Overview

It is odd how a woman’s purse looks so good on me, a man.

– Joey, “Friends”

If you find yourself losing things, and just generally struggling to organize your stuff, bags, boxes and binders can help you almost literally find yourself. If you think of an ADHD brain like a preschool classroom, with all its delights and chaos, you can start to see the logic of adopting some of the same organizational techniques used to manage those developing minds. It may seem ridiculous on some level, to have bins for different commonly used items, a bag for the things you need to carry around, and binders to organize your work, but once you start to integrate some of these techniques into your life, you’ll wonder how you managed without them.

Why item management is important

Distraction means losing stuff. All the time. And that is time you never get back. Not only that, but losing stuff and losing time increases anxiety. All the time. Knowing where your stuff goes means you know where your stuff is. Rather than trying to remember to put your keys on the dresser all the time or which pocket they’re in, if you have them in a bag, you’ll never misplace them again. Same with papers of projects you’re working on. Compartmentalizing to a system will make your joyful playground of a mind much more focused on the fun and much less worried about the drudgery.

How to manage items better

The entire basis for this web site is “Bag it.” If all you take from this site is that you get in the habit of carrying items you need every day in an organized fashion in a bag, you’ll reduce anxiety and increase productivity more than any other tactic. If you extend the bag concept to other things you use all the time, such as your gym bag or your school or work bag, you’ll find peace in those steps as well. And if you extend the concept to the way you organize the things you store, you’ll not only spend less time finding that sleeping bag or tent or favorite pen, but you’ll be able to be more disciplined about not getting stuff that you already have.

The same approach applies to work and school papers. If you already have a system set up for what types of paper go where, and actually label file folders or separators in a binder, you’ll be ready to transport ideas and work in progress. I don’t buy the idea that a cluttered desk is a sign of an uncluttered mind. A cluttered desk or workspace, including your email inbox, is one more pile of distractions.

Eliminate mess in what you carry, what you store, what you work on by simply having places for all those items to go