Hello, ADD-“enjoyer” here.
I think I am not alone when, typically, I am constantly overwhelmed. Too many thoughts and impulses. So I don’t make a lot of decisions; I usually respond to other people’s decisions or I let me guide by suggestions from the people around me.
Now I am in the situation that some things are changing at my work. I have actual influence this time, I could say “next year I want to work on X” and X might actually be my new job.
I have some ideas where to start thinking (start writing down random thoughts and see if I can make a list), but as I am always overwhelmed I am having trouble to “find the right mood”. I always get distracted by other thoughts and I always end up doing things entirely unrelated (currently I am baking bread, collecting documents for my insurance, and I am almost ready to pick a new e-mail provider)
Does this feel familiar to anyone? Probably ;-)
I feel like I need the right circumstances. Should I start with some mindfulness-excercises? Walk for a bit? Find an empty room with no distractions? Find some good background music?
How do you deal with this? What works for you?
Thanks for your input :-)
“It doesn’t exist if it isn’t written down”. Someone said that to me long ago, and it really changed my perspective.
I recently came across the PARA concept - everything we deal with falls into one of these 4 categories: Projects, Area of Responsibility, Resource, Archive.
I restructured my OneNote notebooks to use it, and it’s been a game changer. Now when an idea comes my way, I can immediately categorize it so I know what to do with it (even if just on my head). I added a final R to my notebooks - Reference, because I save a lot of info that I need access to.
It surprised me that at any one time I have about 30 ongoing personal projects. Seeing them laid out as tabs in my notebook makes them more apparent, instead of just floating around in the back of my head. I’ve even Archived a few after seeing them languish, and realizing they were fleeting ideas I really don’t need or have time for.
I’ll second PARA. It works well for me. I used it as an organizing principle in my notes and todo software.
Thank you! I’ve looked into PARA, and … Area’s and Resources seem quite close? The difference is that Area’s are driven by duty/responsibility while Resources are driven by interest? How do you divide the two?
I think I already have this division in my work-life. We have tickets that have clear targets (projects), we have a wiki for useful information (long-term).
I will keep it in my head while organizing my private life.