March 17, 2025 • 35 mins
Shawn is the founder of The Digital Organizer and has spent the last 17 years helping individuals and businesses get better at using their technology. A teacher at heart, Shawn believes the biggest reason people struggle with their tech is because of a lack of understanding of the tools, which isn't surprising because they're constantly changing as technology advances. When not helping businesses operate more efficiently, Shawn loves making pottery, riding motorcycles, and spending time with his wife, Madeline and their 2 year old son, Nico.
Go to Shawn's website: The Digital Organizer, and the quiz for "How organized are you" is in the top right corner!
In this episode of 'Organizing an ADHD Brain,' host Megs expresses gratitude towards her audience and introduces Sean Lemon, the digital organizer and recent ADHD diagnosis recipient. They explore methods for organizing digital spaces, such as declaring email bankruptcy, the importance of unsubscribing, and implementing effective systems. Sean emphasizes the importance of constraints and creativity in managing ADHD, discussing systems, tools, and strategies to navigate email and project management effectively. Part one sets the stage for a deeper dive in part two, scheduled for release on Wednesday.
00:46 Dopamine Menu and Phone Usage
01:56 Community and Group Coaching
02:49 Introducing Sean Lemon
07:58 Sean's ADHD Diagnosis Journey
12:19 Digital Organization Tips
16:40 Email Management Strategies
29:37 Concluding Thoughts and Next Steps
Book a 20-minute call to see if COACHING is a good fit for you: Megs Calendar
^If you tried to book a call and couldn't, it's all fixed!
Join the Organizing an ADHD Brain COMMUNITY: Organizing an ADHD Brain on Circle
Get your Free DOPAMINE MENU download OrganizinganADHDbrain.com/dopaminemenu
The TO DO list Daily Planner is available here! TO DO List Daily Planner
The ULTIMATE Recycling & Disposal Guide: Disposal Guide
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Yeti Stereo Microphone (00:00):
Hey, beautiful people.
(00:01):
Welcome back to organizing anADHD brain.
I'm your host Megs and I am soexcited that you're here.
First, I just want to thank youso much for all of you that have
been signing up for the dopaminemenu and leaving me little
messages.
I just can't tell you how muchthat means to me.
I was in tears this last weekjust with all of the gratitude
(00:23):
being sent my way and it's soincredibly appreciated building
this podcast and building mybusiness has been one of the
hardest things I've ever done inmy entire life, especially with
ADHD and trying to limit theamount of things that I'm doing
on a regular basis.
Your little messages and evenjust saying, thank you.
I didn't even know that I neededthat and it has meant so much to
(00:46):
me.
If you haven't grabbed thedopamine menu yet, just go to
organizing and ADHD, brain.
com.
There's a little banner therethat says, get your free guide.
You click on it, you enter yourinformation and it's sent right
over to you with a video, howto, and how to use your dopamine
menu.
On a side note, I think it waslast week or two weeks ago, I
(01:06):
talked about using the dopaminemenu to not be on your phone as
much, to use it in place of yourphone.
And I feel like that's so mucheasier said than done.
I had this really grandiose planin my head on how we were going
to do it.
And as I'm trying to implementthis in my own life, It has not
(01:28):
taken off so fast.
So, what I'm going to do is I'mgoing to continue to keep you
updated on how I'm using it, butkeep it in the back of your
mind.
How much are you truly usingyour phone?
And the first thing I wouldchallenge you to do this week is
take a look at your screen time.
I don't know how to do it on anAndroid phone, but if you go to
settings on your phone and thenlook up screen time.
(01:52):
You should see the amount oftime that you're spending on
your phone every single day.
And just for some perspective,can you imagine if you spent
even half or a quarter of thattime decluttering your home and
getting it into a position whereyou want it to be, This week in
the Organizing an ADHD Braincommunity, we're having our
(02:13):
monthly group coaching session.
It is one of my favorite thingsthat we do.
If you can't make it, all of thesessions are recorded, and I
post those in the group.
So if you're ready to join acommunity who is interested in
decluttering and also has ADHD,so some common themes, come
check out the community.
It's 27 a month.
I tried to make it as affordableas possible so that It really
(02:37):
made sense for those of you whoweren't ready to jump into
coaching, but we're absolutelyready to have a little bit more
of a reminder in your life ofwhy this is important.
In addition to the podcast, ofcourse I'm super pumped about
our guest today, Sean Lemon.
is the digital organizer.
And it's funny because when wefirst started talking about
(02:58):
doing an interview, I had noidea he had ADHD.
I actually just asked him on thepodcast.
Cause I ask everyone and I telleveryone that I'm going to ask
them.
And he had just found out thathe had ADHD five weeks prior to
the recording.
And we recorded this, I thinklast month or the month before
sometime, but I'm really excitedfor you to hear some of the
insights.
I broke this up into a part oneand a part two, just because it
(03:19):
was a little lengthy and Ireally want you to soak in some
of the incredible information hehas to provide to us when it
comes to organizing your digitalspace.
I learned a ton from this andI'm really excited about the
tools that he's provided us aswell.
Part two will be dropped onWednesday morning so stay tuned
make sure that you're followingthe podcast because that'll make
(03:40):
it easier for you to Get all ofthe notifications when the
podcast is dropped.
I also really enjoy how CandidSean is about his diagnosis,
what his journey has been likehis medicinal journey as well.
And honestly, the way thatpeople with ADHD are so
comfortable talking about theirdiagnosis, what they're doing,
(04:01):
whether they're on medicine ornot has been fascinating.
And I love that people are soopen and honest about it because
guess what?
Everyone is so incrediblydifferent about what works and
what doesn't work for them,making it totally okay for you
to figure out what works andwhat doesn't work for you.
And that's what's important.
All of our bodies are different.
Actually, I was away thisweekend and I was with a friend
(04:23):
at one point she said, ourbodies are like one big
chemistry experiment.
Okay, let's go ahead and jump inand I'll do a little summary at
the end as well.
Bye.
Welcome back to organizing anADHD brain.
I am so excited to be joined bySean from the Digital Organizer.
We have so much to talk aboutwhen it comes to ADHD and
organization, not only in ourphysical spaces, but of course,
(04:46):
In the digital age that we livein, there's so much to organize.
So thank you so much for joiningme today, Sean.
My goodness.
Thanks for having me.
I'm excited to talk to you.
Heck yeah.
Well, tell us a little bit aboutyou.
Yeah.
So, my name is Sean Lemon.
I started this about 11 yearsago after working at the Apple
store for seven years, teachingpeople how to use their tech.
(05:08):
And it was probably ADHD peoplewho are getting this data
transfer from their PC onto theMac.
They bought this membership tolearn how to use the computer.
They sit down with me and theirmess from the PC got transferred
onto the Mac.
And they couldn't even reallystart learning because of all of
(05:29):
the chaos.
And all these people just werecoming to me wanting big messes
fixed.
And eventually I started thisand, you know, been doing it for
the past 11 years.
Wow.
That's awesome.
And I love a good Mac computer.
I have to say I tried to go toPC for a little bit because it
was cheaper and I was like, thiswill make sense.
(05:51):
And when I tried editing mypodcast on it, I was like, What
is this world that I'm living inand why am I continuing to try
to live in it?
And the amount of stuff you haveto do to get it up and running
to do what you want is justcrazy out of the box.
