ADD Student

Archive for the ‘Organization’ Category

I read a lot of what my son Andy calls “shelving blogs”. I don’t know where he got the idea that they were all about shelves – they’re actually decorating blogs written by other moms.

I saw a great organizing idea the other day on one of them that I thought I would share: organizing by the day of the week.

As I remember it, the woman had a series of baskets near the door that her family most often uses. There was one for each day from Monday through Friday.

So, for instance, if one of the kids had scouts on Thursdays and needed to turn in a permission slip, the signed slip went into the Thursday basket.

My kids are in college and their books and school stuff is all over the house. Like most college kids, they have one set of classes on Mondays and Wednesdays, and a different set on Tuesdays and Thursdays. Every day before they leave, they have to hunt down that day’s books and supplies and transfer them to their backpack.

How much easier would it be if they had baskets for each day?

You could use this idea for a lot of things.

Sale papers and coupons in the corresponding basket for whenever you do grocery shopping. Vet appointment? Put the leash in that day’s basket. Library books to return? You get the idea.

I think I’m going to have to take a look around my house and see where I can put this idea to use.

Or what???

Orggit is “…instant access to your life’s most important information, all securely stored in one convenient place.”.

The nice people at Orggit were kind enough to give me a free one year membership to their site last week, and I’ve been spending some time there finding my way around. By the way, readers of ADD Moms (and ADD Student too) get a 50% discount for your first year’s membership – wow! The annual price is $49.99, so with your discount, you would pay about $25 for the year. Click here for the special discount for ADD Moms readers.

Now let me tell you what Orggit does, because it’s truly amazing.

Orggit (sort of a riff on organize it) stores every bit of personal information you could imagine and then some.

It stores information around 4 different areas of your life: wallet, medical, accounts and codes, and filing cabinet.

The wallet section of the website allows you to record all of the information on every card in your actual wallet, including your drivers license information, credit cards, membership cards, car insurance and more.

When you click on driver’s license, for instance, you can type in all of the information on your drivers license. Then you can scan your license or take a photo of it and upload the image to Orggit. You can do the same for your credit cards and anything else you carry in your wallet.

One of the really cool things about Orggit for us ADDers is that when you fill out information about each card or document you add, it has a section that lets you record where you keep the actual card or document. Now for things like your drivers license, you know where that it at all times, right? But what about your passport or your social security card? (You shouldn’t be keeping your social security card in your wallet.)

The medical section of the site contains any health information you want to keep track of – immunization records, surgeries, allergy information, and more.

One of the coolest things about the site is that it prompts you to fill out an ICE card (ICE = in case of emergency). You list allergies or other medical conditions, including what action to take, blood type, whether or not you are an organ donor, have special orders regarding life threatening conditions, emergency contact information, medical documentation that might be important during an emergency and more.

When I filled mine out, I put my husband Mark in as the emergency contact person, along with the house phone and his cell phone number. And then, because he’s sometimes unavailable by phone, I was able to add my 3 children and their phone numbers in the notes section.

A few days after I filled this out online, I received an actual card in the mail.

I carry this in my wallet and in case of an emergency, whoever needs to find out how to help me – medical information, emergency contact – can just call an 800 number and find out what they need. It also has instructions to follow if you lose your wallet.

The accounts and codes section of the site stores all of your log in information for any website (or card) you want to remember and the filing cabinet keeps all of the information contained on important papers like wills or power of attorney – really anything you want to put in there.

The beauty of this is that everything is recorded and kept safe for you. No worries about fires or losing something important. And Orggit has a superior level of security built into the site, so you don’t have to worry about your personal information getting into the wrong hands.

I think Orggit is an excellent idea for anyone, but for those of us with ADHD, it’s priceless. You can get your membership at 50% off here.

It’s that time of year again – at least here in the US. Back to school is the theme – in stores, newspapers, and on TV commercials.

Chances are you’ll be doing some back to school shopping sometime soon. New clothes, new school supplies.

If you’ve got an ADD Student, try giving some thought beforehand as to what supplies will make their school year easier and hopefully more successful.

All of my kids always wanted a notebook and folder for each subject. The girls would pick pretty ones with puppies, kittens or horses on them, while my son went for solid colors. He’s a pretty understated kind of guy.

Personally, I think that less is more for an ADD kid.

One or two notebooks (the 3-5 subject ones) and one folder should do the trick. A binder could be useful, too, but a lot of kids don’t like them and they do seem to encourage lost papers.

One 5 subject notebook can get your child through an entire day of classes. If they have 6 classes, use two 3 subject notebooks – one for morning and one for afternoon. The same folder is used all day.

Spiral notebooks mean less chance of lost papers because very little should be removed from it. The notebooks are for taking notes in class – one section for each class. The notebook should be replaced if one section fills up, so be sure to buy extra now while they’re cheap.

Any loose papers go into the folder. The left side of the folder is for homework and other papers to be turned in, and the right side is for papers that have been graded or need to go home.

At the end of the school day, the left side should be empty, and the right side should usually have papers in it. The following morning, the left side should be full and the right side should be empty.

The simplicity of this system helps keep your ADD Student organized and in control. Regular maintenance helps too.

Add some pens and pencils, and you should be all set for a new school year.