Who Put the Ketchup in the Medicine Cabinet?

Archive for the ‘organizing for ADHD’ Category

Are you organized for the school year yet? Do you have your calendars, your color coded notebooks, your staging areas near the back door? If you aren’t familiar with what I’m talking about, check out our these hints to help your ADHD child get organized.

We’ve talked quite a bit about getting organized by having a shared calendar. Lots of our problems with ADHD kids stem from them – and us – being disorganized, forgetting things, and so forth. Most of us have a big paper calendar in the kitchen, but we’ve discussed that there isn’t a great way to sync things electronically from dad to mom to kid to kid – especially for those of us who don’t have web enabled phones.

Google has solved that for us. For the very big pricetag of $0 – at least if you live in the United States and have a Gmail account.

Here’s what we found – and are doing!

• If you use Outlook, you can sync it to a Google calendar. If you have Outlook on two computers, you can sync all three. There are other email programs that sync with Google calendars, too. Google it for more details.
• If each person in your family has a Google calendar, you can share them with each other, so that everyone in a family sees a color coded calendar which shows the entire family’s events.
• Google will email you your schedule for the next day. (It emails you at 5 am your time. No choice on the time. I wish it would email me 9:00 pm the night before.)
• Google will text you event reminders.
• AND you can add events to your calendar via TEXT.

So, today I texted myself an appointment. It went to my Google calendar, which is visible on everyone else’s calendars in the house. It also appears on the Outlook calendars on BOTH of my computers.

I cannot tell you how helpful this is – it’s the solution we’ve been looking for and were willing to pay to get. Scary as it is, I love Google.

Here’s how it all works together
First of all, as I mentioned, you have to have a Gmail account, which has a calendar attached. And you have to be using the calendar. If you’re not (and I wasn’t) the good news is that you can sync most of your email calendars to your Google Calendar. Here’s how to sync your Google calendar to Outlook.

How to sync the Google calendars for a family.

1. Click settings>calendar settings
2. Click the “Calendars” tab
3. Click on the calendar you wish to share. A new window will open.
4. Click the “Share this calendar” tab
5. in the “Share with specific people section”, enter the gmail addresses of the people with whom you want to share.

You and your husband and kids are now synced!

How to connect your Google Calendar to your cell phone. (Only one Gmail account per phone number.)

1. Go back to “Calendar Settings”.
2. Click on the “Mobile Setup” tab.
3. Fill in the fields for your cell phone. Watch those preferences – Google will text, popup or email you before each event.
4. Google will text you a confirmation code.
5. OPEN the text message. If you don’t you won’t see the code, and you may confuse Google’s text number for it. (At least I did…)
6. Enter the verification code and click “Save”.

How to add events to your calendar with your NON web enabled phone.

Now, here’s the fun – and slightly scary – part. If you’re away from your desk and you want to add an appointment to your calendar, you can! Just text GVENT (48368), and write the appointment like you would on your calendar. “Ash Ortho appt at 1 pm on September 10.” Or “Meet Joe at the Louvre tomorrow at 12:30.” (Don’t I wish…) And Google will figure out what you mean, add it to your calendar, then text you that they’ve done it.

You can get also:

Get your daily schedule emailed to you.
Get text reminders from your Gmail calendar.
Check your Google calendar from your phone.
And lots more.

So what do you think? Will this help your family as much as it has helped ours? Over the summer, ave you found something else that has worked? Share your experiences below!

I’m working on rewriting the Moms To Do list on goaskmom.com, and I sort of got stuck on #2, Order, Order which talks about getting organized. The original post talks about how my husband and I use Palms to organize our busy households. Funny how the Palm – which was the cutting edge back then – now seems so dated. And it’s amazing how we went from being totally dependent on a PDA (when’s the last time you heard that term?) to not needing it at all.

