With my inattentive ADHD, I find myself suffering greatly from “out of sight, out of mind”; so, I write everything down and keep it in my phone- since I'll never go anywhere without it.
I use Smart Task+ for my personal list. It’s a very easy-to-use app with a simple UI so it’s easy on the eyes too. I use a widget for the app on my phone’s home screen so I can remember to do stuff. You can even speak in to-do items, but I've never used that feature. I pay for the extra features, but the free one works just fine.
Being an independent contractor, I need to keep my work to do in front if me all the time. For that, I use Asana as my project management software. I love the free version and it’s also very easy to manipulate.
What software, or method, do you use for not forgetting things that need to be done?
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NotAChevy
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Interesting... I used to be like that to the Nth degree, every day, all day long about six months ago. It has now started dissipating and I remember things better myself and I use fewer and fewer tech 'crutches' and get more done as a result.
Recently, I have just used the Notes App on my iPhone and I do this exercise three or four times per day that I call "Timebox", and I give myself 15 minutes in the morning to set my day, reorganize, reprioritize the list, etc, then I move on. I have it on bulletted form, so I check off the tasks complete and the ones I jump ahead on (for whatever reason, here and there), I move up so that all completed tasks are together at the top. If I think of a new task, I add it in there in the proper order of priority, give it an ENDING time in between other tasks and move on - Get it: Timeboxing.
I tried Trello and a couple of others, but I ended up 'serving it', per se, more than it serving ME, which is the whole point. It can be like having that large financial model in a spreadsheet that takes so much maintenance that you end up at the mercy of your model in Excel, rather than it giving you answers quickly.
So I got off those other tools, started using Notes, and I started making a very concerted effort to act 'normal' as I was working on my timeboxing exercise, especially as they day wore on and something new, unexpected came up and I had to reprioritize, slightly adjust ending times for each task quickly, maybe move something to the next day, etc. Life keeps happening as you're planning and executing on your day, and it doesn't ask for permission. This routine also helped me remain calm and focused as these distractions arose. Great behavioral tool as well, as it turns out.
This helped me in several different areas. Namely, I started feeling much more 'normal', for lack of a better work, it took some of the self-administrative burden away and made my process much more efficient from both a time management perspective and completion rate of tasks every day. With time, the self-loathing, the sense of time lost, incomplete tasks, frustration, anger, impatience etc. all started slowly diminishing and simply being replaced by incrementally higher productivity and fewer moments where I realized I had forgotten something, starting the vicious cycle again. This has helped me reverse engineer those vicious cycles into virtuous cycles. Huh... Less IS more.
Fast forward a few months, and I'm quite sure with the continued vitamin / supplement / nutrition regimen I maintain and a lot more protein and completely cutting out 'cheap' carbs and alcohol. This feeling of 'normalcy' started returning and stabilizing throughout my days.
(Various vit & Suppl, ESPECIALLY super, super high quality O3s, 2g am and 2g pm, 4g total daily, AND 10mgs of Creatine Monohydrate in 8oz of water every pm -> Both have HUGE neuroregenerative and neuroprotective qualities),
Bottom line is, I use a simple electronic list that I can quickly update on the fly, limiting the distraction factor, and I get a lot, and I mean A LOT more done, I use one tool instead of several tools as I did before, but I do have to be very disciplined about what I put on that list and in my body. Both in tandem, all day long, every day.
I'm happy to share with you in more detail my whole Vit/Suppl list, dosages, and most importantly their PURPOSE and RESULTS after a few months of taking them. I'm sure you have your own, but it doesn't hurt to offer, especially when I keep reading posts such as these where I can tell that for some reason, I have made some significant improvement along one dimension or two of this damned ADHD thing we live with and I know I can help someone struggling with something that was very prominent in my life just a few months ago, and quite frankly, don't even think about anymore because it has mostly resolved. I do feel obligated to share what I've learned. Will it work for you or others? Yes, I've researched it all and there is scientific research backing all this up. Now, to what degree? Well, that is where everyone has their own ADHD and they need to experiment a bit and they may not get as much of a bump as I did. Who knows, they could get a bigger bump that I did. Wouldn't that be something?
I do have little memory lapses now, but I would be willing to bet that I am just about where any average person would be in this regard, making my ADHD indistinguishable from the normal population at this point. I do, however, still have to work on other issues in the wide constellation of symptoms that make up this condition, but I guess that's where I would leave it: Other people refer to it as a disability, I refer to it as a tool that makes me increasingly disciplined as I get older. As a result, I'm doing all these things that get me further and further away from ever developing Alzheimers, Parkinson's or any other type of dementia. Make no mistake, that's exactly where I was headed. I am convinced I had the brain of a poorly aging 87 year old during the majority of 2023. It got quite scary.
That's the mission for me: Constant improvement, ongoing simplification and incremental gains in daily productivity. I use simple lists, put less on the tool and keep more in my brain. But how am I getting there? A question worth asking and analyzing for the benefit of others. This is what your post made me think of. I recognized myself a few months ago in your post.
You're in my prayers, as are all of us with ADHD, and similar conditions every day, and I'm happy to connect if you want to discuss further.
I've just discovered the To Do app in Windows 11. In the few days I've been using it at work it has been helping. It's simple and I can reprioritize it. Anything I don't get done, it moves it off the list. It's easy to put the items back on the next day. Now I have a place to put notes so I don't forget about orders that need to be worked on. I don't know why it never occurred to me to just keep a text file with an ongoing list. That would be okay at work. It's always been too overwhelming when I've tried it at home. It's because the jobs at work are limited, even when there are too many at once. At home the jobs are neverending and repetitive.
That's great to hear you found something. Keep at it and you’ll learn quickly if that's the app for you- I hope it is. It is ook me awhile to find the right ones, but I'm super happy, and actually effective, with my current ones.
Do you use the microphone to record your to-do, list item, etc.? I try to when I'm at home, but I get too embarrassed when I'm in public and I'm dictating to a phone- guess I should just get over that, right?
That’s definitely being self conscious. I’ve seen people do it, and I dead confused for a sec, but then I’m like “oh, good on you”in my head. You can also just toe it when in public. Just don’t stand where you’re in the way.
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