“To Do”

I guess I should have paid attention to the early warning signs – slow to start, lots of odd noises, sluggish response to anything, a need for multiple restarts on busy days. Then BAM – my computer died. In retrospect, it was a slow death, but at the time, it was a sudden and immediate loss that came out of nowhere. I ran to my ER doctor (aka, my hubby) who tried, for days, to revive it. Sadly, we finally marked its “date of death” somewhere in mid-June.

I back up my computer so that wasn’t an issue. It was the absolute paralysis of finding a new one that caused me problems. I can use the heck out of Photoshop for my photo editing, I love keeping things organized in Quicken, writing in Word is pure happiness, and don’t even get me started about how awesome Excel is for its spreadsheets. But hardware? The actual computer? Nope, haven’t a clue. So after putting things off multiple times (ADHD!), then panicking because I really needed some information in my files, I turned to my prior ER doctor, who had magically transformed into my trusted purchasing advisor.

As you can see, my new, quiet and speedy laptop is up and running, though I’m still trying to sort things out. I now step away with two big lessons learned from this experience:

• Always, ALWAYS listen to your computer, and any warning signs of a failure. I had plenty.
• Maintain a trusted “To Do” list, especially during times of chaos.

I had lost sight of that last one and it really did throw additional chaos into the circus ring. Once I got back to my list, even before my newbie was here, it gave me that sense of calm and order that I so desperately needed. ADHDers … trust in the faithful “To Do” list!