Since our kids have started to drive, they basically keep their own schedules. And I work at home, so I’ve just been using the Outlook calendar on my computer. Still, I like gadgets, and my husband and I are working on a project that is going to require a bit more synchronization of schedules. And what about all of you who DO need a synchronized family calendar. What should we use? I posed the question on Facebook and Twitter, and came up with something surprising. Paper calendars are still used in almost every household, followed closely by Google calendar. One mom uses the calendar on her cell phone, then transfers it to…a paper calendar. So much for expensive gadgets…

I Googled around, and found that I could sync my Outlook with Google calendars using this handy tool. You can do the same with your internet phone here.

But, unbelievably, I don’t have a cell phone that connects to the internet. I’m just way too cheap. (And can you imagine how much it would cost to have all six of our family on cell phones that were internet enabled?)

So now I’m throwing the question out to you guys. How do you keep your family schedule organized? Post your response in the comments section below. Thanks!

So you’ve made a resolution, and this year you’re getting rid of clutter! You’re going to eliminate the clutter! ADHD kids crave order, even if they don’t act like it. If your home is in disarray, your children can’t focus. If you haven’t already, make it your New Year’s resolution to clear a path – and clear the clutter!

There are several great online products to help you de-clutter and organize your stuff.

One of my favorite resources is Fly Lady. She’ll nag via email, and help you organize your life step by step – with no charge – including getting rid of clutter!

Another unique approach to decluttering is The Ultimate Guide to Getting Rid of Clutter for Adults with ADD. It promises to get rid of your clutter once and for all with a simple, three-step process!

If you’re looking for a more immediate solution, try
Clear Your Clutter, Clear Your Mind. Personal Organization Made Easy. It gets you on a fast track – blitzing you to organization.

I really like DeClutter Fast – Get Your Home In Order!. It’s a quick read, and offers an ‘off the beaten path’ approach to de-cluttering.

One more resource that bears mentioning is Finally Organized Finally Free. It’s a long manual, full of rich ideas that are best used by the non-ADHD individual. Look over to the right side of the page for two other fabulous resources: Finally Organized, Finally Free for the Office, and the best way to keep up with your paperwork: Get Organized Now!™ Easy Organizer.

So – what are you waiting for? Time’s a wasting. Start getting rid of clutter now!

PS Find out how to organize an ADHD child!

Yesterday, one of our sons was late to work. He neglected to follow the advice – no, the law – I have given him and his brothers from the time they were in Kindergarten. “Get your stuff out the night before.” My son waited until one hour before he was supposed to start waiting tables to look for his work shirt. When he found it, it was in the bottom of the laundry with ink stains, and had to be washed, dried and ironed. He was highly frustrated, but had the grace to tell me, “It’s not your problem.”

He’s darn tootin’ it wasn’t my problem. I have told them until I’m blue in the face. Get out your socks, your shoes, your shin guards, your index cards, your lunch money, your underwear and for Heaven’s sake your Pomodoros Italian Restaurant work shirt the night before! If you do, we’ll all work together to find whatever is missing, dirty, or yet unpurchased. If you wait until the morning – well, “It’s not my problem.” My boys have gone to school without coats, missing projects, wearing dirty socks and/or borrowed underwear, simply because they didn’t plan the night before. I’m not trying to be unmerciful.* I’m just trying to get my boys prepared for life. So that maybe, just maybe, when they grow up, they wont’ be late to work because their uniform is dirty. Or, maybe not.

But at least I can say, “It’s not my problem.” And then wallow in mounds of guilt, while still knowing I’m teaching a life lesson by not being a helicopter parent…

*Disclaimer: Actually, being unmerciful doesn’t require effort on my part, I’m sorry to say. My boys have accused me of having the gift of no mercy. So I am happy to report that I did participate in the discovery and cleaning of the errant shirt. Or my son would have been a whole lot later than he already was. I get a nice mommy award.

Visit our websites at http://www.goaskmom.com.

Here are some great books for Adults with ADHD. Ask for them on your Christmas list!