And Mac just got almosteverything you need.
So, yeah, I'm, I'm a Mac guy allthe way.
(06:13):
Mm hmm.
Ditto right here.
Oh my gosh.
Cool.
Okay.
Now, did you originally go intothe business to be a digital
organizer or what did youinitially intend when you
started your business?
Yeah, I saw the need fororganization and that's why I
started this.
It was the moonlighting for along time.
(06:34):
And so then I finally built upmy side business enough and it
was all about organizing.
But when I first started, peoplearen't as interested in
organization as they are.
Fixing a broken computer.
So I got recommended a lotbecause someone had a broken
computer.
And so my in for organizing was,Hey, I've got this machine.
(06:55):
It's not working well.
And I would upgrade it and dothe technical work.
And then we would organize whenwe put the data back on the
computer.
That's how I kind of get getthem on that path.
But it.
Pulled me more and more into thetech world for a long time.
While my focus still was onorganization to make ends meet,
(07:17):
I had to do tech work a lot oftimes and got sidetracked and
doing all kinds of stuff andthen ended up really coming back
to only digital organization andstopping everything else three
years ago.
And yeah, we've just been goingfull on with this since.
Oh my gosh.
Well, I feel like there aremillions of people in the world
(07:37):
that need your services and youcan't possibly help all of them.
But if you're listening to this,everybody go see Sean to get
help with the digitalorganization.
I've got so many questions whenit comes to like getting
yourself organized in thisdigital age.
But first tell us, do you haveADHD?
(07:58):
I do.
And I just found out like fiveweeks ago started the assessment
process.
So I had that first session andnormally there's a lot that goes
into it and right away she'slike, yeah.
we got something going on here.
And so she went ahead and,prescribed me Wellbutrin and I
(08:20):
started on that.
And four weeks later, we met upagain and did some more
assessments and everything.
I guess such an, an eye openerand a relief to me to realize,
Oh, there's a reason why I'vestruggled so hard with some of
these things and why I've had tocreate so many systems.
plus the medication is reallyhelping.
It's nice.
(08:41):
Oh my gosh.
Yeah.
I can't even imagine what thatjourney has been like for you.
what made you start to look intogetting a diagnosis?
so I, I started going to a newtherapist and, I've been in the
past, but haven't done anythingfor a while.
And just hit a point where it'slike, I really need to talk to
someone, especially about someof the struggles that I've had
(09:03):
in business and why it's been sohard for me to execute on
specific parts of it.
so I started talking to someoneand she's like, man, I think
you're neurodivergent like somuch of what you're describing
sounds like exactly how my brainthinks and that's not normal.
so she hooked me up with apsychiatrist and it's like, why
(09:25):
don't you go in?
Get a test and see because ifthat's actually the case, then
some medication can really belife changing for you.
And so I've done that and yeah,it's, it's started to make an
impact.
Oh, that's so cool.
Thank you so much for beingvulnerable and sharing your
(09:45):
journey with that.
Because I think For so much ofus.
I mean, I remember when I gotdiagnosed, I was like, no way.
There's no way.
I didn't think so either.
It was always my brother.
Cause he was the one who washyper.
He was the one like who had moreattention issues and I still
did.
now taking the assessments, likewhen you were a child, what
(10:06):
about this?
What about this?
I'm like, Oh yeah.
Oh yeah.
And then as the pressure hasmounted and more
responsibilities have been addedto my plate.
I've realized, yeah, that's,that's just a, an exaggeration
of what I experienced as achild, but mine's more the
inattentive, not actualhyperactive.
(10:26):
Yeah, that makes a lot of sense.
And you mentioned systems and Ilove that you bring that up
because I think part of us, likewe love the idea of systems and
working with something that'sgoing to support us living our
life.
Yeah.
But on a completely other level,we're like, no systems.
Like we just want to live ourlife floating in this world of
(10:47):
time blindness and living in thevoid, so to speak.
So how have systems and then ofcourse your digital organization
business helped you live yourlife?
Better now knowing that you haveADHD, of course.
there's a saying that I've hearda long time ago and I've always
stuck with it and found it to beso true in my life.
(11:10):
And that's constraints breedcreativity.
so, while I love just going inall different directions,
solving problems, time blind, domy own thing, if I have an
objective that I need to hit, ifI have a goal or things that I'm
responsible for, then I can'tjust do that.
(11:30):
the only way that I can makesure that I show up on time is
by living and dying by thecalendar.
And it's setting up a Setting upa schedule in Calendly so that
things don't get booked when I'mnot available and creating an
ideal week so that.
Only certain types ofappointments are here and I'm,
(11:51):
I'm blocking out other timethere because without it, things
won't get done.
I have to put my keys on thering.
I have to put my wallet in thesame spot or, you know, I'm not
going to be able to find it.
And I cling to systems now tomake sure that things that are
important to me get done andthen.
I can be creative within thatspace or that time or whatever
(12:14):
is dedicated for that day.
Yeah, that's really cool.
So when it comes to the digitalorganizing process, where do you
start with people?
I'm thinking back to the storyyou're telling of people taking
their mess of a computer full ofdata and putting it on a Mac.
And I'm just like, Yikes, right?
(12:36):
Like I could do physical spacesall day long, but that is a
whole nother world.
Where do you start?
You know, no matter what topicwe're going to hit, it always
starts with discovery andfiguring out what is here.
Why is it there?
How did it get here?
and trying to get a narrativebehind the whole thing and then
(12:59):
find out what's working andwhat's not because we've all
created some of these differentaccounts, for a reason.
So what was that?
And is it actually doing itsjob?
so we can know where to pivotfrom there.
discovery and planning afterthat, it's always consolidation.
You got to get everything in oneplace so that then we can purge.
(13:20):
And after we purge, we archive.
And after we archive, then wereorganize.
And then we rename, you know, ifwe're talking about files,
emails, you know, we need topick a cutoff point and then be
able to focus in on oneparticular piece that's actually
accomplishable.
discovery, consolidation, andthen we can go from there.
(13:43):
So if someone is just feelingsuper overwhelmed with their
desktop or their email oranything that's overwhelming to
you, do you work with people oneon one?
Yeah.
We do everything one on one.
So whether it's individual orwith, an organization.
So sometimes it's, you know, ateam or something, but yeah, we
(14:03):
work with people one on one, agreat place to actually find a
starting point to figure outwhat should I tackle first, not
just.
what's the process of gettingsomething under control would be
to go to our website and takethe, how organized are you quiz?
And so we have the four maincategories that we help people
with, which is email files,passwords, and project
(14:24):
management.
and it asks you a bunch ofquestions of really how
effective it is to organize and.
Find what you're looking for,whether it's email files, you
know, passwords and things likethat, and seeing your score can
help you figure out where youshould start.
And if you're still not sureafter that, start with email.
From there, if you want to talkto us, then, I'd be happy to
(14:45):
have a call and see if it's agood fit, you know, to, to
actually work together and getsome help.
That's cool.
I love that you tackle the ideaof project management too.
Just like the lack of executivefunction that we have, I think
it's so crucial to understandhow to manage a project and how
to be able to break it down intosuper small increments, things
(15:06):
that we can handle versus tryingto take it on in one day,
because that's what I used todo.
Oh, organize my home.
