Organize Your Mind, Organize Your Life Read Online Free PDF Page A

or—like this morning—Jill could continue running in verbal circles and not getting anywhere. “Okay, so, you were looking for your keys…?” Jill smiles. “Oh, right, yes, I was flipping out. I spent thirty minutes trying to find my car keys.”
    Jill then stops, shaking her head.
    â€œWell, did you find them?” I ask.
    She nods ruefully. “Eventually.”
    â€œWhere were they?”
    â€œRight on my friend’s kitchen table! And, of course, I’d walked back and forth through the kitchen ten times while I was looking for them. All that time they were right there…right there in front of me. Unbelievable!”
    â€œSounds very frustrating…but pretty believable, as those keys have eluded you before.” Jill smiles ruefully, and I press on. “Then what happened?”
    â€œMy day was in shambles from that point on.” Jill went on to relate how the half hour she’d spent looking for the keys set off a domino effect of tardiness and inefficiency—problems galore. She arrived at work late for a meeting and opened the door to the conference room just in time to interrupt an important point that one of her company’s head honchos was making. Embarrassed and angry at herself, she returned from the meeting and finally got in front of her computer to find a barrage of e-mail reminders that further annoyed and overwhelmed her. She sent out a flurry of responses, including a snippy reply to the wrong person, who was not happy to get it (neither was the correct recipient, when she eventually cleared up the mistake). Dealing with her e-mail gaffe kept her from attending to a project due by noon. Her deadline blown, she skipped lunch, scrambling to get her work done, and what she did hand in—two hours late—was subpar and received with something less than an enthusiastic response by her supervisor.
    In other words, it was a crummy day for Jill. It wasn’t the first time such a day had begun with something misplaced or by an episode of forgetfulness, but the snowball effect of losing her keys still surprised and upset her.
    â€œThis happens all the time,” Jill says, teary-eyed, angry and ashamed. “At this rate, I could lose my job…just because I can’t keep track of stupid things like keys.”
    I’m sorry to hear that Jill is upset, but her story is not unusual. Jill has ADHD—and she is certainly not alone. It’s estimated that about 4 percent of adults and 5–7 percent of children in this country meet the medical criteria for ADHD. It’s equally safe to estimate that at some point in their lives almost everyone has felt as if they have ADHD, too. The symptoms of ADHD include forgetfulness, impulsiveness, losing items, making careless errors, being easily distracted and lacking focus. Who hasn’t exhibited one of these symptoms in the last few days…or even hours? Who hasn’t lost their car keys? Who hasn’t been distracted in the car (once the keys are located), on the job or at home—by a text, a tweet, an e-mail, a cell phone ring? Who hasn’t been late for a meeting or missed a deadline or made a mistake because they were disorganized that day, lost focus that morning or were distracted that minute? That doesn’t necessarily mean you have ADHD, but it does suggest you might be part of the distracted masses that now make up such a large part of our society. If so, you’ve come to the right place because we’re going to show you how to get back on track.
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    ADHD or OBLT?
    (Overwhelmed By Life Today)
    If you answer Often or Very Often (on a ranking scale of Never, Rarely, Sometimes, Often or Very Often) to four or more of the following questions, it may be beneficial to consult with a health professional to see if you have ADHD.
    In the last six months….
How often do you have trouble wrapping up the final details of a project once the challenging parts