ADHD Rise | Gow To Stay Organized Wirh ADHD | Evie Totty | Hosts Val Nichols & Summer Christiansen

hot topics. Speaking of hot, we have Miss Hot— uh, I was gonna say Hot Toddy— Evie Toddy here today, and she's gonna be sharing with us. Um, we also have my beautiful co— not even like co-host, like co-creator in this entire movement over here, Miss Summer Christiansen, who is so amazing. So, um, hi!

Say hi, girl.

Hello everyone, I'm so super excited to be here today. And to have so much energy. Val Nichols is seriously like high vibe. I love it. She makes me excited. I'm not, I'm not like the peppiest person, but she really is. And her energy is super, super contagious. So let's get excited this morning.

Yes, girl. Like, I'm not gonna lie. I was running around my house, like jumping up and down, like pretending like I was Superwoman, getting excited for this event because I'm so pumped, you guys. are going to be turning the mic over to our lovely Evie Totty. She's going to be talking about how to stay organized with ADHD. And I'm sure this is a topic that you guys are just— I'm very interested in it because I was sharing earlier in a room that, man, the mental clutter for me results in the external clutter. I've noticed that there's a direct correlation between When I'm mentally overdone, like this weekend I overdid myself, too much on my plate. And then I look around and there's just piles of organized clutter everywhere. And I know this shows up in our businesses, this shows up in our lives, in our scheduling, all the things. So I'm excited to have Miss Ivy Totty, hot like the toddy, toddy like the hot toddy. I said it wrong. So Ivy, welcome.

Thank you.

Hi everybody, this is Evie Totty like a hot toddy. Nice to meet you. Um, yeah, so this is day 1 of ADHD Rise. I did have somebody say that they couldn't get to the site, Val, uh, the adhdrise.com.

Oh, oh yeah, it's going live today. My staff was working on over the weekend. It's like parked, but it's not live yet.

Gotcha, gotcha, gotcha. Okay, well, you can still sign up at, uh, bit.ly/adhdrise. All that stuff is— well, no, it was in the room description and that's, uh, not whatever. I don't— what, what capital letters? Are there any capital letters?

Yeah, it's easiest if you click on my Instagram or Summer's Instagram. It's in our links. And so you guys can sign up and get all the emails, all the information, because we will be going around to different rooms. So you want to know where we're going to be and what topics you can pick from.

Yeah, because I got my pretty little pink and black email earlier today about mine and Carly's room, um, from you guys. So, okay, so we're keeping organized when you have ADHD. Now, none of these things are perfect, and none of these things are going to work 100%, um, because God knows it doesn't for me, but we can always try our best. And And the number one thing, and I hope all of you already know this, is have a place for everything and everything has its place. So for example, your keys, have a hook by the door where you just hang them up when you come in the door. So right there, right there as you walk in and out, you don't have anywhere, you know, you don't just lay them down somewhere and find them in the freezer 2 weeks later, you know, after you've already bought a replacement set. You know, you have a bowl or plate for whatever's in your pockets right there. Just have you a little bitty— we've got a teeny tiny little bitty end table. It's probably a foot by a foot, maybe a foot and a half by a foot and a half. It's right there by the door where we can just put the stuff that's in our pockets and stuff into a bowl. So that way you can unload all that stuff, especially the change. And and be able to find something later because you may need a receipt that you've stuck in there. Who knows, a lucky, you know, uh, stone. Who knows? As far as the change though, I actually have a couple of, um, so— sobo— sobe bottles because they're thick glass bottles and they're tall. And I put— and I have 2 of them. One's for the pennies and one's for the silver stuff. So just drop those in there. Right there as you come into the door and get that crap out of your pockets. Have containers for everything, and I mean everything. Even if you don't think it needs a container, go ahead and get, you know, containers. You can get those cute little square things from, you know, Target or Bed Bath Beyond, maybe, you know, 6 inches by 6 inches even, and you can put a, you know, a few little things in there. As long as you have some sort of container to hold your stuff. It won't be just spread out all over your nightstand or your coffee table or whatever. In the bathroom, I've got one for my granddaughter to put her stuff in— her toothpaste, her toothbrush, and her hair care. And before I put that down there, it was all over the counter. And now that that's there, it's always nice and neat and kept right there.

Uh, man.

