080. Stay Organized with ADHD: 10 Brain-Friendly Ways to Finish the Year Strong

If you have ADHD, you're feeling scattered, running on caffeine, and wondering how you’ll finish the year strong, this episode’s for you. I'm sharing 10 ADHD-friendly ways to get organized. These are real strategies that work with your brain, not against it, so you can wrap up the year calm, focused, and proud of what you’ve achieved.

You'll hear about:

✨ The Simple Single - the one-home rule that saves your sanity 

✅ How to make lists work for you — not guilt you — using the DONUT Method

🔑 Why decluttering helps your ADHD brain focus (and lowers stress)

📌 Ways to design your environment so the right action becomes the easy one

📝 How sticky notes, narration, and visual cues actually strengthen memory

🚫 The magic phrase that protects your time and focus: “Let me check.”

Resources mentioned in this episode:

• The DONUT Method Mini-Video → https://fireflybridge.com/donutminivideo

• Episode 41 – Never Lose Anything Again: The Essential Tip to Kickstart Your Home Organization → Listen on Apple Podcasts

You don’t need stricter routines, just smarter systems that fit how you think. Follow the podcast so you don’t miss weekly organizing tips for Beautiful Living.

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Connect with me:

You can find me on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/fireflybridgeorganizing
Here's my website: https://fireflybridge.com

Call or text me: 305-563-2292

Email me: zeenat@fireflybridge.com

Transcript

You guys, it’s Q4. Yes, I know you know this, I’m just being dramatic because when this episode airs, there will be 78 days left in the entire year. And take away weekends and National Holidays, we’re left with something like 54 days. 54. Now, I don’t know about you - well, no, I do know about you. Most of us here are working moms, and like me, there’s at least one big, enormous work project you need to get done before the end of the year, right?  
And then those of you who still have little kids, well, there are the holiday shows at school, the sports games on random weeknights, the drama production before Thanksgiving and before the Christmas break.
Not to mention all the family stuff. Are people coming to your house? Or are you going to theirs? What do you have to prep for that? When will you put up the decorations?
But before all of that, today, you need to just write one quick email to a colleague. So you open your laptop to do that, and somehow, an hour later, you’ve reorganized your Google Drive, you’ve researched “why my rosemary keeps dying,” and your inbox is still untouched.
Now, that happens to all of us. But when you’ve got ADHD? That’s an all-the-time thing that happens.
And, of course, it’s not because you’re lazy, distracted, or “bad at time management.”
It’s because the way you experience time, energy, and structure is just different.
Most of the organizing advice, like the planners, the morning routines, the “just stay consistent” pep talks, well that was built for brains that don’t have to fight to remember why they just walked into the room.
But ADHD brains? Well those live in what psychologist Dr. Ari Tuckman calls time blindness.
You don’t feel time passing the same way, so you underestimate, you overcommit, and overstretch yourself until you hit this very familiar wall of “why do I do this every year?”
So today, well, we’re not messing your brain.
But we are going to fix the friction between your brain and your systems, so that you can finish the year strong, and calm, and really proud of what you’ve accomplished.
So I’ve got ten ADHD-friendly ways to stay organized, and these are drawn from my frameworks, my clients’ real lives, and research by Dr. Ari Tuckman, Dr. Russell Barkley, and others.


Welcome to Organizing for Beautiful Living with me, Zee Siman,  The Choosy Organizer.
This podcast is for women who are done organizing everything and ready to be choosy — about what matters, what’s enough, and what can wait.
Because Beautiful Living starts with a little less stress and a lot more intention.
Ready to get beautifully organized? Let’s make it happen!

All right. Let’s get right into it! Here are 10 ADHD-friendly ways to stay organized so you end the year strong, and you accomplish those big, enormous goals of yours, while still making it to the school’s production of A Christmas Carol, all right?

The first one is The Simple Single
I’ll direct you to episode 41, it’s called Never Lose Anything Again: The Essential Tip to Kickstart Your Home Organization. That’ll explain exactly what The Simple Single is in all areas of organizing.
But let’s think about how The Simple Single can help you here.
ADHD brains struggle with object permanence. That means when something’s out of sight, it’s out of mind.
So when there are multiple homes for something, like your car keys sometimes live on the counter, sometimes in your purse, and sometimes in your jacket pocket, well your brain has to mentally search for them all every time.
The fix isn’t more storage spaces. It’s one consistent home.
One spot for your keys. One drop zone for mail. One basket for all the chargers.
Dr. Ari Tuckman points out that ADHD’s “time blindness” leads us to underestimate how long it takes to recover from tiny delays like this, when you have to search for something. And that time blindness can lead to being late for school, late for work, late for the school play, right?
So a single, predictable home for everything saves time and preserves your energy.
Every item gets one home so your brain doesn’t have to go looking for it.
An easy way to get started with the Simple Single is to think about what’s the one thing that always seems to disappear in your house? And give it one home today. And you can test just how much calmer tomorrow feels.

