ADHD memes

What works for me: e-ink notebook (like Supernote, Remarkable, Boox Note). My "todo" notebook is like 2 pages long divided into stuff for today and stuff for future. I could use a piece of paper of course but:

• I erase things that are either done or no longer relevant (they don't become visual clutter)
• I can reorganize stuff on my todo page when I feel overwhelmed or move it to other pages if I don't want to focus on it today
• writing things down manually with a pen instead of using a keyboard makes it easier for me to remember
• picking the device I won't get distracted by notifications or other apps because I don't have any

It varies a lot from person to person.

I've had a lot of success with setting alarms on my phone, but it's still 80/20 if not 70/30.

You just need to try all the methods until you find one(s) that work for you

More active forms of reminders like alarms, calendar entries, date/time-based notifications (a common feature in to do list apps), or even just asking others to remind me help to keep me on top of things. It also helps to put things in a place where I will see them at the right time, if that makes sense. For example, my medication is in my bathroom because I'm there at the beginning and end of the day when I need to take my meds anyway.

At work, I have a kanban board containing a card for each task with due dates, a description, and any other info I need. The categories are various states the task can be in, including not started, in progress, waiting for someone to get back to me, on hold, etc. This works well for me because I have a single place with everything I need to keep track of and I refer to constantly, but this tool doesn't work at all for me in my personal life.

For things like emails and texts, I will mark items as unread after reading them if they have an outstanding action I have not completed yet (this also reminds me to make a card for it on the work kanban). Nothing leaves the inbox until it is completely finished. This works for both my personal and work tasks, in large part because I already check my email frequently. Sometimes I will email myself with a task in the subject line so I don't forget to do it.

I use a paper notebook, a page per week or month depending on how quickly I fill up the page, I scribble progress bars and check boxes all over it so I'm constantly referring back to it. Once one page fills up I'll copy everything that wasn't finished and is still worth tracking on the last page to the next one. The notebook stays in one spot and never moves so I can't lose it, same with the pencil and the pencil sharpener

Ive been putting all the stuff I need to remember on a cork board right above my desk. My trick for it to not become background noise is that every note I add to it is interactive in some way. I add boxes to check, lists to expand, or recently I just cut out 31 squares of grid paper and glued it to my note as a sort of calendar, just to fill in a box each day of August that I remember the importance of the note. It also helps to be constantly adding and removing things. If details relating to a note have changed, I'll sometimes take the note down, toss it, and rewrite the note with a different color pen before sticking it back up. Constant change helps a lot.

A key is to have an ever-changing solution. Any one method for too long will inevitably fail, so you have to regularly change it up. This also plays on the "interest, challenge, novelty, urgency" way which our brains work by keeping our brain engaged instead of bored.

But still, the dilemma of having the energy (and availability creativity) to keep changing or rotating the method can be a regular pitfall.

I use two To-Do lists, one is an app and one is good old fashioned paper. I know exactly where these are, so it works reasonably well.

I do still struggle actually writing things down on them though.

Just minimise the number of places where you write things down. While there is a number of note taking apps I use at home and at work, it's a small number, so I usually find stuff after a pretty quick search.