Some people subscribe to the inbox zero philosophy; others use other systems to organize their entire lives.

What works best for me can really only be called chaos.

To an outside observer, I have been told it's a miracle anything gets done by you. I agree; I've just learned to live and work with how I'm wired.

Organized

I can be organized if it's something that needs to be managed.

For example, I have a growing French cleat tool wall in my garage. When working on projects, I prioritize first-order retrievability. My server rack is another example of this. It was thought out and organized for ease of access and maintenance.

Likely 20% of my life falls into this category.

Does that mean everything is organized? Absolutely not.

Most of it is controlled chaos.

Controlled

Control is more about grouping, not ensuring things are neat and orderly. This accounts for about 70% of my life.

This concept extends beyond physical objects and encroaches on my notes in the form of backlinks and tagging and email with labels and folders.

Physically, my office desk could fall into this category, most of the items are related to work or creative endeavors, but it isn't neat.

The toolbox and other areas of the garage are in a similar state.

At first glance, the surfaces might appear to be utter chaos, but there's a method to the madness, and things can be easily navigated by me at least.

Utter

That last 10% could only be described as areas of utter chaos; my mind is one at times.

However, the physical and digital world has things like email inboxes with thousands of emails (I swear Inbox Zero sounds terrific, but that's not how I work), my painting desk covered with tools, brushes, paint, and projects in various stages.

The doom boxes of items are somewhat categorized, but they're basically things I know I won't look at for a significant amount of time; that is just static clutter I need to clear.

They serve as a barometer for my state of mind and level of anxiety; as that rises, the mess correlates.

Living with ADHD can sometimes mean a fair amount of chaos, but ultimately it's been identifying and managing that chaos that has helped me the most.