Organisation is important in order to keep our minds clear. Our minds process so much information on a daily basis, some it being irrelevant to us. If we are disorganised, then our minds are left to carry all that information with nowhere for it to, leaving us unable to figure out how to process it so we can move forward with our lives. By organising our minds, we can free them up in order to focus on what is important in our lives.
Organising Your “Mind” is all about finding ways to visualise what goes on inside it and knowing when to rest it. In order to Organise Your Mind efficiently you need to: Do a Mind Dump, Set a Reasonable Amount to do and Reflect on Your Day.
Doing a Mind Dump is where you take everything that is in your mind and write it down on something so you can see it all visually. The best way to Mind Dump is by making a Mind Map. Below, you can find a step by step guide to help you do this.
A lot of the time, Mind Maps can be done on paper but if you would rather do it digitally (on a computer, tablet or phone), then Aspie Heroes recommends using Miro a software available online for computers and as an app for Apple/Android Devices.
There are 2 sides to everyone’s life. Our Mind Maps should work around these 2 sides. The first side is your personal life- what affects you personally and what you do privately. The second side is your social life- your work (paid or voluntary) and what you do with other people. These 2 sides should be kept separate both on the map and in life, also they require different thinking which is why we are acknowledging them first.
Your life is split in to 2 parts. Part 1 is your Personal Life- what affects your personally and what you do privately. My Personal Life is made up of My Weight, My Chores and My Leisure time which I have put on the left. Part 2 is your Social Life- what you do for work and what you do with others. My Social Life is made up of Aspie Heroes, Work, Yellow House and LCRCA which I have put on the right. From here, we can see how much we ACTUALLY have to think about in our lives and consider their importance.
Some of the things in our life can be broke down further as multiple things might make up what we do for a particular part of our life. For example, in My Personal Life, Leisure consists of three specific things I actually do for leisure which are Gaming, Books and TV. Breaking these things down allows us to see what makes up these things in our lives and also allows us to consider whether we are doing too much and need to simplify things.
Now we know the things that make up our lives, it’s time to look at the issues affecting them. For example, the issues affecting My Weight are I am Overweight, I eat too much Rubbish and I feel tired in the afternoon. With these written down, we now have a visual guide to our minds making our thoughts easier to think about and how we can come up with solutions to our issues.
With each individual problem laid out in front of us, we can now come up with solutions for them. For example, the issue of me feeling tired and wanting to sleep in the afternoon can be solved by drinking green tea and taking b12 supplements daily. If you can’t come up with a solution, don’t be afraid to ask someone else for help. Remember, the best solutions are the ones where you make small changes to your life because those are easier to stick to and can lead to big changes in your life.
Your Mind Map will always be the visual guide to your mind and the things in life that it thinks about but the thing about life is many things come and go in it so we need to updating our mind maps regularly: if there is a new part of your life WRITE IT DOWN, if there is a new issue with a current part of your life WRITE IT DOWN, if there is a new solution for an issue in your life then WRITE IT DOWN. Keeping on top of our mind like this will prevent it becoming disorganised again.
To “Set a Reasonable Amount to do” is all about understanding your limits and your way of working. The idea of this, is to start your workload small to keep it manageable, preventing you from burning yourself out from stress and making sure you actually complete the tasks of your workload. Below, you can find a step by step process to help you “Set a Reasonable Amount to do”.
Firstly, write down everything you need to do regardless of how big or small it is, even if it doesn’t seem very important. Remember, you want this list to have everything on it so you can visualise what you need to do as autistic people are visual learners.
Next, choose 3 tasks to work on- no more, no less. When choosing tasks to work on, consider WHERE they need to be completed such as what can you do in a particular room or when you go out from your house/work building. Another way to do it, is to consider WHAT you need to do the task such as a computer, a ladder, tools etc. This will make it easier to get things done.
Doing more than 3 tasks will overwhelm you meaning you won’t get them done and procrastinate (put the tasks off), less is more. Right now, nothing else should matter except for the 3 tasks you have selected to do, don’t think about anything else you want to get down or think about anything that has nothing to do with the tasks at hand. Do the tasks one at a time until each one is done, also not the time you started working on them.
After you have completed the 3 tasks, check the time to see how long it took you to do the tasks. If only took a short time, then you should try to do more tasks, but remember to choose 3 tasks to do at a time, don’t get overconfident with your ability to do tasks, stay consistent. If it took you a long time and getting late, then you should call it a day.
Although it’s a great feeling to get tasks done, you need to make sure you have a break so you don’t burn out. This could be a quick 10 minute break, stopping for the evening/night or taking a day off from doing work so you can recover. If you don’t, this can lead to anxiety and depression which can paralyse you with fear of doing the things you need to do so take time out for yourself.
One of the best ways to Reflect on your Day is through the use of Journalling. Journalling involves writing down the thoughts about your day- what happened and how you feel about it. This does not have to be complicated as we at Aspie Heroes will show you a simple step by step method to it, down below.
You can either Journal on paper or digitally. If you want to do it on paper, then you can either use a regular note book or pad of paper. If you want your Journal to look more professional then you can buy a blank journal or diary which will have dates and a layout made just for Journalling. If you want to do it digitally, you can use presentation software with each slide being an entry, you can use a note taking app or you can use journalling apps- there are loads available. We at Aspie Heroes will be using the Journal app made by Apple for the iPhone.
The Aspie Heroes Journalling Method involves 4 simple steps to use for each entry you make. The 4 steps are as follows: Good, Bad, I learned and Visuals. Before you start, you should write the date for the entry you want to make. Ideally, you should try to make a journal entry each day but don’t feel forced to do so if it is too much for you, instead just do it as often as you can and don’t worry about missing days as this happens to everyone in life.
The first thing to write about is what was Good about your day- What went well today? What did you do with your today? Did you accomplish anything today? These questions should help you consider what to write for a Good entry but they really should be doing is motivating you to look for the positive things in your life as positivity will build your confidence and self-esteem but it has to be looked for as it doesn’t come naturally. The more you look for positivity the better your life will be.
The second thing to write about is what was Bad about your day- What didn’t go well today? Has something bad happened to you today or even to someone else you know or someone you admire (that you don’t know personally)? Is there something you have been thinking about making you feel bad? These questions should help you consider what to write for your Bad entry but they really should be reminding you that it is okay not to be okay and that everyone has problems in their lives because no one is perfect no matter how much they try to make it look that way.
The last thing to write about is what “I learned” today, something that can help you in your life- Is there something you can change in your life, such as something from a Bad entry in your Journal, to make it better? Do you recognised any patterns such as similar issues in previous Good or Bad Journal entries that help or hinder you? Have you heard something, like a quote, that inspires you from someone you know or someone well known? These questions should help you consider what “I learned” which should inspire you to always self-improve as life is a constant learning process.
As Autistic people, we are visual learners meaning it helps us to use some sort of visual cue to help us better connect with our Journal Entries. If you are journalling on paper then you can either draw pictures if you like drawing or if you don’t want to draw then you can use highlighter pens to colour code the Good, Bad and I learned parts of your Journal Entries. If you are journalling digitally, then you can use picture you have taken on your phone/tablet/computer or put a map location on where you have been on a particular day. Visuals will help your Journal Entries to stand out more.
If you try to accomplish everything in a day, you run the risk of you burning yourself from being under too much stress. This will cause your mind to go blank, forgetting what you need to do and how to do it. It’s better to accomplish a few things over each day than try to do it at once because smaller changes to your daily life are easier to keep to than massive life changes. Treat life as a marathon not a sprint- focus on getting to the end, not how fast you do it.