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In a previous post, I wrote a little about the basics of Getting Things Done (GTD), David Allen's ubiquitous productivity system.  (Don't mind me, ubiquitous is my new favorite word.  If you have a favorite word, suggest it in the comments--my husband will thank you for it.)  People that know me will be shocked to learn that I don't use pencil and paper when I'm GTD - I use technology.

Specifically, I use two free web services, Sandy and Jott to get my ideas out of my head, and to organize them into contexts, next actions, and projects.  I also use Google Apps for calendar and email.  To stay motivated to process my inboxes every day, I use Don't Break the Chain.  I use very, very little in the way of paper notetaking. 

I keep my laptop on my kitchen counter through the day.  I use a tabbed browser, and when I boot up my computer in the morning, I get my mail tab, my calendar tab, and Don't Break the Chain.  That's it.  I'm not allowed to open up any forums, blogs, or news sites until 2:00 p.m.  You never met someone who could fritter away ten hours at a pop reading forums and blogs until you met me!

Gotta love Sandy.  It's like having a personal assistant, except she's digital!  I just want to be able to change her to "Enrique" and I'll be all set. 

Here's how it works:  I need to get something done.  I email it to Sandy.  The kind of things I email to her look like this:

Sandy, remember groceries *eggs *butter *bananas
Sandy, remember to TALK to Mike about the kitchen remodel @Mike
Sandy, remember to INVITE my mom to lunch @email @todo
Sandy, remember to CALL to make a well-baby doctor appointment 555-1234 @phone @todo
Sandy, remember to CALL Carol tomorrow to ask her to babysit 777-8888 @phone @todo
Sandy, remember to BUY "S" hooks @errands @todo
Sandy, remember to PREPARE a veggie dish for church next Wednesday @home @todo
Sandy, remember John Smith's new phone number is 444-5678 @contacts
Sandy, remember @errands @reminder Tuesday *library *chiropractor *Lowe's *grocery
Sandy, remember no violin lessons week of 2/3 @reminder @calendar

This is, quite literally, a brain dump.  I will send such an email to Sandy whenever I think of something that needs to be remembered.  I email her any number of things, any time of the day.

What's nice about Sandy is she doesn't just keep my brain dump in a jumbled mess.  She organizes it for me, and can regurgitate it on command, as well as send me a nice list each morning.

When I wake up, sitting in my email inbox is a cordial message from Sandy, telling me my agenda for the day.  I have a nice, neat todo list categorized into my contexts (@errands, @home, @phone, etc.).

What's more, I can call up any number of lists throughout the day, whenever I like.  Say I am laying down with the baby to nurse him for his nap, and I have time to send some emails or do some work on the computer (gotta love a laptop with a wireless card!).  I simply email Sandy and say, "Sandy, lookup @email" or "Sandy, lookup @computer."  She will immediately email me a list of everything I have on my todo list that I can do at the computer or via email.

I hate making phone calls.  So when I have one to make, I might as well make several and get it over with.  When the kids are all at the lunch table, I know I have about fifteen minutes.  I'll email Sandy and say, "Sandy, lookup @phone" and promptly receive a list of all the phone calls, with phone numbers, I need to make. 

While I'm on the phone, say I make an appointment at the doctor, get asked to coordinate meals for a mom with a new baby, find out someone's family needs prayer, and agree to return a book I borrowed from a friend on errand day.  As all these things are happening on the telephone, I'm emailing Sandy like wildfire!  I'll say:

Sandy, remember a week from Tuesday at 2:20 pediatrician @reminder @calendar
Sandy, remember set up new project coordinate meals for Jane @JaneMeals @home @todo
Sandy, remember @errands *return book to Sam @todo
Sandy, remember to pray for the Johnson family @prayer

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But wait. . .there's more! 

What if I'm not at home by my trusty laptop?  Well, I call Sandy!  Seriously! 

It's a service called Jott, where you leave a 30-second voice message, and the folks at Jott transcribe your voice message and email it (or text it) to someone.  I have Jott in my speed-dial in my cell phone.  I call Jott.  They say "who do you want to Jott" and I say "Sandy."  It's time to record my message, and I say "remember to call Jane tomorrow @reminder." 

No, I'm not kidding.  I really call Sandy.

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But wait. . .even more! 

Ever been out and about and decided to stop at the store?  This happens to me all the time.  Maybe I need to pay my mortgage (the bank's closest branch is inside a grocery store).  Maybe I know I'm out of my crack Coke and I'll get a monster caffeine headache if I don't pick some up.  Anyway, now  I'm thinking, "oh, geez, here I am at the store and I know we're out of something but what is it. . .

Sandy will send my grocery list to my telephone via text message.  Seriously!  I can call Jott and say, "Sandy, lookup groceries @sms" and she'll send me my list!  I can also do this with errands, "Sandy, lookup errands @sms."

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There can't be more, can there?