Your drawers can even be containers, but you have to put a label on the outside because if you can't see it, it doesn't exist. Object permanence. So, um, and I, I know some people are super lucky and they have glass cabinets, you know, the— there's glass windows so they can see through their cabinets, but not everybody is that lucky. So what I've done is I bought some chalk markers. And the chalk markers come with little stickers, and you can literally put— you know, I'm sure if you've seen, um, Mrs. Doubtfire, this is probably flashing back to that when she put labels on everything. But now, like, well, no wonder she put labels on everything so she knew where everything was. So there's cute little stickers with the colored chalk with fancy writing. You could just write on right on the outside. What's in that cabinet? Because I keep my magnesium in the kitchen because you have to mix it with water in, in just a cabinet and it doesn't go with anything. There's plates in that cabinet, but I have a sticker outside of it that says magnesium and vitamins because my vitamins, my little pill holder things, they don't fit in those. So next to the sticker that says mixing bowls, there's another one that says magnesium and vitamins. That way I can remember to take them because I have to have water for the magnesium. Uh, let me see. I know, uh, neighbor Dan— Dan Neighborino— Dan Flat Neighborino, I think. Yeah, he had mentioned a couple weeks ago in Damon's— and I do this too— an over-the-door shoe organizer. It's not just for shoes. You put those all over the place and just put little single stuff in there. I'm looking at mine right now and I'm— I've stuffed my, um, uh, bathrobe in there because it's a little silk and you can squish it down to a small size. Okay, I do have a couple pairs of flip-flops, some shoes, but I've also got some of those cute little, uh, wax candle things that you can use to, you know, the melty things. I don't know what they're called, but I'm sure I could go look. I've got some Command Strip containers. I've got some Z-Quil. I've got, um, mask— not masking tape, but the Scotch tape. Just any, you know, anything that really doesn't have a place, you can make a place for it in over-the-door hanging things. Just so they're— because you can see through them and you can, you know, see what all's in them whenever you need to look for something. Uh, let's say you go paperless, have all of your bills sent digitally. This will cut down on piles of unopened mail because how many of us have, you know, or had— I don't really have that anymore because all my stuff comes digitally. Um, you know, just piles of unopened mail everywhere because you keep meaning to go through them and you never go through them, and finally you just throw the stuff away. My mom, oh my gosh, goodness love her, she, she must have I think she had like an 8-foot dresser in her bedroom, and you could go there at any time, and it's lined up with mail. And I'm not talking about laying on its side, it's, it's laying on the edge like a— like they were all books, just edged up like that. So go paperless as much as you can, and if you can't, have containers near your door. where you come in so you can do away with the trash mail. Hopefully you're— I mean, yeah, you can throw away the junk mail and then you can have another one for, you know, your unopened mail and another one for your open mail that you need to do something with. And I would even suggest getting a shredder. So you can go ahead and shred that stuff. As soon as possible. That way when it gets full, you'll— you have to empty it, you know. Um, I would also say on a side note, have as many bills as you can go on autopay. Cut down on that ADHD tax. I mean, if I can have my stuff on autopay and I live day to day, you can too. The next thing— does anybody have any questions? You ladies good, Val and Summer?

I have a question. So some of these organizations, I am feeling like for the person who is like, okay, these things sound great, I love the organization, but there's so much, I can't even— I'm looking around and I don't even know where to start. I've definitely been in that position. I am I have a certain section of my garage, my part of the garage that feels that way. When I go out there, I'm like, I just don't even know where to start because I feel like I have to pull everything off the shelf, look at it, and then put it away. So I just end up walking away. So for that person that's like the organ— before the organization, like how, like where do you start?

Yeah. That's, that's a good question because God knows I'm stuck in that a lot. You just open the proverbial door, you see the mess, and you close it back and you're like, nope, not today.

Yep.

Um, I'm lucky enough to have moved recently, so I've done that moving purge. But I would highly suggest getting, uh, you know, Marie Kondo's book, The Happy Art of Decluttering, or whatever the heck it's called. It's scary, really. It's really scary because at the end, the last part of it is going through your memories, you know, and stuff like that, which I haven't even done that last part yet, but I kind of have because I've moved 3 times in the past 3 years. But what she does in there— somebody said that she wants you to put things where you can't see them, and I don't— I remember reading it as quite the opposite. She wants you to have only things that you can see out. You know, even if it's pictures that you have it put into a book or scrapbook or whatever, she wants you to get a nice little box to put them in and have them sitting out. You know, anything you need to store, unless it's, you know, Christmas decorations or something like that, you need to get rid of. So yeah, it's, it's, it's a daunting— It's a daunting thing. And if that's not something you want to look into, I would Just, um, plan it out on a calendar, do some time blocking for it. Make it like, today I'm gonna pick up 5 things, decide what to do with them, and that's it. Just do 5 things a day. Because if you go in there and pick up 5 things and throw away, put them up, file them, store them, whatever it is That's 5 more than what you had yesterday. Just a teeny little bit at a time. It doesn't have to be all done all at once. So that's the good thing about it, because we think that we have to do it all at once, and it really doesn't. And who knows, you may get into a hyperfocus situation and get it all done at once once you start going. But just baby steps, a little bit at a time. Yeah, that's it. It's like, uh, How do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time.

Evie, can I just reiterate what you just said?

That—

hear this. I want to repeat this for myself as well as everyone else if they were listening. You do have to do it all right now at once. I hope that offers some peace for some people because what Evie just said, I didn't want her to pass over that moment that That is so important for us. You know, for myself, sometimes I look at my task, my to-do list, and I'm like, oh my gosh, I have to get this all done right now at the same time and just do it. And I do the same with my housework. I'll be running around from room to room to room, every single light on. And my husband is like, what are you doing? I'm like, I'm cleaning every room of the house at the same time. And he's like, yeah, I see that. Right. But we don't have to do it all at once. And something else you said that I would love to just, you know, write this down if you're listening. That she said schedule. Evie, that was such a beautiful thing you said to schedule the cleaning time. That is something that I actually do. I found that it works that if I just schedule, you know, 20 minutes a day to pick things up or, you know, organize or, you know, get to a certain thing, even if it's like I look around and I pick up all the shoes because there's a lot of shoes everywhere, mine and my husband's. So, okay. Stop what I'm doing at work. You know, 4 o'clock, I'm gonna pick up every single shoe or piece of clothes, and I'm gonna go put it away. This is the way to, you know, really get a handle on any organization you have. Maybe it's go through the pile of papers and just, you know, toss anything you don't need anymore. So I hope that that landed for people. And then I'll pass it back to Evie. Oh, are you there?

Can you hear me?

