The lighter side of ADHD
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.
How does writing things down help when I don't remember to read them back...?
I don't think I have adhd, but I do have pretty severe memory problems. I've managed to get into the habit of checking my notebook every time I think about and/or touch it. I always keep my book on my person, or with my phone so I don't lose it
The idea is that you can regularly check the notebook. If that doesn't work for you, then an app with a notification might be a better match
I started using todoist for this and it helped a lot.
(I'm not trying to shill this product, but I am trying to shill the idea - I'm sure there are a ton of similar products out there.)
I use it in the "getting things done" method where you drop every little thing you need to remember in the inbox and go through the inbox once a day to organize your thoughts into whatever project or container they need to be in. It has immensely improved my life and the underlying feeling of dread that you missed or forgot to do something.
I go through phases of writing things down. I do it for a week, realize I remember everything I wrote down, and get used to remembering. Then I'll think, well, this whole thing was useless, I'm just remembering it. So I get lazy, stop writing things down, and start forgetting. Repeat ad nauseum.
I do something similar for waking up on time. I'll set 8 alarms in 15 minute increments. I'll start waking up 2-3 minutes before each one, and think to myself, well this is annoying, I'm waking up on my own. So I remove most of the alarms, and then oversleep.
That's not what it feels like for me. I grew up basically getting the "what's wrong with you? Just focus" treatment, so I always default to saying to myself "no, no, it'll be okay, I'll just try really super duper hard; I'm sure it'll work this time."
Yeah exactly the same experience for me. It's not about forgetting it, it's about thinking that if you just tried a little harder you would be able to do it. Because that's what everyone kept telling me. And even now it feels like i'm using my ADHD as an excuse to be lazy.
I traded ram for cpu and drive space for gpu lol. No memory all processing.
That's a damn good description, 4 GB of 2600 mhz ram on a 6 GHz 64 core processor and a 20gb flash disk for a hard drive.
I may have Alzheimers, but al least I don't have Alzheimers.
I wanna remember to remember to forget you forgot me
Modest Mouse lyrics always relevant
Ha! That’s a great quote, I should write it down somewhere… nah. I’ll remember it.
train your muscle memory to use it
Remember Sammy Jenkins.
I don't think that's the working memory. At least in my diagnosis I have extremely well functioning working memory and I excel at a lot of tasks that require to juggle with a lot of information.
However I still struggle with remembering that I need to do something after the current task if I don't put some reminder in place.
So I think it's some other part of the memory that's ... erm ... weird.
That's working memory
Or is it maybe that we simply rotate far too much stuff through the working memory? Where a "normal" person puts in two/three things and keeps a fourth on the stack, we switch our focus so often to different things, that we have to put a lot more in and out of our working memory, thereby also pushing out everything we meant to think of "later".
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.
I've been taking notes religiously at work for years. So many notes. I have gone through dozens of note pads over the years. I recently switched from paper to Microsoft To Do. Works great for my purposes since I'm on my computer most of the time anyway. No more bulky note pads with disorganized chicken scratch.
How do you keep from getting overwhelmed by the list?