When Even the Best of Strategies Fail

Saturday, August 5. 2006

When Even the Best of Strategies Fail

Yea, yea...I know. I have this ADD "thing" all figured out. Riiight.

Like you, I'm always reading, researching, listening, sharing, etc etc on how to best live with AD/HD. I advocate getting support, joining support groups, working with coaches, professional organizers. I push for getting the best help available; professionals who understand AD/HD.

And being one of them, you'd think I'd know all the answers. Right? Wrong.

Allow me let you in on a little secret.

I cannot, for the life of me, figure out what outfits to wear to various occasions. Like weddings. Informal parties. Formal parties. The list goes on. I make myself CRAZY about these kinds of things. Is it too dressy? Not dressy enough? Does it still FIT? Is it still in style? What color shoes will work? Hoo boy. Give me jeans and a tshirt, and I'm a happy camper. But that, of course, doesn't work every day.

So I came up with a GREAT strategy. Every time I'd pull together an outfit that "worked", for say a conference I was giving, or a special event. WHATEVER...I wrote it down on an index card. That, I figured, would save me many headaches when I'd walk into my closet and wonder what outfit I should/could wear.

This has come in handy many times. My cards look like this:

Mark's Wedding (August 2005) Semi-formal dinner

- Black Ellen Tracy skirt, white Chicos v cut blouse, Ellen Tracy brown/gold silk shawl, black pumps, purse with rose buckle. -

You get the picture.

I now do this for every non jeans/tshirt event and stack them in my closet for easy retrieval. I thought. See, they started to fall on the floor and get lost or dust-bunnied. So I came up with another plan to organize the cards.

I made a folder and titled it "Outfit Ideas". And like my professional organizer (I could kiss her feet) taught me: "Find a HOME for EVERYTHING and your clutter problems will disappear". Well, they didn't disappear, but they DID make life a whole lot easier.

So I made this folder and dumped all of my index cards into it and filed it in one of my 8 file cabinet drawers. Yes- 8.

Problem solved. Or maybe not.

Yesterday, I went to grab that folder because I have a wedding coming up in a few weeks. I don't know about you, but I HATE clothes shopping and would much rather wear something already in my closet (and coordinated ala my index card trick). I was about to leave for a few days to spend in my cottage and thought if I could figure out the "what to wear" dilemma, I wouldn't have to obsess about it while on vacation.

I went straight to the file cabinet, where everything is organized by category and then alphabetically. To my horror (but not surprise), it wasn't there.

Now I ask you- when you're looking for something, do you also have a VERY tough time letting GO of the manic ADD search? Do you HAVE to keep looking till you find that sucker? Me TOO. I lost a good hour of potential vacation time, searching for that folder. I checked, re-checked, and checked again every darn drawer, folder, pile of papers in that room...and still could not find the darn OUTFIT folder.

I finally gave up (for now). But I won't give in.

Instead, I'll wear that tried but true black Chicos outfit that doesn't wrinkle, go out of style and can be worn to just about to any occasion known to man.

Or...when I get back home, I'll tear the house apart- again- searching for the folder. Yea, that's what I'll probably do. Stay tuned.

Terry

Posted by Terry at 01:02 | Comment (1) | Trackback (1)

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Attention Deficit Disorder Carnival # 18
The Attention Deficit Disorder blog carnival is a collection of recent blog entries about Attention Deficit Disorder. The hope is to expose blog readers to blogs that have a different perspective on Attention Deficit Disorder.

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Guys have it easier. I've taken the Garanimals approach. My work wardrobe (Summer) is 5 pair black jeans, 2 pair each olive and khaki dockers, 5 polo shirts that go with anything (white, yellow, tan, black), and a few that go with black (blue, red). 5 pair of black socks, 5 pair khaki, 5 pair dark olive and a pair each of black, brown, and dark burgundy shoes. Then, as long as I set out my Hawaiian shirt Thu night for Hawaiian shirt Fridays, I don't have to think in the morning. Winter is pretty similar, except that I wear nice Lands' End long sleeve oxfords in bright colors that go with black, khaki, and olive. Most special occaisions just require adding a camel, gray, or black sport coat.

#1 Sys Admn on 2006-08-28 11:38

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