The importance of order - who's with me here?

Post Reply New Topic

I've always noticed that anything that involves steps (i.e. a workbook, a game, an exercise...), hell, anything with any particular ORDER, to me has to be done in its rightful order. I feel like I've always been the one to drag down a workgroup or any group because of my strict adherance to the order. I can't skip chapters in a book, I can't eat salads or ice cream in winter, the list goes on...

Also, if you take away any of the steps, "bright" as I supposedly am, it thows me off - I can't comprehend what the final product should be or how to get there, sometimes no matter how simple the task (think Kraft Dinner simple). I can puzzle it out if it's simple, the missing link lighting up my thoughts like a lightbulb, and (apparently) everyone sees the "Ooooooooooh!!" on my face and they laugh...

This is one of the reasons people find me slow sometimes I think. Pretty strange for someone with ADHD - I always thought the shrink who pronounced me so was omitting the fact that most kids with the condition are always jumping from page to page, show to show, etc... in fact the only things that he seemed to get right was my constant foot / leg movements and busy hands, and my tendancy to zone out during boring stuff like most conversations!

Oh, I USED to do that. NOW, I skip around. 8-( Too many books have too much fluff! Even learning languages now, I am doing the last part first. 8-( Your way WOULD be better for learning a language. That IS how I learned english, nd I found that a lot of things I had to LEARN would have been automatic, but oh well.

Steve

I can do things out of order sometimes but tasks like eating food or doing something with specific steps that I don't know how to do well have to be done in order.

Disorganization and a carefree approach to things/work which are important to me drives me INSANE.

OFF WITH THEIR HEADS!! !

OK, maybe I was looking at this a bit differently from you. For TASKS, such as conversion, driving, shopping, I DO like order. I just want to make one short trip, and be DONE. So, I guess it depends. ALSO, I often don't read instructions for things. I like to figure them out.

Steve

I agree entirely. As far as I am concerned, the way that something is done is equally as important as what is to be done. To me, this means that actions are carried out in a specific order. However, I can see that such an approach may stifle innovation.

I am intrigued by people who can take what appears to be a disorganised approach to tasks and yet can complete them successfully; I’ve often wondered how their brains are working during such a process.

I do concur with the point made by DrowningMedusa about not being able to see a final product. I take the view that if the correct steps are carried out in the correct order, then the final product must be correct. This is not always the case.

I’m also rather poor at lateral thinking. Does anyone else find this?

I have a subtle diversion to this. I often flick to the back of a book and read the last sentence or two so that I know what the result will be and where it will end up, even if it isn't specific. This nearly ruined the ending of the latest Harry Potter book I was reading!


Not really: I've come up with the idea that Common Sense could be a physical object and the Universe is shaped like a Pine Tree!

Disorginization is the downfall of civilization - that's why they stopped putting trees in big groups and put them in rows now- same with corn and beans and wheat n stuff, right? If there are rules, Brendon HAS to folllow them TO-A-T. He has to do things in order... now my ADHD child... heh.. a WHOLE other story..her alphebet goes abhusrth instead of abcdefg.

I depend on order as well. As simple as things are, I hope they stay that way.

I'm sorry to sound vain, but there are some qualities that make me care only about myself.

I feel the need for order, but live in chaos!

If it's not done the way it says to be done, I will b***h and moan til people start to do it right

Sometimes the order does matter for the task, like if you're doing something on the computer or a phone that NEEDS to be done in a certain order or the desired result won't occur.

If someone is showing me some such task, and they leave out a task that, to them, seems intuitive but doesn't to me because I haven't done it before, then it'll take me longer to learn. For instance, a boss once was trying to teach me to do a cash flow worksheet, and I had minimal Excel skills and didn't realize you'd have to do one particular thing to get the final results. She thought I'd know that and left it out, so I was having problems.

If it's anything mechanical, or even computer-related, I'm always so afraid I'll screw up that I wonder how I ever learn anything.

I haven't been on a job where I had to be in a work group yet, and I'd be terrified to be in one because 1. The people would probably not like me; 2. I might not know as much as they did and they'd be upset. 3. I might redo something someone else had done and they'd think I was trying to take credit. 4. I might not learn at the same rate as the others and slow them down and they'd hate me. 5. They'd probably all go out to lunch or a drink after work and exclude me. If they did include me I'd think they were doing it out of pity and would be afraid to go. 6. If work groups formed and dissolved all the time for various projects, I'd be the one person that no one wanted on their group, and it'd be like being chosen last at recess or for teams in gym.

I wouldn't care what order they did stuff in, as long as it got done. Sometimes if I'm doing stuff on my own I do it in a particular order because I'm used to it, but then if someone comes along and shows me a more efficient way I'll make the change. The one thing I would probably say I was order-conscious about would be the social thing..that at some poiont they'd want to go to lunch or for a drink after work and relax, and not invite me, and I would imagine this was going on even if it wasn't (for instance, they might not be the type that care ot socialize with co-workers; they might need to go pick up their kids, or whatever, and just not be doig anything. But I would think they probably were and just didn't want to or forgot to invite me.

I find that I think in terms of processes which might be similar to your ideas of order. I can't do anything with any kind of speed or efficiency unless I figure out a process of doing it first. For instance, I do a lot of design for the theater. I have a process I follow every time I start a design.

1. Read the Play for content and plot.

2. Read the Play while taking detailed notes on the elements I'm designing (sound, lights, or set for instance). I have example tables I use to take these notes which basically ask me what details I need to figure out for each element of the design. This way a very complex set of ideas comes down to almost filling in the blanks.

3. Meet with the director.

4. Modify and execute design.

5. Repeat 3 and 4.... a lot.


I have several variations on this model for design and through working with it I have become a pretty proficient designer. It takes a lot of notes (my last design had about 10,000 words worth of my shorthand notes), but the high level of organization was the only way I was able to keep up with it.

Without these systems I create, I become paralyzed and I have no idea what to do next. I also keep detailed To Do Lists otherwise I just won't get anything done. In some ways it takes me a lot longer to learn a new thing but once I get a good system created for doing that thing I am very fast and effective at it. Much of the time I can just adapt a system for doing something I already know how to do to something I don't know that is somewhat similar.