I use Sandy like a "file cabinet" as well.  For example, most of the recipes I use regularly I get from a parenting forum I frequent, or from allrecipes.com or a similar website.  Guess what?  Every recipe I get, I email it to Sandy to keep for me.  Yep, she'll keep them filed under "recipes" and in alphabetical order.  I can even give them a secondary tag, like the website where I got it, or what kind of recipe it is, as you can tag something as many times as you like.  My email to Sandy will look something like this:

Sandy, remember Oatmeal Fudge Bars @recipes @yaapsrecipes @desserts (that's the subject line - the actual recipe a copy and paste into the body of the email). 

Sandy will keep this recipe for me, until I ask her to "lookup @recipes" or "lookup @desserts."

I keep all manner of things like this.  The measurements of the bedroom windows.  The size of tires Mike's car takes.  And guess what?  Sandy will text any of these things to my cell phone if I happen to be out away from my computer and needing the info.

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Where does Don't Break the Chain come in?  Well, I get to "X out" another day if I used some time that morning to get all my inboxes processed an empty.  That means email inbox, empty.  Mailbox, empty.  Inbox, empty.  Voicemail mailbox {sigh, this is a hard one for me}, empty.  Everything processed and sitting on a context/next action list waiting for me. 

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So if you're GTD the low-tech way, please ignore this whole post.  Seriously.  This system works for me because I worked in an office for years, and I had an assistant for many of those years.  I am totally used to spewing a "brain dump" on my assistant so he/she could help me remember important things in an organized way.  It's just something I've grown accustomed to doing.  Not to mention, I've organized my life and the lives of my coworkers using a computer calendar, task list, and email client for years!  It's second-nature to me, so there's very little in the way of a learning curve.

If low-tech ain't broke, don't fix it.  But if you're used to using a laptop/cellphone/pda/smartphone/blackberry, and you'd like to try GTD the high-tech way, I highly recommend both Sandy (Enrique as soon as I can figure out how to rename/regender her!) and Jott. 

First, my apologies to both-my-dear-readers for the space of time between posts.  I have a whole host of posts ready to be written, but something stupid is keeping me from doing it. 

You see, I don't like the way my blog looks or functions, and I've been trying to find time to research other sites and how they function.  Consequently, I've been paralyzed around all issues concerning my blog.  Sounds silly to someone neurotypical, but you ADDers will know just what I mean.

Anyway, once I recognized the source of my paralysis, I decided to just post.  Hopefully, that decision will stick!

Back to the laundry system.

Prior to diagnosis and treatment, we had clothing everywhere.  Draped over furniture, in (formerly neatly folded) piles on surfaces, on over-door hooks, in the laundry room - just everywhere.  I felt like between paperwork and clothing I just couldn't keep on top of anything!

Enter, the ADD-proof laundry system.  The only thing it takes is a couple days to set it up and the commitment to keep putting things in their place once they have places.  You can do it!

1)  Get supplies.

• 7 to 10 full-size laundry baskets, any variety and color
  
•  15 10-12 gallon Rubbermaid™ containers (anything around that size and waterproof).  If you can't afford to get that many, start with five and collect more later, but it's preferable to just go get them.  The time and money having a system already in place will save you will make up for this expense, I promise.
• A roll of masking tape and a sharpie, or a Brother P-touch labelmaker.
• A wire shelving unit that will fit in your laundry room, with one shelf per family member and an extra space for linen closet items.  If you have very young children, add a bag with handles to each child's shelf, large enough to contain a load of neatly folded laundry.
• If you don't have one already, a shelf to hold laundry supplies.
• A bowl (for loose change, chapstick, rocks, and other unpredictable things found in pockets of boys of all ages)
• A way (besides dresser drawers or hangers) to store clean clothing for each family member.  More on this later.  This will include hooks easily at family member's level for "clirty" clothing.
  

2)  Set it up.

• Choose one laundry basket for transportation of clean laundry from the laundry room to clean clothes storage.  If it's not a separate color, label it on all four sides with your masking tape/sharpie or your Brother P-touch.
• Decide how you're going to sort dirty laundry and label the rest of your baskets.  Some people sort by lights/darks.  I prefer to sort by family member, so the heavy fabrics and fasteners on my husband's clothing don't prematurely wear holes in my clothing, and so the occasional missed pocket item (rosin, for example {sigh}) in the boys' laundry doesn't ruin mine or the baby's.  Write down your sorting system, then label your baskets on all four sides and set them up in your laundry room.  My system is as follows:
  

• Boys' clothing
• Baby clothing
• My clothing
• Mike's clothing
• Whites (everyone's)
• Towels/cloths/rags
• Bed Linens
• Now label your plastic containers.  These are for outgrown, out of season, or extra clothing.  You will have these.  What are you going to do with them when it happens?  If you don't have empty bins ready, they will end up in your regular clothing storage area, and spilling out/draped all over your home.  Just do it now and save yourself the trouble.
• Newborn/3 months
• 6-9 months
• 12 months
• 18 months
• 24 months/2T
• 3T/4T
• 5T/5
• 6/6X
• 7/8
• 10/12
• 14/16
• Adult Male
• Adult Female
• Maternity
• Goodwill/Freecycle

• Now label your shelving unit, one shelf per family member

• Designate a central place for dirty laundry.  If you have a laundry chute, great.  If you don't, I'd recommend having family members toss laundry down the stairs, maybe into a large laundry basket sitting at the bottom of the stairs.  Seriously, when you want to do laundry, you don't want to go traipsing around the house and up stairs searching for dirty clothing.  And you don't want dirty clothing overflowing hampers and draped all over the house until laundry day.  Just have a chute or a system so your family members can get it in the central place, the first time, and you don't have to go get it on laundry day.
  
