Edge Foundation Blog

Do you dread January’s New Year’s resolutions? Does it feel like just one more opportunity to let yourself down? This year try something a little different: think small, make only ONE resolution.

The Kaizen Approach to Self Improvement

Unless you work in a manufacturing business, you probably haven’t heard the term kaizen. Kaizen is a Japanese quality management philosophy that directs continual improvement in all aspects of a business – from the CEO to the assembly line.

In his book, One Small Step Can Change Your Life: The Kaizen Way, Robert Maurer takes the kaizen principal and applies it to everyday life. As the title suggests, Maurer recommends focusing your energy on taking small steps towards your goals instead of rushing and attempting to accomplish them in one big bite.

This might seem counterintuitive for the ADHD brain that can find it boring without going “all in” on a New Year’s resolution. But total immersion is hard to sustain and often leads to failure. We’ve all done it. Resolve to exercise 6 days a week. And we do, for the first week or so. But by the end of January, other parts of our lives have gotten in the way, and our “perfect record” is filled with holes. And by February we are discouraged and it’s easier to “forget” our goal than to keep failing at it.

Small Goals: Big Accomplishments

Maurer, a Kaizen expert, suggests setting small goals for yourself. Even large goals, like a doctoral thesis, can be broken down into a series of tiny steps that you take each and every day. Take piano, for example. Instead of trying to learn a whole piece of music on the first sitting, many musicians break down a new composition into a series of measures or bars. They work on these discrete units of music until they nail them. Only then do they move onto putting them all together. If you practice only one measure a day, you can still quickly learn an entire piece. But try to learn the whole thing in the first sitting and you’ll tire, your focus will lag, and discouragement can quickly follow.

Make Only One New Year’s Resolution

So instead of focusing on the big picture, try setting one or two small, achievable goals for yourself each day. Let yourself enjoy how great it feels to get those steps accomplished every day. How would the New Year look different to you if you just made one New Year’s resolution for yourself?

“I commit to doing one thing every day to achieving my intended purpose.”

Do you ever feel the urge to get organized at the end of the year? You aren’t alone. Just watch the seasonal items section of your local discount store in January where all types of containers and organizing systems will be featured.

You may have bought systems in the past, only to find they fell to the wayside. Professional Organizer, Judith Kolberg, offers an insight into why that may be the case:

Organizing, like reading, is a learned activity. Usually, we have a dominant learning style. The problem for people who are chronically disorganized is the organizing methods they are using are often not in concert with their learning style. For instance, if you’re a strong visual learner you can easily imagine the way you want a room organized in your ‘mind’s eye’, and you can mentally conjure up images of where you put things. But if you’re taking notes from a decorator, listening to verbal instruction or trying to use a filing index, those may not be your strengths.

Assess your learning style

Judith recommends checking out the learning style assessment provided by Ageless Learner.  Then when you are planning your new system, keep in mind what type of learner you are. If you are a visual person, draw a picture of what you want your room or desk to look like. Make space for visual reminders of what you need to get done. Put things in clear containers so you can see where they are.

Get support while breaking in your new system

And don’t get discouraged. An ADHD coach can help you figure out what type of organizational system will work for you. And, more importantly, help you practice using it until it’s an ingrained habit that lasts beyond the thrill of setting up a new system.

Have you ever considered your learning style’s impact on how to get organized?

Like this article? Check out Getting Organized ADHD Style

It’s just over a week until Christmas and the shopping frenzy is building for us all.  Last year we published a very popular post about how to keeping shopping impulses under control.  It contained 5 steps that everyone can follow:

1. Make a budget
2. Make a list
3. Prioritize
4. Keep it in cash
5. Avoid the mall

This year we thought it would be helpful to provide a simple tool you can use to help you keep track of your spending.  This is a low-tech, print-it-out-and-keep-it-close-at-hand is a  simple budget tracking thermometer.  Go ahead, open up the file and print it out.  Then we’ll talk about how it works.  Ready?

