Organization and discipline in Aspies

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The more I deal with my six-year-old Aspie son, and the more I say, "He and I are so much alike in so many ways," the more I'm thinking that I am also an Aspie. It just makes sense looking back through my life and how I deal with things now. I'm 41 now (male), and two of my biggest challenges are organization and being disciplined. For example, I can't keep an exercise regimen going because I keep "fading" out of it for some reason. Same goes for yoga. I just can't seem to get disciplined about anything. And organization...well, that's self-explanatory, I guess. Are these common among Aspies? If so, does anyone have things that truly help them out...especially on the organization front?

Last edited by MasonJar on 24 Sep 2007, 10:35 am, edited 1 time in total.

I think almost everyone has trouble with organization and discipline. People usually "fade out" of an exercise program not because they have Aspergers, but because exercise is a pain in the ass.

Absolutely. I can't keep exercise regiments and other things going either. Tony Atwood said that we have a compulsion to get things complete, done, and out of the way. The problem with me is, I am all or nothing. I either exericize to extreme or don't exericize at all. There is no grey with me. So if I miss a day or a week, it is extremely difficult for me to just go back to exericizing. We are inflexible like that.

Oh, that's definitely me. Thing with exercise is I don't have a gray area either...so I just force myself to never fall out of the routine. I feel like crap when I do anyhow.

I'm like that too. My last boss loved me because when a conversation went on too long I'd just be itching to start getting work done again. You can actually see my eyes glaze over.

I'm sure I've read that people with Aspergers often have disordered lives. If this is true then I would guess by looking at myself that it's more because any task requiring scary social interaction will be put of until forever. Especially anything that requires a phone call to be made. Or maybe that 'head in the clouds' thing where you'll be so engrossed in something that a bunch of other, stupidly obvious stuff will get forgotten, typically involving an unpaid bill or a set of keys.

Organization and discipline problems are the hallmark of what we are currently going through with our middle schooler. He's a great kid, but cannot keep up with anything in an ordered and disciplined fashion. How do we teach these skills?

Kris

This site has some good tips http://thiswayoflife.org/ef.html I use many of the coping skills the author speaks of. Because I am a VERY rule bound type of person if I make a set of structured rules to go by I can accomplish tasks that otherwise I'd be spending most of my time just sitting there thinking about getting them done.

Great stuff. Thanks very much. It just seems that so much of it should be common sense, but I've always seemed to lack common sense.

I have been told in my teens I like to be organized and disciplined.
I have routines I need to follow because they keep me calm. Without a routine, I get out of whack. I try to make things go into my routine so I won't forget. I tend to forget to do things that are not in my routine. When I was on new pills for my anxiety when I was 20, I kept forgetting to take them because it wasn't in my routine. I am used to taking my pills at night is why. I tend to forget to let my aunt and uncle's dog outside so I end up letting her out right before I have to leave to catch the bus for work.
At work I tried to do things spontaniously by not doing my work in order but it was messing me up becase I wasn't getting things done and I was forgetting to do stuff so I decided to stick with my routine so I made one in my head and stick with it. I can change it if I have to. One of my office clerks is impressed with my routines at work because it keeps me organized so he has encoraged another employee to do the same as me. Have a routine I have so that he won't forget to do stuff. Do the big stuff first before dinner so that is isn't tired towards the end of his shift because it makes him do the big stuff slower like putting the dirty laundry in the bins and then he gets overwelmed because his shift is almost up and he still has tons of laundry left to do.

I should start making lists and following it, maybe that would help me out during the day so I am more organized.
Right now I am thinking of how to put my excerising into my routine. I have already decided I will listen to the Benny & Joon soundtrack as I work out and when the album ends, my work out is over for the day. But I have to decide what time of day I want to do it. It will be before work I know that and decide what time of day I want to work out on my days off. I won't have everything in stone. I quit that in my late teens or when I was 20.

Disciplined and organized is that absolute last thing that I am.

discipline?
organization?
What are those?

gads.
not even gonna start.
I have rigid routines lately that include a strict discipline of playing Hexagonized every 5 minutes.
Clothes go out of the basket onto the trampoline.
Clothes go back into the basket.
will and grace will and grace will and grace....eyes glazed over.....
(kidding but with some hint of truth)



I have gone through phases when i was alot more organized and disciplined. Right now I am not in one of those phases. I am too overwhealmed by all the clutter.

Discipline is quite difficult for me. I have trouble sticking to things unless it's something I'm interested in, or I can see the logic to it.

My life is generally "organised chaos". I seem organised at work (clear desk and so on), but my car and bedroom is a mess. I also forget to pay bills, and to do simple errands unless someone reminds me to do it. Time management is also something I haven't quite grasped yet, since I'm late for a lot of things, including work.

One organising thing I've found useful is leaving my keys, wallet, cellphone, and glasses in the same place every day. That way I can grab them in the morning before rushing out the door to get to work.

Clutter overwhelms me too. I never know where to start tidying unless someone else breaks it down into smaller chunks for me.

I actually found a good way to deal with exercising. I started a walking regimen last summer of walking about 3 miles every day... Anyway, to avoid that fading thing, I started to tell myself that the walk was to get out of the house for an hour, and especially to be able to just self-absorb into my own little universe while on my walk... I have to say, I've been at it since the beginning of July and I'm still walking every day...

In school, I had little trouble with discipline, like doing my homework etc. I now have some more trouble with it as there are more organizational things I need to deal with. I do have fairly poor organizational skills, like, I absolutely cannot plan schoolwork without help.