Yeah.
Easy.
I'll take a weekend and let'sget this done.
Right.
My computer is the same.
I'll just, I just need to takea, a couple hours and we'll get
it done.
But that's not necessarily thecase.
No, unfortunately, it's not.
(15:28):
So if you want to take on biggerprojects, you got to figure out
how to do it.
And project management is, areally difficult one for so many
people.
And it was always a big strugglefor me and still is.
If anything is the weakest part,Of my system.
It's always project managementbecause I want to do everything
immediately in one sitting andnot pace it out and keep track
(15:48):
of a long project and day in andday out work on the same thing.
I hate it.
even making decisions.
I don't love making decisions.
So I try and help other peopleor have other people in my life
to.
Pick certain things for me and,discern which one should be the
starting place for a marketingproject or whatever it is.
so yeah, it's a big piece andit's part of the big three of
(16:11):
what we deal with every daydigitally.
That's communication, filestorage or creation and handling
the tasks, managing the tasksthat we need to do.
that's why email is a goodstarting place.
We're getting communicationthrough there.
We're getting files throughthere.
And it's also a to do list thatanyone can populate.
So it needs to be part of thepuzzle when we're looking at our
(16:33):
organization system.
that's really interesting.
I have so many questions to askyou from here.
Let's talk about email for asecond, in the past, I have also
struggled with email and I knowthat one thing that I started to
do is just go through andunsubscribe from everything
because.
It just gets so overwhelming.
(16:54):
where do you start when it comesto email specifically?
let me start by saying I'm goingto give you, if you want, if
anyone wants this, I can giveyou a series of videos that will
walk you through this.
So I'm going to talk through itso you can get an idea.
And if it's something that youactually want, you can download
the free resource.
It should be in the show notes.
So download that free resource.
(17:15):
And then I'm going to send yousome emails with videos on how
to do this.
Cool.
The first thing is we need todeclare email bankruptcy.
You got to realize, isn't thatgood?
We can't organize 12, 000emails.
You know, and go through themand purge them.
And a lot of people just want toget in and start organizing.
(17:38):
And it's like, Oh no, all thisneeds to be taken care of.
It is not worth it.
The amount of time it takes todo something like that.
That's a to do list thateveryone else is populating.
I mean, it's, it's ridiculous.
So we got to pick a cutoff dateand say.
Everything after 30 days, or youchoose the day, let's archive
it.
We're not going to delete it.
(17:58):
You can search for it.
You can find it.
The thing is, you can't browsethrough 12, 000 emails anyway.
You're going to have to search,so let's just get them out of
the inbox.
So once we're down to, say, 30days worth of email, then we go
in and start unsubscribing andwe need to wait for that page to
load because you may beunsubscribing from one list out
(18:19):
of 12 you've been added to.
So we need to make sure we'recompletely off that list.
That's why people don't thinkthat unsubscribing works.
In most cases, it does.
And in some cases, the companyhas two different types of email
marketing systems.
So you got off of one, but theyhaven't connected them and
(18:40):
unsubscribed you from the otherone.
So it will work if you actuallyunsubscribe.
Wow.
Yeah.
We want to turn down the noise.
Like you're saying, like the,the subscriptions turned down
that noise.
What I think is so cool is thatthere's a lot of parallels when
it comes to organizing yourphysical space too, right?
Like in some cases, my clientsneed to declare clutter
(19:03):
bankruptcy, right?
It's too much.
You've got to start making somedecisions and getting it out of
there.
So I love the idea of archivingeverything older than 30 days.
That's fascinating.
And thank you for the videos.
Yes, show notes.
we will link everything downbelow.
That's really cool.
Yeah, so once we declared emailbankruptcy, we've stopped the
tide or slowed the tide ofmarketing emails coming in, then
(19:28):
we have an accomplishable goalof deleting things that we don't
need.
Archiving things that are takencare of or don't need a
response.
And now we're just left with amuch, much smaller set of emails
that need to be triaged.
Which is, what is all thisstuff?
Can I answer it right away?
(19:48):
Answer it.
If you can't answer it rightaway, when can you do it?
When is a good time to do this?
And snooze it.
For the time that it's better.
So Monday's my admin day.
So if I've got something thatneeds, administrative and it's
just, you know, nothing timesensitive, it gets snoozed for
Monday morning so that it popsback up once I'm done with my
(20:09):
planning, then I go in and, youknow, check and see, what do I
need to do email wise?
What's on my list in Asana andcan just knock some stuff out.
That's how people get to inboxzero.
If you think that this is.
Not possible, you're right inthat you can't just answer every
single email immediately thatcomes in at you, we need to talk
(20:31):
to our spouse about, you know,do we even want to go to this
party, or whatever it is so wecan snooze things and some
people use a folder system.
I don't particularly like foldersystems because out ADHD years.
Let's have it pop back into theinbox when it's appropriate.
I love that too because, I findwhen I'm working with business
(20:53):
owners specifically, it's likethe email continuously distracts
us from what's actually pivotalin running our business and like
getting stuff done.
And so we think that we have toalways be in our email and
answering things because.
If we see it and don't answer itright away, and now it's no
longer a new email, it gets lostforever.
(21:16):
And so with that being the case,people are constantly in their
email, getting distracted fromfocusing on marketing or
focusing on building theirclientele in different ways.
And I know that.
at least in the personal spacetoo, we're getting so many
marketing emails and inundatingwith all of this information
that it feels like there's noteven a place that you can start
(21:38):
I have a favorite yoga placethat I like to get emails from,
but at the same time, I alsoknow I'm trying to cut back on
finances.
And so it's like this toss upof, do I delete the email and
unsubscribe?
So I don't see them.
And now I'm never going toremember that they exist or do I
keep it, but then I might spendmore money.
I don't know.
There's so many, things that wehave to work through when it
(22:01):
comes to having ADHD, gettingexcited about a lot of things.
I mean, Even coming back to, dowe want to go to the party or
not?
I think something that Istruggle with is saying yes to
everything before trulyanalyzing what I have in front
of me and, and blocking thattime for myself, one of the
(22:21):
greatest things and gifts tomyself I ever gave was blocking
Mondays off.
So I love that you do that too.
And so if you are someone whohas ADHD and needs some time
block off your Mondays, becausethat's going to be huge.
Yeah, we have to give ourselvesmore time and it's still so hard
(22:41):
for me.
I go in phases where I'm betterat it sometimes than others.
And you know, the, the best timewas when I had a couple of
people doing administrativestuff for me and, also creating
some curriculum for us.
And they got to a point wherethey were trying to help me get
into project management, emailfiles, passwords on lock.
(23:04):
Perfect project managementhorrible and just using it
consistently and I would reachout to people in a bunch of
different ways to assign thingsand it was like, hey, got to go
back to Asana, got to go back toAsana and then I started using
it and then we were blocking outtimes.
So, first thing, check Asana,after lunch, check Asana, then
(23:28):
check email, and if you'vecleared out the inbox, and
you've cleared out the thingsthat are assigned to you for
today, you're done.
Go take a nap until your nextblock about something else, and
it was, do not do the next taskif it's not assigned to you
today.
If it's not for today, don't doit.
It just completely changed mylife.
(23:50):
yeah, yeah.
Something like that can bereally great.
I, I really love that.