It pushed the— That was a great question. I'm glad that we pulled that out because sometimes when we're used to doing things, it's hard to remember how we did it in the first place. So thank you so much. Okay, we're gonna— I'm gonna go back. I have a list here, and you know how it is when you have lists, you have to go down them whether or not you've already covered it. Again, label everything. Um, you know, the, the black stickers, blah blah, any— anything you can't see through. Because remember, if you can't see it, it doesn't exist for us, you know. Because I was looking for something the other day and I couldn't find it, couldn't find it, and it was right there behind my monitor. I passed by it like a million times looking for it, but I didn't see it, and it was right there. If it was a snake, it would have bit me. Lazy Susans. Those are very good at space saving, and you can even put them in your refrigerator for your condiments and stuff, because, you know, condiments die a slow death in the back of our refrigerators. So you can get those to put things on. I've got one right next to my stove that has our salt and pepper and a couple of cans of oil spray, and for some reason we've got sesame oil there, but We, um, and we hardly ever use it, but we're leaving it there because we're not sure what to do with it. So we'll know where it is when we use it. But I love, I love, love, love lazy Susans because all you gotta do is spin it and you can see everything that's on it. Keep things where you use them. Just because, um, you don't think it goes there, it's your house. Anything go where the heck you want it to. So like, if you drink coffee, have all your coffee stuff right there next to your coffee pot. You know, your favorite cup that you use, the coffee itself, you know, the sugar or sugar substitute, even, you know, a spoon. Just when you use a spoon every day, put it in the sink, just get another one out and put it there. That way it's all there, ready to go. Keep a trash can in every room. You know, I was reading little tips on how to stay organized, and I thought that that was what people did. I have a trash can in every room, whether if it's a big, big can or a little bitty can, because if you don't have a trash can, you'll be like, oh, I'll throw away that later. And next thing you know, your coffee table has a whole bunch of trash on it that you haven't taken away. And then you're like, oh, that's too much. And it sits there for eons. So just have a, you know, trash can in every room. It can be really pretty. They make, they make cabinets that you can put a trash can in and you'll never even know that there's a trash can there. It just looks like something that's holding up your flowers and plants. that, you know, we're going to eventually kill because we don't remember to water them, but whatever, you can get fake ones, you know, or put some books and stuff up there. I mean, I'll write this up and put this out as a PDF somewhere because I know this is a lot. Have your launch pad, and what that means is the night before, have everything set out that you need in the morning. You know, like your clothes, your medicines, anything that's one-off. You know, and what I mean by one-off is something that you don't do every day, but you need to do the next day. So have yourself— make yourself a reminder to have whatever that one-off is on your launch pad. It can— and you can have your launch pad anywhere you want, as long as it's somewhere that you can see. Let's see.

Go ahead.

Yeah, I got a question.

What do you think about testing different things? I know you're kind of into— you're an executive assistant, which I think you should talk about that a little bit when you're through this. But what do you think about testing different things? Because a lot of times it's kind of scary to do something that you're like, okay, that's never going to work. But then with me, I'll try it and I'll be like, okay, this really does work. So what do you think about not being scared of trying things and being overwhelmed by that? Do you have like a process you go through if you're trying to decide if you really need a system for something?

Um, I just do. I just do it. It's like, oh, this is a new thing. But see, I always— I like new things. I like trying new things. I always have. I mean, even at work, whenever they've changed processes that people are complaining, I'm like, why not try it? It could be better. You know, if it's not, we can go back and say, hey, this ain't working. You know, so, but it, but it, it is difficult. Mostly I think it's scary because we're, we think we're going to forget to even start it, you know. And that, that's the, that's the thing because, you know, let's say we get the garbage can for our bedroom and we put it over there and we forget that it's there. We still get up and put stuff in the kitchen or whatever, or we got a pile on the side of the bed. So just, it's habits take a while to form and don't, and forgive yourself for not remembering to do it every time, even after you've made the habit. Not everybody's 100% and you could just do your best and forgive yourself. Give yourself grace when things don't work the way you expect it to. It may even, it may end up working, but not in a way that you expect it to. You know, so, so yeah, I think we're— let me see. Okay, the next thing on my list. Go ahead now.

Okay, I like that because I feel like, at least me personally, I'm scared to try something different because it's going to ruin my flow. But I feel like you said sometimes things get— and essentially this is what it felt like you're saying, like You get bored. I get bored and I'm like, okay, I need to do something different. I like doing something different that's bright, shiny, and new. But sometimes when I change the process, it's kind of like when you start working out again and I buy new clothes. Like if I haven't done that or if I am consistent, I'll go buy new workout clothes. Like as that's something that's kind of shiny and new. So sometimes if you get sick of something, Um, It might not be— it might still be working for you, but it's kind of boring. It's probably important to switch things up a little bit. And so that's why I think that's a good point, that you can do that. You can do something that's a little bit different and see if it works. It's just like with your businesses or business that you run. If you try things a little bit differently, you test and try and see if it works. So I love that, Yuki. Thank you.

Oh, you're very welcome. And another way that I keep things fresh and new— people, my kids always thought I was insane— whenever I would do like a, a room clean, I would rearrange the entire room. And this was like once a month, and— but I just liked, I just liked my room looking different, you know. And, um, so yeah, and then plus I got all the, the floor cleaned and All the dust and stuff taken up. That, that may be a little extreme, but that's what, that's what I did was I just cleaned up the— I just did a whole room. It's really hard in the apartment that I'm in right now because there's only 2 ways you could put your— put my bed. So that's a bummer. But otherwise, yeah, uh, you know, that's, that's another way to keep things new, just, just to have the same stuff just in a different place. Uh, let's see.