The second way is to Make Lists — But Make Them Work for You
Lists are amazing, until they become a source for all your guilt, right?
ADHD brains love to make lists because writing things down feels like progress. But when that list gets too long, it starts feeling like a personal failure report card.
So to make your lists work for you, after you’ve braindumped all your to-dos and reminders down onto paper or onto your app, break them into categories: Home, Work, Family, Church, whatever makes sense for you.
And that way, you only see what’s relevant to the setting you’re actually in.
Then, you can use my DONUT Method to triage your list, ok?
DONUT stands for Do it, Outsource it, Nix it, Uncomplicate it, or Table it.
You can grab a mini-video that I created for that at fireflybridge.com/donutminivideo. I put the link in the show notes, and you’ll get a quick how-to to use the DONUT Method. OK?
And Dr. Russell Barkley calls this whole listmaking and triaging “externalizing working memory.”
Lists stop being pressure points and they can instead become your external brain when you do this, so you can think clearly again.

The third way is to Declutter 
Clutter doesn’t just take up space. It steals your focus. It really does.
If you’re trying to write an email but your desk is covered in receipts, mail, or a half-eaten snack, your brain has to process every single one of those stimuli before it can think straight.
And the science backs it up: Saxbe & Repetti found that women who described their homes as “cluttered” had higher cortisol levels, which is the stress hormone, throughout the day.
So if your brain feels noisy, it’s not just something mental. It’s visual.
Clearing up visual clutter, then, is really important. Remember my example of the email you need to write to your colleague today. So imagine you open up your laptop, you open your mail, but at the top of your screen, you’ve got 12 browser tabs open, and your Slack app is blinking at the bottom. Each of those things is a visual distraction that your ADHD brain is trying to assess, and in fact, one of those things is likely going to win. So maybe you pause to think of the next sentence you want to write in that email and in that moment, you click onto one of those tabs while, and now you’re reading bits of an article you meant to read yesterday, and you’re all of a sudden down a rabbit hole.
So it’s important to minimize, or even eliminate, visual clutter from your environment while you’re trying to complete an important task. Hide all tabs, close all the other apps or windows, and only work on the email until you’re done.

The fourth idea is to Make Your Life Convenient
ADHD brains don’t resist work; what they resist is starting.
So your goal shouldn’t be, you know, “more discipline.” That’s not it at all. Your goal is less friction to get started.
So pick one section of your day and make it easier.
How about making your mornings easier, so you and the kids can get out of the door on time. How could you make things more convenient for that morning time?
Well, maybe you lay out your outfit the night before - the jewelry, the shoes, jacket, which bag you’re going to take, your hair tie, everything.
And you also decide what’s for breakfast and what’s going to get packed into the lunches. You do all of that the night before.
And you also check tomorrow’s calendar tonight, so you’re not ambushed by an early meeting while you’re trying to toast the frozen waffles, or whatever.
Dr. Tuckman calls this environmental design.
When you make the right action the easy one, you then you’re going to free your brain from decision fatigue.

So The fifth way is to Narrate What You’re Doing
This one is delightfully simple: talk to yourself while you do the task.
“I’m opening the dishwasher. I’m putting in the mugs.”
“I’m replying to this one email, then I’m going to close my laptop.”
It sounds a little silly, but speaking activates your working memory which is going to keep you anchored in the task instead of spiraling into distraction.
Research by Emerson & Miyake shows that “inner speech” supports task management, and out-loud narration of what you’re doing just strengthens that.
So you’re not weird when you’re talking to yourself, narrating while you do stuff, ok? You’re just boosting your executive function.

