Forgetting
More seriously, ADHD, among others, is a working memory disorder. A way to cover this is to use "prosthetics" for it, such as a notepad that you always carry with you. If this affects you strongly, train your muscle memory to use it to note down what you were planning to do and to refer to it when you forgot.
In PC-speak, ADHDers have traded RAM for more CPU.
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Seconded. If it wasn't for alarm and notes apps on my phone, I'd never remember anything, let alone actually do stuff! Even paper notes wouldn't work because I'd forget that the note existed in no time flat 😂
My old boss gave me a load of shit for writing down tasks that I had to do. He just couldn't comprehend that it wouldn't stick if it wasn't written down.
He took my book from me, and then asked me to do a bunch of complicated stuff each with its own deadline.
He then got annoyed when I didn't do the stuff because I hadn't written it down because he took my book.
He got sacked, I got promoted.
Ugh, he sounds like such an asshole! I'm glad he got sacked and belated congratulations on the promotion 😁
Thanks! I'm now working in a new role where there is no more ridiculous pressure or wild expectations and have been able to commit to working on a degree (because I fucked up the first one).
Work shouldn't leave you panicking on a monday morning or crying into your lunch.
Individual paper notes won't work. What's been shown to work is a personal notebad you train yourself to carry with you always. For example by now I've trained myself by muscle memory to reach for my phone when getting up. Similar approach can be used for a notepad.
Paper notepad wouldn't work for me due to awful fine motor skills (another ADHD symptom) making my handwriting slow and cumbersome. I can write probably three times as fast on my phone where I just have to tap the letters rather than use dexterity to shape them, thus making it much less of a "stupid hand can't keep up with my brain" kind of frustration thing.
Plus back before smartphones were a thing, I always walked around with so much junk in my pocket that the notepad would take quite some time finding and fishing out, if it would even fit 😂
Of course one solution doesn't work for everyone. if you current system works for you, keep at it. I know for me, fishing the phone out my pocket, unlocking it, opening a notepad app, opening a new note and typing it badly, is probably as slow as a notepad at least. And then due to the nature of the phone, I forgot I had notes.
@Viking_Hippie @db0 I relate to this. I have a big bullet journal that I stopped using because it was too big to haul around all the time. So then I bought some field notes books but most of my shirts don’t have pockets and my jean pockets are filled of my phone, keys, wallet, AirPods plus I don’t want a pen in my pants pocket. On top of all of that my hand writing is atrocious and I too have the issue of my brain moving way faster than my hand.
@Viking_Hippie @db0 I noticed the other day that my mind has what I call “branch thoughts” that sprout as related but separate thoughts to what I’m currently trying to get out of my head. These branch thoughts usually need to be explored individually but if I do that while writing, the original thought is lost. I usually stop writing down the ideas all together because it’s just too much going on at once.
Same. I have two alarms dedicated to just 'washing machine' and 'call pharmacy' because I will forget those every single time and end up with no clean underwear and no medication. The only problem is when I'm in a situation where I can't immediately write something down and/or set an alarm for something, like when I'm in the shower. Then whatever I thought of will simply be lost to the void forever.