103: Use this ADHD Hack to Start Organizing Your Home – The Selfish Task

Give Yourself Permission to Do the “Selfish” Task First

Let’s talk about being selfish, specifically, doing a cleaning, decluttering, or organizing task purely because it interests you, not because it’s the most logical or responsible place to start.

Why interest matters more than “the right order”

We’re constantly told to start with the messiest space, the highest-traffic area, or whatever guests see first. That’s reasonable advice, except when it’s so overwhelming it leaves you paralyzed and doing nothing at all. If a space genuinely interests you, even if it’s a closed cabinet nobody else ever sees, or a laundry room behind a door you can shut, that’s worth chasing first. Fighting our own interest is swimming upstream against our own brain. Swim with the current instead.

Name the “selfish” task you’ve been putting off

You probably already know what it is: the space you keep wanting to tackle but talk yourself out of because it feels irresponsible, “I shouldn’t get to that until the dishes and laundry are completely done first.” Do it anyway. If you saw something cute on Pinterest or Instagram and thought, I could actually do that, and I think I even have the stuff, go do that instead of whatever “should” come first.

Why this matters

You need the experience of a genuine win, discovering something took less time than you feared, feeling proud walking past a space you tackled, without an ounce of guilt attached. That’s true whether you have a finite kid-free window during the day or you’re juggling little ones underfoot the whole time, it’s just harder in the latter case, and worth extending yourself extra grace for. Even if the rest of the house ends up messier by the end of the day and nothing else got done, being able to walk past that one space you’re happy with is still a real win. Sitting still and doing nothing wasn’t gaining you anything either.

You can’t steer a bike that isn’t moving

Whatever direction you head in today, even if it makes no logical sense to anyone else, the point is simply getting the pedals moving. You can always adjust direction once you’re in motion. If someone in your life is baffled that you tackled a junk drawer instead of the cluttered entryway, you can simply tell them: you can’t steer a bike that’s not moving, and walk away.

Your practical, actionable step

Pick the one space in your home you’ve been secretly wanting to tackle purely because it excites you, not because it’s the most responsible choice, and do it today, without waiting for everything else to be finished first.

Until next time, continue to choose joy.