One of the paradoxes of having adult ADHD is that being organized will make your ADHD easier to live with. In fact, organization is essential for ADHD adults.

But organizing with ADHD is difficult. It’s hard to plan, hard to perform daily tasks, and hard to follow through.

Some may even feel that being organized is impossible with ADHD.

The good news is that it’s not impossible. I’ve learned how to be organized in a way that works for me. And I’ve taught many other ADHD adults how to get organized, too.

There are simple, easy (and even fun) ways to start getting organized with ADHD.

Start with This Simple Tip  

ROW a few minutes every day.

ROW stands for Routine Organizing Work. So, when you ROW, you spend 15 minutes each and every day completing your routine organizing tasks.

I can hear you laughing now.

If you have ADHD, you know how hard it is to do something consistently. Believe me, I understand how challenging it is.

I’ve made getting organizing with ADHD easy with this simple tip, but trust me, it is vital. Otherwise, you are left with the choice of continuing to live at the disorganized, impulsive whim of your ADHD. (And dealing with the emotional costs – remember those?) 

And we all decided that in 2021 and beyond, we are NOT living like we did in 2020, right?

So ready to start ROWing? Let’s get started. 

ROW: 3 Steps to Organizing with ADHD

STEP ONE: Glance around and make a list of five tiny organizing tasks you can do to make your home or office look or feel more organized.

Here are a few ideas for the home:

• make your bed
• put toothbrushes and toothpaste away
• hang up bath towels
• return shoes to bedrooms
• straighten magazines and toss newspapers

Here are a few ideas for the office:

• straighten up the chairs
• put away the pens and paper clips
• clear out your phone messages and sticky notes
• recycle your old periodicals, newsletter and journals

These are merely suggestions. I want you to come up with your own list of five tiny ROWing tasks.

WARNING: Your organizing tasks must be tiny! If they aren’t, it will become a huge chore and you won’t do it. Tackling your inbox or files are probably too big an ask for you at this point.

STEP TWO: When you have your list of five tiny organizing tasks, pick one to start with. 

You will do this one ROWing task every day. Put a reminder on your phone or write it on a note and stick it where you’ll see it. Also, decide what time each day you’ll do your one ROWing task.

Now do that one, and only that one, ROWing task for a few minutes every day. 

(Some tasks will take a bit longer at first, while you deal with the organizing backlog. Take heart. By spending just a few minutes every day, you’ll soon clear the backlog and the task will truly be tiny.)

STEP THREE: When it feels like a habit, add the next tiny task from the list of five you made.

Imagine the difference when after a few weeks you’re taking five small, meaningful steps to make your home look and feel more organized every day.

Sure there’s a lot more you’ll need to do to organize your home or office, but you have to start somewhere and this ADHD Success Step of ROWing every day is a great place to start getting organizing with ADHD.

And if you’re looking for more tips to getting organized and be part of a community who will support and celebrate you on your path to ADHD success, join the ADHD Success Club! 

We will be launching the clutter-free and organization module soon, so now is the perfect time to sign up!

Questions – post below in the comments!

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