Okay, notebooks.

And whiteboards or chalkboards. Now I got a chalkboard because I thought it would be cool, but it's actually a huge pain in the ass because it doesn't wipe off as easily as a whiteboard. So I wouldn't really recommend a chalkboard if y'all are looking into that. Um, but notebooks and whiteboards are really good because you could put down on a whiteboard your dopamine list. And what I mean by that is that the little things that you want to get done that don't really have to be done, like You know, cleaning out your email, you know, you could have that on the list, or trying out that new app, just something that's new but a time waster, but being productive at the same time. You'll get it, and you'll get your dopamine hits from those because you're getting something done every time you do that. Or go through your, you know, your digital pictures. And I know that's probably a huge undertaking for the majority of us because we take so many screenshots and then those get synced to the cloud. So we've got a whole bunch of screenshots that we don't need anymore on the cloud. So you can put that on your dopamine list and feel productive even when it's not super, super important. But keep your notebook with you so that when You, you know, remember things outside of the time that they're in or they're supposed to be in, or thoughts that you want to remember. Now, I, I also have an Apple Watch where I use the voice recorder to remind me to do things. Uh, when I'm out driving, I just say, hey Siri— well, no, actually Siri— hey Siri, remind me to do blah blah blah at 7 PM tonight, and it goes on the reminder list, and at 7 o'clock It says, you know, it reminds me of something that I've already forgotten while I was driving. So that, that's helpful. And I have a Rocketbook, and that's— I'm still kind of testing that out. But that's a book. Not only can you erase the pages on that, you can scan them and save them to the cloud. You can have them sent to email, save in Evernote. OneDrive, Google Drive, and there's, there's a whole bunch of different places you can save things in your Rocketbook, and they come in all different sizes. I believe Ari has a little bitty one that he even keeps in his pocket for such things, and they're really, really cool because, because the scanning feature, because even if you erase the page, it'll be on wherever you send it. Forever. And you can even send it to people, and it has an OCR thing, so you can write out a list and it'll— you can create a list in a Google Doc, for example, that you can use to edit. So that's, that's really cool. Uh, some other stuff that I found is— I haven't been able to do it yet, but it sounds like a really neat idea— is just take the drawers out of your refrigerator. Don't, don't use them at all and use that space to put, you know, things like condiments and things like that. Because, you know, how many vegetables have suffered a horrible death in our, you know, our little drawers in our refrigerator? Because we're like, oh, I'll be using that, I won't forget that.

Yeah, you will.

That, that poor cucumber or zucchini didn't deserve that, you know. And you can get some Refrigerator organizers that are see-through and they're little drawers, but there you put them on the shelves and you can pull them out and you could always see what's, what's in them. And I am using those and they've come in quite handy because I could put all the cheese in one, I can put all the meats in one, I put condiments in 2 of them, our drinks are in one, their sodas and stuff like that.

Uh, Have—

and the next thing on my list is have a cleaning schedule. I know that's super hard for us to have any kind of a real schedule, but try to put, you know, a room, um, just, just a room on a day and then another room on another day and stick to that. Do the bathroom on Monday, kitchen on Tuesday, whatever, whatever you want to do. I mean, Ultimately, the best thing I've heard for us is to hire a maid to do all those things because we can't really get them done. But if you can't get that, get that done, you know, have a— I'm sorry, I'm kind of, kind of fevering out here for a second. So yeah, let's, let's bring some people up for some Q&A and see if they have any questions about the things That I'm talking about before I go to the digital organization.

I was gonna say thank you so much, Evie. Oh my gosh, I, I know that you are such an on-point, on-fire person that I can just feel that you are, um, feeling sick. So I just want to say thank you so much. I'm so grateful for you for showing up and keeping your commitment even though you're feeling so crummy. You know, like a lot of people would have just been like, eh, whatever, I'll just, you know, I won't show up. But you are a true leader. And we appreciate you so much. You are doing amazing. Thank you, thank you, thank you. So yeah, if people want to come up, if you guys have questions, feel free to raise your hand and Summer will bring you up. So if you guys do have any questions, feel free to come up. This is an interactive time where, you know, Evie can get into the digital stuff as well. But if you do have any questions, feel free to come up. Also, we would love for you— the ADHD RISE event is all month long. So if you would like to take a screenshot And then tag us on your Instagram if you're able to access it. Instagram and Facebook are down right now. They are spinning their wheels. So this is the beauty of owning your real estate, getting an email list going, and you know building a community off those platforms because you never know what's going to happen. Side note. But yeah, if you guys take a screenshot of this, tag me and Summer in it. It's at oh I don't know what your Instagram is. You can go on her Instagram and find it, and then mine is. It's, it's, it's Val Nichols, vying for something amazing. So with that, looks like we have a couple people up here. Summer, do you want to go ahead and call on some people?

That'd be great. So my Instagram is Live Life Clearly LLC, so you can look that up as well. Okay, Patty. I wasn't able to bring Susanna up. I can't— for some reason it isn't working. Maybe you could try, Val. But hello, Patty, how are you?

We don't have to be. Hi, everyone. Hi, Evie.

