How to Stay Organized as an A.D.D. Entrepreneur

Augh! The colors!

I don’t know about you, but I sometimes feel that keeping up with all of my ideas and projects is an overwhelming task.  First, I’ll have (what I think is) an amazing idea.  Then I’ll get all excited and scribble down a basic outline in my idea notebook.  I’ll think about it more and lay down a plan over the next couple of days, and I might even get as far as detailed competition/industry research, building a website for the idea, etc.  But inevitably, it seems that sooner or later the initial brain-fireworks wear off, and exciting fresh ideas come up to take their place.  This is where the whole diligence thing comes in handy – something I am not skilled in.  Yes, I am trying.  And yes, I’m getting better at it.  But when that new, shiny idea bubbles up and bursts fourth in all its wondrous glory, it’s so hard not to become enraptured with it!

This is a problem that many of us wanna-be entrepreneurs face.  By nature, we are idea people.  And that doesn’t necessarily come with the “diligence” add-on.  But think about it: if you had seen every one of your great entrepreneurial ideas through to the bitter end, where would you be right now?  If you had actually walked each idea into the real world and gave it every chance in your power to survive and thrive, would your life be different?

I’m guessing… YES. I know my life would be different.  But that’s why I’m trying to close that gap – and the key for me is organization.

I don’t throw away every new idea that I get in favor of pursuing only one.  I can’t bring myself to do that.  So I try to prioritize and organize all of my projects in a way that makes it easy to see where they’re at and what steps I need to take.  In fact, I made myself a spreadsheet to do just that – have a look:

Schedule Template

My personal copy is a lot more full, but you get the idea. Since I started doing things this way, it’s been a lot easier to break every project up into meaningful steps, which I can then schedule myself to do one at a time.  It also gives me a birds-eye view of everything I’m doing, and it keeps any ideas from falling through the cracks.  (Unless I make the conscious decision to let it do so.)

Tell me, how do you keep your own world o’ projects organized?  Do you have a system?  I’d love to hear it!  I’m always interested in new ideas.  (But, you already knew that).