And I like for, for everyonelistening to, I think that we're
at a level two where we'veworked up to this point because
I think You've got to rememberthat you've got to start
somewhere.
I'm trying to think of a goodexample.
like I used to download an appand think it was going to be the
(24:12):
solution to everything in mylife.
and I'm a certified projectmanager.
I was getting my master's degreein project management.
And still, when I would downloada project management app, it was
still a huge learning curve forme because I had to learn the
tech of it and I had to learnhow it could work for me instead
of in the corporate setting,because now I'm working for
(24:34):
myself and then I'm alsomanaging like different projects
in my own home life.
And so that was fascinating forme, but.
You know, one thing I think isreally interesting about
managing your life, not only inthe digital space, but physical
space as well, is sometimesputting it down on paper first
is a good place to start tounderstand what's going to work
for you.
(24:54):
And then you can start to findthese automations and ways to
elevate it and take it one stephigher.
Because I use project managementsoftware now and I'm still
getting used to it after acouple months, and it's a game
changer, but I would never bewhere I am without the baby
steps to get there withoutstarting from somewhere
(25:14):
incredibly simple.
So that I could build upon it.
I really appreciate what you'resaying there, because also, even
if we're good at it, we're gonnahave days where we totally suck
at it because we'redysregulated.
We have other competingpriorities.
We're trying to do everything atonce.
And we have to remind ourselvesthat it's okay to just do one
(25:35):
thing and just focus on onething in this moment, because
that's what matters.
Yeah, because we want to do itall.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Progress over perfection and,and just keep working toward it.
I often have to anchor myselfwith paper, even though I'm
very, very good digitally.
(25:55):
Sometimes it just feelsoverwhelming and I need to
anchor and just use paper towrite this stuff out and it is
absolutely, something that yougrow into, you know, anyone
working with us, it's like,okay, what, what do I start with
and Where is project management?
So once I start talking about itand how it can be a really life
changing thing or businesschanging thing, people want to
(26:18):
jump to it.
But it's like, we can't startwith project management because
we have to get the foundationsdone right.
We have to realize that email issomewhat a little bit project
management.
A lot of people are using it forlong as project management and
it's not a great thing for it.
We need to get email back to acommunication tool.
We need to get a good filestructure so that we can find
(26:39):
anything that we need and stopfiling away emails.
you get an attachment that youneed to save.
It goes into our folderstructure and we archive the
email.
We don't need to save that inany sort of folder.
I'm actually against those typesof folders.
And then once we figured out ourcommunication and our files
(26:59):
next.
Is tasks and we really need tostart small because it's about
consistency, not features andsophistication and automation.
You can't automate until you'vefigured out the system.
What are you automating?
Oh, that's brilliant.
That's really cool.
So after you get email situatedand you have rules and, and you
(27:20):
know where things are going,what's next, okay, now I'm ready
to work on my files or, or doyou let people pick or, or do
you recommend where they go tonext based on what you've
learned about them?
Because it sounds like you'reasking questions, you're
understanding their lifestyle,what they need, things like
that.
Yeah.
Yeah, so their needs reallydrive it, and it's also what's
appropriate next.
(27:41):
So, typically, I want thestarting point to be the area
that is driving the mostanxiety, and wasting the most
time, so we can bring down thelevel of anxiety, think more
clearly, have more time to thensnowball into the next thing.
we can start with email orfiles.
Both those are a good start.
(28:01):
We can even start withpasswords.
if whichever one is, is causingthe most stress and then we move
on to the next.
Most often it's email, thenfiles, then passwords and
project management after that.
That's cool.
And I, I have to say likegetting my passwords in order.
(28:22):
it's one of the best things Icould have done for myself.
I would avoid doing somethingbecause I didn't know the
password up here.
I was like, I don't feel likeguessing the password.
So I'm not going to sit here andpretend I know the password.
I'm just going to avoid doingthat task.
I got so many other things Iwant to do besides this.
Anyway, I'm not going to dothat.
(28:42):
And so finally, I sat down andstarted to input things into a
password manager.
And it, it was awful at first,it was overwhelming.
It felt tedious.
I felt like I didn't know what Iwas doing.
And once I did it, it, it wasthe best thing I could have ever
done for myself.
And I think sometimes.
I've noticed even more that evenif something promises to make my
(29:06):
life easier, if it's going toput me in this state of feeling
really uncomfortable at first, Iavoid it.
And so I'm like, let me do theharder thing until it gets so
hard that I get to the pointthat I have no choice but to
change it.
And then when I was trying toget my husband on board too, I
saw him experiencing, I waslike, I promise you it's so
(29:28):
worth it on the other side.
And now we function so well nowwe have access to all the things
that we could possibly need thatare password protected.
Yeti Stereo Microphone-1 (29:37):
And that was part one of this
incredible interview with ShawnLemon.
I can't wait for you to listento part two.
part two is even juicier withsome incredible nuggets of
information.
So first go to the show notes,check out Shawn's website, the
digital organizer.
com.
In addition to that, check outsome of the tools that he's
provided to us, for emailmanagement.
(29:58):
One of the phrases Sean saidtoday was Constraints breed
creativity.
And I thought it was sopowerful, so cool because there
are a lot of constraints that weput on ourselves that are put on
us because of how our brainworks.
But it breeds creativity in theway that we figure out how to
(30:18):
work with our brain instead ofagainst it.
Now, some of us are still tryingto figure it out.
That's okay.
But I loved that phrase and Ijust wanted to reiterate it
because It's true.
Constraint breeds creativity.
Another thing he said thatreally resonated with me is you
can't organize 12, 000 emails,even if you tried to, you're
(30:42):
just organizing a lot ofclutter, kind of like with our
homes, we've got to be able todeclutter and get things out of
there that don't need to be putin a home that don't need to
live in our house anymore.
Before we can truly organize andget things in a space where we
can find them again.
And there's no one out therethat needs 12, 000 emails.
(31:02):
There's not one argument outthere for having 12, 000 emails.
You cannot convince me.
I like how he talked aboutdeclaring email bankruptcy.
I thought that was a reallypowerful statement.
Thought it was so interestingwhen he was talking about
unsubscribing from emails andthat you may have to unsubscribe
in multiple places in order foryou to truly be removed from a
(31:23):
list.
That was fascinating to me.
And how freaking annoying isthat?
I've already done the thing andnow you want me to do the thing
again so that I don't get moreemails?
That's frustrating.
That presents another barrier tous being able to create more
room in our lives.
And I love that there's peopleout there that can educate us on
some of the things that we needto know about so that we can
(31:45):
make more effective decisions.
In gaining control of thiscraziness that can sometimes be
our digital landscape.
Thanks so much for tuning intothis first episode of the
interview with Sean.
I'm so excited to come back toit on Wednesday.
If you're ready to join thecommunity, go to
organizingadhdbrain.
com forward slash community.
(32:06):
It's 27 a month.
Like I said, We have our monthlygroup coaching session this
Friday, so I can't wait to seeyou there.
if you are ready for more one onone support I'm starting to book
up spots for the month of April.
Book a call with me in the shownotes below, or go to
organizinganadhdbrain.
com, click on coaching, andyou'll find out a little bit
(32:27):
more about the program that Ioffer.
Regardless, shoot me an email ifyou have any additional
questions.
