March 19, 2025 • 36 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, the host continues an engaging conversation with Shawn Lemon, a digital organizing expert. The discussion highlights various strategies to tackle digital clutter, such as the use of password managers and project management tools. Shawn emphasizes the importance of setting up systems rather than relying on quick fixes, comparing digital organization to organizing a physical space. The episode also touches on handling unfinished projects and the significance of planning and breaking tasks into manageable steps. Key resources and tools, including a detailed file organization guide and email drip systems, are shared to assist listeners in better managing their digital environments. Listeners are encouraged to adopt a systematic approach to organization, ultimately transforming their productivity and reducing overwhelm in both their personal and professional lives. The conversation wraps up with insights on the ever-evolving digital landscape, advocating for consistency and adaptability in organizational strategies.
00:51 Understanding Time Management and Boundaries
01:38 Breaking Down Tasks and Themes
02:59 The Importance of Password Managers
04:22 Digital vs. Physical Organization
09:35 Customizing Organizational Systems
15:58 Project Management and Goal Setting
21:17 The Evolution of Digital Organization
27:32 Final Thoughts and Resources
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 & Fa (00:00):
Hey everyone, welcome back to
(00:01):
organizing an ADHD brain and thesecond part of the interview I
did with Shawn Lemon.
He is the digital organizer andyou can go download some of his
free tools at the digitalorganizer.
com forward slash ADHD brain.
The tools are delivered kind oflike in a drip system.
So you get an initial email witha video.
It shows you how to do somethings and then you'll continue
(00:22):
to get some videos on how to dothings moving forward.
I've learned so much just inthis conversation, not only
about the parallels toorganizing our physical spaces,
but also, just the systems thatare involved in our life when it
comes to this stuff.
We want so much to have a quickfix or to have it all or nothing
(00:43):
at all.
And then because we can't haveit all at once, we often don't
make the changes that we areseeking to make in our life
because we want it done now.
I talked last week about yourschedule and trying to manage
everything.
And because we're time blind, weoften don't take the time to
take a look at our schedule tosee if we can fit something else
(01:03):
in.
We just say yes and assume thatwe can make it work.
I'm reading a book right nowcalled set boundaries, find
peace.
And there was a piece in it thismorning.
I read that was about timeboundaries and I absolutely
struggle with time boundariesbecause I think I can do it all
and I genuinely want to do itall, but when I do that, I burn
(01:26):
out.
And then I get into this stateof feeling like I need a break
from the world for weeks to amonth, but I can't do that
because, I've committed myselfto so much.
So to build on what we did lastweek in writing down all of the
different things that you'redoing that are on your brain,
instead of trying to keep it allon your brain, I want you to go
(01:47):
back to that list and start tobreak it up into themes.
What are the things that you'redoing for your kids?
What are the things that you'redoing for your home?
what are you doing for business?
What are you doing for Your job?
What are you doing for you?
Do you have any time for you onthat list?
from there we'll continue tobuild upon that list, but think
about where's all your timegoing?
(02:08):
Where is all this time andenergy going?
And what are those common themesin your life?
And does this support some ofthe bigger dreams that you have,
the goals you have for thefuture and where you see
yourself in a year, three years,five years, maybe you've never
thought about where you want tosee yourself in three years or
five years, and that's okay too.
Where do you see yourself in onemonth?
(02:28):
Maybe you think about it thatway.
Do you see yourself a week fromnow?
Something that really helps mebreak down some of the time
management aspects when I haveso much going on in my brain is
what's one thing I could doright now that would allow me to
disconnect for the rest of thenight?
What's one thing I could doright now that will allow me to
(02:48):
be able to be present with mykids?
What's one more thing I could doso that I can go on and do
something that's truly going toelevate my life and allow me to
thrive instead of just focus onsurviving.
Also in this episode today, wetalk about passwords and I love
my password manager.
I use Dashlane.
I'm going to drop a link in theshow notes below and Sean uses
(03:09):
one password and he said in theepisode, as long as you find
what works for you, figure thatout and go from there.
It takes a little bit of work toset it up, but oh my gosh.
The barriers that are sometimesin my way from not knowing a
password generally speaking Icould easily go to a website
guess the password.
It's not gonna be it and then Isay, okay Forgot password, go
(03:32):
through the steps, create a newpassword.
Maybe it's the same as my oldpassword or I change it by one
digit, but now I have thatsomewhere in the back of my
head, or I think my computersaving it for me, but I probably
didn't do it right.
Right.
All of that.
Those steps are so tedious andmundane that it would prevent me
from logging in to checksomething that was important or
(03:53):
to do an important task on mylist.
I would avoid it because thestupid password was in my way.
I can't tell you how incredibleit has been to have a password
manager.
It was so incredibly annoying toset up.
I'm going to give you that.
It was so annoying.
I had to force myself through itand sit through the
uncomfortable.
(04:14):
But as soon as I got through it,Oh my gosh.
My life is so much easier on theother side.
All right, let's dive right backinto this episode.
We are talking about beinguncomfortable and getting into a
space where you do start to makethe changes, whether it's the
digital life or the physicallife, let's jump in.
I just got finished reading thebook, let them by Mel Robbins.
(04:35):
And she talks about that stateof being uncomfortable, right?
you're uncomfortable living thelife that you're living until
you get to the point that it isso uncomfortable, but you know,
you have to be even moreuncomfortable to get to this
other side.
that's the point at which peoplestart to work with either me or
you, you're at the point whereyou know, you can't live like
this anymore.
(04:55):
And so now it's going to be evenmore uncomfortable for you to
make that change and get overthis hump.
is that what you find is, ismost of the people that you're
working with, they're just like,I can't live like this anymore.
Help me.
It's very often.
there's the rare person.
It's like, Oh, I heard you onthis podcast or whatever.
And, I thought this was cool.
(05:15):
So, book a call and see, I'mpretty organized and, we're just
looking to get better andoptimize those are few and far
between.
You got to be in pain to dothis, especially to pay someone
for something that feels it.
So simple.
It's just email.
It's just putting files infolders.
No, it's not.
It's how your brain thinks it'sit's stopping and realizing that
(05:41):
we actually need to learn whatthese systems are and design it
because we're living in adigital house that's got 13
bedrooms and you're having topick which room you want to
sleep in every night and you'vegot your toothbrush in this
bathroom and then your hairbrushand another bathroom.
And all your products are spreadout all over the place.
That's how people are livingdigitally.
(06:02):
We have to figure out what themaster plan is and then design
it around how our brains think.
You were talking about designingphysical spaces and how digital
spaces are so similar.
And that's something that I'mconstantly trying to get the
word out to people is we want tothink about our digital spaces
(06:22):
like a physical one like aworkshop.
Where you use a certain set oftools and you go to a certain
part of the workshop to do eachdifferent type of thing.
So I do pottery, there aredefined stages and defined tools
that I use.
So, I don't use a notes app.
Because I take notes in context.
(06:44):
So if I have a call withsomeone, say, if you call me, to
talk about working, then you gointo a document is created
automatically in my client'sfolder under folder called
prospects, and it's namedappropriately.
So I just open it up.
And start working I'm not goingto take notes somewhere else
because when you say yes toworking with me and hit accept
(07:06):
sign the contract, then I needto save that contract somewhere.
I want everything.
When I'm working with you to betogether so that I'm ready to
work on it, and I'm not havingto go to 15 different places to
find what I'm looking for.
So everything is designed incontext, so it's very easy to
find what I'm looking for, andit's not, is this here or is
this there?
