I have ADHD. How do I stay on top of it all?
Like so many of us with ADHD, when I get an idea, I jot it down. After a lifetime of believing I could use a yellow note pad (I never had a pencil or pen when I needed it), a notebook (didn’t fit in my pocket), sticky notes (threw them all away whenever I was tasked to clean my desk), and scraps of paper (remember the fate of the sticky notes?), and micro cassette recorders (never remembered to listen to the tapes), I reminisce of the time in my life when I felt the most free from ADHD shame.
Thirty years ago, I worked at an advertising agency. A number of our clients were toy companies. Another was a children’s dentist. The agency’s owner was a magician. Not only did we design wild and crazy stuff for clients, we also designed stuff for the magic shows. It was a person with ADHD’s dream come true!
We had a reorganization and we built out part of the warehouse to be my office. Thinking within the box, the magician asked what color I wanted the walls. Somehow I managed to talk him into paneling all the walls from floor to ceiling with glossy white shower stall board. Yes, my entire office was one big white board!
I had found freedom! I could write and doodle and plan and design and calculate all over my walls! This was the job I had the best success accomplishing tasks, because I never lost track of what I had done or still needed to do. My office became an extension of my mind.
Alas. That time is long gone, and I feel the failures of all the memory aides I have tried since.
#adhdtips
Today, I use Notes in my iPhone. I always have my phone with me. It fits in my pocket. I don’t need anything else to write on it. I can easily search to find what I want... as long as I jotted it down in the first place.
As I’m driving, I only have to remember an idea or thought long enough to make it to the next stop light or parking lot. I can even dictate longer streams of consciousness.
I’m not here to advocate one mnemonic tool or method over another. Nor am I here to sell you something. I am here to advocate for whatever tool consistently works for you.
Not all plans work as planned
I revisited this topic a couple of weeks after writing it... and discovered it for the second time. I had lost it in the multiple streams of consciousness that can be found in my Notes. Even things you find to work better than anything else ever has can still not be 100% effective all the time.
I have now modified my original plan for using Notes to include an emoji at the beginning of the title to help me identify which ones are active, completed (and not deleted), or works-in-progress. Let’s see how long this works.