You did— I had no idea you were sick until you mentioned it. You— your stuff was amazing that you shared, and thank you so much for doing that because you rock it out. Um, and then you— it was funny when you mentioned the, um, the over-the-door shoe organizer. I actually made a reel several weeks about that because I've been doing that for over a decade with my kids' mittens for wintertime. Because it's just, it's so easy to have right there and everybody has their row of stuff that they use. But something I wanted to share that we, that I started to do pre-COVID and then because I'm in health, well, I don't know if people here know this, but I am a healthcare worker. That's my, my main job. My Instagram and all that stuff is more about my children's book and resources that I provide, like accommodations lists, but Um, as my day-to-day job, I am a healthcare worker. So when COVID hit, I kind of stopped doing this just because it was so crazy. But I'm starting to do this again where I make room by room. I will put on my calendar like this, this week I'll make it for 2 weeks. So like this week, let's say I'm doing the laundry room, which is also our, uh, area where the kids had like their lockers and stuff. So that will be what you focus on for just that 2 weeks. I mean, you may do other pickups here or there, but that's like your main focus is just that room and seeing like what's needed, what needs to be thrown out, if there's any paint that needs to be touched up, and then you're done with that. And then you'll have it on your phone where you can like break down room by room what you're doing and what may need— what may be needed as well. And I was doing so well at that, and then flipping COVID hit and it totally just like Trolled it all upside down what I was doing. So now I'm having to start that all over from scratch again. But it was so beneficial when I was actually able to do it and have it on my calendar and see how I was doing and seeing what kind of organization stuff I needed. But just wanted to share that in case that's helpful for anyone else. And this is Patty. I'm done speaking.

That's awesome, Patty. Thank you so much. Everything, everything, because God knows I don't know what I don't know. So I'm learning new ways because I— that is one of my things is that be detail-oriented and organized. I don't know why it's my thing, but it is. So I love learning new ways to stay organized because I keep redundant systems up and I'll get into that. So can you mod Val and I?

Okay. Sorry. I'm, I'm using the other things though. I'm So I can record. So I'm trying to figure that out. Okay, I got you. Just 1 second.

Okay, that's right. You're on Club Deck. This gets me into lists. I know we have lists everywhere on all kinds of different pieces of paper in all kinds of different places, and that's horrible, I know, but lists are your friend. Because you write down, you know, I got to go to the store. Well, you can literally put in the steps to the store, you know. Well, no, not really, not the store. That's not because you pretty much do go to just go to the store. Like cleaning up the kitchen, you can make a list of that, you know, go, you know, step 1, go get all the dirty dishes from the house. Step 2, you know, rinse off all the crud that won't work in the dishwasher. Step 3, load the dishwasher, you know, et cetera, so forth. And you can break them down into its teeniest, tiniest little parts. That way, you know everything you need to do and you get dopamine hit time and cross something off and you're so proud of yourself, you know, and it gets you to the next step. Now, whenever I cross things off my list, I use a highlighter because it makes it so pretty. Instead of just a line that's crossed through and stuff, it's more of a sunshine than just a cross through. But that's just a thing that I like. But the key is to break the list items into smallest parts.

I'm all about the pretty, Evie. I've started to do the highlighter thing because I like to see it. Something that I heard of the other day that might be helpful is that somebody was telling me, or I saw on Instagram, who knows where I got it from. She actually takes all of the pieces of paper or her notebook or whatever things that she has written down on during the week. And on Sundays, she tries to like put them in some kind of a document that's like on her computer or phone. So it's all in one place. So, you know, if you do that, if you have a notebook, sometimes, you know, I kind of just go back and forth with the digital. So yeah, but those are, those are super helpful. We really appreciate that. Maybe. So I'm going to take a second to reset the room. So you guys are in the ADHD Rise Summit, and this is our very first speaker for today. We have Evie Totty, and she was our 9:30, and we are talking about how to stay organized. And if you want to learn more about Evie, go to her Instagram, and you can follow her on Clubhouse and also on her Her club, which is late diagnosis ADHD. Did I get it right? I think I did. Yeah, so go.

Yeah.

Okay, awesome.

Yeah, you sound like oh goodness.

Oh, I do. I have.

We've all got it going on.

I had a cold. It was really weird. I had a sore throat for a couple days, and I was like crap. And then all of a sudden, it was kind of a cold, and then it wasn't. And then like this morning. Full-on cold, so I do sound a little congested, but yeah, so whatever is going around, it's starting— it's already started. But anyway, so yes, you are in this amazing ADHD Rise Together We Rise room, and we will be doing this all month long, Monday through Friday at 9:30 AM and 1:30 AM Pacific time. So join us every day, Monday through Friday. We're super excited. So, Evie, are you ready to talk about— or we could— let's do Q&A and then we'll go ahead.

Let me do more things in case we run out of time.

Go ahead.

If you peek, if you peek, this is from Ari. He's not— I don't see him in the room anymore, but he was here before. He had this other clock that he used to keep himself, you know, not too squirreled, you know what I mean?

So If he—

you can—

this is, this is another version of the clock he's talking about, and you see the numbers on the side. If you want to just time something, like if you want to work on something for just 15 minutes, you'll put it— you'll set it on the 15-minute side and it'll do a countdown for 15 minutes. If you put something, you know, in the microwave for 4 minutes, if you can— If it's not on the side, you can do a manual program. In the middle. And this is also magnetic, so you can stick it to your refrigerator and have it available in your kitchen for things like that. And it's really, it's really helpful for, you know, keeping you on time for things that, you know, like your laundry, your, you know, your cooking and stuff. Or you can use it for, you know, your Pomodoro method, whether if you do 25, 45, or whatever it is, so you can take a break and Get some water and not burn yourself out. So just, um, this is— what is this called? I don't know what this is called. Um, I have to go to my pictures to see what it is. Uh, but anyway, you can message me later and find out what it's about. $30, but you know, it's worth it when, you know, if you want to keep from your clothes being soured in the washing machine because you forgot to get them out 3 days ago.