(07:27):
what's really cool is I, I talkabout a lot, asking yourself the
question, if I were going tolook for this item, where would
I go to look for it first?
And I didn't even consider tothink about that in the digital
space until I was actuallyworking with a digital organizer
one day, and she had mentionedsomething along those lines, and
(07:48):
I was like.
The parallels are like, it's sosimple, right?
But like, sometimes we're justso focused on everything making
logical sense.
And for us to already know that,but sometimes it's the simplest
things that make the most sense.
And so now when I'm working witha client or when I'm trying to
(08:09):
work through my own home spaces.
Sometimes I'm thinking about,well, what should this be
called?
Except then I'm like, whoa, whatwould I want to call it?
If I were trying to look forthis item, what would I call
this folder and what would Ilook under?
And I'm still navigating thatspace.
Cause I'm making it up as I goalong.
But.
(08:30):
I think it's just fascinating tostart to put some of those tools
in this digital space too,because a lot of them can carry
over.
Totally.
So much of it carries over, andthen it's just realizing we've
got recurring things, you know,there's just more like
departmental stuff, HR orwhatever, and then we have
projects.
So it's figuring out how thosethings kind of go together and,
(08:52):
Part of this, I actually talkabout file naming and folder
structures and, and how youshould really kind of think
about this from a conceptuallevel as well as how should you
name your files in the firstplace.
So that download that I wastalking about earlier, it's in
that file organization guide.
So I detail it out and writeabout this and then I have a
video and then demo it in oursystem of how, you know.
(09:16):
This is project based.
And this is things that justneed to be done every time.
And we have got resources.
So how do we lay this stuff outso that it's very easy?
there's some great resourcesthere.
If, it's like a five minutevideo or something, I bet it
helped you to, to figure out howto navigate your older structure
a little bit better.
Yeah.
I love that.
Anything to elevate.
(09:36):
And I'm curious as you'reworking with clients, whether
they're ADHD or not, do you findthat, you know, what works for
one person doesn't necessarilywork for the next person and so
on?
As you ask questions, as youunderstand the way someone
works, tell me a little bitabout that.
Yeah.
So It can be really different.
(09:58):
There's a lot of common themes,but some people just think
differently than others, andthey have their own way of going
about things and what they dotogether at the same time.
So, you know, we have to learnwhat that context is for part of
the process or your life toreally make a better suggestion
(10:19):
of how to really customize itfor you.
So they're very much the sameprinciples, just applied
differently.
And then, organizing in spacesor creating shortcuts in the
spaces that people operate outof most to be able to get to
where they need to go, whichmight be somewhere else.
So, yeah, it can be verydifferent.
(10:40):
That's why we actually don't doany work for people.
We only do it with them becauseI don't know how you work.
How can, how can I make asystem, a truly reliable system
for you that I built?
Knowing nothing about your lifeor just, or if I interview you
and work with you a little bit,you know, an 80 20 rule, there's
so much nuance in the end.
(11:02):
I did that and people keptcoming back to me.
So we've got to customize it andgo through the whole process
together.
I, I started out when I was inperson organizing more.
When I first started, I would goin and organize spaces for
people.
And as I was doing it, I waslike, this feels weird.
It's just strange.
I have so many questions abouthow they operate in this space.
(11:24):
When I was asking otherprofessional organizers, they
were like, yeah, I mean, it justdepends on the person.
And if I go in and organize thespace, the biggest frustration
is coming back and seeing thatit, it doesn't stay the same.
And I'm like, well, of course itdoesn't stay the same.
You have no idea how they livetheir life.
And so it's asking questions.
It's understanding, thedifferent needs of people.
(11:46):
And so, I love that you workwith people because I've never
seen.
Where like you can go in andjust simply organize for someone
and it just immediately makessense, at least for people with
ADHD because our brains work acertain way.
I talked to someone months agonow, but they were like, we keep
our dresser in the dining roombecause we don't want to wake
(12:08):
each other up in the morning.
And so it makes more sense forwhen we're putting things away.
And when we wake up at 4am, wecan go get dressed in the dining
room.
That's just what works for us.
your version of getting dressedin the dining room could mean
that you have a certain filefolder that you keep in a very
strange place because that'swhat makes sense in your brain.
You have some sort ofneurological connection that
(12:30):
just makes sense and that's whatworks for you and that's how it
has to work for you.
Totally.
Yep.
100%.
That's cool.
Okay, so what is your favoritething to conquer when it comes
to digital organization?
Passwords.
Nice.
Why?
It's just so life changing.
(12:51):
When you go from strugglingevery day, trying to get into
logins in and out, if you'reworking on a team, having to
juggle two step verification,text messages, going to, to
other people or to contractorsyou've hired, it's just, it's
just really difficult.
That's the one thing that Icould not live without,
(13:13):
passwords wise.
seeing that implemented for thefirst time and blowing people's
minds that you can actually saveall of this and save the two
step verification code.
So, you know, it just fills itin for you and you never have to
pull your phone out and then getdistracted.
It's pretty cool.
Project management would be aclose second though.
Cause I mean, when you, when youget serious about organization,
(13:37):
that's where it just takes off.
Yeah.
It's so cool.
And it's fascinating what we areable to accomplish when we have
a little bit of a plan behindus.
And we have tools that supportus in getting past those little
barriers that have previouslyheld us back.
And I just thank you so much forbeing vulnerable about learning
(14:00):
about ADHD and some of thestruggles that you have had and
like why some of the things youhaven't been able to get done.
It makes so much sense when youstart to understand your brain
and we're not broken.
It's just that we have to goabout it a different way and set
up things like password managersto remember all that other crap
(14:20):
for us so that we can getthrough it and pass that.
What's your, what's yourfavorite password manager?
One password.
Okay, cool.
Yeah.
Awesome.
So it's for you listening.
The number one and then the wordpassword right after it.
I, most people I talked to uselast pass.
It is so much prettier than lastpass, easier to use.
(14:41):
You can integrate the two stepverification codes, whereas you
can't in last pass, at leastcurrently.
it'll probably come around atsome point, but, and they've
just been hacked so many times.
Yeah, I got a lot of people wholike, Keeper and OneNote or not
OneNote, Dashlane, but I useDashlane.
Yeah, cool.
and I think like, no matter whatyou choose, I mean, like, yeah,
(15:03):
check out the ones that havebeen hacked because that's huge.
But other than that, like,figure out what works for you.
And I don't think you can gowrong with it as long as it's,
As you're feeling comfortable,but I love that that does two
step verification.
That's really cool.
You can do that in Dashlane toonow.
So it's, it's not nearly asobvious as it is in one
password, how to do it.
(15:24):
But, it's, it's totally doableand easy once you figure out how
it works.
just to echo what you said.
It's more important gettingstarted and using it
consistently than trying to findthe perfect one or using the one
that I use.
Consistency, and then once youget really comfortable with it,
you can always export your stufffrom one and get it into another
(15:46):
if you feel like jumping ship.
That's one thing that we reallywant to avoid is, is jumping
ship and trying to chase afterthe new app over and over again.
Yeah, that makes a lot of sense.
You know, I have one thing that,that might be interesting for
your listeners.
the first five years of mybusiness, I kept all of my
(16:07):
projects really small.
So I only took on things that Icould accomplish in a day
because I just, I knew that Iwouldn't be interested or would
have a hard time keeping trackof everything.
and I started using.
