Organizing Solutions for People With Attention Deficit Disorder: Tips and Tools to Help You Take Charge of Your Life and Get Organized

Posted on June 27th, 2009 by Mental Health Recovery

Organizing Solutions for People With Attention Deficit Disorder: Tips and Tools to Help You Take Charge of Your Life and Get Organized

ADD, Attention Deficit Disorder and ADHD, Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder, are prevalent in society today, afflicting about 4.4% of the adult population, which is over 13 million Americans. Four out of every five adults do not even know they are ADD, and while it is often difficult to differentiate adults with true ADD from adults who are merely forgetful and disorganized, Organizing Solutions for People with ADD outlines new organizing strategies that will be of value to anyone who wants to improve their organizational, or lack of, skills in their life. The chapters consist of practical organizing solutions for ADD at Work; prioritizing, time management, and organizing documents, ADD at Home; paying bills on time, de-cluttering your house, scheduling and keeping appointments, ADD with Kids; driving them to various activities, grocery shopping and meals, laundry, babysitters, organizing drawers and closets, and ADD and You; organizing time for your social life, gym, and various other hobbies and activities. Color photographs that capture the short attention span of the reader are featured throughout, as well as sidebars and testimonials from adults with ADD, providing numerous organizational tips, such as, the importance of dividing time into minutes or moments, task completion, how to avoid procrastination, asking for help, and how not to be a packrat.

User Ratings and Reviews

5 Stars perfect for people with or without ADHD
i really love this book. it gives great tips and easy to read! you won’t be disappointed in this at all!!! worth time and money. wonderful for adhd and even without for sure!

5 Stars The Best
The best book on organizing I have ever read. You do not need any other book even if you do not have “ADD”! It’s simple organizing skills that make sense! I’m getting one for my daughter. Her children have ADD and it’ll be a tremendous help to her. I’m keeping one for myself to keep me organized.

2 Stars Some good ideas, but read other books first
I think there is some gold in this book - if you ignore the parts that are lousy. I second the other reviewers in terms that her ideas are good for children, seem to assume that ADD adults are hopeless and can’t improve, and cost too much money in terms of having to hire someone to do everything for you. Additionally, her ideas on how to “organize” your life are a joke. (She says to put sticky note pads by your phones for writing down your tasks as they are called in - uh, and what do you do if you have a cell phone and rarely get calls on your landline? Where do you put the notes to save them? She doesn’t seem to think her clients can carry even a small notebook for messages, which would be the reasonable assumption.) I don’t have ADD, but I can tell you that I thought her tone was condescending and insulting to those who do.

Instead, read 4 Weeks to an Organized Life with AD/HD by Jeffery Freed. Written by an educator with ADD and a psychiatrist who specializes in the condition, it will help you train your brain to remember what you want it to, help you learn to focus and help you to organize yourself. It won’t tell you how to set up your closet, but that is where Pinsky’s book might come in handy. At this point I would also get either The Clutter Diet: The Skinny on Organizing Your Home and Taking Control of Your Life. They teach you how to set up your own system that is customized to what you do, and to organize your home in a way that works for you. They stress simpler systems (one thing that Pinsky emphasizes, and I think she is right there, though I think her implementation is unrealistic.)

As well, I heartily suggest The Disorganized Mind: Coaching Your ADHD Brain to Take Control of Your Time, Tasks, and Talents, which has real suggestions for real adults who actually have a life they have to be responsible for. (I’m not suggesting Pinsky’s clients don’t, but she treats them like children.)

Pinsky’s book’s sections on transitional and rough storage are valuable. She has some things in there I haven’t seen in some years of looking at the organizing literature about how people actually use space, and for that I give it two stars. I’ve had it for some weeks and will probably use some of the unique principles on space use to help in setting up a room for an ADD child, and perhaps some of the specific tips. But for reasons mentioned above, this should NOT be your only or main book on how to organize your life, ADD or not, especially if you are an adult. An organizer with an ADD child and who has a number of ADD clients, she has no training in ADD or how to deal with it, and it shows in her narrow assumptions about what ADD people are and are not capable of. I feel that while she is to be applauded for what she has learned, that she is out of her depth in this area. I think her attitude could be hurtful to those with ADD, which is why I am writing this review.

5 Stars The only book you need to read on organizing… a must for ADDers!
This book is an excellent resource for those with ADD and not. First of all it is extremely easy to read, well organized, with lots of pictures- perfect for someone with ADD or someone who wants to learn practical solutions quickly. The book gives advice room by room and solutions that are designed with a person with ADD in mind, but that can be applied to others as well. The advice in this book has revolutionized my home, and has helped me realize why I had so much trouble keeping everything clean and in order. This is a must read, it is my favorite and I refer to it often!

5 Stars Great Book!
If you have AD/HD and have tried to get organized without success, this is a good book for you. After reading this book I now am actually getting organized. You will realize why all the organizing systems you have tried before never worked. They were for brains that didn’t have AD/HD. Two more great books are: “4 Weeks to an Organized Life with AD/HD”, and “ADD-Friendly Ways to Organize Your Life”

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