Don't trust the demon

The Picard Maneuver@lemmy.world to ADHD memes@lemmy.dbzer0.com – 994 points –
60

Bold of any of them to assume I'll remember there was an "it" to remember in the first place. My best offer is a vague sense that I've forgotten something.

A vague sense of having forgotten something .. that's got to be true for ADHD and non-ADHD alike!

I always trust that feeling, what's the downside to not doing so, other than time?

My memory sort of acts like a carousel/merry-go-round, in that I'll store a memory, I know it is there, but I cannot access it at will, and it will re-appear at a random time at some point in the future when doing something completely unrelated.

A "memory-go-round", if you will.

I keep finding old notebooks, where i started writing stuff on the first page.

Just to never ever touch it again, but find it again years later and go "ooooh, i wrote this?"

Google Assistant or Siri are awesome for this. I just hold down a button on my phone or watch and then say, “Remind me about .”

My wife who is a saint and very patient encouraged me to do this enough times that it’s becoming a habit.

I’m so sick of my wife forgetting to do things (like take the medication that if she misses a dose it ruins her entire next day and sets off a ripple of migraines that can last a week) that I’ve just started stealing her phone to put in reminders.

If she has trouble remembering if she's taken the meds, I highly recommend TimerCaps. They are a pill bottle lid that tells you how long it's been since the bottle was opened.

We have several at my house-- I can check and see if my partner has drugged the dog or if I've taken my ADHD meds. My partner can also see if I've taken my meds.

I’ll have to think about how those might fit for us or our pets.

She doesn’t have issues remembering that she’s taken the meds, just remembering to take them. It’s very much an out of sight, out of mind thing.

Bold of you to assume I can read my own handwriting.

This is why I write important things on my hands directly.

Currently my list is:

Call the Doolor

I'm sure I'll figure out what the smudges are eventually

I text myself, because I (almost) always know where my phone is

I use discord, its free. Made a server with only myself. I have so many channels that are all lists of things, a foods-I-like channel is helpful for when I am hungry but don't remember what I like at the moment.

I have my own personal server as well. I send myself links all the time and it means I can upload 1 image and then just send the link around which is great for bad internet

"I'll remember", I say, not because I'll remember, but because any form of writing it down I will inevitably forget as well. I'm just trying to save myself pointless work, here.

Nothing is more frustrating than knowing you wrote something down, but not knowing where.

Nothing is more frustrating than knowing you were supposed to write something down, then not remembering what that something was. Yet for some stupid reason you can remember you were going to write whatever it was down.

Yeah and you remember it while in the bus or the pool, where you can't write it down anymore.

Yep, then you forget again before you can write it down.

Like a memory whack-a-mole.

Yeah, the time to go the lost and it's gone because something random grabbed you attention for a sec, like people passing in the street

Nothing is more frustrating than finding a note and wondering what it means or if you did it.

  • Unroll the car
  • Table Tablet - DO ASAP
  • Spaghetti bowl

Where ADHD and SelfHosted combine: I self host Trilium Notes to attempt to solve this problem. Most of the time it works.

I tie this to my keys so it forces me to remember that there is something I needed to remember... Now if I could only remember what that thing was...

(No that is not my carpet lol it's shitty foam to protect parts put on it at my job)

Now to attach this to the lapel of my shirt where it belongs

I clip my keys themselves to whichever thing I have to bring with me or remember.

For me, a proper reminder needs to have a property like physically preventing progress until I take care of the thing, or jumping up and demanding my attention until I take care of the thing.

The most basic form is that if I need to do something tomorrow at noon, I don’t create a reminder. I create an alarm! And if the alarm goes off and the thing is not done, I snooze it instead of stop it.

I have a whiteboard on my desk. It's the only effective "to do" list I've found, for me. It's covered in chicken scratching. I erase stuff as I do them.

I use email Drafts sometimes for lists of things.

I will find lists from last year sometimes. No idea if I did it or not!

How about saying you'll write it down -hey look, a distraction!- then forgetting what it was that you wanted to write down?

I've found that using a calendar app with reminders can be a great help for me. Personally I use Fossify Calendar (formerly Simple Calendar) to create reminders for myself for hours/days/months in advance. I'll never forget to do the laundry again....at least until I somehow lose access to my phone.

I live and die by my calendar. I still have the yellow version (Simple Calendar) and it works pretty great.

Note taking app.

That goes into cyber space where I never see or remember it again.

Note: Pack X and Y for weekend.

Weekend comes. Fuuuuug forgot X and Y.

I have them... Gets used every few months for a few days.

The trick is to reduce that gap until it becomes a habit. Not going back after a gap is the problem

Hey Google, remember the window is 23 inches wide

Hey Google what did I ask you to remember?

I literally have thousands of notes on Keep that I have never looked at a second time.

Orgzly does reminders, I don't abuse it and it works great.

That's what I use Joplin for.

(Who wrote all those ToDos in my Joplin app????)

If you write it several times in a row you are more likely to remember it.

Easiest way for me is writing notes on 'saved messages' on telegram. Accessible from phone app, desktop app and web.