For sure.

Got how many times this happened to us before we discovered the timers. And another thing I want to tell you guys about is an app called— it's an iOS only, sadly, but it's called Alarmed. A-L-A-R-M-E-D. It's got a green background with a little hand with a little reminder string, you know, tied to it. And it does the regular reminder stuff that, you know, you're that the regular reminder apps do. But, but one of the things too, there's 2 extra things on here. It's got a nag me, so you can set it to nag you to do whatever it is that came up. You can have it nag you every hour, or you can have it nag you all the way up to every minute to make sure that you do it until you dismiss it or snooze it. And another thing that it does is called a day minder, and you can have it remind you to do something X number of hours, days, or weeks after you completed the first reminder. So I use that for my Adderall. I have a reminder set for like 7:30 to take it, but if I don't get it taken until 8:30, then if I set another reminder for, you know, 12:30, then I'm taking it an hour too soon. But with the Dayminder, it counts from when I dismissed it. It'll remind me 4.5 hours after. I dismiss the first reminder. So that comes in super handy for things. And I also have it push out a whole bunch of affirmations throughout the day. And so that's pretty handy as well. So that's, that's, those are the 2 things I wanted to be sure and tell you guys about. So let's go with the Q&A.

So let's go. I think Susan was First, let me PTR if I know how to do that on this and see what happens, make sure we're in the right spot. So right now I have Susan Blumberg at the top of my PTR, and if that isn't correct, let me know. How are you today, Susan?

I am great. Thank you for inviting me, Evie. It's always good to chat with you. One of my questions is How does someone decide whether a paper planner or hands-on system versus a digital planner or system is better for them?

Only advice I have for you is, as far as that is concerned, is, is your mileage may vary. I use all of them. I use a paper planner and I use a digital planner because where one You know, fails me, the other's not going to, you know what I mean? So I would, I would suggest using as many as you have the energy to do so. But otherwise, like I said, it's your mileage may vary because I use a bullet journal for my paper, but other people use, you know, the Panda Planner and that has stuff already in there for them. So it's, it's, it's very much a personal thing. And I wish I had a real answer for you for that. I'm sorry.

No, I think that's a really good question, a good answer. I also use both, but a lot of the clients that I work with really have struggled with going back and forth between one or the other. So for example, I keep my daily appointment On my Google Calendar, and I keep all my planner stuff on a paper planner because, one, like you, I like to color code, but I also keep a priorities list. So not just do I have my schedule and a task list, but I also use and recommend a priorities list where My clients and myself pick just 2 or 3 things that are the priority for the day. So, I might have 6, 7, even 10 tasks on a task list, but I know there's only 2 or 3 things that I must get done that day. And if I— and that might be a personal thing, like I need to have some self-care, a walk. One of my clients gets up early before his kids are up and has a daily run. Because he knows if he doesn't have that self-care in the morning, he doesn't have— and he has ADHD as well as his kids— if he doesn't have that self-care in the morning, he just doesn't have the self-regulation to be able to deal with his rather complicated children during the day. And he, after a year of working with me, has realized that that's on his priority list more than his work schedule or— You know, household things. He has to have that daily run on his priority list. So I really recommend a priority list of 2 or 3 things, not just a task list, because often tasks— emails to return, you already mentioned reviewing photos or going through emails. I always have hundreds of emails to delete because I'm on so many email lists, for example. But Val, I I will never delete any of your emails, I promise. Sorry. But those priorities, those 2 or 3 priorities are the top things I give my energy to. This is Susan, and I'm finished speaking.

Yes, I totally agree with both the self-care and having a priority list because we just, we have 20 things on our list, you know, and we're not going to, we are not going to get those 20 things done. And I have found that if I don't go out and take a walk, just a walk in the sun, rest of my day, I just don't have the energy to do everything else that I need to do. So yeah, having at least that one self-care thing, if not more, is super important. And we really need to get outside to get that fresh air and that sun. So I suggest everybody do that. But I'm a super— I'm a fan of the bullet list, the bullet journal, the vanilla kind, the kind that the guy, the guy that created it has ADHD. Uh, I don't do any of the frilly stuff or the fancy writing or the fancy colors or anything like that, or the fancy layouts. I just do the whatever he said to do in his thing. So, um, I would really highly suggest that people at least try a bullet list for a month. And another good thing I like about it is if you miss a day, you don't have a blank page in it. you can just go to the next day. You just, you know, go to the next spot in the bullet journal and, and start, and you can— it'll be okay because you don't have all that black. Because I, because I know, um, I share this with a lot of people, is that once I miss a couple of days in a regular planner, it's ruined and I don't use it again, and I'm— and then I'm unplannered, you know. So, and, uh, and, and the Google Calendar, I will say that you can make multiple calendars. And in the settings, you can have it remind you of things that are in there, so you don't have to have it active. In other words, down on the side, you could— you have checkmarks for all the calendars. If you uncheck it, you can— it won't show up on your calendar, but you can still get reminders. So you can put your task list on your Google Calendar too and have reminders come up, and you can color code them, you know, all those different colors that are available. When— so when you can do check it and it shows up, you can see them in the different colors. So, so I hope that's helpful.