If you're not ready to talk onthe phone, I'm always just ready
to have the conversation.
On another note, some of youhave been asking about the PDF
download for the to do list thatI've talked about in previous
episodes.
That's something I do haveavailable in the community as a
(32:48):
download, and it pairs alongwith an episode on scheduling
that I did.
Months ago now, but it's how Iplan my schedule on a regular
basis.
I still love to put pen to paperit helps bring clarity to my day
and helps me understand How toput things into my project
management software so that Iknow I'm working on the right
(33:09):
stuff each day I have consideredmaking it a download on the
website for a very low cost.
So if you're not ready to jointhe community, but you are
interested in that, feel free tolet me know.
And when it's available again,I'm so happy to let you know.
Thank you so much for tuning inand again, thank you all for
your kind and beautifulsupportive messages.
(33:29):
thank you so much for telling mehow much this podcast means to
you because it means so much tome.
I hope you have an amazing day.
I'll see you again on Wednesday.
Hey, beautiful people.
(00:01):
Welcome back to organizing anADHD brain.
I'm your host Megs and I am soexcited that you're here.
First, I just want to thank youso much for all of you that have
been signing up for the dopaminemenu and leaving me little
messages.
I just can't tell you how muchthat means to me.
I was in tears this last weekjust with all of the gratitude
(00:23):
being sent my way and it's soincredibly appreciated building
this podcast and building mybusiness has been one of the
hardest things I've ever done inmy entire life, especially with
ADHD and trying to limit theamount of things that I'm doing
on a regular basis.
Your little messages and evenjust saying, thank you.
I didn't even know that I neededthat and it has meant so much to
(00:46):
me.
If you haven't grabbed thedopamine menu yet, just go to
organizing and ADHD, brain.
com.
There's a little banner therethat says, get your free guide.
You click on it, you enter yourinformation and it's sent right
over to you with a video, howto, and how to use your dopamine
menu.
On a side note, I think it waslast week or two weeks ago, I
(01:06):
talked about using the dopaminemenu to not be on your phone as
much, to use it in place of yourphone.
And I feel like that's so mucheasier said than done.
I had this really grandiose planin my head on how we were going
to do it.
And as I'm trying to implementthis in my own life, It has not
(01:28):
taken off so fast.
So, what I'm going to do is I'mgoing to continue to keep you
updated on how I'm using it, butkeep it in the back of your
mind.
How much are you truly usingyour phone?
And the first thing I wouldchallenge you to do this week is
take a look at your screen time.
I don't know how to do it on anAndroid phone, but if you go to
settings on your phone and thenlook up screen time.
(01:52):
You should see the amount oftime that you're spending on
your phone every single day.
And just for some perspective,can you imagine if you spent
even half or a quarter of thattime decluttering your home and
getting it into a position whereyou want it to be, This week in
the Organizing an ADHD Braincommunity, we're having our
(02:13):
monthly group coaching session.
It is one of my favorite thingsthat we do.
If you can't make it, all of thesessions are recorded, and I
post those in the group.
So if you're ready to join acommunity who is interested in
decluttering and also has ADHD,so some common themes, come
check out the community.
It's 27 a month.
I tried to make it as affordableas possible so that It really
(02:37):
made sense for those of you whoweren't ready to jump into
coaching, but we're absolutelyready to have a little bit more
of a reminder in your life ofwhy this is important.
In addition to the podcast, ofcourse I'm super pumped about
our guest today, Sean Lemon.
is the digital organizer.
And it's funny because when wefirst started talking about
(02:58):
doing an interview, I had noidea he had ADHD.
I actually just asked him on thepodcast.
Cause I ask everyone and I telleveryone that I'm going to ask
them.
And he had just found out thathe had ADHD five weeks prior to
the recording.
And we recorded this, I thinklast month or the month before
sometime, but I'm really excitedfor you to hear some of the
insights.
I broke this up into a part oneand a part two, just because it
(03:19):
was a little lengthy and Ireally want you to soak in some
of the incredible information hehas to provide to us when it
comes to organizing your digitalspace.
I learned a ton from this andI'm really excited about the
tools that he's provided us aswell.
Part two will be dropped onWednesday morning so stay tuned
make sure that you're followingthe podcast because that'll make
(03:40):
it easier for you to Get all ofthe notifications when the
podcast is dropped.
I also really enjoy how CandidSean is about his diagnosis,
what his journey has been likehis medicinal journey as well.
And honestly, the way thatpeople with ADHD are so
comfortable talking about theirdiagnosis, what they're doing,
(04:01):
whether they're on medicine ornot has been fascinating.
And I love that people are soopen and honest about it because
guess what?
Everyone is so incrediblydifferent about what works and
what doesn't work for them,making it totally okay for you
to figure out what works andwhat doesn't work for you.
And that's what's important.
All of our bodies are different.
Actually, I was away thisweekend and I was with a friend
(04:23):
at one point she said, ourbodies are like one big
chemistry experiment.
Okay, let's go ahead and jump inand I'll do a little summary at
the end as well.
Bye.
Welcome back to organizing anADHD brain.
I am so excited to be joined bySean from the Digital Organizer.
We have so much to talk aboutwhen it comes to ADHD and
organization, not only in ourphysical spaces, but of course,
(04:46):
In the digital age that we livein, there's so much to organize.
So thank you so much for joiningme today, Sean.
My goodness.
Thanks for having me.
I'm excited to talk to you.
Heck yeah.
Well, tell us a little bit aboutyou.
Yeah.
So, my name is Sean Lemon.
I started this about 11 yearsago after working at the Apple
store for seven years, teachingpeople how to use their tech.
(05:08):
And it was probably ADHD peoplewho are getting this data
transfer from their PC onto theMac.
They bought this membership tolearn how to use the computer.
They sit down with me and theirmess from the PC got transferred
onto the Mac.
And they couldn't even reallystart learning because of all of
(05:29):
the chaos.
And all these people just werecoming to me wanting big messes
fixed.
And eventually I started thisand, you know, been doing it for
the past 11 years.
Wow.
That's awesome.
And I love a good Mac computer.
I have to say I tried to go toPC for a little bit because it
was cheaper and I was like, thiswill make sense.
(05:51):
And when I tried editing mypodcast on it, I was like, What
is this world that I'm living inand why am I continuing to try
to live in it?
And the amount of stuff you haveto do to get it up and running
to do what you want is justcrazy out of the box.
And Mac just got almosteverything you need.
So, yeah, I'm, I'm a Mac guy allthe way.
(06:13):
Mm hmm.
Ditto right here.
Oh my gosh.
Cool.
Okay.
Now, did you originally go intothe business to be a digital
organizer or what did youinitially intend when you
started your business?
Yeah, I saw the need fororganization and that's why I
started this.
It was the moonlighting for along time.
(06:34):
And so then I finally built upmy side business enough and it
was all about organizing.
But when I first started, peoplearen't as interested in
organization as they are.
Fixing a broken computer.
So I got recommended a lotbecause someone had a broken
computer.
And so my in for organizing was,Hey, I've got this machine.
(06:55):
It's not working well.
And I would upgrade it and dothe technical work.
And then we would organize whenwe put the data back on the
computer.
That's how I kind of get getthem on that path.
But it.
Pulled me more and more into thetech world for a long time.
