daily habit and then find a cool new mop or tool to clean the floors. Eventually the stove would be clean all the time and the floors would be cleaner than they are now.

See what I mean?

Hitting the refresh button is like finding a new and different way to do something so that it captures your interest again. And finding ways to make some things into habits.

What could use a refresh in your life?

Tagged as: AD/HD, ADD, Attention Deficit Disorder, inattention, lack of focus, Organization, organizing, short attention span, structure, systems