One of my favorite resources for people who say “I must have ADD, I can’t remember where I put my last nerve” is a book called CrazyBusy and its accompanying newsletter (free). I subscribe and I love it.

Lief Hansen challenges his brain by spending the day writing with his non-dominant hand – and then blogs about it.

Want to know how to get inspired to start organizing? Remember where you came from. In this article I wrote, you’ll learn how to organize by remembering what’s really important.

Learn how mind games can help you increase your ability to remember things in this article from the Auburn Journal.

Or, better yet, try out some of these mind games at Sharp Brains.com.

Wishing you a safe and happy Memorial Day.

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Jott.com is a website where you sign up for a membership. In turn, you get a phone number that you can call from anywhere. The coolness starts when you’re driving down the road and remember something you need to do.

You call the number Jott gave you, leave a message, which then dictates your message into an email. When you get back to the office, there’s your reminder waiting for you.

Or, let’s say, you think of something you want to tell someone while you’re away from your computer. You’re sure you’ll forget it if you wait, so you call Jott’s number. It will dictate a message and you can send it to anyone.

Having ADD means forgetting things mere seconds after they occur, so having this service would be a huge asset. Even if you don’t have ADD, how many times have you wished for a piece of paper and a second set of hands to write something down? Or kicked yourself later for forgetting something?

Since I heard about Jott, I’ve had at leas a half-dozen moments where I’ve caught myself wishing I’d already set it up. It’s just a matter of time now.

Best of all, it’s free.

Have you tried Jott.com? What might make you take the leap?

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This week’s roundup is a shortlist of great recent articles that will help you get some traction with your stuff.

Leo Baubuta’s blog, ZenHabits, is among my very favorites. Here are 18 5-minute tips to help you in your office. I love that they’re only 5 minutes each.

Ann at One Bag Nation discusses the problem of Mind Clutter and what you can do to help yourself.

Here at My Organized Biz, I wrote an in depth how-to about how to get ahead of your stuff so you can do the things you want to do.

Jennifer Chait at Declutter It gives a tour of her office and, in the process, shares a bunch of ideas about how to keep clutter at bay. I especially like her “everyday shelf” and her “sometimes shelf” ideas. How cool. Check out her office video here.

And lastly, at the Unclutterer, Stowe Boyd tackles the problem of all those business cards. You won’t believe the solutions he’s got. Wow!

These tips will get you started… Do you have other ideas or clutter busting suggestions to share?

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I subscribe to Hallowell’s CrazyBusy tips feed and was notified of a free conference call – happening today! – featuring Dr. Hallowell and others, including Joe Polish of Piranha Marketing.

Here is the email text in its entirety:

What I want to share with you are the secrets to keeping your life simple and keeping your business profitable. And, you can find them here –> www.SuccessWith Sanity.com

Joe Polish of Piranha Marketing, is hosting a teleseminar on Thursday, this week, March 27th. The experts on this call are great fun to listen to but this call is really an incredible gift because these guys are going to deliver over 90 minutes of valuable strategies you can use right now to get control – “CrazyBusy No More!” – quit “working” when you’re out of your office or on vacation, or when you’re trying to spend quality time with your family.

Please – join us on the call this Thursday – just listening can change (and maybe even save) your life. Here are the call in details:

Date: Thursday, March 27th, 2008
Time: 3pm Pacific / 6pm Eastern
Phone: 1-507-726-3343
Passcode: 32708#

(For those of you who really are insanely busy there’s a replay at 6pm Pacific / 9pm Eastern – same phone number and passcode.)

Not sure? Check out LifeHacker’s eval of Dr. Hallowell’s book: CrazyBusy: Overstretched, overbooked, and about to snap.

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The thing is – Richard Branson is a brilliant, brilliant man. He has started dozens of companies under the Virgin name and most of them have been astoundingly successful. And in light of his success, he’s also a poster child for those of us with ADD. Watch him – the man doesn’t sit still.

I want to stress an important point that Branson’s life illustrates: you don’t have to be perfect at everything to be a success. Branson does a lot of hard work, don’t get me wrong, but he’s found his niche in generating and sharing ideas that start really innovative companies.

He says it himself in the interview, the trick to his success is “finding the right people, drawing out the best in them.” He surrounds himself with people with strengths complimentary to his creative genius – which actually makes his endeavors more successful.

So what does this mean for your organized biz?

Take a look at the things you aren’t good at – maybe it’s balancing your accounts or returning phone calls. What things could you be doing that you’re not – just because you don’t like them?

Once you know this, find a way to get support. Hire your kids, hire a Virtual Assistant, get a good bookkeeper – the list is endless. When you choose to get support, your business can grow.

So, now I’m curious. What are your least favorite tasks in your business? What creative solutions have you come up with to defer them?

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For some people, the flip side of this creative streak is the propensity for getting distracted. Easily.

Now, I’m no clinician (and I don’t play one on television) but it’s my theory that there are a ton of entrepreneurs with out there with “attention deficit disorder” that don’t know it. Say what you will about over-diagnosis of ADD in kids, but a some Gen Xers and Boomers missed being diagnosed entirely.

I’m a perfect case. My whole life I got harangued with, “You’re so smart, why can’t you finish…(insert task)?” When I started my business, I felt paralyzed by my disorganization, poor follow through, and the nagging dread that I would forget to do something important. I proceeded fearing that someday my house of cards would fall – along with my business – because of some fatal omission. Learning I had ADD helped immensely.

You might hate being labeled, but folks with ADD are known to have above average intelligence and make rapid-fire mental connections. ADD brains are cool.

In my organizing business, I love working with entrepreneurs with ADD because the smallest tweaks to their physical environments help them capture their lighting-speed ideas – and then actually put them into action. Doing this also has a huge, positive impact on their business. They can prevent visual distractions and other annoying stimulus from derailing their creative spurts.

If you got labeled as “hyperactive” or a “space cadet” as a kid, I highly recommend the book Delivered from Distraction. It’s the tome on what’s good about ADD and how to get more from your life if you’ve got it. Ironically, both the authors have ADD.

Check out Delivered From Distraction for a ton of great ideas that apply directly to your organized biz.

Once you read it, you might not be distracted by whatever that chicken’s doing.

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