The Adult ADHD Tool Kit: Using CBT to Facilitate Coping Inside and Out by J. Russell Ramsay & Anthony L. Rostain

Author:J. Russell Ramsay & Anthony L. Rostain
Language: eng
Format: mobi
Tags: Psychopathology, Clinical Psychology, Mental Health, Attention-Deficit Disorder (ADD-ADHD), Psychology
ISBN: 9781135072292
Publisher: Routledge
Published: 2014-08-26T21:00:00+00:00

96 Materials Management

reach a point of overflow that can be seen, your e-mail inbox can be “overflowing,” but your screen still will only show the most recent 25 or so messages.

Similar to sorting through snail mail for action items, you will have to find time to go through your e-mail. During these times, you can delete unnecessary items and use a tagging or flagging system for important e-mails requiring follow-up (e.g., red flag for time-urgent items, green tag for personal commitments, etc.). Different message folders can be set up and devoted to different projects or categories of e-mails (e.g., personal, bills, work). The final step is allocating time to go through the flagged e-mails and act on them. In addition to planning specific times at work or at home to do so, you can use portable devices to go through your e-mails while in a waiting room, commuting on the train, or during other downtimes.

In Chapter 8, we suggested having an e-mail account dedicated to your automated

payments that is separate from your other e-mails. This is also a useful piece of advice when providing an e-mail to retail stores. Most retailers will obtain an e-mail address from you or to receive other offers or notices, but you run the risk of being inundated with advertisements, etc. Even though it is not strenuous to hit the delete button, the onslaught of e-mails may distract you from more important ones.

Staying Organized

Organization requires time to establish and maintain. The goal of “getting organized”

often seems overwhelming and makes the task susceptible to procrastination—“I’ll get to this later, when I have time and am in the mood.” Adults with ADHD often overestimate how much time and effort will be required and underestimate the feeling of

accomplishment of being better organized that accompanies taking these steps.

Organization can be established and maintained by targeting specific tasks and keep-

ing them small and specific. We focused on mail and e-mail management above, though

the approaches for handling these items can be used to manage other items and situa-

tions. The task is then to think through a plan and the requisite tools that you may need.

The simpler the plan and the tools, the more likely you will be able to implement and sustain their use. The benefit of a coping tool is assessed by its ability to help you solve a problem. Hence, easy to find items, such as a shoebox by the front door or a nail in the wall are perfectly adequate ways to hold mail and keys, respectively.

It is beneficial to reframe an organizational task into behavioral terms. For example, many adults with ADHD report that seeing clutter or disorder further distracts them

and makes it difficult to focus on other priorities, such as trying to do work in a messy office. However, the goal of “organizing the office” is too large, vague, and thus overwhelming to take on. Instead, you can define a specific task-based approach, such as “I’m going to start by picking up all of the loose papers and unshelved books.

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