The sixth way is to Leave Yourself Notes
If you’re washing your face and suddenly you remember that you have to buy detergent, write it down right then and there. Sticky note, on the mirror, done.
If you’re in the middle of cleaning the kitchen and you remember that you have to call the dentist, put it down on a sticky note and slap it on the fridge or on the microwave.
ADHD brains are context-based. OK? You remember when you see it, not when your phone alarm pings and it’s in another room, ok?
This is what cognitive scientists call “distributed cognition.”
When you externalize reminders in the right context, so you take them out of your brain, but in the right context, in the right place at a time that makes sense, you reduce mental clutter and you improve your follow-through. 
So you’ve got your sticky note to buy detergent in the bathroom, well when you’re done washing your face and getting ready, you either take that note with you and stick it to your phone or your shopping list, or you stick it in a place that makes more sense, like on the fridge or on the microwave, right? Where you generally look for your to-dos.

OK. The seventh way is to Go Paperless
So going paperless where you can makes total sense to reduce or eliminate paper piles all over your house. You can start really small. Switch your bills and monthly statements to paperless. Ask your vendors and service providers for digital invoices you can pay online. Look for, you know, your alumni association magazine on the website and tell them to cancel the paper one.
Paper piles are sneaky because they don’t make any noise, right?  But they do drain you every time you walk by, and your brain is noticing that.
And going paperless is a way to reduce that background hum of “Oh, I should deal with that.”

The eighth way, I think we’re on number 8, the eighth way  is to Use Simple Visual Cues
We talked about sticky notes, but you can also use visual cues to create reminders for yourself and then to reduce the number of things swirling in your mind. For example, when we run out of something in our house, like tissue boxes, I leave the empty box on the kitchen counter to remind me later to put it onto our shopping list. You can do the same with shampoo, or baby wipes, or cereal. But also, you could leave your gym shoes out in your closet the night before.
It’s not cute, but it works. It reminds you that you wanted to go for a walk before your first Zoom meeting.
And Dr. Tuckman calls this “environmental cueing.”
Your surroundings become your assistant. You don’t need a reminder app or a post-it note for every single thing you want to do.
Now be careful, because you don’t want every item that’s empty to be on your counter. You have to keep it balanced.

OK, The ninth way is to Make It Easy to Put Stuff Away
Systems don’t fail when you first set them up, right? They tend to fail in their maintenance.
So if something takes too many steps to put away, that thing is going to live on the counter forever, my friend.
So, make it easy on yourself. Don’t put lids on bins.
Use open baskets.
Label every bin and basket and box clearly, so your brain doesn’t have to re-decide where things go.
Think of other ways to make stuff easier for you to stay organized. Like, if your gym clothes don’t need to be folded, well, don’t fold them. Just toss them in a labeled basket. If that's a friction point for you, we’re looking for the easy, the easy convenience for you, ok?
And you’ll know where they are, and you’ll actually put them away.
I mean, just think about it right now. What’s one daily mess zone that you could simplify with an open bin or basket? Is it maybe the kids’ legos? The video game controllers?
It’s not great to see these things out in the open, so you can leave the lids off of the container, and just put the entire container behind closed doors like in a cabinet or in a closet. So it’s still easy to put away.

And the tenth way is to Practice Saying No, or “Let Me Check”
ADHD brains love novelty. They love the excitement of something new.
So when someone asks, “Hey, can you help with this?” You want to say yes!
That “yes” rush is dopamine. And what follows is usually the regret of reality.
Here’s where Dr. Tuckman’s work on behavioral inhibition matters:
He explains that ADHD often isn’t about lack of motivation to do things; it’s about a lack of pause.
So we need to build that pause in.
So you can say, “Let me check my schedule and I’ll get back to you.”
That’s not flaking, ok? It’s protecting your energy and your focus.
And if the answer after you check your schedule is realistically "no", well then it's No. And if it's "Yes" you want to do that favor or you need to, then you can say yes with a realistic view, though, of what has to change to make that happen. 

So when you’re dealing with ADHD organization:
You don’t need to be stricter with yourself or berate yourself for not following through with things.
You just need to be smarter about how your brain works.
You need to build in less friction, more convenient structure, and definitely some more grace for yourself.
Finishing the year strong doesn’t mean doing more, right? It means doing what matters, your big, enormous project, or getting ready for the family holiday dinner at your house, or just making it to the school play on time, and doing it in ways that actually work for you.
So maybe just pick one of these ten ideas. Maybe it’s giving your keys one consistent home, or taking the lids off every lego container in your house. And let that one small change carry you really calmly through the rest of Q4, ok?
So don’t forget that if you want to learn more about the DONUT Method for triaging your to-do list you can find that at fireflybridge.com/donutminivideo. The link is in the show notes.
Have an excellent week, and start with one of these ideas to get yourself beautifully organized these next 78 days of the year, ok?
I’m Zee, and I’ll see you on the next episode.