Organized... or Not.

Hello again, faithful readers. Been a somewhat busy past few days, hence my lack of posting. I appreciate the feedback I've been getting about this; feel free to keep it coming.

Today's issue is probably going to be confusing even for me to talk about, as it's something that I can never really seem to get right: organization.

I'll start with the obvious: It's good to stay organized with homework, jobs, and so fourth. I have in fact seen that I get more done when I make lists, plan, and keep my work sorted and neat. One of the most useful tools in CROWN has been a master list I make of all my subjects. I would make a Word document with a category for each individual class, list any work I had in each subject, then create a separate section called "Yet to Do" where I would copy and paste everything, and erase it as I went. This REALLY helped me see at a glance what I had left, and figure out what else I needed to do.

Another aspect of my system, and one that I would recommend to anyone trying to organize their work, was that I would try to be flexible with it, and would change it as my needs changed. When I forgot to pack things for Friday classes, I made a list of things to pack. When I had issues keeping track of what I've already DONE each week, I would create a section for that. At times I was REALLY worried, I even grouped remaining assignments together on what days I could attempt to do them, or highlighted them by difficulty so I could get harder stuff out of the way.

A danger of relying on lists like this though is that they can be overdone. And what was often my most useful tool often became one of my most frustrating distractions. Updating the list alone would often take about 30 minutes to an hour at the beginning of the week (which, with my focus, often translated to a whole afternoon lost). And editing and adjusting it would often take longer than needed. Other times it was just something for me to stare blankly at trying to choose which assignment to do (I highly recommend this task to anyone who needs to be prevented from actually choosing and doing an assignment).

One thing I often tried that I could never make work for me is schedules. Being homeschooled, I am somewhat used to flexible schedules, as is the rest of my family. Schedules are hard to stick to when you have to plan around things like appointments and visits, siblings' plans, and, most frustratingly, my own unpredictability of focus. On the rare occasion I tried to stick to an hour-by-hour plan, it failed after a few days, if that. (If anyone has figured out how to make schedules work, let me know)

So altogether, where is the perfect number between planning and overplanning? I'll let you know when I find it, but experimenting alone has helped me find things, like my list, that help to at least some extent. So feel free to experiment! Just... stop when you see something isn't working. I suppose the trick is making sure you know yourself. The more I figured out my patterns, and what distracted me, then I could start working around it. When I found something was more trouble than it was worth, then I would stop it. Self-honesty about what you should and shouldn't plan around is useful not only for Aspies, but to people in general.

So what about you? What kinds of lists or schedules do you use? Have you found any kind of "perfect number" for yourself? Leave a comment and tell me your story. High-fives and Vulcan Salutes to all!

-Caleb

Noise!

So far I seem to have positive feedback. Hopefully as time goes on I'll get a better idea of what exactly I want to be doing on here, so that I can do it better. For now, though, I wanted to mention another quirk I've had with my Aspergers, and aside from my focus, one of the most persistent -- my struggle with loud noises.

This has shown up in my life with some regularity. I was afraid of movie theaters until high school, I can only take so much of loud concerts, and if car music becomes too loud I start to feel tense. Even in things aside from noise -- chaotic lights, huge crowds, and so on -- often bother me. The biggest way I've dealt with this is simple; leave the room. Whether I actually leave and go home, or just take a few moments for myself before returning, I've found that the silence helps me calm down so I can go back if I need to. For times when this doesn't work, I sometimes use soundproof earmuffs or earplugs. Closing my eyes and plugging my ears, even, has had some levels of effectiveness.

I think this brings up a point I want to emphasise for people who have similar frustrations -- It is OKAY to leave when you need to! If you're at a friends house and things are getting loud, it won't be a huge deal to walk off to get some air or silence for a few minutes if you need it. If you have some commitment to where you are, or just can't leave, then knowing ahead of time to bring earplugs might help, but even if you pay money or however much to get into a concert or movie, staying isn't going to get you your money's worth any more than leaving will. I would rather lose my money than pay for something I find unpleasant. And each time something goes wrong and I'm in an uncomfortable situation again, I now KNOW to plan ahead for similar things. I learned to bring earplugs to places I need them because of the struggles I had when I didn't.

Before I conclude this post, I want to give a thanks to friends and family (you all know who you are) who have been willing to help me when they see I'm getting overwhelmed, or have at least put up with me when I get tense and quirky. You have no idea how much it helps just knowing other people can tell when I'm bothered by stuff.

So does anyone have other thoughts to add? Stories they'd like to share? Any comments or feedback is welcomed!

-Caleb

Getting Started

Hey everyone, I decided to start a Blog again! I'm going to try to post about different events in my life, and musings when I have enough thoughts to post (which is almost always the case) from the perspective of someone with Aspergers. Obviously I can't compare life with to life without, and anyone who's just here to figure out how to get thier AS friend/child/student/sibling/whatever to sit down and shut up will be struck with a numbing dissapointment. I'm also not going to get into a long discussion about what exactly Aspergers is, as I couldn't even retain enough interest to write about it, let alone expect you to have enough interest to read it. For more information on that, I recommend this lovely place.

What I WILL post about is common struggles I myself often go through, and how I deal with them. I'm also planning to post quite a bit on my thoughts on different subjects, hoping to start a discussion on them, or inform people of my opinions. If anyone has a specific topic they want to read or discuss here, you can email me at Sonikid@sbcglobal.net. Finally, I may occasionally post about events in my life, or things that are going on, but I'm hoping to not do too much of that, as most of my readers might have been AT events I post about.

I'll start with a few of the things that come up with me the most often. And THE number one struggle with me at the moment is concentration. Few of my friends have never had a conversation with me where I didn't zone out or lose focus (if you've talked to me and don't think I have, then it's only that I didn't tell you), and I can rarely sit through a speech, lecture, book, or sermon without my mind leaving what I'm listening to and daydreaming about some story, some memory, or some plan I might have. As far as reading goes, my main way of dealing with that when I'm alone is a kitchen timer. I set it to go off every 3-5 minutes, then set it again. If I am being particularly inattentive when reading, I lower the minutes to 1 or 2. After that, I can only zone out for a few minutes before I am suddenly reminded to get back to work.

With reading, another way I found to help me think straight is using audiobooks instead of reading. It forces me to keep moving on and not stare idly at a single paragraph for hours. The downside here is that if I do lose focus, it's harder to rewind than it is to reread. A method I sometimes use to focus for this, though this one is possibly one of the hardest to use right, is to do something that takes up enough focus that I can't be distracted, but not so much I can't ALSO think about what I'm listening to. When I listen to audiobooks, I've found it helpful to pull out my Lego bucket and build figures and robots with them. I can listen to what's being said and process it, but my brain is interested enough in the legos to wander anywhere that what I'm listening to can't follow.

Anyway, I seem to be off to an okay start with this blog. Feel free to leave a comment on whether you plan to check in here frequently, or if there's something else you want me to talk about. Look forward to hearing from you!

-Caleb