Being Organized and Needing to Make Schedules

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I used to consider myself well organized and efficient. But reality always differed from this internal concept of myself: for example, there are always piles of papers and other things all over the house, and I can never stick to the very specific and detailed schedules I make for myself.

Now I realize that there are two things in play: first, a deep desire for clear structure (hence the feeling that I am an "organized" sort of person) and second, a lack of executive function. I do truly prefer well-organized and uncluttered surroundings, and feel better having a clear structure to my day, yet I cannot for the life of me seem to "get motivated enough" to stick to e.g. a cleaning schedule. On the othr hand, I easily feel overwhelmed by everything that needs to be done.

The only thing that seems to motivate me (and it works very well) are commitments to others -- for example, I am *always* on time with my translation assignments. But that doesn't work in all areas, because there isn't always someone to make a commitment to, the breaking of which would horrify me.

I'm starting to cut myself a little slack for being this way: after all, I *am* this way, and it isn't laziness or selfishness. It's frustrating and not so handy all the time, but it isn't "bad."

Another thing I have noticed is that I feel the need to make very detailed schedules for myself when I start to feel overwhelmed. (I now make them in Excel, with color for different types of activities, like orange for family-related -- light orange for things related to the kids, green for translation, and yellow for fitness, and time slots for every 15-minute period of the day.) The making of the schedule is what calms me, as though I've sorted everything out in my brain. I never manage to follow the schedule for very long, but I'm beginning to realize that that is not (or shouldn't be, at any rate) the point in making the schedule. The real point is that it calms me while I'm making it, whether I ever do anything listed on it or not.

Anyone who can relate?

Not exactly the same, but I have a simular experience here Grayson.

Doing things that really have to be done right away, I have no real problem with doing it (I often do do not like it, but I will do it). But when it comes to uninteresting (= about all things that I am not obsessed with) tasks, that maybe done today, or maybe done tommorrow, or next week, I will never do by myself. Unless I am told to do so (making it "commitments to others").

I also often make lists of what I have to do (no nice schedules just simple list), and sometimes it helps. So I can take the list, and once in a while, pick a task that seems most urgent or least boring to do. These lists help to organize my mind and also make me feel more comfortable. When I do not make these lists I really can not think of what is most urgent, and I also often really forget what needs to be done without it.

Sounds very much like me.


I love my job because it is so structured and relatively routine.
My desk/office at work is a mess....but I know exactly where everything is.
I hate using file cabinets because the term "out of site, out of mind" very much aplies to me there. If I put it away it's gone forever.
When I went on vacation, my office mate cleaned my desk.....I wasn't too happy about that....I took about 2-3 days for me to stop making comments to her about it.

I just can't clean my house regularly.
I am very embaressed about the mess, so I basically moved into my bedroom and just live there so I don't use and mess up the rest of the house. (there are a few exceptions though). That way, when I have a freind over or unexpected visitor, the the house is clean and relatively organized......just don't go upatairs.

I too am always ontime with commitments to social occasions (rare as they are). I start to get anxious and stimmy when I'm running late......but that hardly ever happens. I'm also rather demanding that the ones I'm meeting are on time too. I suppose since it takes such an effort for me to do so, I expect the same in return.

I always ask my superiors at work for a dealine on whatever assignment I'm given.....And it's usually done by then.....if not they are informed very early on why I can't get it done in the time frame specified.

I make lists, to guide me. Can't say I'm either spontaneous or a planner, it's hybrid of both. List gives strucure that I can, as the moment dictates, deviate from or adhere to. List is the outline I could follow, with my options spelled out for me-forget them otherwise. Tough to predict my future desires/needs, so list is for possibilities-but I retain veto power, not wedded to mandate of it.
Also, perhaps a separate issue:unless task is urgent, hard to motivate self. Thing is, same task may feel urgent one minute & then not, the next minute. That is huge problem for me, in many areas. I send mixed messages because I experience rapidly changing conditions. Either in extreme procrastinate/avoid mode or in extreme crisis/help now mode, back & forth I go.
For instance, a health problem-should I call dr. for appt. ? When in acute pain, easy answer is yes-but the pain subsides & I feel like it can wait & then I put off dealing with the chronic problems. Can't seem to integrate the polarities of my experiences across time, get caught up in whichever subjective reality I'm inhabiting currently.

I love organization but I must profess, my apartment doesn't look organized. My information is always organized and my books are organized (in my particular order) though I unfortunately am severely lacking shelves.

I really enjoy the act of organizing. But in my apartment, I don't have enough shelves and other places to put things (I have too much stuff) so it's all falling out all over the place.

I like clutter. But I prefer organized clutter.

I print my own calendars and include data on work, my exercise schedule, Los Angeles Kings hockey games, Vandenburg Air Force Base rocket launches, and anything else I can think of. My life revolves mostly around exercise and meals (I eat five-six meals a day.) So, my life is extremely routine. Not so routine, however, that I can’t break the routine for better things! I have no problem blowing everything off if I look outside and see nice weather. In those cases, I will up and leave. I do prefer to plan most of my activities, but can be spontaneous without feeling too bad about breaking my routine. When I don't have anything special to do, I always revert to my normal, daily routine.

Sometimes I use lists as well. I used to have a real problem leaving the house, because I would always forget things. I’d end up sitting in my truck in the garage, remembering what I forgot. So I’d go back in the house, retrieve the item and try to leave again….only to remember something else. This would go on twice or thrice depending on how many things I had forgotten.

Now I have several lists of things I need to take with me. One is for trips to the market, another for going to work, another for going on a day-trip photo expedition, one for a day hike, and one for an overnight backpacking trip. Also, I have different bags to carry my stuff in. I’m one of those people who takes tons of stuff with himself everywhere. When I leave, I usually just need the right bag. If I’m going to the market, it isn’t a tragedy if I forgot something, as I’m close to home. If I’m going to drive 150 miles to take some pictures, I will always consult my list.

My PC is very organized as well. Music is divided into separate folders by genre, artist, and album. Saved articles are all divided as well: political, science, humor, etc. Everything on my PC has its place and I know exactly where to find it. My bookshelves are organized by subject matter, then by author’s surname. My receipts for purchased items are in dated Ziploc bags. Etc, etc.

I guess I’m pretty organized.

I can relate.
I was obsessively organized when I was younger and had time for such things.
I like a neat living space but have been ill and stressed for a long time so just getting things back to normal now. My mantra is little by little it'll all get done. I make sure to pick up and put away a few things every day. When I have energy I go on cleaning sprees and tell myself how great it looks afterwards.
The lack of executive function is how it gets messy beyond my ability to clean it all in one day. I have a table in my living room that just defeats me - while I was ill it collected a lot of stuff and now I get pretty paralyzed looking at it. I have been removing things in categories and that is helping. Soon I will put everything into a sorting box and put it in the attic.
My sorting boxes are boxes into which I put a bunch of things I don't know how to store. When I am looking for something and go through a sorting box I take out a few things and put them where they belong or throw them away.

I am utterly time anal and always need to be early to places. I don't need schedules because this is so often foremost on my mind.

Except for little reminders for me to do stuff which really require no schedules-- only that they get done; those I put in my PDA and it rings when I need to do them.

I'm pretty obsessively organized. In addition to some prtty rigid routines, I email reminders to myself for stuff and organize my class schedules into my own systematic format in an MSWord spreadsheet. When I was applying for the honors program at my school, I was asked to list the honors classes I had taken and the pysch classes I had taken and put both of THOSE in a spreasheet. I didn't have to but it seemed like a good thing to do.