While my focus still was onorganization to make ends meet,
(07:17):
I had to do tech work a lot oftimes and got sidetracked and
doing all kinds of stuff andthen ended up really coming back
to only digital organization andstopping everything else three
years ago.
And yeah, we've just been goingfull on with this since.
Oh my gosh.
Well, I feel like there aremillions of people in the world
(07:37):
that need your services and youcan't possibly help all of them.
But if you're listening to this,everybody go see Sean to get
help with the digitalorganization.
I've got so many questions whenit comes to like getting
yourself organized in thisdigital age.
But first tell us, do you haveADHD?
(07:58):
I do.
And I just found out like fiveweeks ago started the assessment
process.
So I had that first session andnormally there's a lot that goes
into it and right away she'slike, yeah.
we got something going on here.
And so she went ahead and,prescribed me Wellbutrin and I
(08:20):
started on that.
And four weeks later, we met upagain and did some more
assessments and everything.
I guess such an, an eye openerand a relief to me to realize,
Oh, there's a reason why I'vestruggled so hard with some of
these things and why I've had tocreate so many systems.
plus the medication is reallyhelping.
It's nice.
(08:41):
Oh my gosh.
Yeah.
I can't even imagine what thatjourney has been like for you.
what made you start to look intogetting a diagnosis?
so I, I started going to a newtherapist and, I've been in the
past, but haven't done anythingfor a while.
And just hit a point where it'slike, I really need to talk to
someone, especially about someof the struggles that I've had
(09:03):
in business and why it's been sohard for me to execute on
specific parts of it.
so I started talking to someoneand she's like, man, I think
you're neurodivergent like somuch of what you're describing
sounds like exactly how my brainthinks and that's not normal.
so she hooked me up with apsychiatrist and it's like, why
(09:25):
don't you go in?
Get a test and see because ifthat's actually the case, then
some medication can really belife changing for you.
And so I've done that and yeah,it's, it's started to make an
impact.
Oh, that's so cool.
Thank you so much for beingvulnerable and sharing your
(09:45):
journey with that.
Because I think For so much ofus.
I mean, I remember when I gotdiagnosed, I was like, no way.
There's no way.
I didn't think so either.
It was always my brother.
Cause he was the one who washyper.
He was the one like who had moreattention issues and I still
did.
now taking the assessments, likewhen you were a child, what
(10:06):
about this?
What about this?
I'm like, Oh yeah.
Oh yeah.
And then as the pressure hasmounted and more
responsibilities have been addedto my plate.
I've realized, yeah, that's,that's just a, an exaggeration
of what I experienced as achild, but mine's more the
inattentive, not actualhyperactive.
(10:26):
Yeah, that makes a lot of sense.
And you mentioned systems and Ilove that you bring that up
because I think part of us, likewe love the idea of systems and
working with something that'sgoing to support us living our
life.
Yeah.
But on a completely other level,we're like, no systems.
Like we just want to live ourlife floating in this world of
(10:47):
time blindness and living in thevoid, so to speak.
So how have systems and then ofcourse your digital organization
business helped you live yourlife?
Better now knowing that you haveADHD, of course.
there's a saying that I've hearda long time ago and I've always
stuck with it and found it to beso true in my life.
(11:10):
And that's constraints breedcreativity.
so, while I love just going inall different directions,
solving problems, time blind, domy own thing, if I have an
objective that I need to hit, ifI have a goal or things that I'm
responsible for, then I can'tjust do that.
(11:30):
the only way that I can makesure that I show up on time is
by living and dying by thecalendar.
And it's setting up a Setting upa schedule in Calendly so that
things don't get booked when I'mnot available and creating an
ideal week so that.
Only certain types ofappointments are here and I'm,
(11:51):
I'm blocking out other timethere because without it, things
won't get done.
I have to put my keys on thering.
I have to put my wallet in thesame spot or, you know, I'm not
going to be able to find it.
And I cling to systems now tomake sure that things that are
important to me get done andthen.
I can be creative within thatspace or that time or whatever
(12:14):
is dedicated for that day.
Yeah, that's really cool.
So when it comes to the digitalorganizing process, where do you
start with people?
I'm thinking back to the storyyou're telling of people taking
their mess of a computer full ofdata and putting it on a Mac.
And I'm just like, Yikes, right?
(12:36):
Like I could do physical spacesall day long, but that is a
whole nother world.
Where do you start?
You know, no matter what topicwe're going to hit, it always
starts with discovery andfiguring out what is here.
Why is it there?
How did it get here?
and trying to get a narrativebehind the whole thing and then
(12:59):
find out what's working andwhat's not because we've all
created some of these differentaccounts, for a reason.
So what was that?
And is it actually doing itsjob?
so we can know where to pivotfrom there.
discovery and planning afterthat, it's always consolidation.
You got to get everything in oneplace so that then we can purge.
(13:20):
And after we purge, we archive.
And after we archive, then wereorganize.
And then we rename, you know, ifwe're talking about files,
emails, you know, we need topick a cutoff point and then be
able to focus in on oneparticular piece that's actually
accomplishable.
discovery, consolidation, andthen we can go from there.
(13:43):
So if someone is just feelingsuper overwhelmed with their
desktop or their email oranything that's overwhelming to
you, do you work with people oneon one?
Yeah.
We do everything one on one.
So whether it's individual orwith, an organization.
So sometimes it's, you know, ateam or something, but yeah, we
(14:03):
work with people one on one, agreat place to actually find a
starting point to figure outwhat should I tackle first, not
just.
what's the process of gettingsomething under control would be
to go to our website and takethe, how organized are you quiz?
And so we have the four maincategories that we help people
with, which is email files,passwords, and project
(14:24):
management.
and it asks you a bunch ofquestions of really how
effective it is to organize and.
Find what you're looking for,whether it's email files, you
know, passwords and things likethat, and seeing your score can
help you figure out where youshould start.
And if you're still not sureafter that, start with email.
From there, if you want to talkto us, then, I'd be happy to
(14:45):
have a call and see if it's agood fit, you know, to, to
actually work together and getsome help.
That's cool.
I love that you tackle the ideaof project management too.
Just like the lack of executivefunction that we have, I think
it's so crucial to understandhow to manage a project and how
to be able to break it down intosuper small increments, things
(15:06):
that we can handle versus tryingto take it on in one day,
because that's what I used todo.
Oh, organize my home.
Yeah.
Easy.
I'll take a weekend and let'sget this done.
Right.
My computer is the same.
I'll just, I just need to takea, a couple hours and we'll get
it done.
But that's not necessarily thecase.
No, unfortunately, it's not.
(15:28):
So if you want to take on biggerprojects, you got to figure out
how to do it.
And project management is, areally difficult one for so many
people.
And it was always a big strugglefor me and still is.
If anything is the weakest part,Of my system.
It's always project managementbecause I want to do everything
immediately in one sitting andnot pace it out and keep track
(15:48):
of a long project and day in andday out work on the same thing.
I hate it.
even making decisions.
I don't love making decisions.
So I try and help other peopleor have other people in my life
to.
Pick certain things for me and,discern which one should be the
starting place for a marketingproject or whatever it is.
so yeah, it's a big piece andit's part of the big three of
(16:11):
what we deal with every daydigitally.
