“Just One More Thing...”
Tuesday, June 2, 2009 at 10:29PM | Kathleen Nadeau, Ph.D.
“Just one more thing” is a dangerous compulsion, and it’s going around a lot these days. Have trouble getting out of the house? Do you keep going back for “one more thing”? Have trouble leaving the office at the end of the day? Just need to take care of “one more thing”? Then you've got a bad case and need to look hard for a cure.
But, if you're going to find a cure that works, you need to look at the causes.....
Poor planning – If you have trouble getting out the door, it’s probably due to poor planning. You keep thinking of one more thing you need that you didn't plan for in advance. “Oh, I forgot my umbrella.” Or, “Wait, I'm supposed to drop off the dry cleaning.”
The cure – 
- Create a place where you gather things that need to go with you.
- Program a five-minute warning, setting a timer, giving you time to do a last-minute task.
- Take your departure time seriously; treat it as if you were catching a train!
Impulsiveness– You may still be operating in the “see task, do task” mode we talked about in an earlier newsletter. Your excuse – “If I don't do it now,I'll forget it again.”
The cure – send yourself an email reminder, then schedule for tomorrow.
Over-scheduling – If you have trouble leaving at the end of the day because you need to do “one more thing,” it may be because you've over-scheduled your day.
The cure – Schedule EVERYTHING on your calendar, including a “catch-up time” at the end of the morning and the end of the afternoon. That way, there’s automatically time to do that “one last thing” without leaving late for home.
The reward – a lower stress level and an on-time schedule. Your colleagues will be happier, and your family won't feel neglected.
The Skoach Approach:
The “cures” I outlined above are all easy to accomplish with Skoach. The 5-minute warnings can be automatically delivered, with no need to set a timer each day (one more thing to forget to do). Even when you're away from your computer, you can easily create Skoach reminders via cell phone (using a voice-to-text service like Jott.com or dial2do.com) so that it’s easy to capture thoughts on-the-go. “Scheduling everything” on your daily calendar is as easy as dragging tasks from your task-list onto your calendar schedule. Bottom line – sure, you can get organized and manage your time using other systems, it’s just so much easier using the Skoach approach!
Reader Comments (6)
Woah, I didn't know how common this may be! My learning strategist even suggested it was more compulsive bhr than ADHD.
"One more thing" could often steal my whole day! IN the past, it meant that I consistently took 3 hours to get started with work.
THanks so very very much for this post. I've tried some of them before but will do so more deliberately now.
I suffer rom this. It is another bad habit. Both interesting, teh text and the comment. I will pay more attention to it. By the way, night time routine helped me prevent this.
Not to mention that is the most common behaviour of mine while on the web. :(
I do so appreciate you passing along these tidbits! It not only makes SKOACH more user-friendly, but also so nicely points out the problems that those of us with AD/HD may not even realize are related to our AD/HD tendencies.
Thanks for helping make life for manageable!
deni weber, Psy.D.
It is a process. Don't forget that. Make a game out of it. Remember that all of us that suffer from ADD Challenges get exhausted and will feel defeated if we can't organize a single space. Don't do it alone. For me doing it alone, or sections at a time lead to years of failure. Fact, was it wasn't that bad. It just felt that bad. I finally hired a "buddy" and we took sections at a time.If you have the money for a professional organizer do it.
Just know you can change and feel better. It has taken a year to really start getting rid or all the ' extra clutter' , but I feel like a new person.
Be realistic about your goals. I have started to use all my organization tools many times, but I forget and at first I felt so painfully defeated. Now, I am learning to approach it with a successful attitude. Just knowing that I am getting closer to a more " normal" " positive way of life"
"One more thing' is trained into me since childhood by having to be task oriented rather than time oriented. (IE: Animals have to be fed and watered prior to leaving. Lights have to be turned off, garbage taken out, etc) Is there a cure?
I have pursued various methods but struggle to continue with them for the long run. Often, my success is affected by habits of other family members whose habits interfer, (and I'm sure it works both ways.) If I have to be the last to leave and animals have not been cared for. . . guess what? "One more thing". Garbage isn't out on garbage day? "One more thing. Struggling to get "them" to follow through with their responsibilities so I can also be on time also.