A project manager is using asauna and actually I had other
things before that, buteventually I settled on a sauna
and I'm putting all of thesethings in there and project
(16:31):
management and even goal settingjust became such a big trigger
for me because of the trail.
Of unfinished projects behindme, mostly all in the marketing
world.
And it was just so painful notfinishing things and getting so
close to the finish line andthen thinking, Oh, I've got a
better idea or there's somethingelse that that's, you know,
(16:54):
makes this irrelevant and itreally wasn't true.
I just didn't know how to getthat last 10 or 20 percent done
and it wasn't easy enough.
And so I abandoned it, but.
Once I started doing projectmanagement really well and
having someone help me with it,and I only did the tasks that
(17:16):
were assigned that day and gavemyself some margin, and could
breathe and really focus andconcentrate and was living a
much more calm life, weaccomplished in multiples
anything that I had ever done inthe past by doing less.
And just focusing on a fewthings that we're going to
(17:37):
accomplish throughout the year.
And they made such a huge impactthat it, it just blew my mind.
And it's like, okay, you have todo less to do more and give
yourself space and stop tryingto tackle it all because it's
just a world of hurt.
You know, it's profound that yousay that I, I went to a planning
(18:02):
conference earlier this year.
Often project managers do that.
They'll go to like a PIconference where you sit and you
plan everything for the rest ofthe year.
It's great.
And when you're on your own oryou're just managing your life,
your home life, you don't oftensit down and actually plan out
what you can literally get done.
And because we're time blind, wethink that we can do everything.
(18:26):
And then we start doingsomething and we keep taking on
more and more and more, but thiswas a really fascinating
opportunity for me because Iplanned out some of the bigger
goals I had for the year,started to break them up into
smaller but still bigger goals,and then started to plan my day
to day.
And as I was doing that, I gotreally overwhelmed because I
(18:49):
realized I had too many goalsfor the year, and then I got
pissed off because I stillwanted to do every single one of
them and didn't want to let themgo.
it's hard to say no, because weget excited about so many
things.
I got that feedback in thecorporate world.
But that is a prime example onhow we can burn out on how we
(19:12):
can take ourselves a level down.
So what a beautiful piece ofadvice that you've given, and I
need to hear it as well, eventhough I'm preaching on it, too,
is that even though we want to,accomplish the world, we want to
get so much done.
It's about those baby steps.
It's about breaking it up intosmall tasks, and it's about
understanding what you can trulyachieve in a day.
(19:35):
And not like trying to fit itall into a day.
It's about checking off four orfive things or maybe even three
things and saying, I did it.
Knowing that that is going toadd up to something so much
bigger.
I even like in my first year ofbusiness, I think my family just
thought I was sitting around allday, waiting for people to come
(19:55):
work with me or like, what doyou even do?
And I'm like, I'm doing 8million things, but everything
I'm doing now I knew would payoff in six to eight months
timeframe.
And I think that's about, youknow, like just waiting, like
understanding that patience isgoing to get you so much further
than trying to accomplishsomething in a day.
(20:16):
So that's, thanks for remindingus of that.
Yeah, absolutely.
I'm definitely passionate aboutit and love to share that and
just say take a deep breath andrealize you can get so much more
done if you just chill and ifyou can have somebody in your
life who can help you to makethose decisions because It just
(20:39):
it still loves overwhelms me topick and choose when I've got
tons of different options I'mthe one usually giving options
discovering sorting and thensaying, what do you want to do
from here?
I have someone in my life tohelp me with that.
I often go to my husbandsometimes when I've made
decisions all day in mybusiness, and then I have to
(21:00):
make decisions on the kids.
I'm like, I would actuallyreally love if you could make
this decision for me right now.
Can you decide?
And then I'll go with whateveryou say.
Look, that'll feel really greatbecause sometimes it can get
overwhelming.
I'm curious.
you said you've been doing this11 years now, starting in Apple.
How have you seen the digitallandscape change over the last
(21:22):
11 years?
Not only with the organizationspace, but just like where we've
come from and where we're going.
That's a man.
That's a big question.
I got hired really at the Applestore in 2007 for the original
iPhone launch.
I mean, the amount of stuffthat's happened in those 18
years, or I guess maybe 17 and ahalf years at this point, it's
(21:46):
just, it's just mind blowing.
But typically what happens isyou get some new technology and
it's sent out to consumers.
And then consumers adopt it andthen they build business tools
out of it.
And then they just launch it andnobody really realizes why you
should upgrade and then.
(22:08):
as more and more features areadded and you're getting
recommendations from yourfriends for all of these
different apps, then it justbecomes totally overwhelming.
And it's like the frog in thepot.
And then you hit this boilingpoint, like, Oh my gosh, it's
totally overwhelming.
But there have been a lot ofissues that have arisen in.
(22:31):
Ownership and in, in the typesof accounts that we, have, like
Google drive, for example, ifyou use my drive to collaborate
with someone on a project,anything that, that the other
person puts in your folder, theystill own.
So if you hire a contractor andthey created an email address
specifically for working withpeople, and then they decide to
(22:53):
stop doing it and they deletethat account, they delete all
the files that they created foryou, even though they're still
in your folder, they justdisappear.
So there's stuff like that thathas happened that there's
education and marketing pushesthese solutions so hard of what
You know, what's possible and,and this is going to change your
(23:14):
life.
And, apps don't change yourlife.
systems change your life whenyou do them consistently.
And that system can be appliedto anything.
and then AI is just, that's thething that's just kind of
flipped everything.
But in the end, it still needsto be directed.
We still have to know what we'retrying to accomplish in order to
(23:35):
use this tool in the firstplace.
But then they're still notcoming with manuals and you need
to figure it out.
So instead of what's different,what has stayed the same is.
If it's important to you, we'vegot to slow down, learn it,
attack it as a project.
And that's what we do is, is wesay, we don't need to work with
(23:55):
you for a year.
It's maybe a month, it may bethree, let's overhaul and then
you just do it from here.
But we have to sit down andfigure out what that system is,
because it's just the landscapeis exploding.
And yet people are just moredistracted and less productive
than ever.
(24:16):
What I think is reallyinteresting and what you're
saying there too is, is peoplewant a quick fix.
People want the solution.
They want what they're sellingas like, this is going to be.
A game changer.
It's going to change your entirelife and unless you're ready to
sit there and learn it andreally, truly understand and
break it down and be really badat it at first, it's not going
(24:38):
to change your life.
And it's the same thing.
And I'm going to I love theparallels here.
So phenomenal because it's thesame thing when it comes to
organizational tools.
You go to the container storeand you're like, Oh, if only I
had endless amounts of money tobuy all of these containers, my
life would be so organized,except that that's not the way
(24:59):
it works.
If you buy all the containers.
What's really going to happen isthey're going to sit there in a
space in your home until youfinally get the will to, put
something in a container.
But without a system andunderstanding what goes in the
container and how to use it tomake your life easier, it's not
a solution.
I have so many apps on my phonethat I've downloaded that I
(25:22):
don't use.
And when I go to people's homes,they have so many containers
that they have in a pilesomewhere that they don't use
because it's not a solution tothe problem.
There's so much more that we canachieve when we set up those
systems and figure out really,truly what's going to make our
(25:42):
life easier.
And then those things become atool that elevate what we have
been working towards.
But I love the way that you talkabout a vision to knowing what
you're actually trying toachieve.
Like what's not working?
What do you want to work foryou?
And what are you strivingtowards?
So thanks for painting thatpicture.
(26:03):
I think that's brilliant.
Absolutely.
Cool.