• Finally, designate clean clothing storage.  The requirements are that it be easy for your family member to put his own laundry away, even if he's two.  And even if he has ADD.  This means no dresser drawers, which are disaster for children and ADDers.  It also means no hangers, because if an ADDer has to take an extra step with a hanger, he will just drape it over the bed or leave it in a heap on the floor.

• Decide how many clothes each family member needs in a week.  It will be individual, but decide it, because hand-me-downs/gifts/all manner of extra clothing will sneak in and overflow your storage if you're not careful.  The whole point is to make it easy and simple, and to keep clothing from being draped all over your house!  For my boys, it's ten tops, ten bottoms.  We don't dress up much, but if we needed "Sunday best" or whatever, it would be two more outfits that are nicer and kept separate from the everyday wear, probably in my room and under my control so they're not worn to play in the mud.  For me, it's five "yoga pants" type outfits and five "jeans or khakis" type outfits, plus a few nicer outfits.  I currently have "extra" nicer outfits because I just quit my two-day-a-week office job, and don't need so many anymore.  They need to go into storage in the laundry room.  My husband wears uniforms to work, so he needs about five "jeans or khakis" type outfits and just a couple "workout clothes" and "yard work" type outfits. 
  

3)  OK, you're ready for the system.  Everything is in place, ready to go.  Now, go!

On your laundry day (I need two laundry days a week because I can't devote a whole day, seeing as how I have a baby who wants some of my time) devote your time to laundry and related tasks.  That means, on laundry day, you're mostly in the laundry room while you're doing laundry.  Don't try to throw in a load and then come up and make dinner.  Stay in the laundry room.

Whatever will you do there?  Well, is your laundry room neat and tidy?  If you're an ADDer like me, probably not.  Is your mending caught up?  If you're like me, you have sixteen things in the mending basket that need patched/altered/button sewn on.   My laundry room is situated in the basement, and if I ever get the laundry area completely cleaned and organized, I can branch out into the rest of the horribly overcrowded, overcluttered, messy basement storage.  Don't worry, there will be plenty of laundry-related/laundry room-related things for you to do on laundry day, in between sorting/folding/ironing if you do that.

If you discipline yourself to only do laundry- and clothing-related tasks while laundry is in the washer, you'll almost completely eliminate that lovely experience of going down to put laundry in only to find a pile of wet, stinking laundry in the washer that's been there mildewing for days.

System step one, if it's clothing and it's in your house, it's either part of the family member's allotment of clean, folded, well-fitting and in-season clothing and is in clean clothing storage, or it's in the laundry chute.  Do not any longer allow clothing to be draped all over the house.  It will take a little while, but "train" yourself and your family members to put all clothing in one of two places - the storage or the laundry chute.

System step two, on laundry day, go down there and
1.  Sort all the clothes in the laundry chute into your dirty clothes basket, and start a load
2.  Fold clothing right out of the dryer.
3.  If it's part of the family member's allotted clothing, put it, neatly folded, on his clean clothing shelf.
4.  If it's out of season, or if you remember it fitting the kid a little tightly last time you saw it on him, put it, laundered and neatly folded, in a labeled plastic bin according to its size. 
5.  When family members no longer have clean clothes on their shelves or in their underbed bins, it's time to visit the laundry room to bring some up and put it away.  Kids as young as 2 can do this.  If he's too young to carry up a stack of neatly folded laundry without spilling it everywhere, bag it up for him.  He can put away his laundry, and then drop the bag right back down the laundry chute to be refilled with clean clothing next laundry day. 
6.  The laundry basket designated for clean laundry is for things too voluminous to carry up in a neat stack.  For us, this is bath towels, kitchen cloths, cloth diapers. 

So there it is, in a nutshell.  Clothing is in one of two places, only.  We have clean (and clirty), well-fitting, in-season clothing storage that's adequate for the amount of clothing worn weekly and easy for each family member to manage.  We have a central place for all other clothing (being the clothing that's NOT clean, or well-fitting, or in season) that is well-labeled and easy for the laundry goddess to manage.  Clothing is in one of those two places, and the house is so much the better for it.

It may seem overwhelming to think about taking your house from "clothing draped all over" to "a well-ordered laundry system" but you can do it!  My recommendation is to do it without thinking too much about it.  In other words, implement *my* system without overthinking it (which can cause paralysis in us ADDers) and without changing it too much right off the bat.  Just go get your supplies, label everything, and set it up. 

I guarantee you'll have tweaks and changes here and there based on your family size and makeup, your family's habits, and so on.  But try not to think about what those tweaks and changes will be at the outset, so as not to paralyze yourself.

You can do it!

If you decide that you need to implement a laundry system, and this post was helpful to you at all, leave a comment to let me know!