That's communication, filestorage or creation and handling
the tasks, managing the tasksthat we need to do.
that's why email is a goodstarting place.
We're getting communicationthrough there.
We're getting files throughthere.
And it's also a to do list thatanyone can populate.
So it needs to be part of thepuzzle when we're looking at our
(16:33):
organization system.
that's really interesting.
I have so many questions to askyou from here.
Let's talk about email for asecond, in the past, I have also
struggled with email and I knowthat one thing that I started to
do is just go through andunsubscribe from everything
because.
It just gets so overwhelming.
(16:54):
where do you start when it comesto email specifically?
let me start by saying I'm goingto give you, if you want, if
anyone wants this, I can giveyou a series of videos that will
walk you through this.
So I'm going to talk through itso you can get an idea.
And if it's something that youactually want, you can download
the free resource.
It should be in the show notes.
So download that free resource.
(17:15):
And then I'm going to send yousome emails with videos on how
to do this.
Cool.
The first thing is we need todeclare email bankruptcy.
You got to realize, isn't thatgood?
We can't organize 12, 000emails.
You know, and go through themand purge them.
And a lot of people just want toget in and start organizing.
(17:38):
And it's like, Oh no, all thisneeds to be taken care of.
It is not worth it.
The amount of time it takes todo something like that.
That's a to do list thateveryone else is populating.
I mean, it's, it's ridiculous.
So we got to pick a cutoff dateand say.
Everything after 30 days, or youchoose the day, let's archive
it.
We're not going to delete it.
(17:58):
You can search for it.
You can find it.
The thing is, you can't browsethrough 12, 000 emails anyway.
You're going to have to search,so let's just get them out of
the inbox.
So once we're down to, say, 30days worth of email, then we go
in and start unsubscribing andwe need to wait for that page to
load because you may beunsubscribing from one list out
(18:19):
of 12 you've been added to.
So we need to make sure we'recompletely off that list.
That's why people don't thinkthat unsubscribing works.
In most cases, it does.
And in some cases, the companyhas two different types of email
marketing systems.
So you got off of one, but theyhaven't connected them and
(18:40):
unsubscribed you from the otherone.
So it will work if you actuallyunsubscribe.
Wow.
Yeah.
We want to turn down the noise.
Like you're saying, like the,the subscriptions turned down
that noise.
What I think is so cool is thatthere's a lot of parallels when
it comes to organizing yourphysical space too, right?
Like in some cases, my clientsneed to declare clutter
(19:03):
bankruptcy, right?
It's too much.
You've got to start making somedecisions and getting it out of
there.
So I love the idea of archivingeverything older than 30 days.
That's fascinating.
And thank you for the videos.
Yes, show notes.
we will link everything downbelow.
That's really cool.
Yeah, so once we declared emailbankruptcy, we've stopped the
tide or slowed the tide ofmarketing emails coming in, then
(19:28):
we have an accomplishable goalof deleting things that we don't
need.
Archiving things that are takencare of or don't need a
response.
And now we're just left with amuch, much smaller set of emails
that need to be triaged.
Which is, what is all thisstuff?
Can I answer it right away?
(19:48):
Answer it.
If you can't answer it rightaway, when can you do it?
When is a good time to do this?
And snooze it.
For the time that it's better.
So Monday's my admin day.
So if I've got something thatneeds, administrative and it's
just, you know, nothing timesensitive, it gets snoozed for
Monday morning so that it popsback up once I'm done with my
(20:09):
planning, then I go in and, youknow, check and see, what do I
need to do email wise?
What's on my list in Asana andcan just knock some stuff out.
That's how people get to inboxzero.
If you think that this is.
Not possible, you're right inthat you can't just answer every
single email immediately thatcomes in at you, we need to talk
(20:31):
to our spouse about, you know,do we even want to go to this
party, or whatever it is so wecan snooze things and some
people use a folder system.
I don't particularly like foldersystems because out ADHD years.
Let's have it pop back into theinbox when it's appropriate.
I love that too because, I findwhen I'm working with business
(20:53):
owners specifically, it's likethe email continuously distracts
us from what's actually pivotalin running our business and like
getting stuff done.
And so we think that we have toalways be in our email and
answering things because.
If we see it and don't answer itright away, and now it's no
longer a new email, it gets lostforever.
(21:16):
And so with that being the case,people are constantly in their
email, getting distracted fromfocusing on marketing or
focusing on building theirclientele in different ways.
And I know that.
at least in the personal spacetoo, we're getting so many
marketing emails and inundatingwith all of this information
that it feels like there's noteven a place that you can start
(21:38):
I have a favorite yoga placethat I like to get emails from,
but at the same time, I alsoknow I'm trying to cut back on
finances.
And so it's like this toss upof, do I delete the email and
unsubscribe?
So I don't see them.
And now I'm never going toremember that they exist or do I
keep it, but then I might spendmore money.
I don't know.
There's so many, things that wehave to work through when it
(22:01):
comes to having ADHD, gettingexcited about a lot of things.
I mean, Even coming back to, dowe want to go to the party or
not?
I think something that Istruggle with is saying yes to
everything before trulyanalyzing what I have in front
of me and, and blocking thattime for myself, one of the
(22:21):
greatest things and gifts tomyself I ever gave was blocking
Mondays off.
So I love that you do that too.
And so if you are someone whohas ADHD and needs some time
block off your Mondays, becausethat's going to be huge.
Yeah, we have to give ourselvesmore time and it's still so hard
(22:41):
for me.
I go in phases where I'm betterat it sometimes than others.
And you know, the, the best timewas when I had a couple of
people doing administrativestuff for me and, also creating
some curriculum for us.
And they got to a point wherethey were trying to help me get
into project management, emailfiles, passwords on lock.
(23:04):
Perfect project managementhorrible and just using it
consistently and I would reachout to people in a bunch of
different ways to assign thingsand it was like, hey, got to go
back to Asana, got to go back toAsana and then I started using
it and then we were blocking outtimes.
So, first thing, check Asana,after lunch, check Asana, then
(23:28):
check email, and if you'vecleared out the inbox, and
you've cleared out the thingsthat are assigned to you for
today, you're done.
Go take a nap until your nextblock about something else, and
it was, do not do the next taskif it's not assigned to you
today.
If it's not for today, don't doit.
It just completely changed mylife.
(23:50):
yeah, yeah.
Something like that can bereally great.
I, I really love that.
And I like for, for everyonelistening to, I think that we're
at a level two where we'veworked up to this point because
I think You've got to rememberthat you've got to start
somewhere.
I'm trying to think of a goodexample.
like I used to download an appand think it was going to be the
(24:12):
solution to everything in mylife.
and I'm a certified projectmanager.
I was getting my master's degreein project management.
And still, when I would downloada project management app, it was
still a huge learning curve forme because I had to learn the
tech of it and I had to learnhow it could work for me instead
of in the corporate setting,because now I'm working for
(24:34):
myself and then I'm alsomanaging like different projects
in my own home life.
And so that was fascinating forme, but.
You know, one thing I think isreally interesting about
managing your life, not only inthe digital space, but physical
space as well, is sometimesputting it down on paper first
is a good place to start tounderstand what's going to work
for you.
(24:54):
And then you can start to findthese automations and ways to
elevate it and take it one stephigher.