Oh my gosh.
Well, Sean, this has been soawesome.
I could probably talk to you foranother couple hours about this
stuff because there's so much.
That goes into it and, we're soprivileged to have you here and
to just give us that newperspective on how to handle our
digital space.
How can people find you?
(26:25):
Well, first off, thank you forhaving me.
And it's real, it's a real honorto be talking to you all.
the digital organizer.
com slash ADHD brain is the bestplace to start because that's
going to take you to the fileorganization guide.
And I'm going to tell you wherethe containers are, how to use
the containers and give youexamples so that you can
(26:46):
organize your space.
And then we'll give you theemails and everything like that.
during that you, you can checkout the digital organizer.
com.
You can book a call with me ifyou want to.
There's the quiz that you cantake as well.
So explore in there, but go getthat guide.
And, You know, implement it.
It is not hard to do.
It's very easy.
This is something that you canaccomplish and it's broken up
(27:09):
into bite sized chunks.
It's like, okay, here's yournext milestone.
Go do that now.
Celebrate.
Great.
We've got everythingconsolidated.
You've done your job for today.
Now we'll come back tomorrow anddo the next part.
That's really cool.
Awesome.
Well, thank you so much.
Thanks for the tools.
I'm so excited for people towork with you.
(27:29):
And, yeah, thanks for joining ustoday.
Thank you.
Yeti Stereo Microphone & (27:32):
Thanks so much for hanging out with me
in this second half of anincredible interview with Sean
Lemon from The DigitalOrganizer.
Just reinforcing that messageabout passwords.
If you have not set up yourpassword manager yet, Put it on
the list.
I know maybe you won't get to itthis month or next month or
three months from now, but it isabsolutely worth it and
something that you'll spend alittle bit of time on and then
(27:54):
it will make the rest of yourlife easier.
So if you can prioritize it,definitely do it.
one thing that is, is difficultwith our brains is we have all
these great ideas and we know wecan do it right.
Like in general, you know thatyou can go and set up a password
manager and it's going to beannoying, but you can do it.
But we sometimes have thesethings on our to do list and
(28:15):
we'll avoid it because we don'talways know all of the elements
involved and that could be abarrier.
So ask yourself, what is thebarrier to getting it done?
Sometimes it's a money barrier.
Sometimes it's a, I don't knowhow to barrier.
And sometimes it's a timebarrier and you're prioritizing
something else over this.
And then we also just genuinelyforget, we just have so many
(28:37):
other things.
We procrastinate doing this.
So we forget to do the thingsthat could make our life easier.
So think about a trigger thenext time you go to log in and
you forget your password or youdon't have it saved and you have
to go reset it.
That's your trigger to go lookup one of these password
managers so that you can haveyour life feeling so much easier
(28:59):
again.
It keeps you protected, itcreates really strong passwords
so you're not using the same oneover again, This is something I
can totally get behind youspending money on.
It is worth it.
Okay, let's talk a little bitmore about Sean.
So I love the way that he talksabout a trail of unfinished
projects.
Raise your hand if you canrelate.
I bet all of you are raisingyour hands.
(29:21):
We have all started projectsthat we have not finished before
and part of it is because we getso excited about it in the
beginning and then our hyperfocus is gone.
We don't have that same dopamineeffect to get us back into the
project.
So it feels like more work toactually try to do it again.
So coming up with a way to breakit down into the smallest tasks
(29:43):
imaginable to get it done.
Is a game changer.
if you have something on your todo list that says finish this
project, you are going to avoidthat all day long because
there's so many little tasksthat go into finishing that
project.
When I was working with mycareer coach, one of her phrases
was slow down to get ahead.
And I love how Sean says, doless to do more.
(30:07):
And it's incredible coming backto filling up your to do list
and thinking about all thethings that you're doing in a
day.
People are always trying tofigure out like what's the next
productivity hack?
How could I possibly do more?
What's the next thing that Icould do to make this easier to
do?
How could I fit more into myday?
How could I be more productive?
Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.
You're training yourself to beburnt out.
(30:30):
Like you're training yourself tobe in this go go go mode all the
time.
I've trained myself to be thatway.
It's not been until morerecently that I've started to
put more boundaries on my timeand what I can actually get
done.
And I talked about schedulemanagement in a podcast episode
earlier last year and how I planmy day.
(30:50):
And one of the things I do is Ipick just six things I want to
complete and then what does thatlook like on a calendar and is
it actually realistic?
And because I started doing thatpractice, it helped me
understand what I was trulycapable of and what I was just
really trying to squeeze in.
And it's funny because even whenI would see on a calendar that
it wasn't going to work out, Iwould still try to do it until I
(31:12):
failed miserably and then had tomove on.
And Remind myself you are notcapable of doing this.
You've got to make the mistakesin order to get to the next
step.
No matter how much I tell yousomething You've got to keep
doing the things to teach youthe lessons that you really need
to learn for yourself And that'sokay And then the last thing
sean said that I thought wasbeautiful and I couldn't agree
(31:34):
more is that apps don't changeyour life Your systems change
your life an organizing tooldoesn't change your life Systems
change your life understandinghow you work changes your life.
It's not this magic tool that'sgoing to make it all better for
you.
And you'll, you're going tofigure it out.
So if you want Sean's tools, goto the digital organizer.
(31:57):
com forward slash ADHD brain,sign up for his email and you'll
get a.
He describes it like a dripsystem of amazing information so
that you can start to get ahandle on your digital
organization.
And if you want to work withhim, go work with him because
it's going to make your life alittle bit easier.
He's going to help youunderstand your space, your
space, not just a generic space,but how to understand your
(32:18):
space.
in a way that's going to helpyou run more efficiently.
If you're ready to tackle yourphysical space, come join me in
my community.
We have our group coachingsession this Friday.
It's 27 a month.
We not only do body doublingsessions, we do digital
decluttering sessions.
We have group Q and a's, andthere's a bunch of PDF downloads
(32:39):
that I have created for you toaccess.
And as of right now, I believe Ionly have three more.
slots starting in April forpeople to work with me.
So if you would like to workwith me one on one for coaching
and you're super interested intaking the next step on seeing
how you can declutter your lifeand your brain, then reach out
(33:00):
to me.
my booking calendar is in theshow notes below.
Book a 20 minute call with meand I'll ask you a bunch of
questions and see if it's aright fit.
And of course, if you'refollowing on my personal
journey, I have officially leftFacebook.
I believe that it's officiallygoing to be deactivated in two
days, which is kind of crazy.
I've gotten to the point whereI've let go of so much in my
(33:22):
life that I feel empowered Andtruthfully, social media has
been something that has beensuch a drainer.
I've noticed that it's had animpact on my mental health, and
that's not something that I wantto incorporate.
any longer.
So I will continue to let youknow what that journey looks
like.
Download the dopamine menu.
(33:44):
If you're looking to stay intouch and also find different
ways to fill up your cup duringthe day, even if you're just
transitioning from one activityto another, but give yourself
the dopamine that you need.
So you can find motivation andenergy to get some of that
organizing done.
And in addition to that, we aremoving across.
country.
My husband and I are making amove from Colorado back to
(34:05):
Massachusetts.
That's where I grew up.
And so if you're interested inhaving me come to your house and
organize for you personally,please email me Megs at
organizing ADHD, brain.
com so that we can figure outsome of the logistics.
This isn't set in stone, but Iam getting more and more curious
(34:25):
as I continue to talk about theprospect of organizing across
the country.
Have an incredible week, and Iwill see you next week.
