Delay and ADD / ADHD has been a hot topic here at ADD Success World Headquarters the past few weeks.

I don’t know why. Perhaps I’m just noticing it more. Perhaps there’s something in the air. Lately, however, delay and its costs seem to come up in most ADD coaching calls.

When I talk of the cost of delay, I don’t simply mean delay’s financial cost, but its organizational, emotional and time costs as well.

Take a look at your ADD / ADHD and organizing challenges, and I’ll bet you find delay buried somewhere near the root.

• That pile of clothes on the chair in your bedroom? Delay plays a part. Would your clothes be in a wrinkled mess if you’d tossed them in the hamper or hung them up when you took them off?
• The late fee on your electric bill? Thank delay. If you’d handled the bill when it arrived instead of tossing it in a stack to deal with later you’d have saved a few bucks.
• Late for a meeting? If you’d left when your timer went off you wouldn’t have had to frantically race across town and walk in late making excuses. (You do use a timer, don’t you?)
• Lost an hour frantically searching for your car keys? Delay again. If you’d put your keys back in your pocket instead of thinking, “I’ll do that later,” you wouldn’t have missed half the ballgame.

(By the way, those are all real life situations from recent ADD coaching calls.)

Now that you know eliminating delay is one of the key ADHD Management strategies, what can you do about it?

Your first step, as with many things Attention Deficit is increase your awareness.

Start to notice when you delay and the problems it causes. Also notice what you’re thinking or saying to yourself when you delay. Until you notice it, you can’t fix it.

When you are able to tune into your delay patterns and clues, then you can employ delay stopping strategies. I recommend you learn to immediately handle a task when it makes sense. Socks in the hamper instead of on the floor or shred the paper instead of tossing it in a “shred later” pile.

What about those times it doesn’t make sense to immediately do the task? That’s when you strategically delay. You decide when you’ll do the task and how you’ll remember to do it. These are the habits, routines and systems your ADD coach will help you create.

I urge you to start noticing delay and it’s impact on your life and business. Eliminating or strategically managing delay is key to living successfully with Adult Attention Deficit.