Guess Who's Back? Hint: It's Me and My Attention Span

 Hello, dear readers—or should I say archaeologists? Because digging up this blog after 14 years must feel like unearthing a forgotten civilization. Welcome back to my chronicles of navigating life with the attention span of a goldfish at a Las Vegas magic show.

If you’re wondering what brought me back, well, so am I. It turns out, I forgot I even had this blog! It’s like finding money in the pocket of your old jeans, except it's words, and there's no monetary value. And while my blog was collecting digital dust, I was out there collecting... uh, actually, I can't remember what I was collecting. It was probably not more attention span.

So, let’s talk about how to combat attention deficit, or rather, how to not combat it, but maybe just gently nudge it in the right direction when it’s not looking.

1. Lists Are Your Friends (Unless You Forget Where You Put Them)
Make lists! Yes, lists are great. I make lists all the time. I find them everywhere—on napkins, on the back of receipts, in the notes app on my phone from three phones ago. Sometimes, I even find lists in the freezer. Don’t ask. The point is, lists help you remember things. What things? I’m glad you asked because I forgot why I started making this list.

2. Timers: Because Time Is a Construct (That I Regularly Misinterpret)
Timers are fantastic because they remind you that time is passing, and maybe you should have started dinner before 10 PM. Set timers for everything—starting tasks, stopping tasks, remembering to check what that burning smell is. Without timers, I’d probably still be waiting for the "right moment" to write this post. Look at us now, using time like we know what we’re doing!

3. Embrace the Chaos (It’s Going to Embrace You Anyway)
Life with a wandering attention span is never dull. Embrace the chaos. If you can’t find your keys, it’s an opportunity for an impromptu scavenger hunt. If you forget what you walked into a room for, congratulations, you just walked into a surprise party where the surprise is you might never figure out why you’re there.

4. Rewards! (I Forgot to Pick Up Mine)
Set up a reward system. It’s like training a pet but the pet is you. Finished a task? Have a cookie! Didn’t finish a task? No cookie, but you still get points for remembering there was a task. Keep the bar achievable. My personal favorite reward is giving myself a pat on the back, which turns into a solo game of Twister because I get distracted midway through.

And here we are, at the end of our little catch-up session. I’d love to promise I’ll post more regularly, but we both know that my next post could be anywhere between tomorrow and the next leap year. Stay tuned, or don’t, or just forget you were tuned in the first place—no pressure.

Remember, managing attention deficit isn’t about perfection; it's about making the most of the ups, downs, and random left turns. Now, if you'll excuse me, I need to go find my car keys. I last saw them when I was writing the intro to this post.

Talk About Attention Deficit

Ok so I got distracted.... for a year! I've been busy. We are like that. We always have something to do. That's part of the problem. We move from one thing to the next in a never-ending sequence where one thing has very little to do with the next; and of course everything has to be done right away.

Sometimes you have to stop everything. Just stop everything and take an inventory of all the things that you are or should be doing. If you can you should force yourself to do this every day. For those of us that are severely ADD, we need to stop and regroup more frequently.

It does not matter how important that thing you have to do right now is. You just need to stop! Take a few minutes and think about what you are supposed to be doing. Of course it would help if you have a list of what hose things are.

Yeah I know, if you could do that you wouldn't have a problem. Well, do what you can do. Even if you can't find the list later, it will help you in your mind if you take the time to write stuff down. You will remember it better.

We have to resist that feeling of, "I have to get right on that next thing, right away". Yes, it probably is important to get that thing done, especially since it is the last minute to get it done. We'll talk about that another time. Just take five minutes and relax enough so that you can think about what you should be spending your time doing. Believe it or not sometimes the thing that you think is critical is not the thing that you should be doing right now.

Right now I have a million very important hings that I need to get done. Even so, I am going to force myself to take some time to think about all of the things that I need to do and try to bring some order to exactly how I will choose to spend my time. I will thank myself for it later. Try it, right now.

ADD / ADHD means Piles!

You always can spot someone that has to live with Attention Deficit Disorder pretty easily. He is the one with the piles of stuff all around his space. It doesn’t matter where. Just about every space, place or location that an ADD-afflicted individual has any degree of control over will be covered with piles of stuff. At the office are piles of papers, manuals, folders, and reports. At home are clothes, dishes, junk and all sorts of stuff. In the garage, on the bed, across the floor, in the closet, everywhere you look… piles.

Why do we make piles? Well it’s simple and it’s complex. The simple reason is, we get distracted while handling or carrying things in our hands and once distracted then we just put that thing down wherever we are at that moment on any nearby accommodating surface. The complex reason is, even if we were not distracted, and we almost always are, we still would make piles because we fail to know, recognize and fully understand the one important premise that truly organized people know and understand: “A place for everything and everything in its place” I feel distraction setting in, so I will have to continue in my next posting.

Got so much work to do, it’s literally stacked up and strewn all around you. You’re knee deep in clothes, paper, junk, work … stuff. You have to do something, because you’re literally stepping over stuff, to look through piles of stuff, to find stuff that you better find right now or else!. Yeah, I know the feeling. It’s not easy. Where do you start? There is so much to do, everywhere you turn. It is overwhelming.

Well guess what? I’m here to tell you that there is no magic bullet. No pill, no potion, no trick that is going to make it all better. You have a lot to do and doing it all is not going to be easy. But you have to do it. That is the key, you have to just do it! More importantly you have to JUST DO IT - NOW!

What am I screaming about? Well I am easily a poster child for Attention Deficit. I could and probably will tell you stories… most of which you will be able to relate to because you have or someone you know has had the same or similar experiences.

You have to start somewhere. With things the way they probably are, where almost doesn’t matter. But you have to start now. Don’t think about how much you have to do, or how hard it’s going to be. Just jump in and start. Start that project you’re behind on, pick up some clothes from the floor, start washing dishes, just start doing it. – Now!

The truth is you didn’t make this mess in a day and you’re probably not going to finish it, fix it or clean it up in one day either. But if you continue as you have until now you will only make it worse.

Let’s face it, we are not organized people, we never will be. That is just not who we are. We have a long list of other traits and abilities that make us special, but organization skills are not on that list. So an organized plan to solve our problems designed by someone who is organized just won’t work for us. We can’t really get organized. We can try really hard for a while, but organization is contrary to our basic nature and that’s one of the reasons why we are so special.
Even though we have no real hopes of ever being truly organized, there are some key things that we must learn and understand from our more organized brothers and sisters.