I love color coding. I can say that. I can attest to that. My paper planner, I love to color code things. It is just so much fun for me. I don't know why, but I love to be able to look at my paper calendar and just like see, you know, green is clients, Orange is, you know, whatever, like using the different colors. But I love that tip. Thank you.

Oh yeah, my Clubhouse rooms are yellow, for example. Okay, who's next?

There's an app that you can use that's called— I think it's 3 Big Things. And it just gives you like, I don't even know, it looks like a note card and you can have 3 different note cards. And those are like the big things. So it just says like, Clean the office. And that's so it makes it really simple if you're trying to, you know, kind of make things so they're not as big for you. So I think that that's a really— I think that's what it's called, 3 big things. So yeah, that's just a thought. Thank you so much, Evie. Okay, Val, do you have Lisa next when you PTR?

I have Adrien. Adrian.

Adrian.

I hope I'm saying that right. I'm so sorry if I'm not. Are you there, Adrian?

All right.

How about Lisa Damas? Hello, my love.

Hello.

Hello. How are you all doing today?

So good. How about you?

Um, well, just listening to this, I have started cleaning my office just because I feel like I'm so unorganized today and I needed this, um, encouragement. And so that's what I wanted to ask about. How do you get your— how do you organize your office so that, um, everything will work efficiently? Because I love to print out everything. I don't know why. So now I have all this paper and I'm just trying to— I mean, I know the quick answer is a file cabinet. My fear is I close the drawer, lock it, and never look at it again. So do you have any suggestions on that? Just leave something.

Oh, that's a good question. Oh man, because I haven't had— I'm not in an office. And I'm— my hand is drawn up like, well, you're printing out everything. I hope you're putting— you have your folders and stuff that you want to put everything in. And see, there's different organization systems that work with different people. So I can't really tell you, you must do this this way because everybody's ways is going to be best for them. And not what somebody, you know, this is where the shoulds come in and you shouldn't listen to the shoulds where that is. But, you know, have you like, well, this is where containers come in handy too, where you have, you know, all your pens in a container and, you know, those little letter paper holders that's, you know, stacked up on your desk or on the wall. I would, um, gosh, I'm super embarrassed right now because I can't, I can't think of how I had my office set up, but it was really very organized. But I'm at home and I can't, um, I can't picture my desk right now. I would definitely keep one of those calendar blotters there so you have your calendar and you can write notes on them and take Take a picture of it so you can put it on your digital or your regular calendar, uh, in addition to where it is on your desk. Um, I— what, what, what, what you really— what I'm thinking what you really should do is, um, let's say your day ends at 5, have you a reminder or a ca— have a calendar event set at 4:45 just to clean up your desk and have it arranged so that when you come in there the next morning, it's how you're used to it being throughout the day, the same way. Because I can't, I can't think of anything that would, you know, be different. You know, you have your pen, your paper, your, you know, your phone, your computer keyboard and stuff like that. But with your, with your papers, is there— why do you, why do you need to have to have it printed out?

I don't know either, to be honest, because I work on my computer too. But it's something about when I print it and I make my notes on it on the paper, it stays in my mind more sometimes than when I'm just working on my computer. I don't really know.

I totally get you there. Totally get you there.

Because I used to do that when I was a programmer.

I would print out the code and I would highlight and write on it. Totally get you. Then, you know, one of your drawers should be big enough for one of those hanging folders, you know, system. So get you some hanging folders and label them. And if it's like a permanent thing, label it, you know, whoever the client is and have you 3 more for, you know, to-do, you know, done and to file and, you know, urgent. So that way you can have those in there for the ones you haven't, you know, completely filed away yet. So yeah, those hanging folders come in super handy, and get the, you know, some color-coded folders, you know, paper folders to put in there so that way you can just glance at them too without having to read them and know which ones are the most important. I hope that's helpful.

It is, it is. And, you know, I was thinking about the color coding. I heard you say that before. And so now I have to figure out how to— I know I probably need to make a list of the colors so that, um, they'll be visible where I'll know what the colors are. I'm just thinking out loud, sorry. Yeah, I realized this is an issue for me.

Um, yeah, and I, I totally get it. And yeah, I would highly suggest, you know, red for the urgent, but otherwise it'll be a personal thing. But yeah, I had hanging file folders in my drawer for stuff exactly like that. All right, Lisa, are you complete or do you have any more questions?

Oh, I'm complete. Thank you. I'm just thinking about what you're saying and moving forward. So yes, thank you so much.

I am— Be sure to set you a time every day to clean your desk off and get everything arranged and put away.

I will definitely do that because that's not in my schedule, so I'm going to start doing that today.

Super.

Yeah, I did that every day. All right, Adrian, are you, are you back?

Oh no.

Yeah, the Mercury retrograde's in force today for sure. Uh, Miss Vandy, do you have any questions?

She doesn't even have a speaker or a microphone. Try— if you guys are trying to speak and you can't, try, um, leaving the room quietly, the leave quietly button, and then come back in. Sometimes that helps. Who's— I think we have Thomas up next. Thomas, are you there? Brett, are you there? We would love to hear from you. It sounds like all of the— oh, are you there, Brett or Thomas?

I am here.

I was mostly listening, so I don't know how much I had to contribute. I'm still learning how to get organized and stuff, but I'm really happy to be here.

Okay.

You are awesome.

Thank you so much, Brett.

