Not long ago my young adult son was diagnosed with ADHD. This post isn’t about him or his diagnosis except for one fact. Many of the issues he struggles with are the same things I have struggled with my entire life. I have never been evaluated for ADHD and I have learned ways of coping with many of the things that I struggle with in focus, concentration, memory, mood, etc. That said, I have a strong feeling that, If I were to be evaluated, I would have the same diagnosis.
“What does this have to do with model railroading,” you ask? Simply this. There are many days that I come down to the train room, wander around the layout and workbench, look at seven different projects at various stages of incompletion, and an hour later have accomplished nothing. Other days I start to carry out a task, only to get distracted by others. For example, I start to work on some scenery on the layout, but the area is cluttered with tools and paint bottles, so I decide to clean up the area first. When I carry a handful of pain bottles to my workbench I see some used paper towels on the workbench that need to be thrown away. I set the paints down on the workbench (only inches from where they actually belong) and begin to clean up the trash, only to notice that the little trashcan by my workbench is full. Leaving the trash on the workbench, I carry the trash can over to the larger trash can in my utility room and notice that it is virtually full. I remove that large trash bag, empty my little trashcan into it, set the little trashcan down there (not where it belongs) and carry the mostly full bag to the bathroom to empty that trash into and fill it up. I tie the trash bag up, but notice that the hand soap bottle in the bathroom is empty. Leaving the trash bag there, I carry the hand soap bottle upstairs to where the refill bottle is. I refill the hand soap bottle and carry it back downstairs. As I walk by my computer desk I notice how cluttered it is, so I stop to straighten it. As I do I notice some items that belong at my workbench, so I take them to put them away, leaving the hand soap bottle on the computer desk. After taking the items to the workbench I look at my watch and realize that an hour has passed, the hand soap is on the computer desk, the trash is in the basement bathroom, the little trash can is in the utility room rather than the workbench, the paint bottles are sitting on the workbench, the layout is still cluttered with tools, and I have done no scenery. Hmmmmm!
I will share the details in future blogs, but suffice it to say that I need systems of organization to help me overcome my lack of focus and organization. I have put several such systems in place, including having several projects going from which I can choose to work, having containers that hold all of the items for each project, keeping lists, etc. I have found that such organization, while it does not cure my lack of focus entirely, helps me get started, and truly getting started is half the battle. Once I accomplish the first step in a project, my hyper-focus often kicks in and I am immersed in the project. Then I forget to take breaks, lose track of time, forget to eat until my stomach is growling, etc…but that is the topic of another blog. For now the lesson is what Mary Poppins was trying to tell us when she said, “Well begun is half done.” Thanks Mary.
