I had a very interesting discussion with a friend of mine on Saturday morning. We haven’t been able to keep in touch as much as we would have liked, especially with the way that 2008 ended for my own family. So we took some time to catch up, talk about how our businesses were going, and how we could work together in the future.

She happens to have a great deal of experience working with people who have ADD and chronic disorganization problems, and our conversation veered off into that territory in short order. It was a very profitable discussion, since I was able to “step back” and look at some of the things that had happened last year and how to avoid them in 2009. I have written about this before, but I believe that this is probably a good time to bring it up again:

The 7 Habits of Highly Effective ADD Adults

First, let me start with the qualification that ADD and ADHD and other “Attention Inconsistency” difficulties are real, and that I am not a doctor. I struggle with this situation daily, sometimes I do well, other days are less than excellent.

These practices and this outlook work fairly well for me, your mileage may vary.

In order to get the most from the positive aspects of the ADD mind, such as creativity, originality, it is important to do our best to stay away from those things that make ADD a “negative” aspect of our lives. While many ADD adults resist structure, the truth is that our minds crave it. The secret is to discover a structure that engages our imagination, encourages our creativity, and is flexible enough for our individuality.

From the book Delivered from Distraction by Dr. Edward Hallowell, here is a list of “recurring qualities” of adults that are able to harness the positive power of their Attention Deficit Disorder.

1. Do what you’re good at. Don’t spend too much time to get good at what you’re bad at (You did enough of that in school).
2. Delegate what you’re bad at to others, as often as possible.
3. Connect your energy to a creative outlet.
4. Get well enough organized to achieve your goals. The key here is “well enough”. That doesn’t mean you have to be very well organized at all – just well enough organized to achieve your goals.
5. Ask for and heed advice from people you trust – and ignore, as best you can, the dream-breakers and finger-waggers.
6. Make sure you keep up regular contact with a few close friends.
7. Go with your positive side. Even though you have a negative side, make decisions and run your life with your positive side.

When it comes to getting organized, a terrific weakness of the ADD adult, David Allen’s Getting Things Done is a pretty good solution. Why “pretty good”? Because the GTD program can easily spin out of control, due to a major weakness of the ADD Adult: trying new things. I have spent a lot of time and energy on trying out new applications, new methods, this gadget and that filing system. It took a major change in my life and circumstances for me to pare my workflow practice down to the essentials and accomodate my own particular needs.

For example, I am addicted to (or have a fetish for) blank notebooks. Always have. So I have embraced it. I have given up on using a software-based GTD system and I manage the larger portion of it in my notebooks. What a relief!

This list is not just for work. I have personally found this list to be extremely helpful in utilizing the beneficial aspects of my own ADD.

1. If you are not good at something, give it two chances. The possibility that you just got distracted the first time is strong. After that, keep trying new things. You will be pleasantly surprised at how many things you can be good at, you just didn’t know it. The key is to keep at it, for the downside of ADD is that you may get distracted before you are able to get enough practice in. This is one of the instances where setting up a routine can be helpful.
2. Delegating can be hard, but it is very important. The good news is that GTD provides you with a system for keeping track of what you are Waiting For. Slogging away at tasks that you hate to do, or are not very competent at, can be a huge source of frustration. People with ADD have a very low tolerance for frustration, and these activities are to be avoided.
3. Being creative is one of my greatest joys. I love hacking notebooks, building models, and keeping my journal/”morning pages”. Find The Artist’s Way by Julia Cameron, it is packed with tips and strategies to increase your creativity and boost your productivity. Keep your journal and a capture notebook handy. Looking back through these notes and journal entries is a good way of spotting trends in your behavior, saving good ideas from being lost, and tracking your progress to success during your Weekly Review.
4. Your GTD practice can be as detailed or as unstructured as you need. My own system continues to evolve as I discover areas that need more attention, and those that need less. My Tickler File is one of the most important tools for assisting my fleeting memory. And I am not alone: so many others are new to the GTD Community, and they are posting away on what works for them and what does not.
5. Join the work.life.creativity Community for advice from people that you can trust. There are quite a few very powerful resources for getting personal assistance from others who practice GTD or other organizational systems who will help you because they enjoy helping others.
6. Keeping in contact with close friends is one of the hardest for me personally. I tend to blow through my days without stopping to check in with any of my friends. Until they call or email me. My wife has been a big help in reminding me to call people, and I use my Tickler File for sending myself a note to catch up with people too. In spite of not being “close” with my friends I am able to pick up right where we left off.
7. I have always been a very positive person, confident that everything will be just fine. It has helped me get through some very tough times when I could have listed the negatives and become depressed. “Always look on the bright side” may sound like the corniest of cliches, but it is an impressive tool that you can use to control your ADD over the long-term.

I have saved the most important tip for last, an Eighth Habit if you will: Don’t get discouraged. You can harness the power of your ADD mind in special ways, ways that you may not yet have discovered. Keep working at it and never tell yourself “I can’t“. If you do find something that is nearly impossible for you to do, do not be afraid to ask for help. You will never regret it.