What's a good way to get organized?

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I find that I lose a lot of productivity every day because I am unorganized. Being an aspie doesn't help. I am trying to find a way to get better organized, and so far my best bet I am thing is to replace my current phone and get a Blackberry, and learn how to use that, especially with the scheduling functions.

I'm sorry that have no practical advice, but I will be watching this thread closely.

As long as I've had responsibilities, I have had trouble organizing them. I don't know exactly why that is, although I have plenty of theories. It's unimportant.

My biggest problem is that I will suddenly experience a flash of fervor and organize everything about my life, and then it will quickly fade, and things descend into a muddled mess again. I have no consistency, and I don't know how to develop it. I can tell myself what I need to do all day long; I understand it intellectually. But I always have troubles making it a reality.

That is exactly my problem. If I don't have someone or something telling me what I need to do, I won't generally do it. That is why I do so much better at playing video games, as everything I would need to do in game is made clear to me as I am having to do it.

I really like Flylady. She gives baby steps for setting up routines and doing a control journal. I was doing really well with her before I got pregnant with my second child. Who turns 6 today;). But I'm starting anew.

ADHD, not on the spectrum here. Oh man, the organizational binge/purge. Nasty cycle to ride.

I can't say I have mastered it yet but the way I got some semblance of order and better control of my life was a coach of sorts. She was a therapist that specialized in attention deficit (I'm not on the spectrum). She's hardcore ADHD herself. Her office is office is a glorious example of utilitarian bare minimum. A desk, containing a receipt book two pens and a pencil and two pads of paper on top (one for her, one for you), two chairs, a bookshelf (empty), and a believe a plant. I got a binder and every 1 hour session we added all the info dump for the entire session in one page, occasionally two pages. Eight sessions was 11 pages of info+work done. These are the review I can go back to when I think things are slipping.

So basically something designed with the realities of ADD/ADHD in mind. And also tailored by myself to my on strengths and weaknesses. Expect me to read cover to cover a freaking 100 page book, even 50 pages, and put that "plan" into action? Fuggetaboutit!

We dug really deep. It was hard work, uncovering and fixing some old habits and wounds. She also turned me onto Strattera, was taking Dexedrine at the time. She couldn't prescribe but she suggested I look into it (it was fairly new here in Canada at the time). Huge difference for me. She also gave me the first real explanation of what I was suppose to be looking for in the meds and what they weren't.

Video games are designed for the player to succeed, to hit that sweet spot of challenge to enable learning and achievement to give the payoff. They are studies in psychology really. And it's handed to you on a plate. With life you usually have to go out and sort through a lot of [boring] crud to get to thus good parts. I feel like if life was a video game it'd be called Desert Bus.

I loathe using gadgets, am pretty "old school" - I have a large calendar on my desk - the "one month per page" type. I list deadlines on it in red. I list other important dates on it. For daily tasks, I keep a running list of "to do" things. At the end of the day I mark off the ones I have completed and check to see the priorities of those that remain. I will then either create a new list in the new priority order, or just continue using the same list if it's not too confusing. The first thing the next day I look at the list, and do the tasks in priority order. At the end of the week I re-evaluate what I've done, log it, and send it to my supervisors to keep them apprised of the status of the tasks at my desk. They seem to like that. The hard part is not straying from the list. If someone comes in and wants something done, it goes on the list at the priority that seems appropriate. It's hard to not just jump up and do their task, but unless it's vitally urgent, it goes on the list.

Good luck!

PS When I was in grad school, working, and raising a kid as a single parent, I put a grid of the week, broken into 1/2 hour increments for all waking hours, on the fridge. I color-coded my tasks: Blue was "in class time" orange was "study time", gray was "travel time", yellow was "housework", purple was "spend time with kid", pink was "grocery shopping," etc.... the act of making the chart and doing the color coding helped me put priorities on and budget my time. I made a new one every Sunday night, just before the two hours of "relax on your own with no chores" time I got every week. It helped me know how to plan the upcoming week....