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February 26, 2012 3:32 PM

How to teach yourself long tern planning and organization?

I'm struggling to turn my life around. I've been lucky to get work from time to time, but I need to shift gears and get on some sort of career track.

I am very disorganized because I get easily overwhelmed by options to the point where I freeze and I can't make a choice or narrow them down.

The only thing that pushes me to action are threats or crisis, whereby I have to just do something whether it's a good idea or not. Then I can do whatever comes first and follow whatever path jumps out at me. That doesn't always work out well, obviously, since I'm just mindlessly doing, not making logical decisions.

Basically I can only act if I have a fire in front of me. But when it comes to thinking ahead more than this moment, like a month ahead, 6 months ahead, or 10 years ahead, I have no idea.

Every time I end up in a mess, cuz I've ignored or missed important things, and having "surprises" because I didn't plan ahead.

So what do you do?

posted by mbird to Education (7 answers total)

Start small, maybe? Pick one thing, one little thing, and plan the hell out of it. Follow through. Let's say, your yearly car inspection. Figure out when it is due. Decide when and where to get the inspection done. What if it won't pass? What are you going to do then? You'll need money, and you'll need to know where to take your car to have the problem fixed. So work on making sure those things are in place. That's just an example off the top of my head. The main idea is, if it is overwhelming to deal with everything, don't try - pick one thing.
posted by thelonius at 3:37 PM on February 26, 2012

You asked a similar question two years ago. Have you considered being screened for ADD/ADHD?
posted by DarlingBri at 3:39 PM on February 26, 2012

The Now Habit by Neil Fiore might help you address why you're procrastinating.
posted by backwards guitar at 4:02 PM on February 26, 2012

I know someone with adult ad/hd who had a terrible time trying to clean up because she pick up something and be unable to decide where it should go. She is doing much better on meds - able to think in a straight-line when she needs to. No idea if that would help you or not. There is a good book called Delivered From Distraction - get a copy and read the first chapter and see if it resonates with you. If it does, then you might want to see a specialist.

I think most suggestions over the Internet would be too hard to implement on your own, you are ready know that you have problems with organization and anything that will help usually requires at least a little organization or prioritization to get started.. I suggest finding a buddy or partner who can sit down with you and figure out what you want to do first, how do it and then hold you accountable for doing what you planned.
posted by metahawk at 4:03 PM on February 26, 2012

What works for me is to do a little every day so it doesn't build up. I also use a calendar to keep track of events and deadlines and check it frequently.

This ensures that things don't pile up to the point where I feel overwhelmed and I always have a heads-up on what is upcoming.

At first it can help to write down priorities for the day and cross them off as they get done (breaking a big job into smaller bits helps, too. Such as "clean the house" becomes vacuum the living room floor. Dust the shelves. Wash the sofa cover, etc. Even if I don't finish all of them I can usually get most of it done. This works for other tasks too.) At the end of the day, review where you are and look ahead on the calendar and reprioritize as needed. I find that I've learned that it is easier to spend 20 minutes doing a task I'd rather ignore than letting it go and spending an hour later. Also, start small with this and build up to managing more.

I've read that it takes 21 days for a new behavior to become a habit and for me that seems about right.
posted by cestmoi15 at 4:04 PM on February 26, 2012 [1 favorite]

Two words: backwards planning. For every big thing you have to do, get out your calendar and some scratch paper (or a text editor) and figure out what smaller tasks you need to accomplish by when to get the big thing done. Add these milestones to your calendar, and set alerts to remind you a day or two before the milestone is due.

Then, every morning, make a to-do list. I like post-it notes, but do whatever works for you. Cross things off as you finish. Do your happy dance. Pat yourself on the back for being awesome and productive. Use yesterday's to-do list to start the next day's. cestmoi15 is right--it's habit.
posted by smirkette at 4:32 PM on February 26, 2012

The fire in front of you is stoked by our own being. What I mean to say is that people make a mountain out of a molehill. Things that could be accomplished just by writing letters are made into impossible tasks that rarely get done because of a fear that this activity will become one's job. It already is, you only have to make yourself aware of it.

The other thing you can do is limit your options. That takes real strength! I don't think anyone has ever got it right. Even Thomas Merton had to get out of his cell once in a while for a drink. The certain part of passion is choice. I think of options as a swap. The more often I do a swap, the more I am making an option into a standard. If I learn the best way to do something, like getting in touch with a certain person who has three numbers and two e-mail addresses then that's the end of the options system.

I taught myself this. The best way to do it is never to settle on the goal as the most important thing to be done. I know this sounds counter-intuitive but it works. There is nothing more important than breaking a goal down to tasks and figuring out milestones, to decide if you need more time and so on, but they rarely mean anything unless you have achieve some incredible thing, like getting $2,000 to take some time off and write a book about getting organized.
posted by parmanparman at 4:38 PM on February 26, 2012