Cool beans. Well, we're about at the end of the room. I'm not sure if anybody wanted to Hear anything? Oh, for your calendars, I would suggest whenever you create an event to have, in addition to your regular reminder time, add one for 5 minutes before and one for the time of the event. Because I know when I get a reminder for 30 minutes before, goodness knows I forget that it's happening, you know, within that next 30 minutes. So I put a 5 and a 0. And when you're going to a physical place, let's say, for example, I'm going to see the new James Bond movie Thursday. I have the event start at the time I need to leave to go to the theater and not when the movie starts. I don't even know when the movie starts. I just know I got to leave at 4 o'clock. And that way I can get there on time and not miss the previews, although they have way too many previews these days, but whatever. So instead of putting in— and I put in because if I looked at my calendar right now, I could probably tell you exactly when it starts. I put in the name of the event, and then in parentheses I put in what time it actually starts as the name of the event. And then I do that padding for, you know, the travel time. So let me see, I did do it for Dune. Dune starts at 6 o'clock. On Friday the— I'm sorry, Thursday the 21st. But I've got my event starting at 5 because I want to get there 30 minutes early, although I really don't have to do that anymore because it's assigned seating, but whatever. So I have the reminder, I have the event starting at 5 even though the baby doesn't start till 6 o'clock. So that's just another tip on how to stay organized with Events on your calendar. So have a 5-minute and a zero for digital reminders in addition to whatever you already have. And for physical, have it start when you need to leave and then put your reminders in before that. So, all right, um, and that's, that's all I got for you guys for right now. I'll try to write up a paper at some point, uh, not today, uh, that I can put That I can gift a valent summer to put on the Rise website whenever they get that up, and I think Zoom's down right now too, by the way.

Oh no! Yeah, that makes sense. I was trying to. So all the social media platforms are down in the world. Ah, just kidding. It looks like Thomas might be back in. Thomas, if you're here, go ahead.

I say this one's not down.

It's being super glitchy though. It's being kind of weird, but. Yeah, I'm glad. I'm grateful that we— I'm not sure if Thomas was back in or not. Oh, there you go.

Hey, yeah, I'm here. I— yeah, it definitely was a glitch. Um, but I just wanted to thank all of you for the space. Um, I was very happy to find it last week, and I'm just here to learn and listen to people talk about something that affects my daily life. Um, so thank you all. Cool beans. Okay, feel free to DM me for anything. And Lisa, I still need for you to— I think Yeah, there she is. I don't think I've seen another reschedule because this was, this was why I couldn't meet your last thing because the calendar thing didn't say that I was busy. So be sure to reschedule for me. But I, I did want to say that I do have a book club coming up Wednesday at 9 o'clock and it's not in this club. It's in ADHD Book Club and it's with The Four Agreements and You— we read during the, the room, so you don't have to be pressured to have anything read ahead of time. And we'll read a little and then we'll discuss, and you can even, you know, listen to your audiobook a little if reading's not your thing. So, um, yeah, I invite y'all to join me for that. And this is Evie, and I'm out.

Oh, thank you so much, Evie. And what is the best way for people to get a hold of you if they want more information or Is it Instagram, email? What's the best way?

Yeah, you can go to my Instagram and click on the link there, and it leads to my— it's called a Zealous Space. It's like Linktree, but it's a little different. And I got a whole bunch of information on there on a whole bunch of different things. But you can, if you want to message me, you can also message me through Instagram.

You are such a rock star. Thank you so much, Evie Totty, like the hot toddy. She showed up, she was here, she was dropping all of the things to have an amazing organized life, digital life, all the things. Thank you so much, Evie. You are such a rockstar. I'm so excited that you got to kick this off with us today. And everyone, um, take a screenshot, tag us on Instagram when you can. I know it's not letting me tag any, but like very many people, but, um, tag us. We are going to be giving away a $50 Amazon gift card. We're going to throw all the names into a drawing. So, um, super exciting things coming up. We also have another event today at 1:30. It will be Miss Carly. She's going to be talking about ADHD, autism, and parenting. This is a huge topic. So again, thank you so much, Evie. Join us for the ADHD Rise. You can go to Bitly, so bit.ly/ADHRise. So bit.ly/ADHRise. Our rise, so ADHD rise. You guys can also go to our Instagram if you're able, and just click on our link trees either summer or I, and we will get you. You will see the link in there, and you'll get all the information knowing where we're going to be live tomorrow and later today. So we're grateful for you guys. Thank you so much, Evie, for allowing us to host in your amazing club. So you guys show some love. Go on up to the late diagnosis. ADHD Clubhouse. Click on that little greenhouse and follow this club because Evie, and you know, she's amazing. You guys are going to want to get in her space, follow her, follow each other, look around. You never know who's beside you or in this room with you. Like literally divine intervention can happen in a moment. So this is the ADHD Rise. My name is Val Nichols. I'm co-hosting with my beautiful friend Summer Christiansen over here. We had the beautiful Edie Hot Toddy over here talking about organization, and we are going to be going all month long with incredible speakers. We have over 60, I believe, 60 speakers who are talking on all kinds of topics. So let's do this, because when I rise, you rise, we rise together.

So excited to see you in the ADHD Parenting Club. Club today at 1:30. All right, hopefully we can get on Instagram soon. Bye y'all, we love you, we love you.

Bye. If you guys want to sign up for the ADHD Rise, you can just, um, message me and I'll send you the link if it's not working on Instagram, because I'm sending out an email each day with the, um, clubs and the times that we are going to be live in. For sharing and for hosting, we love you.