Hey everyone, welcome back to
(00:01):
organizing an ADHD brain and thesecond part of the interview I
did with Shawn Lemon.
He is the digital organizer andyou can go download some of his
free tools at the digitalorganizer.
com forward slash ADHD brain.
The tools are delivered kind oflike in a drip system.
So you get an initial email witha video.
It shows you how to do somethings and then you'll continue
(00:22):
to get some videos on how to dothings moving forward.
I've learned so much just inthis conversation, not only
about the parallels toorganizing our physical spaces,
but also, just the systems thatare involved in our life when it
comes to this stuff.
We want so much to have a quickfix or to have it all or nothing
(00:43):
at all.
And then because we can't haveit all at once, we often don't
make the changes that we areseeking to make in our life
because we want it done now.
I talked last week about yourschedule and trying to manage
everything.
And because we're time blind, weoften don't take the time to
take a look at our schedule tosee if we can fit something else
(01:03):
in.
We just say yes and assume thatwe can make it work.
I'm reading a book right nowcalled set boundaries, find
peace.
And there was a piece in it thismorning.
I read that was about timeboundaries and I absolutely
struggle with time boundariesbecause I think I can do it all
and I genuinely want to do itall, but when I do that, I burn
(01:26):
out.
And then I get into this stateof feeling like I need a break
from the world for weeks to amonth, but I can't do that
because, I've committed myselfto so much.
So to build on what we did lastweek in writing down all of the
different things that you'redoing that are on your brain,
instead of trying to keep it allon your brain, I want you to go
(01:47):
back to that list and start tobreak it up into themes.
What are the things that you'redoing for your kids?
What are the things that you'redoing for your home?
what are you doing for business?
What are you doing for Your job?
What are you doing for you?
Do you have any time for you onthat list?
from there we'll continue tobuild upon that list, but think
about where's all your timegoing?
(02:08):
Where is all this time andenergy going?
And what are those common themesin your life?
And does this support some ofthe bigger dreams that you have,
the goals you have for thefuture and where you see
yourself in a year, three years,five years, maybe you've never
thought about where you want tosee yourself in three years or
five years, and that's okay too.
Where do you see yourself in onemonth?
(02:28):
Maybe you think about it thatway.
Do you see yourself a week fromnow?
Something that really helps mebreak down some of the time
management aspects when I haveso much going on in my brain is
what's one thing I could doright now that would allow me to
disconnect for the rest of thenight?
What's one thing I could doright now that will allow me to
(02:48):
be able to be present with mykids?
What's one more thing I could doso that I can go on and do
something that's truly going toelevate my life and allow me to
thrive instead of just focus onsurviving.
Also in this episode today, wetalk about passwords and I love
my password manager.
I use Dashlane.
I'm going to drop a link in theshow notes below and Sean uses
(03:09):
one password and he said in theepisode, as long as you find
what works for you, figure thatout and go from there.
It takes a little bit of work toset it up, but oh my gosh.
The barriers that are sometimesin my way from not knowing a
password generally speaking Icould easily go to a website
guess the password.
It's not gonna be it and then Isay, okay Forgot password, go
(03:32):
through the steps, create a newpassword.
Maybe it's the same as my oldpassword or I change it by one
digit, but now I have thatsomewhere in the back of my
head, or I think my computersaving it for me, but I probably
didn't do it right.
Right.
All of that.
Those steps are so tedious andmundane that it would prevent me
from logging in to checksomething that was important or
(03:53):
to do an important task on mylist.
I would avoid it because thestupid password was in my way.
I can't tell you how incredibleit has been to have a password
manager.
It was so incredibly annoying toset up.
I'm going to give you that.
It was so annoying.
I had to force myself through itand sit through the
uncomfortable.
(04:14):
But as soon as I got through it,Oh my gosh.
My life is so much easier on theother side.
All right, let's dive right backinto this episode.
We are talking about beinguncomfortable and getting into a
space where you do start to makethe changes, whether it's the
digital life or the physicallife, let's jump in.
I just got finished reading thebook, let them by Mel Robbins.
(04:35):
And she talks about that stateof being uncomfortable, right?
you're uncomfortable living thelife that you're living until
you get to the point that it isso uncomfortable, but you know,
you have to be even moreuncomfortable to get to this
other side.
that's the point at which peoplestart to work with either me or
you, you're at the point whereyou know, you can't live like
this anymore.
(04:55):
And so now it's going to be evenmore uncomfortable for you to
make that change and get overthis hump.
is that what you find is, ismost of the people that you're
working with, they're just like,I can't live like this anymore.
Help me.
It's very often.
there's the rare person.
It's like, Oh, I heard you onthis podcast or whatever.
And, I thought this was cool.
(05:15):
So, book a call and see, I'mpretty organized and, we're just
looking to get better andoptimize those are few and far
between.
You got to be in pain to dothis, especially to pay someone
for something that feels it.
So simple.
It's just email.
It's just putting files infolders.
No, it's not.
It's how your brain thinks it'sit's stopping and realizing that
(05:41):
we actually need to learn whatthese systems are and design it
because we're living in adigital house that's got 13
bedrooms and you're having topick which room you want to
sleep in every night and you'vegot your toothbrush in this
bathroom and then your hairbrushand another bathroom.
And all your products are spreadout all over the place.
That's how people are livingdigitally.
(06:02):
We have to figure out what themaster plan is and then design
it around how our brains think.
You were talking about designingphysical spaces and how digital
spaces are so similar.
And that's something that I'mconstantly trying to get the
word out to people is we want tothink about our digital spaces
(06:22):
like a physical one like aworkshop.
Where you use a certain set oftools and you go to a certain
part of the workshop to do eachdifferent type of thing.
So I do pottery, there aredefined stages and defined tools
that I use.
So, I don't use a notes app.
Because I take notes in context.
(06:44):
So if I have a call withsomeone, say, if you call me, to
talk about working, then you gointo a document is created
automatically in my client'sfolder under folder called
prospects, and it's namedappropriately.
So I just open it up.
And start working I'm not goingto take notes somewhere else
because when you say yes toworking with me and hit accept
(07:06):
sign the contract, then I needto save that contract somewhere.
I want everything.
When I'm working with you to betogether so that I'm ready to
work on it, and I'm not havingto go to 15 different places to
find what I'm looking for.
So everything is designed incontext, so it's very easy to
find what I'm looking for, andit's not, is this here or is
this there?
(07:27):
what's really cool is I, I talkabout a lot, asking yourself the
question, if I were going tolook for this item, where would
I go to look for it first?
And I didn't even consider tothink about that in the digital
space until I was actuallyworking with a digital organizer
one day, and she had mentionedsomething along those lines, and
(07:48):
I was like.
The parallels are like, it's sosimple, right?
But like, sometimes we're justso focused on everything making
logical sense.
And for us to already know that,but sometimes it's the simplest
things that make the most sense.
And so now when I'm working witha client or when I'm trying to
(08:09):
work through my own home spaces.
Sometimes I'm thinking about,well, what should this be
called?
Except then I'm like, whoa, whatwould I want to call it?
If I were trying to look forthis item, what would I call
this folder and what would Ilook under?
And I'm still navigating thatspace.
Cause I'm making it up as I goalong.
But.
(08:30):
I think it's just fascinating tostart to put some of those tools
in this digital space too,because a lot of them can carry
over.
Totally.
So much of it carries over, andthen it's just realizing we've
got recurring things, you know,there's just more like
departmental stuff, HR orwhatever, and then we have
projects.
