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Jaclyn Paul: Order from Chaos (Paperback, 2019, Summit to Sea, LLC) 4 stars

Review of 'Order from Chaos' on 'Goodreads'

4 stars

As someone who wasn't diagnosed with ADHD until age 34 (and even then as a "borderline" case for medication), I found this book very validating and insightful. The experiences ring true to me while also emphasizing the diversity of experiences of people with this condition, and the need for carefully observing and adapting to each of our specific realities.

I was shocked by how similar the author's task-organization system is to mine that I've developed over the last decade or so -- also based on a combination of GTD, bullet journaling, and other philosophies, adapted to the specific quirks of my brain.

Where I learned the most was in physical-space organization. Some of those things still feel way to daunting to me, like keeping everything in files. Others seem like good ideas to try, like a personal physical "inbox" for each family member.

This would be 5 stars, but the education nerd in me has to nitpick about the inclusion of "learning styles" as a guiding principle -- learning styles are a debunked theory. The application to living with ADHD -- that some people are more apt to notice or ignore stimuli of different senses -- may well be sound, but basing this inference on a debunked scientific premise casts a shadow on its credibility.