The pdf includes an old fashion thermometer that you color in as you spend your money.  A budget worksheet so you can plan how much to spend.  And a sample that shows you how quickly you can spend $600 if you don’t think carefully about what you are buying.  Start by writing down who you want to buy stuff for and what you’ve already spent on items.  Then add up how much it all will cost.  Divide your thermometer into even segments.  Start coloring it in.  When you reach the top, STOP SPENDING!

Did you have any idea how quickly you could blow through $300 without spending very much money per person?  Let us know if using this old-school tool gives you a new view on budgeting and keeping your spending under control.

Student Interview Audio File

Ever wonder what coaching was like from a student’s perspective?  Then open the link above to hear how one student has found coaching to be more effective than the medication she’s been taking to help her set goals and structure for her life.

College is a critical time for students with ADHD. Finding new strategies that work with ADHD is the key to success. We are pleased to announce that a new resource for college students is now available, free of charge! ADHD and College Success is an invaluable resource, jam-packed with ideas, tips, and encouragement to help college students with ADHD succeed.

Included in the whitepaper are 60 practical solutions for typical ADHD challenges. Highlights include:

• Using creative ways, like music, to keep yourself on schedule
• Working with your urge to procrastinate, not against it
• How to study smarter, not harder
• How to use fidgeting to stay focused
• 4 student qualities for success

Everything you need to know about ADHD, college, and living your dreams. Download your FREE copy at the bottom of this link today!

Editor’s Note: This week’s post was written by Award-winning Professional Organizer,
Judith Kolberg.

The first step to effective note taking is focused listening

Maybe it’s the school season, or that its “conference season”; whatever the reason, taking note and note taking is on the agenda. Note taking is no small task.

• It starts with taking note — listening intently to the talking-head and getting a grasp on what is said.
• Then it involves writing down both the most pertinent ideas and the relevant details and ignoring extraneous material.
• Finally, good note-taking results in actually using the notes in the appropriate context.

Inattention and distractibility make note taking hard for everyone

Even people without ADHD find it difficult to take note and note-take. Inattention, which makes the ADHD brain struggle to focus long and hard enough to get information into the brain in the first place, and distractibility, which moves attention away from the task at hand, conspire to make taking note really tough. And figuring out as you listen and write what is important and what is not is also challenging.

Note taking Tips for the ADHD Student

• Don’t look: Consider not looking at the speaker, but instead looking down at the paper or your laptop or whatever it is you are taking notes on. Sometimes knocking out some of the visual of looking at the speaker, can reduce distractions.
• Use the handouts! These days, most speakers and teachers give handouts with the central concepts already on them. Write on the handouts. Use highlighting. Add your own comments or thoughts. Since you did not create the handouts, you have to put your own imprint on them so they live and breathe and work for you.
• Share notes with a friend: Let someone else handle the details; go for the main concepts and ideas. You can often get the details from someone else’s notes, an audio recording, or a written transcript.
• Use shorthand: Develop a simple short hand but be certain you understand it! You might write the word “details” like this “dtails”. The letter “t” can stand in for “the”. A long phrase that is repeated, like “note-taking” can be written out once, and thereafter written as “n/t”.
• Try Mind Maps: Consider taking notes graphically by using mind maps. Click here for more information.
  Consider using note-taking software. Click here for more information.

Using Your Notes Effectively

Just a word about using your notes: separate your notes out by topic or subject and you’ll be able to utilize them better. Say you went to a conference on ADHD and took notes about medication and on memory and on ADHD humor. Separate them, make the topic prominent, and stick your notes where they will be used next. For instance, put the medication notes in a file to bring to your next doctor appointment to discuss with your doctor. In your calendar, on the date of the doctor appointment write “bring notes”. The notes on memory might just be for your own edification so call then “Don’t Forget” and file them under “ADHD”. Maybe you’ll want to use the ADHD humor notes in your next presentation. Stick the notes in with your presentation material. In other words, put notes where they are most likely next to be utilized.

Have you ever tried recording important lectures? Do you have your own shorthand? Have you ever asked someone to share notes with you? Let us know what note taking strategies have worked for you.