So it's figuring out how thosethings kind of go together and,
(08:52):
Part of this, I actually talkabout file naming and folder
structures and, and how youshould really kind of think
about this from a conceptuallevel as well as how should you
name your files in the firstplace.
So that download that I wastalking about earlier, it's in
that file organization guide.
So I detail it out and writeabout this and then I have a
video and then demo it in oursystem of how, you know.
(09:16):
This is project based.
And this is things that justneed to be done every time.
And we have got resources.
So how do we lay this stuff outso that it's very easy?
there's some great resourcesthere.
If, it's like a five minutevideo or something, I bet it
helped you to, to figure out howto navigate your older structure
a little bit better.
Yeah.
I love that.
Anything to elevate.
(09:36):
And I'm curious as you'reworking with clients, whether
they're ADHD or not, do you findthat, you know, what works for
one person doesn't necessarilywork for the next person and so
on?
As you ask questions, as youunderstand the way someone
works, tell me a little bitabout that.
Yeah.
So It can be really different.
(09:58):
There's a lot of common themes,but some people just think
differently than others, andthey have their own way of going
about things and what they dotogether at the same time.
So, you know, we have to learnwhat that context is for part of
the process or your life toreally make a better suggestion
(10:19):
of how to really customize itfor you.
So they're very much the sameprinciples, just applied
differently.
And then, organizing in spacesor creating shortcuts in the
spaces that people operate outof most to be able to get to
where they need to go, whichmight be somewhere else.
So, yeah, it can be verydifferent.
(10:40):
That's why we actually don't doany work for people.
We only do it with them becauseI don't know how you work.
How can, how can I make asystem, a truly reliable system
for you that I built?
Knowing nothing about your lifeor just, or if I interview you
and work with you a little bit,you know, an 80 20 rule, there's
so much nuance in the end.
(11:02):
I did that and people keptcoming back to me.
So we've got to customize it andgo through the whole process
together.
I, I started out when I was inperson organizing more.
When I first started, I would goin and organize spaces for
people.
And as I was doing it, I waslike, this feels weird.
It's just strange.
I have so many questions abouthow they operate in this space.
(11:24):
When I was asking otherprofessional organizers, they
were like, yeah, I mean, it justdepends on the person.
And if I go in and organize thespace, the biggest frustration
is coming back and seeing thatit, it doesn't stay the same.
And I'm like, well, of course itdoesn't stay the same.
You have no idea how they livetheir life.
And so it's asking questions.
It's understanding, thedifferent needs of people.
(11:46):
And so, I love that you workwith people because I've never
seen.
Where like you can go in andjust simply organize for someone
and it just immediately makessense, at least for people with
ADHD because our brains work acertain way.
I talked to someone months agonow, but they were like, we keep
our dresser in the dining roombecause we don't want to wake
(12:08):
each other up in the morning.
And so it makes more sense forwhen we're putting things away.
And when we wake up at 4am, wecan go get dressed in the dining
room.
That's just what works for us.
your version of getting dressedin the dining room could mean
that you have a certain filefolder that you keep in a very
strange place because that'swhat makes sense in your brain.
You have some sort ofneurological connection that
(12:30):
just makes sense and that's whatworks for you and that's how it
has to work for you.
Totally.
Yep.
100%.
That's cool.
Okay, so what is your favoritething to conquer when it comes
to digital organization?
Passwords.
Nice.
Why?
It's just so life changing.
(12:51):
When you go from strugglingevery day, trying to get into
logins in and out, if you'reworking on a team, having to
juggle two step verification,text messages, going to, to
other people or to contractorsyou've hired, it's just, it's
just really difficult.
That's the one thing that Icould not live without,
(13:13):
passwords wise.
seeing that implemented for thefirst time and blowing people's
minds that you can actually saveall of this and save the two
step verification code.
So, you know, it just fills itin for you and you never have to
pull your phone out and then getdistracted.
It's pretty cool.
Project management would be aclose second though.
Cause I mean, when you, when youget serious about organization,
(13:37):
that's where it just takes off.
Yeah.
It's so cool.
And it's fascinating what we areable to accomplish when we have
a little bit of a plan behindus.
And we have tools that supportus in getting past those little
barriers that have previouslyheld us back.
And I just thank you so much forbeing vulnerable about learning
(14:00):
about ADHD and some of thestruggles that you have had and
like why some of the things youhaven't been able to get done.
It makes so much sense when youstart to understand your brain
and we're not broken.
It's just that we have to goabout it a different way and set
up things like password managersto remember all that other crap
(14:20):
for us so that we can getthrough it and pass that.
What's your, what's yourfavorite password manager?
One password.
Okay, cool.
Yeah.
Awesome.
So it's for you listening.
The number one and then the wordpassword right after it.
I, most people I talked to uselast pass.
It is so much prettier than lastpass, easier to use.
(14:41):
You can integrate the two stepverification codes, whereas you
can't in last pass, at leastcurrently.
it'll probably come around atsome point, but, and they've
just been hacked so many times.
Yeah, I got a lot of people wholike, Keeper and OneNote or not
OneNote, Dashlane, but I useDashlane.
Yeah, cool.
and I think like, no matter whatyou choose, I mean, like, yeah,
(15:03):
check out the ones that havebeen hacked because that's huge.
But other than that, like,figure out what works for you.
And I don't think you can gowrong with it as long as it's,
As you're feeling comfortable,but I love that that does two
step verification.
That's really cool.
You can do that in Dashlane toonow.
So it's, it's not nearly asobvious as it is in one
password, how to do it.
(15:24):
But, it's, it's totally doableand easy once you figure out how
it works.
just to echo what you said.
It's more important gettingstarted and using it
consistently than trying to findthe perfect one or using the one
that I use.
Consistency, and then once youget really comfortable with it,
you can always export your stufffrom one and get it into another
(15:46):
if you feel like jumping ship.
That's one thing that we reallywant to avoid is, is jumping
ship and trying to chase afterthe new app over and over again.
Yeah, that makes a lot of sense.
You know, I have one thing that,that might be interesting for
your listeners.
the first five years of mybusiness, I kept all of my
(16:07):
projects really small.
So I only took on things that Icould accomplish in a day
because I just, I knew that Iwouldn't be interested or would
have a hard time keeping trackof everything.
and I started using.
A project manager is using asauna and actually I had other
things before that, buteventually I settled on a sauna
and I'm putting all of thesethings in there and project
(16:31):
management and even goal settingjust became such a big trigger
for me because of the trail.
Of unfinished projects behindme, mostly all in the marketing
world.
And it was just so painful notfinishing things and getting so
close to the finish line andthen thinking, Oh, I've got a
better idea or there's somethingelse that that's, you know,
(16:54):
makes this irrelevant and itreally wasn't true.
I just didn't know how to getthat last 10 or 20 percent done
and it wasn't easy enough.
And so I abandoned it, but.
Once I started doing projectmanagement really well and
having someone help me with it,and I only did the tasks that
(17:16):
were assigned that day and gavemyself some margin, and could
breathe and really focus andconcentrate and was living a
much more calm life, weaccomplished in multiples
anything that I had ever done inthe past by doing less.
And just focusing on a fewthings that we're going to
(17:37):
accomplish throughout the year.
And they made such a huge impactthat it, it just blew my mind.
And it's like, okay, you have todo less to do more and give
yourself space and stop tryingto tackle it all because it's
just a world of hurt.
You know, it's profound that yousay that I, I went to a planning
(18:02):
conference earlier this year.