Because I use project managementsoftware now and I'm still
getting used to it after acouple months, and it's a game
changer, but I would never bewhere I am without the baby
steps to get there withoutstarting from somewhere
(25:14):
incredibly simple.
So that I could build upon it.
I really appreciate what you'resaying there, because also, even
if we're good at it, we're gonnahave days where we totally suck
at it because we'redysregulated.
We have other competingpriorities.
We're trying to do everything atonce.
And we have to remind ourselvesthat it's okay to just do one
(25:35):
thing and just focus on onething in this moment, because
that's what matters.
Yeah, because we want to do itall.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Progress over perfection and,and just keep working toward it.
I often have to anchor myselfwith paper, even though I'm
very, very good digitally.
(25:55):
Sometimes it just feelsoverwhelming and I need to
anchor and just use paper towrite this stuff out and it is
absolutely, something that yougrow into, you know, anyone
working with us, it's like,okay, what, what do I start with
and Where is project management?
So once I start talking about itand how it can be a really life
changing thing or businesschanging thing, people want to
(26:18):
jump to it.
But it's like, we can't startwith project management because
we have to get the foundationsdone right.
We have to realize that email issomewhat a little bit project
management.
A lot of people are using it forlong as project management and
it's not a great thing for it.
We need to get email back to acommunication tool.
We need to get a good filestructure so that we can find
(26:39):
anything that we need and stopfiling away emails.
you get an attachment that youneed to save.
It goes into our folderstructure and we archive the
email.
We don't need to save that inany sort of folder.
I'm actually against those typesof folders.
And then once we figured out ourcommunication and our files
(26:59):
next.
Is tasks and we really need tostart small because it's about
consistency, not features andsophistication and automation.
You can't automate until you'vefigured out the system.
What are you automating?
Oh, that's brilliant.
That's really cool.
So after you get email situatedand you have rules and, and you
(27:20):
know where things are going,what's next, okay, now I'm ready
to work on my files or, or doyou let people pick or, or do
you recommend where they go tonext based on what you've
learned about them?
Because it sounds like you'reasking questions, you're
understanding their lifestyle,what they need, things like
that.
Yeah.
Yeah, so their needs reallydrive it, and it's also what's
appropriate next.
(27:41):
So, typically, I want thestarting point to be the area
that is driving the mostanxiety, and wasting the most
time, so we can bring down thelevel of anxiety, think more
clearly, have more time to thensnowball into the next thing.
we can start with email orfiles.
Both those are a good start.
(28:01):
We can even start withpasswords.
if whichever one is, is causingthe most stress and then we move
on to the next.
Most often it's email, thenfiles, then passwords and
project management after that.
That's cool.
And I, I have to say likegetting my passwords in order.
(28:22):
it's one of the best things Icould have done for myself.
I would avoid doing somethingbecause I didn't know the
password up here.
I was like, I don't feel likeguessing the password.
So I'm not going to sit here andpretend I know the password.
I'm just going to avoid doingthat task.
I got so many other things Iwant to do besides this.
Anyway, I'm not going to dothat.
(28:42):
And so finally, I sat down andstarted to input things into a
password manager.
And it, it was awful at first,it was overwhelming.
It felt tedious.
I felt like I didn't know what Iwas doing.
And once I did it, it, it wasthe best thing I could have ever
done for myself.
And I think sometimes.
I've noticed even more that evenif something promises to make my
(29:06):
life easier, if it's going toput me in this state of feeling
really uncomfortable at first, Iavoid it.
And so I'm like, let me do theharder thing until it gets so
hard that I get to the pointthat I have no choice but to
change it.
And then when I was trying toget my husband on board too, I
saw him experiencing, I waslike, I promise you it's so
(29:28):
worth it on the other side.
And now we function so well nowwe have access to all the things
that we could possibly need thatare password protected.
Yeti Stereo Microphone-1 (29:37):
And that was part one of this
incredible interview with ShawnLemon.
I can't wait for you to listento part two.
part two is even juicier withsome incredible nuggets of
information.
So first go to the show notes,check out Shawn's website, the
digital organizer.
com.
In addition to that, check outsome of the tools that he's
provided to us, for emailmanagement.
(29:58):
One of the phrases Sean saidtoday was Constraints breed
creativity.
And I thought it was sopowerful, so cool because there
are a lot of constraints that weput on ourselves that are put on
us because of how our brainworks.
But it breeds creativity in theway that we figure out how to
(30:18):
work with our brain instead ofagainst it.
Now, some of us are still tryingto figure it out.
That's okay.
But I loved that phrase and Ijust wanted to reiterate it
because It's true.
Constraint breeds creativity.
Another thing he said thatreally resonated with me is you
can't organize 12, 000 emails,even if you tried to, you're
(30:42):
just organizing a lot ofclutter, kind of like with our
homes, we've got to be able todeclutter and get things out of
there that don't need to be putin a home that don't need to
live in our house anymore.
Before we can truly organize andget things in a space where we
can find them again.
And there's no one out therethat needs 12, 000 emails.
(31:02):
There's not one argument outthere for having 12, 000 emails.
You cannot convince me.
I like how he talked aboutdeclaring email bankruptcy.
I thought that was a reallypowerful statement.
Thought it was so interestingwhen he was talking about
unsubscribing from emails andthat you may have to unsubscribe
in multiple places in order foryou to truly be removed from a
(31:23):
list.
That was fascinating to me.
And how freaking annoying isthat?
I've already done the thing andnow you want me to do the thing
again so that I don't get moreemails?
That's frustrating.
That presents another barrier tous being able to create more
room in our lives.
And I love that there's peopleout there that can educate us on
some of the things that we needto know about so that we can
(31:45):
make more effective decisions.
In gaining control of thiscraziness that can sometimes be
our digital landscape.
Thanks so much for tuning intothis first episode of the
interview with Sean.
I'm so excited to come back toit on Wednesday.
If you're ready to join thecommunity, go to
organizingadhdbrain.
com forward slash community.
(32:06):
It's 27 a month.
Like I said, We have our monthlygroup coaching session this
Friday, so I can't wait to seeyou there.
if you are ready for more one onone support I'm starting to book
up spots for the month of April.
Book a call with me in the shownotes below, or go to
organizinganadhdbrain.
com, click on coaching, andyou'll find out a little bit
(32:27):
more about the program that Ioffer.
Regardless, shoot me an email ifyou have any additional
questions.
If you're not ready to talk onthe phone, I'm always just ready
to have the conversation.
On another note, some of youhave been asking about the PDF
download for the to do list thatI've talked about in previous
episodes.
That's something I do haveavailable in the community as a
(32:48):
download, and it pairs alongwith an episode on scheduling
that I did.
Months ago now, but it's how Iplan my schedule on a regular
basis.
I still love to put pen to paperit helps bring clarity to my day
and helps me understand How toput things into my project
management software so that Iknow I'm working on the right
(33:09):
stuff each day I have consideredmaking it a download on the
website for a very low cost.
So if you're not ready to jointhe community, but you are
interested in that, feel free tolet me know.
And when it's available again,I'm so happy to let you know.
Thank you so much for tuning inand again, thank you all for
your kind and beautifulsupportive messages.
(33:29):
thank you so much for telling mehow much this podcast means to
you because it means so much tome.
I hope you have an amazing day.
I'll see you again on Wednesday.
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