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...?
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 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
I may have Alzheimers, but al least I don't have Alzheimers.
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 don’t need a notepad cause it’s ONLY 1 thing I need to remember. That is, till the next thing 5 minutes from now…
train your muscle memory to use it
Remember Sammy Jenkins.
My staff poke fun at me sometimes for keeping lists, but they know well by now just how close to Alzheimers I come on a daily basis.
This app has been a lifesaver for me. It's still taken time convince myself to use the damn thing, but the snoozable pop up in your face reminders has helped a ton!
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=alarm.clock.calendar.reminder
Love that pc analogy! 🤣
I rely on paper: a planner for 'do thing when' and a bullet-journaly information book. I know a lot of people like phone for this, but once I unlock the phone ... I'm on lemmy. I prefer much more immediate and focused tools for myself
I think writing stuff down, and especially setting notifications is highly beneficial to pretty much anyone. I think it's a great way to offload stuff from your internal brain onto external one. It's kind of relieving when I don't even need to try and remember something. I like to think that it frees up brain capacity for other things.
Like many things, whereas it's just useful for neurotypical people, it's essential for many people with ADHD.
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".