Often project managers do that.
They'll go to like a PIconference where you sit and you
plan everything for the rest ofthe year.
It's great.
And when you're on your own oryou're just managing your life,
your home life, you don't oftensit down and actually plan out
what you can literally get done.
And because we're time blind, wethink that we can do everything.
(18:26):
And then we start doingsomething and we keep taking on
more and more and more, but thiswas a really fascinating
opportunity for me because Iplanned out some of the bigger
goals I had for the year,started to break them up into
smaller but still bigger goals,and then started to plan my day
to day.
And as I was doing that, I gotreally overwhelmed because I
(18:49):
realized I had too many goalsfor the year, and then I got
pissed off because I stillwanted to do every single one of
them and didn't want to let themgo.
it's hard to say no, because weget excited about so many
things.
I got that feedback in thecorporate world.
But that is a prime example onhow we can burn out on how we
(19:12):
can take ourselves a level down.
So what a beautiful piece ofadvice that you've given, and I
need to hear it as well, eventhough I'm preaching on it, too,
is that even though we want to,accomplish the world, we want to
get so much done.
It's about those baby steps.
It's about breaking it up intosmall tasks, and it's about
understanding what you can trulyachieve in a day.
(19:35):
And not like trying to fit itall into a day.
It's about checking off four orfive things or maybe even three
things and saying, I did it.
Knowing that that is going toadd up to something so much
bigger.
I even like in my first year ofbusiness, I think my family just
thought I was sitting around allday, waiting for people to come
(19:55):
work with me or like, what doyou even do?
And I'm like, I'm doing 8million things, but everything
I'm doing now I knew would payoff in six to eight months
timeframe.
And I think that's about, youknow, like just waiting, like
understanding that patience isgoing to get you so much further
than trying to accomplishsomething in a day.
(20:16):
So that's, thanks for remindingus of that.
Yeah, absolutely.
I'm definitely passionate aboutit and love to share that and
just say take a deep breath andrealize you can get so much more
done if you just chill and ifyou can have somebody in your
life who can help you to makethose decisions because It just
(20:39):
it still loves overwhelms me topick and choose when I've got
tons of different options I'mthe one usually giving options
discovering sorting and thensaying, what do you want to do
from here?
I have someone in my life tohelp me with that.
I often go to my husbandsometimes when I've made
decisions all day in mybusiness, and then I have to
(21:00):
make decisions on the kids.
I'm like, I would actuallyreally love if you could make
this decision for me right now.
Can you decide?
And then I'll go with whateveryou say.
Look, that'll feel really greatbecause sometimes it can get
overwhelming.
I'm curious.
you said you've been doing this11 years now, starting in Apple.
How have you seen the digitallandscape change over the last
(21:22):
11 years?
Not only with the organizationspace, but just like where we've
come from and where we're going.
That's a man.
That's a big question.
I got hired really at the Applestore in 2007 for the original
iPhone launch.
I mean, the amount of stuffthat's happened in those 18
years, or I guess maybe 17 and ahalf years at this point, it's
(21:46):
just, it's just mind blowing.
But typically what happens isyou get some new technology and
it's sent out to consumers.
And then consumers adopt it andthen they build business tools
out of it.
And then they just launch it andnobody really realizes why you
should upgrade and then.
(22:08):
as more and more features areadded and you're getting
recommendations from yourfriends for all of these
different apps, then it justbecomes totally overwhelming.
And it's like the frog in thepot.
And then you hit this boilingpoint, like, Oh my gosh, it's
totally overwhelming.
But there have been a lot ofissues that have arisen in.
(22:31):
Ownership and in, in the typesof accounts that we, have, like
Google drive, for example, ifyou use my drive to collaborate
with someone on a project,anything that, that the other
person puts in your folder, theystill own.
So if you hire a contractor andthey created an email address
specifically for working withpeople, and then they decide to
(22:53):
stop doing it and they deletethat account, they delete all
the files that they created foryou, even though they're still
in your folder, they justdisappear.
So there's stuff like that thathas happened that there's
education and marketing pushesthese solutions so hard of what
You know, what's possible and,and this is going to change your
(23:14):
life.
And, apps don't change yourlife.
systems change your life whenyou do them consistently.
And that system can be appliedto anything.
and then AI is just, that's thething that's just kind of
flipped everything.
But in the end, it still needsto be directed.
We still have to know what we'retrying to accomplish in order to
(23:35):
use this tool in the firstplace.
But then they're still notcoming with manuals and you need
to figure it out.
So instead of what's different,what has stayed the same is.
If it's important to you, we'vegot to slow down, learn it,
attack it as a project.
And that's what we do is, is wesay, we don't need to work with
(23:55):
you for a year.
It's maybe a month, it may bethree, let's overhaul and then
you just do it from here.
But we have to sit down andfigure out what that system is,
because it's just the landscapeis exploding.
And yet people are just moredistracted and less productive
than ever.
(24:16):
What I think is reallyinteresting and what you're
saying there too is, is peoplewant a quick fix.
People want the solution.
They want what they're sellingas like, this is going to be.
A game changer.
It's going to change your entirelife and unless you're ready to
sit there and learn it andreally, truly understand and
break it down and be really badat it at first, it's not going
(24:38):
to change your life.
And it's the same thing.
And I'm going to I love theparallels here.
So phenomenal because it's thesame thing when it comes to
organizational tools.
You go to the container storeand you're like, Oh, if only I
had endless amounts of money tobuy all of these containers, my
life would be so organized,except that that's not the way
(24:59):
it works.
If you buy all the containers.
What's really going to happen isthey're going to sit there in a
space in your home until youfinally get the will to, put
something in a container.
But without a system andunderstanding what goes in the
container and how to use it tomake your life easier, it's not
a solution.
I have so many apps on my phonethat I've downloaded that I
(25:22):
don't use.
And when I go to people's homes,they have so many containers
that they have in a pilesomewhere that they don't use
because it's not a solution tothe problem.
There's so much more that we canachieve when we set up those
systems and figure out really,truly what's going to make our
(25:42):
life easier.
And then those things become atool that elevate what we have
been working towards.
But I love the way that you talkabout a vision to knowing what
you're actually trying toachieve.
Like what's not working?
What do you want to work foryou?
And what are you strivingtowards?
So thanks for painting thatpicture.
(26:03):
I think that's brilliant.
Absolutely.
Cool.
Oh my gosh.
Well, Sean, this has been soawesome.
I could probably talk to you foranother couple hours about this
stuff because there's so much.
That goes into it and, we're soprivileged to have you here and
to just give us that newperspective on how to handle our
digital space.
How can people find you?
(26:25):
Well, first off, thank you forhaving me.
And it's real, it's a real honorto be talking to you all.
the digital organizer.
com slash ADHD brain is the bestplace to start because that's
going to take you to the fileorganization guide.
And I'm going to tell you wherethe containers are, how to use
the containers and give youexamples so that you can
(26:46):
organize your space.
And then we'll give you theemails and everything like that.
during that you, you can checkout the digital organizer.
com.
You can book a call with me ifyou want to.
There's the quiz that you cantake as well.
So explore in there, but go getthat guide.
And, You know, implement it.
It is not hard to do.
It's very easy.
This is something that you canaccomplish and it's broken up
(27:09):
into bite sized chunks.
It's like, okay, here's yournext milestone.
Go do that now.
Celebrate.
Great.
We've got everythingconsolidated.
You've done your job for today.
Now we'll come back tomorrow anddo the next part.