ADD-Friendly Ways to Organize Your Life – A good response to the needs of adults with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder. It deals directly and exclusively with the greatest challenge that adults with ADHD face: the problem of disorganization.

Moms with ADD: A Self-Help Manual – Chapters on juggling, dealing with school, work, and holidays. Some really good ideas are presented, but even with all the strategies included, I found this book hard to read. It seems to try a bit to hard.

Out of the Fog: Treatment Options and Coping Strategies for Adult Attention Deficit Disorders – This is an informative first read for adults who have – or suspect they have – ADHD.

Survival Tips for Women with AD/HD: Beyond Piles, Palms, & Post-its – Just the title of this book is an enticement to read. The author touts her book by saying, “Many AD/HD adults have lived for years in shame, depressed that they can’t do what for others seem to be such simple things. This book fills the void by offering concrete solutions to daily problems, submitted by AD/HD women for AD/HD women.” Amen. A wonderful book with hundreds of ways to help. Like, leave the door open to your microwave when you’re not using it so you’ll remember to take what is in it out. (Who’s been there?!) I also love all the Beatles references in the book…

Chapter samples:
Strawberry Fields: Meals and Entertaining
We Can Work it Out: Relationships and Social Skills
Come Together: Parenting and Family
Taxman: Managing Finances
I’ve Just Seen a Face (But I Can’t for the Life of Me Remember the Name): Memory Tips
Revolution: Technology

Keeping homework organized for school is such a major challenge for kids with ADHD. They lose it, mix it up, remember things that don’t exist, ruin it, and are sure they put it “right there”…We’ve discovered a few top ideas that help even the worst ADHD offenders.

Color Code – At the beginning of the year, each subject gets a color, and the notebook and folder for that subject stay the same throughout. Actually in our house, every year, math is green (for money), science is black (for dead things!), social studies is blue (for the world), and English is red (for frustration?). If you’re behind, use your Christmas break and get ahead for 2009. Were we really organized, we would also:

• Write homework in the planner with the appropriately colored marker
• Cover books with the subject color
• After homework is finished, make a bold colored line to mark notebook paper at the top of the page. This helps with organizing all those papers shoved in the bottom of the bookbag, and might help your child find the right paper to turn in.

NOTE: I bought some paper on Clearance that had a colored line already printed at the top. (I can’t find it anymore – online or off – it wasn’t exactly best-selling.) My non-ADHD child, who has the gift of organization, loves it. He says it has trained him to label his pages uniformly. I’ve tried this to the other boys to no avail, but it might work with your kid!

Staple – Keep a stapler out at all times, and staple all papers together. I’ve even stapled papers to the planner, so my son would only have to rip them off when it was time to turn them in the next day.

Back Pack Drawer – We put a huge filing cabinet beside our back door. In it goes everything for the next day – the homework in the homework folder, but also clothes, stockings, back packs, lunch, notes, sports equipment, gym clothes, hats and jackets.

Label things. Put your child’s name in BIG letters on homework. This also goes for front and back of notebooks and folders, on the side pages of textbooks (do it in pencil even if you have to pay a fine!), and everything else your child takes out of the house. A silver Sharpie is brilliant for labeling dark items like calculators, water bottles, flash drives and cell phones. Buy one of those Sharpies with a clip on it, and permanently attach it to your keychain or purse so it will always be handy. Don’t let your kids out of the car without labeling!

Note that there are great Christmas stocking ideas stuffed into this post: Sharpies, staplers, flash drives go along with the old standby’s toothbrushes and razors. These are all great little gifts for all those on your list. Check out more Christmas ideas at E300-Scooter.com for Christmas And don’t forget to label that Scooter! : )

I just created a Squidoo Lens with ten tips on how to keep your ADHD child organized. It could also be titled: “How I Kept My Sanity in the Chaos of Three ADHD Boys”. Check it out here: http://www.squidoo.com/organizeADHD.

Make sure you take a look at three of my favorite books on Organizing an ADHD Child.