This is going to sound daft- am I the only one?

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This is going to sound daft. When I think about organising myself I get really anxious,muddle headed and feel overwhelmed. My mind is like a jumble of wires.

What do you mean by organise yourself? give me an example?

Organising in what way? Often if I look at any kind of big task my initial reaction is to feel overwhelmed.

It's difficult to explain. It very much involves difficulty with multi step tasks . It's hard for me to join the steps together from A to E, for example.

A current example boxing and organising my stuff in preparation to move to a new place . Luckily my stepdaughter will be helping me out .

You're not the only one; I'm exactly the same. I get overwhelmed by the big picture of the task ahead.

I know things need to be broken down into steps, but even trying to think of the steps overwhelms me and I can't think straight.

I muddle through in the end, and manage to get things done, but not without this exact feeling at the start and sometimes even during the entire process.

It may help to make written lists, sit down with pen and paper and think about the first very small thing that has to happen, then the next, etc.

Or also deal with what is the first physical thing in front of you, then the next, then the next and so on. Try to focus on the sub-tasks and put the over-all job to the back of your mind. Physically look at and pick up and deal with one thing at a time literally; that can help to break things up into smaller tasks.

I can relate to how you feel though. It's hard. You can do it -- but that feeling is hard.

That's a huge task IMO , I'm sure I could get it done on my own though but I would have anxiety about moving for starters. If I wasn't just packing up a bedsit it would be overwhelming and I'd struggle where to start. I'd probably google the best ways to do things.
Would it be done in a way that would make it helpful for me the other end - I doubt it.
The last time I moved was with my GF and she was great for things like that and didn't mind when I said "What shall I do next" after each step

I am mixed up the whole time!

People say to break things down into small, manageable parts but how the heck do you get those parts into a logical order?

With moving, one way of going about things would be:

1. Start gathering together the boxes you will need.
There are places you can buy cardboard boxes, or you can sometimes still go to shops like an off license and ask if they have unwanted boxes -- boxes in which bottles of wine have been shipped are very sturdy and great for packing to move house.

2. Gather together protective packing materials for breakable items. You can use towels to wrap things, newspaper, and bubblewrap.

3. One way to start with your things is to go room by room.
Get a box and use a marker to write "Kitchen" on the sides.
Go to your kitchen, and start in one corner, one drawer or one cupboard.

Pick up each object and think about whether you want to bring this with you, do you use it every day or at least once a year? Or do you never use it?

If you never use it, put it in the bin or the recycling.

If it's an item you want, put it into one of your cardboard boxes.

If something is breakable, wrap it in newspaper or bubble wrap or towels.

4. Continue like this with each area of the room, each drawer or cupboard or worktop, and the items there.

Writing the name of the room on the boxes will help when you get to the new place. When you get there you unload the boxes and put them into the room where those things need to be: kitchen, bathroom, bedroom etc.

This is just a few basic tips to help. When packing to move it helps to just think of one object at a time. It's also a good way to get rid of stuff you haven't used and pare things down to what you really want to keep.

I rarely ever create an actual step-by-step or phased plan when I have a multi-step task. What happens for me is I get a picture in my mine what it all needs to work out to be, & like an artist, I just tweak whatever needs tweaking or add/subtract whatever is needed in order to make the picture a reality.

For example, if I need to clean my kitchen, I see in my mind how I want it to look & I go about it by seeing pots that need to be cleaned so clean them, seeing the floor with crumbs or dust so I sweep, see the fridge has crumbs, so I wipe the shelves off. Nothing needs to be done in order.

The only time I follow step-by-step directions is for cooking recipes & google-maps (neither of which I could make myself). I do make a semi-ordered plan for computer programming, but that is difficult to explain to a non-programmer. I can still do some parts of it similar to how I clean the kitchen, but there are definite pieces of code that need to be implemented before other parts of the code. Experience is how I've worked that out.

Well whatever order or lack of order works for you, works for you.

But with something like cleaning, there is actually an optimal order in which to do things that's the most efficient just by sheer logic of what happens with gravity.

For example, it's best in cleaning to work "top to bottom" because dirt and dust falls to any surface below it.

If you sweep up crumbs from your floor and clean it first, then start wiping crumbs from the worktops or pulling down a spiderweb from the ceiling, stuff lands on your clean floor sometimes and you have to clean it again. . .

It's just logic to start at the top of the room, top of the shelves, top of whatever, and work down. Experience is how I worked that out -- I've been making a living as a professional cleaner for 23 years.

But if random works for you then go ahead.

Just saying, being more systematic can be more efficient and prevent messing up something you already cleaned.

For me, I go super-systematic. It's the only way I can do anything well or properly and it works out to be the most time-efficient and thorough for me. I divide everything up by sections one after the other.

Sounds like what happens to me when I try to tidy up my house or pack to go on a long vacation. The project is just too big for me, and not only do I not know how to do it, my brain seems to fog over and then I can't even intelligently describe why I can't do it or whereabouts in the process I've hit a brick wall. It's as if trying to do the task is so distressing and confusion that my mind shuts down from even thinking about it. It's a bummer because if I can't see why I can't do it, I can't focus down on the part that's tripped me over, so I can't formulate a new method for having another go. I'd like to film myself trying to do these things, and comment on what's going on while I'm trying, that way if I played the video back, maybe I'd notice something that cleared the block. But filming myself and providing a running commentary would be a big distraction from the actual task, so it might not work. I have to get by as best I can by telling myself I can do it, making repeated attempts, and muddling through without really knowing what I'm doing. It's also helpful if I expect the task will take a long time and that I might not see much progress for a while.

I wish It was that simple for me On my last move I found at least 5 boxes that were stored in the cupboard when I first moved in and which were never opened from the prior move I used to be a really bad hoarder.

OP. It sounds like an EF issue. I saw your other post on working memory but replying to that topic is broken atm. Working memory is also part of EF. I don't think that particular test was a good measure of overall working memory. There are different parts. I didn't find that test hard but give me something like a verbal math word problem and forget it. In the cognitive testing my neuropsychologist did I failed over half of those. I knew this about myself already though. I always tell people to write stuff down because I WONT remember. This post has a decent write-up on different areas of EF.

https://musingsofanaspie.com/executive-function-series/

I totally get this - I think it's part of the executive function (planning) weakness that comes with AS/ASD.

PLEASE go check out flylady.net, and specifically the tips on moving http://www.flylady.net/d/getting-starte ... ns/moving/
Everything is broken down into baby steps and specifics, and it's super easy to follow.

Best of luck with the move!