That's really cool.
Awesome.
Well, thank you so much.
Thanks for the tools.
I'm so excited for people towork with you.
(27:29):
And, yeah, thanks for joining ustoday.
Thank you.
Yeti Stereo Microphone & (27:32):
Thanks so much for hanging out with me
in this second half of anincredible interview with Sean
Lemon from The DigitalOrganizer.
Just reinforcing that messageabout passwords.
If you have not set up yourpassword manager yet, Put it on
the list.
I know maybe you won't get to itthis month or next month or
three months from now, but it isabsolutely worth it and
something that you'll spend alittle bit of time on and then
(27:54):
it will make the rest of yourlife easier.
So if you can prioritize it,definitely do it.
one thing that is, is difficultwith our brains is we have all
these great ideas and we know wecan do it right.
Like in general, you know thatyou can go and set up a password
manager and it's going to beannoying, but you can do it.
But we sometimes have thesethings on our to do list and
(28:15):
we'll avoid it because we don'talways know all of the elements
involved and that could be abarrier.
So ask yourself, what is thebarrier to getting it done?
Sometimes it's a money barrier.
Sometimes it's a, I don't knowhow to barrier.
And sometimes it's a timebarrier and you're prioritizing
something else over this.
And then we also just genuinelyforget, we just have so many
(28:37):
other things.
We procrastinate doing this.
So we forget to do the thingsthat could make our life easier.
So think about a trigger thenext time you go to log in and
you forget your password or youdon't have it saved and you have
to go reset it.
That's your trigger to go lookup one of these password
managers so that you can haveyour life feeling so much easier
(28:59):
again.
It keeps you protected, itcreates really strong passwords
so you're not using the same oneover again, This is something I
can totally get behind youspending money on.
It is worth it.
Okay, let's talk a little bitmore about Sean.
So I love the way that he talksabout a trail of unfinished
projects.
Raise your hand if you canrelate.
I bet all of you are raisingyour hands.
(29:21):
We have all started projectsthat we have not finished before
and part of it is because we getso excited about it in the
beginning and then our hyperfocus is gone.
We don't have that same dopamineeffect to get us back into the
project.
So it feels like more work toactually try to do it again.
So coming up with a way to breakit down into the smallest tasks
(29:43):
imaginable to get it done.
Is a game changer.
if you have something on your todo list that says finish this
project, you are going to avoidthat all day long because
there's so many little tasksthat go into finishing that
project.
When I was working with mycareer coach, one of her phrases
was slow down to get ahead.
And I love how Sean says, doless to do more.
(30:07):
And it's incredible coming backto filling up your to do list
and thinking about all thethings that you're doing in a
day.
People are always trying tofigure out like what's the next
productivity hack?
How could I possibly do more?
What's the next thing that Icould do to make this easier to
do?
How could I fit more into myday?
How could I be more productive?
Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.
You're training yourself to beburnt out.
(30:30):
Like you're training yourself tobe in this go go go mode all the
time.
I've trained myself to be thatway.
It's not been until morerecently that I've started to
put more boundaries on my timeand what I can actually get
done.
And I talked about schedulemanagement in a podcast episode
earlier last year and how I planmy day.
(30:50):
And one of the things I do is Ipick just six things I want to
complete and then what does thatlook like on a calendar and is
it actually realistic?
And because I started doing thatpractice, it helped me
understand what I was trulycapable of and what I was just
really trying to squeeze in.
And it's funny because even whenI would see on a calendar that
it wasn't going to work out, Iwould still try to do it until I
(31:12):
failed miserably and then had tomove on.
And Remind myself you are notcapable of doing this.
You've got to make the mistakesin order to get to the next
step.
No matter how much I tell yousomething You've got to keep
doing the things to teach youthe lessons that you really need
to learn for yourself And that'sokay And then the last thing
sean said that I thought wasbeautiful and I couldn't agree
(31:34):
more is that apps don't changeyour life Your systems change
your life an organizing tooldoesn't change your life Systems
change your life understandinghow you work changes your life.
It's not this magic tool that'sgoing to make it all better for
you.
And you'll, you're going tofigure it out.
So if you want Sean's tools, goto the digital organizer.
(31:57):
com forward slash ADHD brain,sign up for his email and you'll
get a.
He describes it like a dripsystem of amazing information so
that you can start to get ahandle on your digital
organization.
And if you want to work withhim, go work with him because
it's going to make your life alittle bit easier.
He's going to help youunderstand your space, your
space, not just a generic space,but how to understand your
(32:18):
space.
in a way that's going to helpyou run more efficiently.
If you're ready to tackle yourphysical space, come join me in
my community.
We have our group coachingsession this Friday.
It's 27 a month.
We not only do body doublingsessions, we do digital
decluttering sessions.
We have group Q and a's, andthere's a bunch of PDF downloads
(32:39):
that I have created for you toaccess.
And as of right now, I believe Ionly have three more.
slots starting in April forpeople to work with me.
So if you would like to workwith me one on one for coaching
and you're super interested intaking the next step on seeing
how you can declutter your lifeand your brain, then reach out
(33:00):
to me.
my booking calendar is in theshow notes below.
Book a 20 minute call with meand I'll ask you a bunch of
questions and see if it's aright fit.
And of course, if you'refollowing on my personal
journey, I have officially leftFacebook.
I believe that it's officiallygoing to be deactivated in two
days, which is kind of crazy.
I've gotten to the point whereI've let go of so much in my
(33:22):
life that I feel empowered Andtruthfully, social media has
been something that has beensuch a drainer.
I've noticed that it's had animpact on my mental health, and
that's not something that I wantto incorporate.
any longer.
So I will continue to let youknow what that journey looks
like.
Download the dopamine menu.
(33:44):
If you're looking to stay intouch and also find different
ways to fill up your cup duringthe day, even if you're just
transitioning from one activityto another, but give yourself
the dopamine that you need.
So you can find motivation andenergy to get some of that
organizing done.
And in addition to that, we aremoving across.
country.
My husband and I are making amove from Colorado back to
(34:05):
Massachusetts.
That's where I grew up.
And so if you're interested inhaving me come to your house and
organize for you personally,please email me Megs at
organizing ADHD, brain.
com so that we can figure outsome of the logistics.
This isn't set in stone, but Iam getting more and more curious
(34:25):
as I continue to talk about theprospect of organizing across
the country.
Have an incredible week, and Iwill see you next week.
Popular Podcasts
Las Culturistas with Matt Rogers and Bowen Yang
Ding dong! Join your culture consultants, Matt Rogers and Bowen Yang, on an unforgettable journey into the beating heart of CULTURE. Alongside sizzling special guests, they GET INTO the hottest pop-culture moments of the day and the formative cultural experiences that turned them into Culturistas. Produced by the Big Money Players Network and iHeartRadio.
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
I’m Jay Shetty host of On Purpose the worlds #1 Mental Health podcast and I’m so grateful you found us. I started this podcast 5 years ago to invite you into conversations and workshops that are designed to help make you happier, healthier and more healed. I believe that when you (yes you) feel seen, heard and understood you’re able to deal with relationship struggles, work challenges and life’s ups and downs with more ease and grace. I interview experts, celebrities, thought leaders and athletes so that we can grow our mindset, build better habits and uncover a side of them we’ve never seen before. New episodes every Monday and Friday. Your support means the world to me and I don’t take it for granted — click the follow button and leave a review to help us spread the love with On Purpose. I can’t wait for you to listen to your first or 500th episode!
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com