2016 - Controlling the Chaos

Life last year got a little crazy.  Overwhelming. Tiring.  Exhausting.  A lot happened.  Much of this threw my ADHD out of control and what I'd always presumed were careful controls were shown to be utterly ineffective.

The last several months have been spent taking stock of my current systems for task management and accomplishment, working with 2 different counsellors to learn how to control my own chaos, and trying to make sense of the mess that is my house.

All of this put together has reignited my interest in blogging.  I figure if I am struggling, so are others, and maybe...just maybe... I have something of value to say.  Maybe my experience can help.  Maybe controlling the chaos really does start with rolling out if bed and throwing away one tissue today.  Tomorrow, you can do two.  

My biggest struggle as an adult with ADHD come from two directions at once: impulse control and task prioritization.  I can't look at a ball of yarn without desperately needing to turn it into something.  I need it on the needles, even if all my needles are in use.  Even if I have 13 projects in the go.  Even if the dishes have been sitting piled up in the kitchen for 2 days.  Add that impulse to my natural "pile" personality (my house is a series of piles), and you get something like this:

This is my storage room.  The left half of the room belongs to my husband and is a series of tidy shelves with stockable unperishables like soup, toilet paper, and laundry detergent.  The rest of the room... And the floor is mine.  Boxes stacked on boxes, and yarn stuffed and tangled into every crevice.

Priority one this year?  Turn that storage room into something more reasonable.  Find the floor.  Put the yarn in bags.

It is a slow process, learning to control the chaos.  It is a series of baby steps that starts with a donation bag in the corner of a room.  Don't need it? Can't bear to toss it? Donate it.

It is a process of repeat appointments in my daily calendar reminding me that Monday is for the kitchen, Tuesday for the floors (vacuuming and washing), Wednesday is for finding homes for things left out on random surfaces, Friday is for the bathrooms.  Saturday and Sunday are for laundry.  And Thursday?  Thursday's are mine.  Thursday's are for knitting, weaving, blogging, playing catchup, visiting friends, etc.

And if I get my daily must-do out of the way?  The rest of the day is mine, too.

I've been on the system for 2 months.  That's possibly the longest amount of time I have ever spent on any system.  The way I figure it, if small messes add up, maybe small changes will, too.