ADHD: Change Your Desk, Change Your Life

Regular readers will know there are renovations taking place in our house. It is pretty chaotic and not conducive to working from home. Being flexible and not expecting too much of myself is, I’ve come to realise, the best way of getting through and not beating myself up for not being as productive as I’d like.

We were sold on the spacious potential of this house, moving in two and a half years ago. I’m privileged to have my own room here, for my writing, and my books. Virginia Woolf would be proud.

On moving in, I bought the biggest desk I could afford. We’d been through some hard times, this was a celebration. Time to imperilise, I thought. I assembled the two-metre-long Lagkapten from Ikea along one wall of my room.

But, friends and readers, this was before my ADHD diagnosis (which was a year ago this week) This was before I’d begun to learn about neurodivergence. This was before I learned my methods of organising stuff in piles, is classic ADHD.

The pile thing is related to memory and object permanence. If I can’t see something, it ceases to exist. It’s a common ADHD symptom.¹

My gloriously long desk became a place for piles. I got a three-tier in-tray, which I thought might help; it sat on my desk, with stuff in it. But that stuff just stayed there; nothing moved out. It was a holding place. I’d also regularly come into my room and dump something on my desk with the idea of putting it away later. But yes, you guessed it. That thing would not get put away.

This enormous desk was enabling me. I could dump stuff, and create more piles, but I could still write, squeezing onto the desk with my laptop.

I began to look at the situation more when more stuff (chairs/lights/craft stuff etc) had to be housed in my study due to the renovations. All these things from other parts of the house were distracting, and yet all the stuff across my desk wasn’t? I realised I was the problem.

I began to search for answers to my organisational issues. And if you’ve come to this post for these answers, the only thing I can tell you is to get a smaller desk. As small as you can manage with. Or don’t get a desk at all and stay mobile (this was how I wrote in previous homes).

Have less stuff on your desk too, and generally own less stuff. We all know this doesn’t just apply to desks it also applies to wardrobes, kitchen cupboards even cars.

So now I have a smaller desk. A discontinued Ikea one via eBay. It’s black and solid wood and it has a drawer so all the stuff in my pen pots got sorted too. One week later I feel like I’ve achieved more these past seven days than in the rest of 2023.

Of course, the desk could be imbibed with the studiousness of the person who sold it to me, someone who had just finished university. Or my returned vigor is down to the novelty of the new, or that my kids are settled back at school, or that I just feel like I’ve got some brain space again. Helped conversely by having less space to dump stuff.

So, here’s a shot of my desk now, with the drawer open so you can see my pen tray and notebooks. Both of which would be sat out on top previously along with the in-tray I mentioned and a whole manner of other things.

The cable on the right is for my headset and the light rectangular thing on the left is my SAD lamp. I’m fully aware there is still a lot of visual clutter on the wall. This serves as a type of mood board but it too needs an overhaul. Baby steps!

1. More about piles and ADHD