Organization in the Workplace for ADD / ADHD

Organization in the Workplace

Organization means many things to many people and sometimes when you have ADHD this means chaos. However, organization is paramount to your success in the workplace, so when we think about organization there are a number of simple strategies we can use to be more effective.

We can ask for help in prioritizing tasks. This is a request I hear often in the workplace from many workers who may or may not have ADD/ADHD. The simplest way to achieve this is for one to ask one’s boss “Hey, I have all these projects on my list and I want to do the best job I can for you. Could you help me by telling me what your priorities are for these projects and perhaps tell me the sequence you prefer I do them in.” With this approach you are accomplishing two things, telling your boss that you want to do good work for him/her and telling them that you want to align your work with their priorities. Both of these things are music to a boss’s ear. However in some situations, going to your boss may be overwhelming or unproductive. If requesting that help from your boss doesn’t seem like a good option for now, perhaps you can ask a trusted co-worker or a family member or friend to help you.

When it comes to tracking progress and what needs to be completed; I use large, colorful and visual calendars to help me. For example if I have six key projects that I am working on, I may assign a different color to each of the projects. My assistant and I map out or assign time to work on each of the projects by their assigned color and at the same time blend our filing system folders/pages to be in the same color. My virtual assistant has taught me to go a step further in that if the assigned color is yellow, the folder is yellow and the working papers (post its, index cards, copy paper) are also yellow to make sure all papers stay together with the project. We also post all projects on large calendars in our offices which are also color coded so all pertinent dates of the project are in yellow. This approach makes it easy to pull an entire project out of the file drawer at once or look up at the calendar to understand what is on my plate at one time. Also if a random paper is left on my desk I know exactly what project it goes with and exactly where to file it just by the color.

Having some of these structures in place can even make responding to requests (in person, email or phone) easy if someone wishes to talk about the yellow project we can look at the calendar board and be able to meet within the time frame of the project.

By implementing either of these simple tools is a way to start your project of organization at the workplace. Both strategies will help you to keep your focus on the priorities at hand and completing the projects you have on your plate. Remember as we implement any key strategy or tool, our fieldwork is to notice what works and doesn’t work so we can continue to evolve and improve our systems to find what works best for us.

ADHD Project Completion around the Job Inteview Process for ADHD ADD

Project Completion around the Job Interview Process

Some of the most exciting parts of the job hunting process are the receiving of the invitations for interviews as well as the interview itself. The pinnacle of which is receiving the offer. Although many folks with ADD/ADHD might not experience the satisfaction and excitement of completing projects as others may, they certainly would be very enthusiastic about the prospect of accepting a job offer and completing the long, arduous process of job hunting.

The typical progress for most projects for someone with ADD (especially one they are enthusiastic about) they are very excited about getting started on the project (brainstorming, supplies, thinking through project completion) often somewhere in the middle there may be a sense of boredom and dread leading to complete disengagement. Generally I’m cheering them on, encouraging, keeping them on task and holding them accountable. I contrast that to the job interviewing process where they’ve worked so hard in prepping themselves, making a plan, doing research and finally get that possible first job offer. I then take a different strategy towards project completion. Rather than encouraging them to an early completion date, I tend to have to work with them to slow down, delay the response and wait for other offers so that the excitement of completing that particular project does not trump the execution of the long term strategy of realizing the best possible position for their career goals.

I wonder for you is there a way for you to design any of the projects in your life so that the drive and enthusiasm of completion would be so hard to stop that people would have to stand in your way in order for you not to complete the project. For example, could you agree with yourself that the cool electronic gadget you want, you can have it only when you complete your project? Or could you go on that weekend adventure once the project is completed? Or could you send an email out to certain friends that you have completed the project after you have told them about it gaining pride and joy for completion. How can you set your projects up or create your environment so that you are pulled toward project completion instead of dreading the project?

Time Management in Navigating the Workplace

In the workplace most things are time driven and for those with ADHD/ADD who have a particularly hard time tracking time; this represents a unique set of challenges. Some of the challenges of time management include: the awareness or the ability to track the passing of time, noticing what time it is, remembering to stop one activity to start a new activity and being able to foster the focus toward each scheduled activity.

Some jobs have a built in factor of time being tracked for you most of the time. For example one client, a psychologist, has the benefit of her clients showing up at the appointed therapy time and, in some sense, tracking their own time of when to show up, start and end a therapy session. However, once she was promoted into a supervisory role that includes some of the therapy sessions, reports and overseeing the activities of other therapists; she found that without an external trigger she was falling behind on her administrative duties. It was not an issue of ability or skill to complete any of the tasks. It was simply a matter of time management. Once she took a class pertaining to time management strategies, she found external triggers such as pop ups and bells on her computer, her supervisor scheduling meetings with her and occasional reminder phone calls that she was able to quickly get on schedule with her reporting.

Time management for those with ADD/ADHD is unique because their brain works differently. Working with a typical time management expert (one who has studied the art and science of time management) usually gets those with ADD/ADHD overwhelmed, frustrated and ultimately in trouble. But when time management is taught around the way someone’s mind works, wherein the first point is discovering how the client’s mind works and then developing systems to work around the person, everything changes.

So if you want to be on time and know what to do when, I invite you to sign up for my Be On Time tele-forum class offering.

Also, I am presenting this weekend in Minnesota at the ADHD Spring Conference. For more information on my presentation on Navigating the Workplace, feel free to call me at 1-800-929-4127.

Focus for the Career Planning Process

When in career planning focusing on learning about yourself, what you enjoy to do and what you do well will help to find a career path/profession that will remain desirably challenging and complex enough to keep you interested. This is one of the best kept secrets to career planning with ADHD. The foundation of career planning is know your values, motivators, skills, talents and put them to work for you in an environment that keeps you challenged. Everyone is different so your foundation must be thoroughly explored.

You can use strategic thinking to assist your career planning coach and help put the pieces together as you complete assessments, surveys and hash out your history (work, school, hobbies). This process will help you determine what sort of skills, talents, people, causes and/or businesses will hold your interest for the long haul of a career.

In your career planning you must remember the basics of the ADHD mind and think about how the career you choose will keep your ADHD focus stimulated and interested. As with everything ADHD, how it impacts you is different so your search will be different from everyone else. The question you need to answer is “How will you make your career planning experience meet the criteria that will enable you to have a successful career?”

You can engage your focus by being creative and break up career planning into parts so it’s a series of quick sprints in each section of the process. Or you can turn into hyper focus gear (ADHD term that means block out everything else for long periods of time except what we are working on) and make it a fun exciting marathon.
You could also engage your focus by breaking up the process with two or more professionals instead of the traditional way of just one professional. For instance, you may use your coach, your psychologist and maybe someone on your informal support team that is knowledgeable about the profession of interest instead of just your career planning coach. This will help you with different perspectives about your skills and talents.

Remember, there is no perfect career path but there are many, many great ones that you will find satisfying and bring joy to your life. We want to help you create the invaluable experience of waking up in the morning, looking forward to going to work.